Tag Archives: Neurochemical roots of addiction

Fighting opioid addiction

Neurochemical reward elevation

July 15, 2017
Neurochemical reward elevation

Neurochemical reward elevation is triggered by substance abuse which has consequences in the brain functions

Neurochemical reward elevation: Addiction and the brain

With the neurochemical reward elevation, the user’s brain begins to associate the drug with an outsize neurochemical reward. Over time, this raises the amount of dopamine the brains think is normal. Like for instance, when a drug produce increases in dopamine in these limbic areas of the brain, then your brain is going to understand that signal as something that is very reinforcing, and will learn it very fast so that the next time you get exposed to that stimuli, your brain already has learned that reinforcing instantly. Over time, the consistently high levels of dopamine create plastic changes to the brain, desensitizing neurons so that they are less affected by it, and decreasing the number of receptors. That leads to the process of addiction, wherein a person loses control and is left with an intense drive to compulsively take the drug.

According to experts the reason why dopamine-producing drugs are so addictive is that they have the ability to constantly fill a need for more dopamine. So a person may take a hit of cocaine, snort it, it increases dopamine, takes a second, it increases dopamine, third, fourth, fifth, sixth. So there’s never that decrease that ultimately leads to the satiety. Addiction has to do with the brain’s expectations. An emerging idea is that drugs basically hijack the brain’s normal computational enjoyment and reward mechanisms.

For example, let’s say you’re happy about a great chocolate ice cream and over time you learn to expect that the chocolate ice cream is really great and you have no more dopamine released in expectation of that when you receive it. Nevertheless, if you take an addictive drug you can never learn to expect it because the drug itself will release an extra kick of dopamine. And when that happens, the value of that drug keeps increasing because now you’re learning that wow my expectations were violated, therefore this must be much more valuable than what I thought before. So what ends up happening is that dopamine system gets hijacked by these drugs.

It must be noted that there are other components to addiction like genetics and age of exposure which is why not everyone who takes drugs becomes an addict. Approximately 50% of the vulnerability of a person to become addicted is genetically determined, and research indicates that if a person is exposed to drugs in early adolescence they are much more likely to become addicted than if they were exposed to the same drugs as an adult.

Neurochemical reward elevation: Neurotransmitter dopamine

Doctor Dalal Akoury acknowledges that one of the key functions of the neurotransmitter dopamine is to create feelings of pleasure so that our brains associate with necessary physiological actions like eating and procreating. We are driven to perform these vital functions because our brains are conditioned to expect the dopamine rush. Addictive drugs flood the brain with dopamine and condition us to expect artificially high levels of the neurotransmitter. Over time, the user’s brain requires more dopamine than it can naturally produce, and it becomes dependent on the drug, which never actually satisfies the need it, has created.

Finally, AWAREmed Health and Wellness Resource Center under the able leadership of Doctor Akoury is a facility run by experts headed by doctor Akoury, for proper care and healing of whatever kind of addiction and whatever the level of addiction you need caring experts who will focus on Neuroendocrine Restoration (NER) to reinstate normality through realization of the oneness of Spirit, Mind, and Body, Unifying the threesome. This kind of treatment can only be found at AWAREmed. Reach out for help and get your life back with real professionals.

Neurochemical reward elevation: Addiction and the brain

 

 

 

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motor neuron cells

Neurochemical grounds

July 5, 2017
Neurochemical grounds

Neurochemical grounds of addiction. W have a solution for you at AWAREmed health center

Neurochemical grounds of addiction: The exhausted GABA

In order to understand the neurochemical grounds of addiction, it is important that we first understand how GABA operates. And to do so, we are going to speaking to doctor Dalal Akoury MD, President, and founder of the AWAREmed health and wellness resource center. And the submission she brakes the understanding as follows.

  • The neurons
  • The central nervous system (CNS)
  • Inhibitory neurotransmitters
  • Excitatory neurotransmitters

Having discussed the first two previously, we are going to progress with the remaining as follows:

Neurochemical grounds of addiction: Inhibitory Neurotransmitters

  • Some neurotransmitters act like a brake on a car.
  • They inhibit or slow down the actions of the neurons.
  • These are called inhibitory neurotransmitters.
  • Other neurotransmitters act like an accelerator.
  • They increase the speed of the actions of the neurons. These are called excitatory neurotransmitters.
  • GABA is the major inhibitory neurotransmitter in the brain.

Neurochemical grounds of addiction: Excitatory Neurotransmitters

  • Excitatory neurotransmitters are vital to:
    • Help us stay alerted
    • Maintain our normal memory functions
    • Maintain our co-ordination
    • Maintain normal emotional responses
    • Maintain our heart rate
    • Maintain our blood pressure
  • Glutamate (a common amino acid) is the major excitatory neurotransmitter in the brain.

Which neurotransmitters are released?

  • If there is something that creates:
    • Anxiety
    • A feeling of panic
    • Other stress
  • Excitatory neurotransmitters are released and a person can feel:
    • Restlessness
    • Higher than normal irritability
    • Rapid heartbeats
    • High blood pressure
    • Insomnia
    • Even seizures.

The role of GABA in the brain

  • Glutamate speeds things up and when they are going too fast, GABA slows them back down.
  • If there is a problem with the GABA in our brains, the neurons fire more and more, increasing the speed of the processes in the brain?

Neurochemical grounds of addiction: How GABA works

When GABA binds to a nerve cell receptor, it opens the nerve cell so that chloride ions present in the brain are allowed to move into the nerve cell to slow the activity of the cell, and the person normally experiences a calming feeling. For example, if our brain produces more excitatory neurotransmitters like norepinephrine or epinephrine (adrenaline) than normal, we can become anxious or have more stress than normal. And when the brain is working normally, it will produce more GABA thereby slowing down the actions in the brain and thus have a calming and relaxing effect on us.

Finally, this article will go a long way in helping you do the right thing with your life. In doing so certain professional decisions will have to be made and to do this, seeking for the expert opinion will be necessary. And that is where doctor Dalal Akoury and her team of experts come in. the lever of professionalism at this facility (AWAREmed health center) speaks for itself since doctor Akoury’s practice focuses on personalized medicine through healthy lifestyle choices that deal with primary prevention and underlying causes instead of patching up symptoms. This is what you need and calling her on telephone number 843 213 1480 should be your starting point for the total life transformation.

Neurochemical grounds of addiction: The exhausted GABA

 

 

 

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dopamine-5

Neurochemical roots of addiction

July 5, 2017
Neurochemical roots

Neurochemical roots of addiction needs to be identified and corrected

Neurochemical roots of addiction: The depleted GABA

For a long time, various forms of addictions have been taken to be just as a result of social problems and sometimes even decisions or choices we make in life. Yes, this may be true but we need to take a moment and look into this problem more critically to find facts about the neurochemical basis of addiction. Doctor Dalal Akoury MD, President, and founder of the AWAREmed health and wellness resource center says that it’s good that modern addiction medicine now recognizes that substance dependency of any kind is a disease process of the brain that features lowered dopamine and glutamate neurotransmitter levels. Importantly, as more legitimate research is done in this field of addiction medicine whose experimental basis is beginning to gain ground, models of neurochemical roots of addiction in the future may also feature lowered levels of GABA as the disease progresses. To understand this neurotransmitter (GABA) it will be necessary that we try to define some of the terms associated with it and appreciate the roles and functions of GABA in totality.

The use of GABA

Because of our unique DNA and the way that each of us metabolizes drugs, each of us may have different amounts of GABA in the brain but we are still considered to be operating “normally.” Unfortunately, there are no accepted medical tests to determine if we have too much or too little GABA activity. It appears that people who are nutritionally deficit and dehydrated often have problems with the operation of GABA in their brains. Since almost all of our patients are nutritionally deficient and dehydrated when they arrive at our facility, we have always implemented the addition of GABA to the IV therapy given to patients. The purpose is to provide a more natural boost to the GABA in the brain and to allow the calming effect of GABA to make the detoxification process more comfortable. Let us now understand how GABA operates by defining these terms.

Neurochemical roots of addiction: The neuron

  • A neuron is another name for a nerve cell.
  • Nerve cells float in the fluid.
  • Each neuron has an axon a thread-like part of the cell that sends signals from the cell body and a dendrite a part of the cell that receives signals from other neurons.
  • The neurons are not touching and the space between the cells is called the synapse.
  • Electrical signals are sent through the synapse to a receptor, a place on a cell that can produce a certain effect like the production of adrenaline if someone is frightened.

Neurochemical roots of addiction: The central nervous system (CNS)

  • The CNS is composed of the brain and the spinal cord.
  • The CNS transmits signals to the rest of the body using chemical messengers called neurotransmitters.
  • Neurotransmitters are stored in vesicles—hollow sac-like structures inside the cells.
  • These neurotransmitters carry a message from a neuron to receptors on another neuron.
  • The action of the neurotransmitters on the receptors has been likened to a key being inserted in a lock.
  • When the key is turned the lock opens and the neurotransmitters activate the receptors which in turn create an effect in the body.
  • Then many of the neurotransmitters return to the releasing vesicles to be used again.

Finally, you can always talk to us by calling doctor Akoury on telephone number 843 213 1480 to help you with any concerns you may have.

Neurochemical roots of addiction: The depleted GABA

 

 

 

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