Neurochem, diet, & depressive symptoms

[mirrorshard]

The amino acid tyrosine, which is found in "high protein" foods, gets metabolised to dopamine, which acts to produce (nor)epinephrine. The technical term for that is adrenergic (producing adrenaline) - this ties in with something I found a while back about possible variants of (pseudo)hypoglycaemia, ie. showing the symptoms of hypoglycaemia (which amount to "adrenaline has eaten all your blood glucose and is rampaging about looking for something else tasty") without a noticeable blood glucose drop.

Dopamine is easily oxidized, so foods high in antioxidants are a good idea. The classic quick-and-easy option for that is green tea.

Usual symptoms of low dopamine levels are lethargy and sluggishness - dopamine is what makes the brain light up, basically. This is of course a vast oversimplification.

Phenylalanine also produces dopamine - it's found in nuts, seeds, pulses, and fish. And in diet Coke, but it's not worth my drinking that.

The amino acid tryptophan is metabolised to serotonin in the presence of vitamins B1, B3, and B6.

Leptin potentiates the satiety response, which is one of the things that disappears quite quickly when blood glucose drop symptoms hit.

(Notes from Hemat's Orthomolecularism - check on this one)
Insomnia correlates with hypoglycaemia.
Specific against hypoglycaemia: vitamin C/chromium/Zn. Glycerine is not recognised by the pancreas as a sugar. Fructose uses the same metabolic pathways, but may raise triglyceride levels (WTF?) Thiamine/pantothenic acid for sleep.

Comments

[mirabehn.livejournal.com]

I don't pretend to understand all of this, but it looks like a promising line of enquiry. Will probably ask you to explain it to me on Tues. :-)

[elettaria.livejournal.com]

Oh heavens yes, insomnia correlates with hypoglycaemia. I once went through a period of my life when I couldn't eat or couldn't get to food (incidentally BLOODY SOCIAL WORK - I'll tell you later), and my sleep was buggered. If I managed to keep some food by the bed and get to it, it'd help enormously. I went for bananas for a while, although the smell got to me.

[mirrorshard.livejournal.com]

What I use is dried banana chips. They're a bit sweeter than is really ideal, but they're good for instant energy. Mostly I try to deal with it by eating protein-and-carbs before bed.

[elettaria.livejournal.com]

Right now I'm at serious risk due to not getting enough to eat (care package has totally folded up, don't know when it'll restart but it's looking like weeks), leading to a rather nasty collapse on Saturday, so I'll take whatever I can get. Anything else you could recommend that's good for keeping by the bed? Vegan, not too sugary, and preferably good for nausea, my stomach's been playing up for a couple of weeks (the appalling support worker who is No Longer Welcome At My Home had very strange ideas of kitchen hygiene, D and I have both been getting stomach bugs).

[mirrorshard.livejournal.com]

This is awkward, because now I come to think about what I eat nearly all of them contain milk products. The dried
banana chips may or may not not be vegan, depending on the brand. The ones I have (Whitworths) are glazed with coconut oil and sugar, but many use honey IIRC.

One suggestion for nausea is gari - pickled ginger. For bulk, I might suggest crisps/crackers and hummous - it won't last forever, but it'll be fine overnight at least. Likewise, sliced tasty-when-raw vegetables (if you're up to that) will keep just fine under cold water, but then you have spillage risks of course.

[keira-online.livejournal.com]

My psedu-hypo-whatsit started when I came off an anti-depressant (somesort of SSRI I think), and then has hung around ever since.
Lucazade tablets work well, as do most biscuits. Although for me I generally need a sugar hit backed up by some slow sugar-releasing carbohydrates.