How Can Serotonin improve your life

 

How Can Serotonin improve your life?

What is serotonin?

Serotonin, known as 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT), is a mono amine neurotransmitter formed from amino acid tryptophane can transmit messages between nerve cells with in your brain and throughout your body It plays a main role in body functions as mood, sleep, digestion, nausea. It also acts as a hormone. Most of the serotonin present in your body is in intestine. About 90% of serotonin is stored in enterochromaffin tissue of gastrointestinal tract’s lining and absorbed by circulating blood platelets.  About 10% is present as a transmitter in many areas within your brain specifically,  in the neurons of  the raphe nuclei present in the middle line of brain stem. serotonin is typically not broken down after being used in the brain, instead, it is taken up by serotonergic neurons via serotonin transporters on their cell surfaces. It plays a crucial role in controlling mood, depression and anxiety. It has been shown that changes in  place, time, and amount of serotonin transporters the neurons should deploy account for about 10% of the entire variance in anxiety-related personality. It also controls  blood coagulation and can act as a vasodilator or a vasoconstrictor. When serotonin present in high concentrations, it constricts endothelium smooth muscle directly or amplifies the actions of other vasoconstrictors as norepinephrine. So, in some cases of pathological conditions as in atherosclerosis and hypertension which affect the endothelial lining of blood vessels causing vasoconstriction, serotonin can impact vasodilation via serotonin  mediated release of nitric oxide from endothelial cells together with suppression of norepinephrine release from adrenergic neurons.

  Importance of serotonin in our life:

1. Serotonin plays an important role in controlling your mood, happiness and preventing anxiety and depression since most effective anti-depressant drugs are named by serotonin re-uptake inhibitors as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) and serotonin–norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors (SNRIs), interfere with serotonin's natural reabsorption following signal transmission, they  act by increasing the amount of serotonin neurotransmitters in the nerve endings of  the neurons with in your brain.

2. It very important in enhancing memory, concentration and learning when it acts centrally as a neurochemical transmitters  and carries messages between your nerve cells within your brain.

3. It influences your sleeping pattern, body temperature and even your sexual desire.

4. It influences your cardiovascular functions by stimulating the chemo-sensitive nerves in your heart  , also, gastrointestinal motility by pushing food to out side during vomiting and diarrhea.

5. It can affect the health of your bones when produced within your brain as it act by enhancing bone formation and decrease bone resorption, the opposite can occur if serotonin is secreted peripherally as it acts as a hormone which can directly affect the osteoblasts proliferation and inhibit bone formation. 

6. It can affect your appetite if it is secreted in your brain, it will reduce your food intake and appetite and if is secreted peripherally, it will enhance insulin secretion, food absorption, food storage in your cells and regulates all of your  digestive functions.

7. It controls gastrointestinal functions as it released in response to presence of food in the gut lumen which is surrounded by enterochromaffin cells ( where serotonin is stored), theses cells release serotonin to make the gut contract and prevent constipation. Excess of serotonin is taken by platelets in the veins surrounded the gut. If you eat an irritant food as spicy food , these cells will release more serotonin to induce diarrhea in order to facilitate emptying the gut and releasing the irritant food. If the amount of free serotonin  in the blood is faster than the amount absorbed by blood platelets, this will stimulate serotonin receptors in chemo-receptor trigger zone inducing vomiting

8. It has an important role in wound healing and blood clotting for being a growth factor by inserting vasoconstriction to the injured blood vessel and decreasing its blood flow results in clotting formation. 

What are the problems in your body associated with lack of serotonin?

Lack of serotonin is certainly connected to anxiety, cognitive function, memory, sleeping problems, schizophrenia, appetite, thermoregulation, platelet aggregation, GIT motility, vomiting and even nociception. Moreover, serotonin plays an important role in the treatment of acute migraine as its activation inhibits inflammation of meninges, pain transmission. This occurred because serotonin makes vasoconstriction of the dilated cerebral vessels. pain relief is seemed to be achieved after only 2 hours in 80% of patients. 

N.B Serotonin is formed from the essential amino acid tryptophan which means it can’t be synthesized by your own body. It has to be obtained from the food you eat. 

    How can we increase serotonin level?? 

    1.  food

Since serotonin  is formed from the amino acid tryptophan and stored in the epithelial lining of your intestine , eating foods containing tryptophan can raise your serotonin level normally. Food researchers have suggested that most food containing high tryptophan content are in the following points.

• Dark chocolate
• Turkey meat.
• Bananas and nuts.
• Carbohydrates in flour& potatoes.

 ( People are in carbohydrates diet become more depressant because they deprive them selves from most food  tryptophan level like pizza, pastries, fried potatoes and biscuits.)

• Vitamin B complex  present in eggs, milk and meat.
• Mg++ compounds present in avocado, bananas, spinach.
• Oats and seeds
• Probiotics in yogurt & milk 

2.  Sunlight:

Daily exposing to sunlight not only maintains your serotonin level but also, activates your vitamin D. The later enhance conversion of tryptophan amino acid to serotonin hormone.

3.    Exercise:

Daily regular exercise increases your serotonin level and reduces anxiety and stress as motor activity can normally increase dopamine and serotonin release in the brain especially after exercise. In addition, Serotonin after muscle exercise is turned into melatonin hormone which can reduce stress and help sleep.

4.    Drugs:

Drugs act as serotonin agonist which can activate serotonin receptors used for treatment of anxiety and stress. other drugs used to treat depression known as selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitors act by preventing serotonin from being returned back in to the neurons within your brain and thus, increasing your serotonin hormone level and decreasing anxiety and stress. Despite this initial increase, chronic use of certain types of these drugs as Selective Serotonin re-uptake inhibitors (SSRIs) has been demonstrated to reduce serotonin levels below the baseline. Other antidepressant drugs as Tricyclic antidepressants (TCAs) prevent the re-uptake of both serotonin and norepinephrine. Others have also many adverse drug reactions as in Monoamine oxidase inhibitor (MAOIs). In addition, the overdose administration of these medications can make what is called by serotonin syndrome. 

Serotonin syndrome: It is condition happens when your serotonin levels are increased too much. It usually happens after increasing the doses of a such medications. but also may occur after administration of two serotonergic drugs as a combination of selective serotonin re-uptake unhibitors (SSRIs) and Monoamine oxidase inhibitor (MAOIs). Excess serotonin release in synaptic spaces can result in this disorder and cause serious problems as hypertension, fever, irregular heart beats, muscle stiffness, diarrhea, coma and even death if these syndrome is not treated.