Harnessing Dopamine: The Reward & Motivation Molecule

Dopamine is one of our neurotransmitters that is responsible for feelings of motivation, achievement and reward, as well as being responsible for much of our movement, memory, attention and learning capacity.

Low or high dopamine has been associated with many health issues such as Parkinson’s, and depression, as well as procrastination, ADHD, restless leg syndrome, sleep issues and more. It also plays a role in building resiliency and overcoming aversion (the avoidance of unpleasant tasks).

Research suggests that balancing our levels of dopamine may help with our physical, mental and emotional health and some of the ways in which we can do this are:

• Ensuring good quality and quantity of sleep.
• Meditation, massage, yoga nidra and other forms of non-sleep rest.
  • Some research suggests that these practices together can increase dopamine by up to 65%.
• Eating a diet higher in Tyrosine. Tyrosine is a precursor to dopa which in turn is precursor to dopamine. Some foods high in Tyrosine include all animal produce, avocados, bananas, cacao, green tea, olive oil, almonds, leafy greens, oats and more.
• On top of this we also need folate, NAD, iron, vitamin B6, vitamin C, magnesium and zinc in order for tyrosine to be converted.
• Getting morning sunlight dopamine production is impacted by our circadian rhythms so getting daylight to the receptors on our skin and in our eyes during the mornings can help us produce more of it.
• Reducing unnecessary medications (such as benztropine), cocaine, alcohol, excess caffeine, obesity, excess stress.
• Having a regular movement practice.

Because dopamine plays such a large role in our movement capabilities, it makes sense to assume that moving our body could have an impact on our dopamine levels and the vast majority of research seems to support this, showing that physical activity increased dopamine levels, increased neuroplasticity in dopamine pathways, sensitized receptors to dopamine and sometimes lead to hyperdopaminergic states. On top of this, studies found that regular physical activity, completed 5 days per week, not only increased the dopamine levels in the brain and the sensitivity of cell receptors to dopamine, but also found that this elevated level of dopamine became the new baseline provided that the physical activity was completed regularly. This elevated baseline dopamine and the emotional improvement created during physical activity was then shown to be able to mitigate our stress response and help us to overcome aversion (the avoidance of unpleasant tasks) not only to exercise, but in many other areas of life.

A 2021 systematic review published in Brain Sciences found this to be true across many different types and intensities of physical activity and concluded that:

“These results reinforce the idea that the importance is more in the behaviour itself than in the way the PA behaviour is performed. For curing mental health issues, of which low dopamine synthesis is one of the main causes [6,7], these results are encouraging because innovative perspectives could include the prescription of exercise as a treatment."

So it seems that by just getting these foundations in place and ensuring that we have some form of movement practice as a habitual behaviour, we may well be able to elevate mood, reduce stress, increase resiliency, reduce risk of depression and improve mental and cognitive health in the long term.