8 Ways to Naturally Treat Dopamine Deficiency
Treating a dopamine deficiency can help you take back your health! How? First, you need to understand that depression is a disease that can be caused by a dopamine deficiency. In many cases, it is caused by actual physiologic changes in your brain.
Therefore, when you feel depressed, don’t think of it as a defect in your personality; rather, think of depression as you would any other illness. If you have a broken bone, you need to wear a cast to stabilize the bone while it heals. Likewise, if you have depression, you need to address the underlying “root problem” in your brain. And one of those underlying root problems just might be a dopamine deficiency.
The good news is that you are not powerless to overcome depression caused by insufficient levels of dopamine. You can use natural remedies—including lifestyle and diet changes—as well as dopamine supplements to increase dopamine levels in your brain.
What Is Dopamine?
Dopamine is the brain chemical that allows us to have feelings of bliss, pleasure, euphoria, drive, motivation, focus, and concentration. But let’s start at the beginning. . . .
Your brain actually communicates with itself. That is, you have an intricately linked system of nerve cells called neurons that “communicate” with each other via specialized receptor sites.
Dopamine is a chemical (neurotransmitter) that is used by the nerves to send messages When a nerve releases dopamine, it crosses a very small gap called a synapse and then attaches to a dopamine receptor on the next nerve. When dopamine levels are depleted in the brain, the nerve impulses, or “messages,” cannot be transmitted properly and can impair brain functions: behavior, mood, cognition, attention, learning, movement, and sleep.
How Do I Know Whether I Have Dopamine Deficiency?
When there is a dopamine deficiency, emotions cannot be correctly regulated. Mental impulses that mitigate intense feelings of sadness are inhibited; therefore, the most common low-dopamine symptoms are the same signs associated with clinical depression (and, more specifically, major depressive disorder).
Let’s look at those low-dopamine symptoms:
14 Dopamine Deficiency Symptoms
- Lack of interest in life
- Decreased motivation
- Procrastination
- Inability to feel pleasure
- Altered sleep patterns
- Restless leg syndrome
- Fatigue
- Mood swings
- Excessive feelings of hopelessness or guilt
- Poor memory
- Inability to focus/impaired concentration
- Impulsive or self-destructive behaviors
- Addictions to caffeine or other stimulants
- Weight gain
Extreme dopamine deficiency—as in the case of Parkinson’s disease—causes a permanent and degenerative diminishing of motor skills, including muscle rigidity and tremors.
8 Ways to Treat Dopamine Deficiency
With that background in mind, consider the following dopamine-boosting tactics you can take to increase dopamine levels.
1. Decrease your sugar intake. Sugar alters brain chemistry by disrupting dopamine levels, which is one reason why people often experience a “sugar high” shortly after eating sweets. Just as alcohol and drugs can deplete dopamine levels, sugar does the same. In fact, sugar stimulates the exact same euphoric pathway targeted by alcohol and drug use—that is, the decreased dopamine levels lead to actual sugar addictions.
Whether initiated by alcohol, cocaine, or sugar, the compulsive behavior addiction is the same—an undeniable desire for dopamine. Limiting sugar intake will help fight this addictive dopamine depletion-sugar craving cycle. If you struggle with a sweet tooth, you can take chromium picolinate supplements to help decrease your sugar cravings.[1,2]
2. Take tyrosine. When your brain cells need to “manufacture” neurotransmitters for proper mood regulation, they use amino acids as the essential raw material. Amino acids are the building blocks of protein; there are 20 different amino acids that make up the protein our body needs.
The brain uses the amino acid l-phenylalanine as the source (precursor) for the production of dopamine. Phenylalanine is one of the “essential” amino acids; that is, the body cannot make it on its own so we have to get it from the foods we eat or from supplements. Once the body receives phenylalanine, it can convert it to tyrosine, which in turn is used to synthesize dopamine. So the way to increase central nervous system neurotransmitter levels is to provide proper amounts of the amino acid precursor.
Bananas, especially ripe bananas, are an exceptional food for regulating dopamine because they have a high concentration of tyrosine. Other foods that increase dopamine through the conversion of phenylalanine to tyrosine include almonds, apples, watermelons, cherries, yogurt, beans, eggs and meats.
It is important to note that dopamine foods alone generally do not have the therapeutic amino acid levels necessary to boost dopamine levels for someone experiencing major depressive disorder. To boost your levels of dopamine, dopamine-rich foods may not be adequate. Tyrosine supplementation may help.
3. Decrease caffeine intake. Even though coffee gives you the energy boost you need, just like sugar, it only offers temporary relief and may actually be doing more harm than good. After experiencing the initial kick caffeine offers, dopamine levels in the body decrease. So, go for a cup of decaf or at least minimize consumption of coffee to counter dopamine deficiency.[5] (See also our post Is Coffee Bad for You? Actually, It Offers a Host of Health Benefits.)
4. Set a routine schedule. One easy way to boost dopamine is to get in a healthy routine and stick to it. Your routine should include adequate time for work and rest. Ideally, your 24-hour day should include seven to eight hours of sleep per night in combination with periods of physical activity.
Under-sleeping and/or over-sleeping combined with lack of regular exercise can drain the brain of dopamine. Why? Proper sleep gives the brain time to recuperate from the day and recharge its stores of neurotransmitters.
5. Get consistent exercise. Regular physical activity increases blood circulation to influence the presence of many different hormones within the brain, affecting dopamine levels.
6. Decrease stress levels. High stress levels are also strongly correlated with dopamine deficiency. Stress can be caused by two sources: poor adrenal function and chronic daily life stressors. While we can’t always control our circumstances, there are stress safeguards you can utilize to help you deal with the day-in and day-out anxieties.
Remember, if stress is not handled properly, it can be devastating to your health. So, establish an ongoing plan that enables you to deal with stress effectively.
7. Correct a magnesium deficiency. Magnesium deficiency can cause decreased levels of dopamine, and natural health experts estimate that more than half of the U.S. population is deficient in this relaxation mineral.
If you’ve been eating a diet heavy in junk foods or processed foods, you probably have a magnesium deficiency. Common symptoms include food cravings (salt or carbs), constipation, high blood pressure, rapid heartbeat or palpitations, muscle pains and spasms, fatigue, headaches, and depression symptoms such as mood swings, anxiety, and irritability.
There are blood and urine tests your doctor can perform to determine whether you have a magnesium deficiency. However, these tests may not always be accurate, since most of the body’s magnesium stays in the cells rather than in the bloodstream or the urine. There is one lab test called a sublingual epithelial test that’s more effective because it checks for magnesium in the cells, where most of it is present.
To perform sublingual epithelial test, your doctor will scrape under your tongue with a tongue depressor to obtain epithelial cells, which are then sent to a lab for analysis. Schedule this test with your doctor or start increasing your intake of magnesium.[6]
8. Take vitamins for depression. Dopamine is easily oxidized. The antioxidants contained in vitamins (such as vitamins C and E) protect the health of brain neurons that use dopamine. For this reason, many integrative physicians recommend daily multivitamins to their patients to help protect neurons from free-radical damage. Some believe that taking vitamins is a good way to make sure you’re getting an ample daily supply of the key nutrients you need to be healthy both physically and mentally.[7]
Share Your Thoughts on How To Increase Dopamine
Give us your experience with boosting dopamine levels. What has worked for you to increase dopamine, drive, motivation, and focus? Share with other readers your experience in the Comments section below. Your remarks can always be anonymous.
PS: Another major neurotransmitter related to depression is serotonin. Read more about serotonin deficiency symptoms here and how to boost levels here.
Originally published in 2012, this post is regularly updated.
[1] “A Real Sugar High?” Psychology Today, January 1, 2003.
[2] “Sugar Can Be Addictive.” Princeton University Department of Psychology and Neuroscience Institute, December 10, 2008.
[3] University of Maryland Medical Center.
[4] “Tyrosine Depletion Lowers Dopamine Synthesis.” Brain Research, 2008 Jan.
[5] “Differential Effects of Caffeine on Dopamine and Acetylcholine Transmission in Brain Areas of Drug-naive and Caffeine-pretreated Rats.” Neuropsychopharmacology. 2002 Aug; 27(2).
[6] “Evidence for the involvement of the monoaminergic system in the antidepressant-like effect of magnesium.” Progress in Neuro-psychopharmacology & Biological Psychiatry, 2009 Mar 17;33(2):235-42. Epub 2008 Nov 27.
[7] Harvard School of Public Health.
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