Dopamine and Mental Fluidity - What We Didn't Know About Methylation

Our consciousness is like a net. We want the net to be fluid enough to let thoughts that bother us pass through without grabbing our attention, but strong enough to grab on to the ideas and motivations that will drive us to achieve what we value in life. Nutrition has a big impact on this net. In this episode, learn how foods like liver, egg yolks, meat, leafy greens, legumes, collagen, bone broth, spinach, wheat, and beets can impact how fluid or stable your mind is by impacting the methylation of dopamine, and how to achieve the proper balance.

This episode is brought to you by Ample Meal. Ample is a meal-in-a-bottle that takes a total of two minutes to prepare, consume, and clean up. It provides a balance of fat, protein, and carbohydrate, plus all the vitamins and minerals you need in a single meal, all from a blend of natural ingredients. The protein is from whey and collagen. The fat is from coconut oil and macadamia nut oil. The carbohydrates, vitamins, and minerals come exclusively from food sources like sweet potatoes, bananas, cocoa powder, wheat and barley grass, and chlorella. I use Ample on Mondays when I have 12 hours of appointments with breaks no longer than 15 minutes. It keeps my brain going while I power through the long day, never letting food prep make me late for an appointment. Head to amplemeal.com and enter "CHRIS15" at checkout for a 15% discount off your first order.

This episode is brought to you by US Wellness Meats. I use their liverwurst as a convenient way to make a sustainable habit of eating a diversity of organ meats. They also have a milder braunschweiger and an even milder head cheese that gives you similar benefits, as well as a wide array of other meat products, all from animals raised on pasture. Head to grasslandbeef.com and enter promo code “Chris” at checkout to get a 15% discount on any order that is at least 7 pounds and is at least $75 after applying the discount but under 40 pounds (it can be 39.99 lbs, but not 40). You can use this discount code not once, but twice!

In this episode, you'll find all the following and more:

00:38  Cliff Notes

12:15  Three stories illustrating how foods impact mental stability and fluidity.

13:00  How veganism profoundly worsened my OCD and panic attacks and going Weston A. Price made them disappear.

 18:55  Jeffrey is an entrepreneur who uses intermittent fasting and low-protein lunches to remain hyper-focused through the workday, but at the risk of an occasional panic attack.

 22:05  Jordan uses methylation supplements to optimize his energy and mental focus, but can experience a spectrum of methylation states that range from bodily tiredness on one end to intense focus suitable for creative and analytic work in the middle, to flighty productivity suitable for errands on the high end, to a severe crash characterized by apathy.

 26:50  The methylation system and the roles of sulfur amino acids (methionine and cysteine), magnesium, ATP, B6, serine and glycine, folate, B12, niacin, riboflavin, thiamin, choline, betaine, and creatine.

 34:18  The two principle fates of homocysteine.

 40:10  Glycine as the endogenous buffer of extra methyl groups.

 42:40  Obtaining betaine and choline from foods.

 45:40  Creatine as a methyl group sparer.

 48:20  Niacin and nicotinamide riboside as a tax on the methylation system.

 50:25  Tonic and phasic dopamine, and how methylation mediated by catechol O-methyltransferase (COMT) regulates the balance.

 57:20  How the balance of tonic and phasic dopamine determines the ease of switching mental states.

1:03:50  Worrier vs. warrior phenotype.

1:09:10  Histamine in the brain as an alertness signal and a potential contributor to panic attacks.

1:11:55  Explaining the three stories.

1:22:00  Practical conclusions.

Access the show notes, transcript, and comments here:

https://chrismasterjohnphd.substack.com/p/043-methylate-your-way-to-mental