Its Not Too Little Dopamine, Its Too Much Adrenaline/Noradrenaline
How the Latest Science Now Backs Our Pragmatic Approach
We began collaborating when we discovered we were the only other person we knew who had realized the profound ramifications of the dopamine-adrenaline link, that adrenaline and noradrenaline are created from dopamine.
Hence the generation of adrenaline, e.g. when under acute stress, necessarily uses up our dopamine supplies.
The obvious, to us, conclusion from this that we had independently come to is that chronic disease diagnoses like Parkinson’s are not due to too little dopamine in the brain and body, but due to making too much adrenaline/noradrenaline all the time, thus constantly depleting dopamine supplies in the process.
The cause of this constant over-production of adrenaline, and hence depletion of dopamine, being all the chronic stressors of modern life.
The proof of this concept is in our results, because our pragmatic approaches based on stress reduction and trauma healing have been demonstrated to work, as exemplified both by Gary’s own recovery journey, and the shared recovery stories of Lilian’s clients.
Yesterday, a client of Lilian’s and a member of our “Overcome Chronic Diseases…” facebook group shared a science news article that some academic scientists have now come to similar conclusions, and are also saying that the problem isn’t too little dopamine, its too much [nor]adrenline.
Below are some relevant quotes.
“In the past decade or two, … , a few key facts have caused some Parkinson’s researchers to question the focus on dopamine alone: first, patients initially respond well to dopamine therapy but inevitably progress. Second, there are numerous nonmotor symptoms that patients experience even very early in the course of the disease that are not resolved by dopamine therapy.
“The noradrenergic system… to control the body’s fight-or-flight response as well as to regulate arousal, attention and reactions to stress. Symptoms associated with potential noradrenergic dysregulation include REM sleep behavior disorder, depression and anxiety, hypertension, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, sweating, shaking, fatigue, and muscle tension—most of which overlap with symptoms experienced by patients with Parkinson’s before and after diagnosis.”
“Early findings from participant biomarker analysis, MRI studies, cardiac imaging and heart rate variability tests suggest many of these high-risk patients have abnormally increased sympathetic tone—an overactive noradrenergic system.”
The highlighted part is key - this basically means too much chronic stress, poor ability to regulate one’s own Nervous System, or poor stress resiliency.
Of course, the academics then propose drugs as the solution, to keep the levels of noradrenaline down, but obviously, this is just papering over the symptoms rather than addressing the root causes and comes with nasty side-effects, and unknown consequences of being on the drugs long term, and besides it will be years before the drugs are even approved for this.
The obvious solution is to tackle the root causes head-on, starting right now, to reduce sympathetic tone. So onboard stress reduction techniques, lifestyle changes, trauma healing, and learning how to self-regulate one’s own Nervous System.
The natural answer to an overactive sympathetic Nervous System is to learn how to inhabit parasympathetic states (calm, relaxed) for as long as possible per day - some put a figure of needing to be in parasympathetic for 80% of the day in order to stay healthy and well.
Both of us have put together our own courses based on all we’ve learned about this, to help folks to reduce their symptoms, and for those who just interested in staying healthy and well, and avoiding chronic conditions in the first place.
You can also take Lilian’s unique Stress Test in order to assess whether you are at risk.
Pragmatic theory:
Actionable steps and a practical plan:
Self-evaluation tool:
Have you also noticed how terrible your future looked like in the days and months after diagnosis due to the doctor’s nocebo spell “you will never become better” or “you can only get worse”? Maybe you are not free of that yet and this negative expectation effect/self-fulfilling prophecy of doom/Curse of Diagnosis Trauma has you imprisoned in disease progression? Is it time to turn this around and start to HOPE again?
Our courses above will be of help here too [the courses are also a way to financially support our work];
Subscribe to our Substacks to help get free of the old myths [ Lilian’s is
].
I love this post! If more people understood what dopamine feels like when it is naturally released, they could improve their health in so many ways. It is key to maintaining good eating habits. Stress eating is a corrupted dopamine response. By finding activities that allow you to relax and repair, you can tune into your innate signaling system that provides a sense of well-being. You can reconnect to your body so you are one in purpose.
I really commend you for taking your health into your own hands in such a deep way. This also looks like it could be very helpful to me, as someone with adhd and fibromyalgia