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Dopamine Rush

Pleasures registration brain and addiction

Pleasures registration brain

Pleasures registration brain and addiction. When drugs get access to the brain, there is bound to be serious health problems

Pleasures registration brain and addiction: Neurotransmitter dopamine

Among the functions of the brain is that of pleasures registration as and when they happen irrespective of their origin. It doesn’t matter whether they’re associated with a psychoactive drug, a monetary reward, a sexual encounter, or a satisfying meal. The fact is in the brain pleasurable principles has a distinct role of releasing the neurotransmitter dopamine in the nucleus accumbens, a cluster of nerve cells lying underneath the cerebral cortex. Dopamine release in the nucleus accumbens is so consistently tied with pleasure that neuroscientists refer to the region as the brain’s pleasure center.

All drugs of abuse, from nicotine to heroin, cause a particularly powerful surge of dopamine in the nucleus accumbens. The likelihood that the use of a drug or participation in a rewarding activity will lead to addiction is directly linked to the speed with which it promotes dopamine release, the intensity of that release, and the reliability of that release. Therefore addictive drugs provide a shortcut to the brain’s reward system by flooding the nucleus accumbens with dopamine. The hippocampus lays down memories of this rapid sense of satisfaction, and the amygdala creates a conditioned response to certain stimuli.

Brain pleasurable principle and drug addiction: Learning the process

Previously it was believed that an experience of pleasure alone was enough to compel people into consistent seeking of addictive elements or activities. However new research findings indicate that the situation may be more complicated. This is because dopamines are not only responsible for the experience of pleasure but are also playing a role in learning and memory which are the two key elements in the transition from liking something to being addicted to it. Currently, the philosophy about addiction is that dopamine interacts with another neurotransmitter, glutamate to take over the brain’s system of reward-related learning. Remember that this system has an important role in sustaining life because it links activities needed for human survival (such as eating and sex) with pleasure and reward.

Finally, it may interest you to note that the reward circuit in the brain may include areas involved with motivation and memory as well as with pleasure. Addictive substances and behaviors stimulate the same circuit and then overload it. And therefore repeated misuse of any addictive substances or behavior will cause nerve cells in the nucleus accumbens and the prefrontal cortex (the area of the brain involved in planning and executing tasks) to communicate in a way that couples liking something with wanting it, in turn driving us to go after it. That is, this process motivates us to take action to seek out the source of pleasure. This can be very unhealthy more so if the source of pleasure is drugs. Many often run to drugs for pleasure and as such, the prevalence of drug abuse is on the rise. We can choose individually and collectively to correct this by scheduling an appointment with doctor Dalal Akoury MD, who is a veteran addiction expert and also the founder of AWAREmed Health and Wellness Resource Center for help today.

Brain pleasurable principle and drug addiction: Neurotransmitter 

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Natural brain balance and addiction

Natural brain balance

Natural brain balance and addiction which is very significant in destroying life of drug users

Natural brain balance and addiction: Homeostasis

How does substance abuse affect the brain? This is very fundamental. There is no doubt that the natural brain balance is greatly affected by substance abuse. This change is scientifically known as homeostasis which is a biological process. All biological systems including the human body will attempt to maintain a “normal” balance, known as homeostasis. Doctor Akoury says that the brain functions as the administrator of this balance by making various adjustments where necessary to maintain a balanced, well-functioning, biological system. Each person’s “normal” balance is individually determined. Drugs abuse and activity addictions lead to changes in this normal balance.

Chronic over-stimulation of the brain interferes with the maintenance of the brain natural balance (homeostasis). When the brain has difficulty maintaining homeostatic balance, the wonderfully adaptive brain makes adjustments. It does this by creating a new balanced set-point. The creation of a new balance is called allostasis. This may not be very clear to many, but let me make it simpler by using a daily life illustration. Take for instance if you add more weight to 20 units, you will try fitting into your clothing’s despite the discomfort. But with time this will not be bearable and so you will have to adapt to the new body size by buying new clothes that will fit you well. Once this is done you will be more comfortable and at this point, you will get used to the fact that your clothes are now the large size and not medium or small sizes as it used to be and in the process your homeostasis balance changes from medium to large. And with this adjustment, you become comfortable again.

Take note that the reverse can also take place in the future where the added 20 units may be lost to keep healthy and when that happens you will be compelled to make further readjustment to your clothing size by buying smaller sizes. Therefore even though at this moment you will be healthy due to the loss, you will still need to make an unpleasant and costly adjustment by buying smaller clothes. This is very similar to the unpleasant adjustment the brain must go through when people try to give up their addiction. Although this is a positive change, we will be uncomfortable while the brain makes readjustments to suits the present circumstances.

Natural brain balance and addiction: The brain’s ability to cope

From the concept illustrated above, the brain’s wonderful ability to make the readjustments is worth noting. It’s these changes that account for many behaviors associated with addiction like:

  • The powerful and lustful need to obtain drugs or continue with the indulgence of harmful activities despite the harms to self or loved ones
  • The difficulty of quitting an addictive drug or activity
  • The obsessive, all-consuming nature of addictions such that little else in life matters

This is because addiction caused the natural brain balance to change and accommodate the addiction. Once changed, the brain requires the addictive substance or activity in order to maintain this new homeostatic balance. Drugs and alcohol are not helping us in any way. Instead of the poor health and social discrimination, we get from drugs, let’s seek for solution by scheduling an appointment with doctor Dalal Akoury today for a one on one sharing of what you are going through and she will in the most professional way offer you lasting solutions to all your concerns.

Natural brain balance and addiction: Homeostasis

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Drugs attacking brains operations

Drugs attacking brains operations

Drugs attacking brains operations and all the communication systems gets affected in the process

Drugs attacking brains operations: Brain inversion complexity

The effects of drug addiction are much felt in the brain than any other organ. Because of the sensitivity of the brain and its functions, it is important that all drugs attacking brains operations must be addressed professionally. Owing to the sensitivity of the brain, professionalism must never be compromised to ensure that substance abuse inversions are treated. Experts at AWAREmed Health and Wellness Resource Center under the able leadership of doctor Dalal Akoury is offering real-time addiction solutions we all need to be safe. We must, therefore, appreciate that addiction is a very complex disorder which is closely associated with drug use. And even though various drugs will always result with different effects, they all have one common denominator. That is to say, using drugs repeatedly will alter your brain functions in very many ways including some of the following:

  • The drug addiction brain inversion complexity is real in the sense that, any recreational drug consumed will cause a rush of the hormone dopamine in the brain. This will then trigger feelings of pleasure. By and by the brain will continually remember these feelings thereby necessitating the need for a repeat use of that particular substance.
  • The moment one is addicted to any substance, it will then take on the same significance similar to other survival behavior like drinking and eating.
  • The drug addiction inversion to the brain causes real interference with the individual’s ability to be reasonable in their thinking, self-behavior control, the exercise of sound judgment and feeling normal without drugs.
  • Drug addiction kills your ability to be responsible. At the point of addiction, one is not able to be in control of their cravings for that substance and this negatively affects their relationships with families, friends, colleagues at workstations, career and their individual health is equally affected.
  • With the drug addiction brain inversion, the urge to continue using the substance is so high that the mind is constantly in denial of the consequences of addiction. At this point, the addict is likely to underestimate the quantity of drugs they consume and even how it impacts on their lives. This obviously reduces their control level to the use of their drugs of choice.

Drugs attacking brains operations: Getting help over drug addiction

The impact and damage caused by the strong drug addiction brain inversion are not small health complications as addicts would like to make it look like. Remember that the brain is the engine of life and anything making alterations in its functions is just as dangerous as death itself. It is true that many victims of addiction are always in denial, but this doesn’t mean that they shouldn’t be treated. Doctor Dalal Akoury and her team of addiction experts are up to the task. Your health is actually your wealth and how do you handle your wealth? You will definitely care for it. So then make a point of calling doctor Akoury today to have your wealth/health well protected. It is possible, it is doable and the willingness is in abundance. Schedule for that appointment today and let us get started.

Drugs attacking brains operations: Brain inversion complexity

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Brain communication role and addiction

Brain communication role

Brain communication role and addiction are two things with nothing in common. The parallel the operate the better

Brain communication role and addiction: The brain’s protection

The brain communication role is very important in human life. It’s the key to proper management of body functions and systems all round. That is to say, whether the system is a group of family members, colleagues at work or in any other set up including as an individual. The body is no different and in fact, in the absent of good communication, the body functions will be affected. It will interest you to note that the brain is responsible for proper communication. Therefore, if we want to understand addiction’s effect on the brain chemistry, it will be very important that we first appreciate how communication works. That is why we want to focus on the discussion of how addiction affects the brain chemistry on communication.

To do this, we are going to rely on the expert opinion from doctor Dalal Akoury MD and founder of AWAREmed Health and Wellness Resource Center. According to the experts at this facility, all the five senses e.g. sight, smell, taste, sound, and touch will collect and transmit information about our environment. On receipt, the brain will process and analyze this information. It must be noted that even though the brain performs this huge task of processing and analyzing information, it does so by relying on the simple electrochemical process for communication.

The brain’s communication system permits specific areas of the brain to rapidly interact with other brain regions. The brain achieves this communication through a vast, interconnected, network of specialized cells called neurons. Our brains have billions of these neuronal connections. These neuronal connections form the foundation for an electrochemical communication system.

Brain communication role and addiction: Addiction changes the brain’s proper functions

The composition of the brain is such that it has several sections or regions with each performing a distinctive role. All these sections communicate to each other for proper functionality of their specific roles. And besides the sections, the brain also must communicate to the rest of the body to coordinates the body’s systems like the digestive, cardiovascular and respiratory system among others. This can be illustrated well by taking the example of sportsmen and women. They must communicate to one another and coordinate as a team. That’s why the brain communication system is crucial for our health, well-being and the overall functioning. It is no wonder that when this communication system is altered, we are affected greatly. Doctor Akoury says that we are able to cope because the brain communication system is changing periodically and adapting to the new environments well. This way we are able to learn, remember and make adjustments to our changing circumstances. Drugs can easily alter this communication system and therefore it is only fair that we appreciate how this communication system works so that we can understand some of the defining characteristics of addiction which may include cravings, withdrawals, compulsions, and the continued use of addictive substances and activities despite harmful consequences.

Brain communication role and addiction: The brain’s protection

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Mesolimbic pathways and drug seeking

Mesolimbic pathways

Mesolimbic pathways and drug seeking. We’ve got to clean our mind from all intoxication of drug addiction

Mesolimbic pathways and drug seeking: Drug cravings to the brain

From our basic understanding of the purpose and functioning of the brain’s reward system in the previous postings, we can interrogate it a little bit further in several ways. The circuit most associated with pleasure and reward is the mesolimbic pathways which are located in the brainstem. The objective of this area of the brain is primarily concerned with basic survival. Within the mesolimbic pathways is an area called the ventral tegmental area (VTA). The VTA projects to the nucleus accumbens (thought to be the reward center). The neurotransmitter most commonly linked with the mesolimbic system is dopamine. Many people consider dopamine to be the driving force behind the human pursuit of pleasure. The release of dopamine is a pleasurable sensation. The release of dopamine motivates us to repeat behaviors or activities that prompted this release. This system’s purpose was to promote survival by rewarding life-sustaining behaviors such eating and procreation.

All addictive drugs and activities release varying amounts of dopamine into the nucleus accumbens with stimulant drugs like cocaine and methamphetamine releasing the most. However, when it comes to drugs like alcohol or heroin, the brain’s own opiate system (endorphins) also gets involved. Doctor Akoury further says that even though different forms of addictions have different effects in the nucleus accumbens, they share one common denominator that they all activate the reward system which in turn motivates us to repeat those behaviors, even though they may be harmful. Besides what we have discussed about the concepts of reward, pleasure, and craving together, it is however very important to appreciate that there is a distinction between pleasure-seeking and drug seeking. Note that pleasure-seeking is all about the pleasurable, rewarding aspect of addiction while drug-seeking refer to the craving aspect of addiction. Dopamine may be more involved in drug-seeking (craving) component of addiction. The opiate (endorphin), GABA, or glutamatergic systems may be more involved in a pleasure-seeking aspect of addiction too.

Mesolimbic pathways and drug seeking: Keeping the brain free from all attacks

Pleasure-seeking and drug-seeking (cravings) are interrelated, yet distinct. Research has established that natural rewards (food, water, sex) typically lessen their influence on the reward system over time. As a behavior occurs more often, dopamine levels tend to decrease in the process. Psychologists call this habituation. This makes sense. Once you’ve eaten enough food, you don’t need to be rewarded for eating more food. Then you would be eating too much, or too much of one type of food. Therefore everyone needs to take heed of keeping the brain free from all attacks be it from substances or otherwise. Talking to the experts at AWAREmed Health and Wellness Resource Center under the able leadership of doctor Dalal Akoury should be your starting point. Call and make that appointment today for the commencement of your journey to full recovery from your addiction.

Mesolimbic pathways and drug seeking: Drug cravings to the brain

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