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Your physique is chock-full of useful messengers generally known as hormones. These substances journey to your tissues and organs, the place they maintain important processes buzzing alongside. One hormone that assists with many key capabilities is serotonin.

Right here’s what it is advisable to learn about this important hormone.

WHAT SEROTONIN DOES AND WHAT HAPPENS WHEN LEVELS GET TOO LOW

Serotonin performs a serious function in regulating temper, urge for food, reminiscence and sleep. It additionally takes half in lots of different processes in your physique, like coronary heart operate, digestion and bladder management, in accordance with a 2018 overview.

Growing older, lack of train, main life occasions (e.g., a loss of life within the household) or a poor food plan can all throw hormones like serotonin out of whack, says Annette Nunez, PhD, licensed psychotherapist and founder and director of Breakthrough Interventions, LLC. When serotonin ranges run low, you could really feel unhappy, irritable, anxious and have bother sleeping. “However the principle one is despair,” Nunez says.

One method to treating despair is to take selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), a sort of prescription medicine that works to extend serotonin operate within the physique. Widespread SSRIs embody fluoxetine, sertraline and citalopram.

Low serotonin ranges can also result in modifications in urge for food, “the place you’re both overly hungry, or you don’t have any urge for food in any respect,” Nunez says. Whether or not you eat an excessive amount of or too little could depend upon different components, like temper modifications and any emotional responses to meals (e.g., stress consuming).

NATURAL WAYS TO INCREASE SEROTONIN

There are methods to extend serotonin and not using a prescription.

1. STOCK UP ON SEROTONIN-BOOSTING FOODS

Imagine it or not, consuming sure meals could assist improve serotonin ranges within the physique. Specifically, meals wealthy in tryptophan, an amino acid that will get transformed to serotonin within the mind, in accordance with a 2016 overview.

Discover tryptophan in protein-based meals, together with meats (turkey, salmon), tofu, dairy (eggs, cheese), nuts and seeds, Nunez says.

2. GET REAL EXERCISE

Bodily motion is big for reinforcing each temper and serotonin. “In the event you can train a minimum of 20–half-hour a day, that may assist with releasing the hormone and growing your endorphins,” Nunez says. (Endorphins are feel-good hormones.)

In reality, train could also be simply as efficient for treating signs of despair as prescription medicines and discuss remedy, per a 2013 overview.

The kind of train you do doesn’t appear to matter, Nunez says. So, discover actions you get pleasure from and attempt to do them recurrently.

WHAT HAPPENS WHEN SEROTONIN LEVELS GET TOO HIGH

Whereas Nunez sometimes encounters individuals whose serotonin ranges are too low, there are cases the place ranges can get too excessive. This is named serotonin syndrome.

Serotonin syndrome is a probably life-threatening situation that may happen whenever you take medicines that improve serotonin operate, like SSRIs. An excessive amount of serotonin may cause delicate signs like shivering, sweating, confusion, complications, hypertension, and diarrhea, in accordance with a 2013 overview. One of the simplest ways to keep away from this syndrome is to keep away from taking a number of serotonin-containing medicines, the authors be aware.

THE BOTTOM LINE

In the event you’ve been feeling depressed, irritable, anxious, or are experiencing different signs of low serotonin ranges for a month or longer, it’s necessary to hunt skilled recommendation. “Decrease ranges of serotonin can result in actually extreme bouts of despair and ideas of suicide,” Nunez says. A psychological well being skilled could possibly prescribe a drugs to assist improve serotonin ranges.

Initially revealed December 2020, up to date Might 2022

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