Greetings, greetings, greetings.
You must be sick of hearing that word now, greetings, if you've been watching this channel.
Eric Bakker, thanks for coming back.We're going to talk about serotonin, what it is,
how if affects the body, how it affects the gut.
You've probably heard of the word Prozac.
I think they've dumped that name now, because these companies who make these kind of drugs
had a hard time trying to keep peddling the stuff, so they keep changing the name.
If think they call it Sarafem now, or something else.
It's like changing Coca Cola to some other name, because maybe people get sick of drinking
the stuff, and you want to make more sales.
The thing is, it's an anti-depressant or if you're an American, anti-depressant.
So serotonin basically is a very, very interesting hormone when you think about it.
When you hear that word, the first thing you think about is depression, but in fact it
does way more than work as an anti-depressant.
It comes from an amino acid tryptophan.
Right?
Tryptophan is the key thing that helps to make serotonin, and when we think about it,
SSRI drugs, or selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, are drugs that are given to people
to flood their system with a sort of fake serotonin.
This prolongs the life of serotonin in your body by preventing it from breaking down in
these synaptic junctions.
It gets broken down in the liver and excreted, but it affects your body in so many,[ if you
look at the overall effect of serotonin, yes, we know it definitely affects the mood, but
it also affects appetite.
It affects libido.
It affects so much.
It even has an effect really on your heart by increasing vasodilation and vasoconstriction,
working through particular biochemical pathways.
It has an effect on bone even.
It has an effect on uterine contractions, even on sex drive.
So there are particular receptor sites throughout your digestive system called 5-HT receptors,
which uptake serotonin.But let's go through a bit of a checklist on some of the things,
for example, that it will affect when it comes to digestive health, and then we'll talk a
bit later on, about how to make sure you get good serotonin production to maintain that,
right?
It has a particularly good effect on the MMC, okay, the migrating motor complex, or if you
look at the gut, stuff moves through the digestive system through an action called peristalsis.
There is also another action that acts like a broom, that happens between meals, called
the MMC, which moves stuff through there.
So, this helps to regulate appetite and digestive control.
But the MMC also has a very interesting effect on making sure that you poop properly, that
you don't have too many loose stools or firm stools.
So, serotonin has a big effect on the migrating motor complex.
So, by having good levels of serotonin in your gut, you're going to have better formed
stools, more regular stools.
And often I find that people that have got very upset tummies all the time, or very bad
problems with constipation or diarrhea, to some degree, have a serotonin imbalance.
And of course, that can affect their mood, mm-hmm (affirmative).So, a balanced appetite,
by reducing dopamine, so by balanced appetite I mean, you're not going to get strong cravings
for lots of foods all the time.
All right?
So, it helps to regulate your appetite.
It stops you from getting too skinny or too fat.
And again, if we look at people that are very crazy body shape sizes, there could be mood
disorders going on with these people, quite often.
It helps to balance stomach acid.
So, too much or too little can make you reflux even, if you've got too much serotonin.
Serotonin's even effective when it comes to nausea and vomiting, because it has some regulatory
effect on the nausea pathway as well.
It's important in leaky gut prevention.
It's known that people with balanced levels of serotonin don't really have big issues
with leaky gut.
Now, what else did we talk about here?
That's right, an interesting thing, which I didn't bring up, is it's also released through
vagal stimulation.
Now, if you've been watching this channel for a while, you'll see I'm a big fan of lifestyle,
and now we're going to talk about one of the key reasons why lifestyle is so important
when it comes to recovering from so many chronic diseases.
So, vagal stimulation induces the release of serotonin.
The vagus nerve is the biggest parasympathetic, or relaxation nerve, that we have.
So, we're relaxing more and chilling out more.
You're going to have a better release of serotonin, which helps to improve you mood, which allows
you to make better choices in your life.
And remember, the serotonin also regulates appetite.
So, people who relax more, tend to have better appetite regulation than people who stress
more.
Does that make sense?So, let's look now at some ways to get a really good production
and utilization of serotonin.
One of them is to get again, what I always push to you people, is getting good circadian
rhythm, getting good sleep cycles.
People who work really crappy hours or shift work, or especially teenagers, we see it now
with sleep deprivation, they're going to have a lot of serotonin problems.
They're going to get mood dysregulation.
So, people who play Xbox all night, they're going to have shitty, crappy moods.
We see this quite a lot.
And then they're going to have appetite behavioral issues.
They're going to go to McDonald's all the time.
You know?
I mean, I could go on and on, but this the key thing I see with so many young people
these days.
Sunlight is an important thing also to allow a good release and production of serotonin.
So, vitamin D comes into this as well.
So, being outside, and not being so much inside on computers all day.
Thyroid and adrenal health are very important for good serotonin production.
And these two systems, again, key into the vagal stimulation because too much stress
induces a big problem with thyroid and adrenals.
So, when a person's lifestyle is balanced, they're going to have a more effective thyroid
and adrenal response in their body.
It means they've got a nice balance between the sympathetic and the parasympathetic, not
too much sympathetic, or fight or flight, not too much vagal, rest and digest, but the
balance is maintained there.
The key thing also is to have the right kind of bacteria.
So, the microbiome in that area is one of the biggest parts of serotonin production
in the body.
About 70% of serotonin is produced in the small intestine.
So, by having a good balance of bacteria in there, you're going to ensure a good production
of serotonin and utilization.
You know, the entero, what do they call it again?
Enterochromaffin cells, the way a lot of this is produced in the gut.
There are multiple receptor sites throughout that small intestine as well.
So, by having this good bacterial balance, not too much Candida, not too much dysbiotic
flora, by having the balance there, the serotonin production and utilization is going to be
much more favorable, of course.
Now some of the key things, that you want to be looking at in your diet, are the B vitamins,
to ensure a good production, B1, B3, B6, B9, which is folic acid, B12, but also calcium,
magnesium and zinc, selenium, and multiple trace elements.
So, you can get this through a multivitamin, but more effectively, you're going to get
it through a proper diet, healthy diet, which I think I've always spoken about on this channel.
And the other key thing is exercise.
There are many studies now that prove that people who exercise regularly, will sleep
better and have better mood.
Isn't that funny?
We just discussed all that with serotonin.
And again, just to recap on all those things, if you've got a good balance in your life
of sleep, exercise, eating healthy food, if your digestive system is in good shape, you're
going to have a better mood.
And serotonin is one of the key hormones that helps to regulate that mood.
So, I hope you got some useful information out of this video.
Thanks for tuning in.