I am talking minimally about serotonin, melotonin, oxytocin and endorphin. Melotonin is already available to ward off winter blues but its use has potential side effects. Melotonin can harm sleep cycles and if taken by people with depression, may worsen that condition and this might increase suicide risk. Serotonin is produced from the amino acid tryptophan which comes from a diet rich in complex carbohydrates so that a turkey sandwich on whole wheat bread can make you feel better. Bananas and turkey are both good for serotonin levels. Salmon and white fish are also good sources of omega-3 oils which help the brain find happiness.
Endorphins are the brains pain killers and are more powerful than morphine and you may have heard of runners highs. Exercise make you feel better because it raises endorphins. To get over love loss pain, exercise, eat turkey and banana and fish and complex carbohydrates. Also do those little things that make you happy day by day.
Other hormones are involved in love as well. The multi-tasking cuddle, milk expression, antler growth, birthing and orgasm hormone oxytocin for example. Hopefully, you don't have any antlers that need growing because if you do, you don't need therapy. All you need to do is wear a bulls-eye and go stand by a logging road in the fall if you haven't made the rut scene or whistle for a cougar. I don't know how one might increase oxytocin except perhaps by autoeroticism or mental imaging of pleasant memories or by getting into a new relationship more quickly.
Then there is testosterone. It decreases in men and increases in women during a relationship. Its increase in women increases her sex drive. Menopausal women are problematical because they may experience a drop in sex drive within a relationship and all that entails regarding hormone impacts on partners. Its decrease in men decreases his aggression making him more amenable to closeness and compromise. I'll talk about these later. An increase in aggression coupled to an increase in depression following love loss can ha ve horrific consequences on some males, ie. XYY chromosome males, and this topic needs a more thorough going over.
Diet and medicine cannot fix rotten things that happen to you or that you do to yourself or others so don't count on these to make the pain of guilt go away if you are prone to being a bad ass. Try doing nice things for others and yourself to feel better. A hike, dinner and back rubs come to mind or a phone call to say you care.
© 2008 Jorma Jyrkkanen
- Current Location:Kelowna
No comments:
Post a Comment