Dopamine Nation: Finding Balance in the Age of Indulgence

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Chocolate, they didn't look at milk versus dark chocolate, but chocolate will increase your baseline level of dopamine 1.5 times, okay? So it's a pretty substantial increase in dopamine. It's transient, it goes away after a few minutes or even a few seconds. I'll explain what determines the duration in a minute, but 1.5 times for chocolate. Sex, both the pursuit of sex and the act of sex increases dopamine two times. So it's a doubling above baseline. Now, of course, there's going to be variation there, but that's the average increase in baseline dopamine caused by sex. Later I will talk about how the different aspects of the so-called arousal arc, the different aspects of sex, believe it or not, have a differential impact on dopamine. But for now, as a general theme or activity, sex doubles the amount of dopamine circulating in your blood. Our brain simply loves to get high and for a long time we couldn´t get good stuff from the outer world ( it must have been terrible) when we were still stonagey and before, but we had those fine centers for own opioids, own cannabinoids, but especially the other hormones that aren´t so fancy. No matter where we look, to the love in our beds, to the digital shopping card, enemies and frenemies at work, what we love and hate about political parties, we are wired to react like animals.

Tengo un amigo que cuando escuchó por primera vez el podcast del neurocientífico de Stanford, Andrew Huberman, me dijo: “El tío mola mucho y es una pasada escucharle… una pena que se lo invente todo”. El comentario me hizo bastante gracia porque entendí rápidamente que lo que realmente estaba queriendo decir es que las explicaciones de Huberman sobre cómo funciona el cerebro son tan elegantes, sencillas e intuitivas que parecen ciencia ficción. Leyendo The Molecule of More (libro recomendado por el propio Huberman en uno de los episodios del podcast) he tenido la misma sensación ya que parece imposible que un único neurotransmisor, la dopamina, sea la explicación de tantos y tan dispares comportamientos humanos.Responsible action is a delicate balance – excessive dopamine activity can become impractical and is speculated at times even lead to mental illnesses. The influence of Dopamine on politics, sex, relationships, emotions, political affiliations, religion and business is all discussed in a good amount of detail. Los tres primeros capítulos (LOVE, DRUGS and DOMINATION) son absolutamente fascinantes y creo que es bastante fácil verse reflejado (y gracias al libro, entender) muchas de las sensaciones y emociones que se describen y que todos experimentamos en el día a día. Los capítulos 4 – 6 (CREATIVITY, POLITICS y PROGRESS) no me han parecido tan brillantes y los resultados de alguno de los estudios mencionados (p.ej. correlación entre niveles de dopamina e ideología) no tan convincentes. En cualquier caso en estos últimos también hay insights interesantes y son relativamente cortos, así que merece la pena llegar hasta ellos. So let's take a look at some of the typical things that people take and do and eat — some are good for us, some are not good for us — and let's ask how much dopamine is increased above baseline. Now, of course these are averages, but these are averages that have been measured in so-called microdialysis studies in animals, so actually extracting from particular brain areas how much dopamine is released, or from measuring the serum, the circulating levels of dopamine in humans. Ironically the dopamine circuits in the brains of humans have been responsible for the staggering heights of accomplishment and achievement but will also (paradoxically) bring about the demise of said humans.

Both books really focus on these dopamine schedules and the relationship between these peaks and baselines of dopamine. In Dr. Lembke's book and when she was on the Huberman Lab podcast, and other podcasts, she's talked about this pleasure-pain balance, that when we seek something that we really like or we indulge in it, like eating a little piece of chocolate, if we really like chocolate, there's some pleasure, but then there's a little bit of pain that exceeds the amount of pleasure, and it's subtle, and we experience it as wanting more of that thing. There is a bunch of interesting information in this book, but it is hard to tell if it is accurate or wishful thinking on the author's side. Many of these ideas are familiar: we’ve all heard about digital detoxes and mindfulness practices, but unlike many spiritual gurus, Lembke is straight-shooting. She is not promising sunshine and rainbows. Yes, it’s natural and healthy to pursue enjoyment, but our consumer culture has created an expectation “that life is supposed to be so fun!” she says. “And really, it’s not. Life is a slog and I think if we could admit that and take comfort in knowing we’re not alone in the day-to-day struggle, paradoxically, we would be happier.” We’re losing our capacity to delay gratification, solve problems

And this is very important. How satisfying or exciting or pleasureful a given experience is doesn't just depend on the height of that peak. It depends on the height of that peak relative to the baseline. So if you increase the baseline and you increase the peak, you're not going to achieve more and more pleasure from things. I'll talk about how to leverage this information in a little bit, but just increasing your dopamine, yes, it will make you excited for all things. It will make you feel very motivated, but it will also make that motivation very short-lived. So there's a better way to increase your dopamine. There's a better way to optimize this peak-to-baseline ratio. And eventually what typically happens is they will stop getting dopamine release from that activity as well, and then they drop into a pretty serious depression. And this can get very severe and people have committed suicide from these sorts of patterns of activity. But what about the more typical scenario? What about this scenario of somebody who is really good at working during the week, they exercise during the week, they drink on the weekends? Well, that person is only consuming alcohol maybe one or two nights a week, but oftentimes that same person will be spiking their dopamine with food during the middle of the week. Now we all have to eat, and it's nice to eat foods that we enjoy. I certainly do that. I love food, in fact. But let's say they're eating foods that really evoke a lot of dopamine release in the middle of the week. I now understand why something that I enjoyed so much had become less pleasureful for me, and there's a deep, deep satisfaction that comes from understanding, okay, there wasn't anything wrong with me or what I was doing, or anything at all. It was just there was something wrong with the approach I was taking, which was layering in all these sources of dopamine and dropping my baseline. For this very same reason, I caution people against using stimulants every time they study, or every time they work out, or every time that they do anything that they would like to continue to enjoy and be motivated at. There's one exception which is caffeine, because I mentioned before, if you like caffeine, that actually could be a good thing for your dopamine system because it does upregulate these D2, D3 receptors, so it actually makes whatever dopamine is released by that activity more accessible or more functional within the biochemistry in the pathways of your brain and body.

Some of the best (engaging + entertaining + educational + enlightening) science writing I have experienced in quite some time. As I started learning more about this relationship between the peaks and the baselines in dopamine, what I realized was that some time ago I probably experienced an incredible increase in the amount of dopamine during one of my workouts, because I enjoy working out and I enjoy listening to music. I also enjoy listening to podcasts. I also enjoy communicating with people. Those are all wonderful pursuits, but I had layered in too many of them too many times, and then it essentially wasn't working for me anymore, much in the same way a drug wouldn't work for somebody who takes it repeatedly, because their baseline of dopamine is dropping. So at least for this calendar year, I've made a rule for myself, which is I don't allow my phone into my workouts at all.

The Battle for Your Time

Just when you thought you knew all you needed to know about the addiction crisis, along comes Dr. Anna Lembke with her second brilliant book on the topic—this one not about a drug but about the most powerful chemical of all: the dopamine that rules the pain and pleasure centers of our minds. In an era of overconsumption and instant gratification, Dopamine Nation explains the personal and societal price of being ruled by the next fix—and how to manage it. No matter what you might find yourself over-indulging in—from the internet to food to work to sex—you’ll find this book riveting, scary, cogent, and cleverly argued. Lembke weaves patient stories with research, in a voice that’s as empathetic as it is clear-eyed.” Dopamine is a chemical produced by our brains that plays a starring role in motivating behavior. It gets released when we take a bite of delicious food, when we have sex, after we exercise, and, importantly, when we have successful social interactions. In an evolutionary context, it rewards us for beneficial behaviors and motivates us to repeat them. Before we begin, I'd like to emphasize that this podcast is separate from my teaching and research roles at Stanford. It is however part of my desire and effort to bring zero-cost-to-consumer information about science and science-related tools to the general public. In keeping with that theme, I'd like to thank the sponsors of today's podcast.