I'm very fascinated by the idea that sleeping contributes a fundamental role in maintaining normal physiology (health). I've long suspected that sleep had a sort of "reparing/restoring" function on the body, that essential growth takes place only in sleep. After dieting and restricting awhile, thus "depleting" myself, I notice I begin to crave meats terribly. Once I do eat meats in such a state, I feel extremely warm, usually dump water, and become very tired. It's not a sugar-coma tired but an "exhausted" tired like exercising, like I need to rest and replenish myself. I reason my body needs to build and do things that are only physiologically possible in sleep. As I eat more and gain weight, this effect tends to diminish.
I also know, from experience, depriving myself of sleep destroys my metabolism (it's like eating carbs), makes me lethargic, hungry, emotionally unstable/depressive, so on.
I've been reading the snippets of the book on amazon.com and I am worried about the logical consistency of the author's claims (as well as evidence to substantiate them). For example, she says high serotonin, not low serotonin, causes chemical depression. If that is true why do SSRIs alleviate depressive symptoms? SSRIs prevent the reuptake of serotonin (where it is destroyed) so more is available to bind to receptors in the synapse (or at least this was my understanding).SSRIs decrease depressive tendencies (they are depression drugs) yet they increase bioavailability of serotonin.
Furthermore, she also says that high serotonin correlates with high insulin; therefore it stands to reason that the obese = high serotonin emotional and behavioral profile.
This does not follow. The profile of excessive serotonin is usually associated with those who do not eat much and are usually wirey and thin - obsessive compulsive, nervous, rigid, cold/withdrawn, depressive, anxious, fearful and phobic, cautious and very harm avoidant, thrifty/hording tendencies, so on.
Those who are that way usually are thin; likewise those who become thin (i.e. undereat) become that way. I know, because, I am one of those people now. The more I under eat, the more I fit that profile. I've seen numerous dieters do total 180s and become neurotic obsessives whereas previously they were stereotypically heavy in personality. Obviously it must be cyclical, stress and this "profile" of behaviors (stress -> behaviors -> more stress -> more behaviors). Some kind of positive feedback disease loop going on, since it can be both organically present (i.e. born that way) or triggered later (some kind of stressful event such as emotional trauma or starving yourself i.e. dieting to lose weight).
When I was heavy and eating more, my personality was much different, and I think this is a neurochemical thing related to food intake. I was much more like a "classic high weight" behavioral profile of high dopamine and low serotonin (marked by low impulse control, sensation-seeking, living for the moment, highs and lows, so on. ). When I "lose control" of my food intake and start eating too many carbs, I gradually start becoming more like the the high dopamine behavioral profile - lack of impulse control, binging problems.
If insulin causes chronic high serotonin, and abnormally high serotonin causes those symptoms, why are those behaviors consistently linked to food abstinence and thinness? Why are dopamine-flavored behaviors consistently linked to food overindulgence and obesity?
Here's my reasoning. I think it is more likely that the spikes in serotonin from over eating carbs are not causing chronic high serotonin, but instead, contributing to a serotonin deficiency that results in an overabundance of dopamine. Yes, technically, eating raises serotonin. However, much like eating carbs can actually cause low blood sugar/lethargy, so can spiking your serotonin cause a deficiency of the neurotransmitter plus burnout to it. The carbs flood the brain with serotonin, which then cause a crash later, leaving you in a dopamine-dominant, low state. You then seek more serotonin, which leads to carb cravings. The blood sugar and probably the serotonin crash are both contributing to overeating.
Much like the hypoglycemic roller coaster, this imbalance is, for most people, impermanent and fluxes with diet and amount of food eaten. In other words, if ya just stop over eating or eating too many carbs, soon you normalize your neurochemistry and food intake patterns. The dopamine/serotonin balances itself out.
However, if you persist in under eating and it becomes excessive (for example, dieting to lose weight to be culturally correct)... then you create a physiological stress state, and stress states are associated with the high-serotonin profile. Then your normal eating impulses become abnormal - you lose your appetite and your desire for food, you become ocd, neurotic, fearful, and the stereotypical nervous thin. Might even trigger anorexia, assuming prejudice against fat/eating is present. That's why trauma and dieting are catalysts for anorexia and food abstinence - these things burden the body with tremendous stress, which causes a neurochemical imbalance inverse of the kind seen in over eating overweight people (high serotonin, low dopamine).
I've only read a few pages of the book (available on amazon) so maybe my conclusions match the authors, but from what I gather she seems to imply it is the HIGH serotonin that is responsible for the maladies experienced by the obese... when IMO this is not logically consistent. The problems of too much serotonin (or insufficient dopamine) are observed in those highly stressed in some way, often by food restriction... the wiry, nervous thin.
The profile is NOT consistent with high weight and eating generously. The high weight profile is consistent with high dopamine, deficient serotonin.
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