MEASURING NEUROTRANSMITTER LEVELS

Neurotransmitter levels can now be determined by a simple and convenient urine test collected at home. Knowing your neurotransmitter levels can help you correct an imbalance today, or prevent problems from occurring in the future.

5 REASONS YOU SHOULD CONSIDER NEUROTRANSMITTER TESTING:

1. Neurotransmitters control communication throughout your body and brain.
   Neurotransmitters are complex chemical messengers that coordinate communication between neurons, which in turn affect every cell, tissue, and system in your body.
2. Symptoms (and even diagnoses) don’t tell the whole story.
   Although you can articulate a long list of symptoms, you can’t identify the underlying imbalances causing those symptoms. Neurotransmitter testing gives more information than your symptoms alone can.
3. You are unique, your symptoms are not.
   Many symptoms, such as fatigue, weight gain, anxiousness, and sleep disturbances, can have strikingly different underlying causes. While your poor sleep may be due to low serotonin, someone else’s may be related to high glutamate. Neurotransmitter testing can identify your specific biochemical imbalances.
4. Complex health conditions require an integrated approach.
   Today’s Diseases of Civilization demand a unified approach that conceptualizes nervous, endocrine and immune functions as an integrated system. Neurotransmitter testing helps me as a clinician uncover adrenal and immune issues that affect proper neural balance.
5. Testing biomarkers helps us provide customized patient care.
   Most importantly, once we have the personalized, integrated information from your unique lab results, we can better address underlying imbalances. The promise of such an approach is increased care effectiveness and decreased care expenses.

WHAT ARE NEUROTRANSMITTERS?

It would be hard to overstate the complexity of the vast network of specialized cells that make up your nervous system. The average human brain houses over 100 billion nerve cells (neurons), with each connected to 10,000 or so other cells which, if you do the math, equals approximately 1000 trillion connections in your brain. This means you have, even on a slow day, roughly 10,000 times more connections in your brain than there are stars in the Milky Way. Everything we do – all of our movements, thoughts, and feelings – is the result of these nerve cells talking with one another via electrical and chemical signals.

Neurons are not in direct contact with each other; in order to communicate with each other, they rely on highly specialized chemicals called neurotransmitters. Neurotransmitters are chemical messengers that coordinate the transmission of signals from one nerve cell (neuron) to the next. These all important brain chemicals interact with target sites called receptors located throughout the brain (and body) to regulate a wide variety of processes including emotions, fear, pleasure, joy, anger, mood, memory, cognition, attention, concentration, alertness, energy, appetite, cravings, sleep, and the perception of pain.

Additionally, neurotransmitters chemically link the brain and spinal cord with the rest of your body: muscles, organs, and glands. Thus, our brain is not only an array of wires (nerve cells/neurons), but also a highly evolved chemical soup (neurotransmitters). Neurotransmitters affect every cell, tissue, and system in your body. Because neurotransmitters are functionally integrated with the immune system and the endocrine system (including the adrenal glands), neurotransmitter imbalances can cause widespread health problems, such as:

• Brain fog – loss of mental focus, ADD, ADHD, impaired memory, poor decision making;
• Fatigue;
• Insomnia – difficulty falling asleep, staying asleep, or both;
• Pain – migraines, fibromyalgia;
• Obesity – metabolic syndrome, insulin resistance, and diabetes;
• Mood disorders – depression, mood swings, irritability;
• Anxiety – panic, obsessions, PTSD;
• Behavioral disturbances – addictions, binge eating, compulsions impulsivity, gambling, autism; and
• Hormonal imbalances – PMS, estrogen dominance, low testosterone, hypothyroidism.

The good news is that for each neurotransmitter we discover is out of balance, there are usually natural remedies such as vitamins, minerals, amino acids, herbs, or homeopathy that can help restore proper balance.

NEUROTRANSMITTER BALANCE

Proteins, minerals, vitamins, carbohydrates, and fats are the essential nutrients that make up your body. Proteins are the essential components of muscle tissue, organs, blood, enzymes, antibodies, and neurotransmitters in the brain. Your brain needs the proper nutrients everyday in order to manufacture proper levels of the neurotransmitters that regulate your mood.

Disrupted communication between the brain and the body can have serious effects to one’s health, both physically and mentally. Depression, anxiety and other mood disorders are thought to be directly related to imbalances with neurotransmitters. The four major neurotransmitters that regulate mood are Serotonin, Dopamine, GABA and Norepinephrine.

When operating properly, your nervous system has natural checks and balances in the form of inhibitory (calming) and excitatory (stimulating) neurotransmitters.

THE INHIBITORY (CALMING) NEUROTRANSMITTERS

The Inhibitory System comprises mainly GABA and serotonin, and serves to “cool” your central nervous system engine.

THE EXCITATORY (STIMULATING) NEUROTRANMITTERS

Our two principle stimulating neurotransmitters are dopamine and norepinephrine.

• Dopamine
• Norepinephrine
• Epinephrine
• Glutamate
• Histamine
• PEA – PEA is an excitatory neurotransmitter made from phenylalanine. It is important in focus and concentration. High levels are observed in individuals experiencing “mind racing”, sleep problems, anxiety, and schizophrenia. Low PEA is associated with difficulty paying attention or thinking clearly, and in depression.

PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER

Testing of neurotransmitters allows us to identify “upstream” causes of some of the most “downstream” symptoms encountered in contemporary society.  Without such testing, no matter how educated, we are merely guessing.  Personalized treatment requires personalized evaluation of neurotransmitters and, for that matter, hormones, adrenal output, and inflammation.