Is serotonin bad for us?!
The devil is in the details
Your body makes serotonin. It's become known popularly as the "happy" neurotransmitter, but the problem with this simplistic model is that
Dr. Mercola recently published a piece on serotonin and estrogen:
He summed his post up with the following:
"In closing, the take-home from all of this is that you really want to minimize estrogen and keep your serotonin level as low as possible..."
I disagree, respectfully.
I have measured hundreds of levels of serotonin metabolites in my patients. I can safely say that the vast majority of people dealing with some kind of chronic disease that prompts them to seek my care have elevated levels of serotonin, as based on assaying the metabolites of serotonin - namely 5-HIAA - in their urine.
However, we must ask the question, as we did in this post about the "dangers" of estrogen, "does smoke cause fire?" Or variants like, "do ambulances cause car accidents? Do flies cause garbage?"
The amount of smoke created by a fire depends upon the environmental conditions, namely, the ratio of oxygen to combustible materials present. The hotter the fire and the less oxygen there is, the more smoke is created. The more cars there are in an accident, the more ambulances are likely to be needed. The more rotting organic waste in a garbage bin, the more flies will flock to the garbage bin.
What in the environment regulates serotonin's production, degradation, and excretion?
Sunlight is the trigger for tryptophan's transformation into serotonin.
Tryptophan is necessary for serotonin production.
A bevy of minerals and vitamins are necessary for serotonin production.
Likewise, minerals and vitamins are essential to serotonin's transformation into melatonin.
This is why everything that hinders serotonin's transformation into melatonin is "bad" for us, and everything that triggers melatonin production is "good" for us. Such as:
And that's just for starters. The fundamental habits outlined in the above posts are essential to good health and long life.
But the story goes much deeper than this...
Before I go any further, I must point out that for every 99 people who have an elevated serotonin level (based on urinary 5-HIAA levels), 1 person will have LOW levels, but many of the same complaints.
Does this not disprove the notion that serotonin causes these diseases for which it is being blamed?
Would not the body, as fearfully and wondrously made as it is, not downregulate and excrete what is bad for it, while up-regulating and retaining what is good for it?
The answer is most definitely, "yes," but there are two key principles of physiology at work here that make working out the truth devilishly complicated.
At extremes of physiology, the body's compensatory mechanisms often lead to maladaptive responses. Imagine your car is stuck in a ditch, and you don't know any better than to just rev the engine. You can dig yourself deeper and deeper, diminishing the likelihood of ever getting out of the ditch. However, this does not mean that stepping on the gas while the car is firmly on level pavement is a recipe for going nowhere - quite the opposite.
The body's acute response to insults, regardless of their source, are coordinated in such a way as to maximize the chances of overcoming the problem and restoring healthy, harmonious physiology. To extend the car analogy, if you slowed down while going up a hill, you would step on the gas. If the hill is to steep, your engine is too weak, or the terrain is too slippery, you will not be able to overcome the forces arrayed against your car in scaling the terrain.
What this means in practical terms is that sometimes, manipulating things like serotonin up or down can help us to achieve our therapeutic goals, but it is always a short-cut or stop-gap measure that cannot be relied upon indefinitely. We are, however, playing with fire, maybe even molten lava, when we are playing with things as foundational to our physiology as serotonin. Caveat emptor - buyer beware.
The story of serotonin goes much, much deeper than we might suspect at first glance, to the very heart of our physiology. This information is so good, it's for premium members only. Upgrade today to find out what you're missing.