How Neurotransmitters Shape Our Internal World

Neurotransmitters are the brain’s chemical messengers. These small but mighty nerve cells, also known as neurons, are responsible for transmitting signals between different parts of the brain and nervous system. This communication system is involved in nearly all of our bodily processes, including our movements, thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. When you're feeling focused, motivated, or calm, neurotransmitters are at work.

The ebb and flow of neurotransmitters in the brain is essential for maintaining emotional stability and cognitive function. When these chemical messengers are in harmony, you’re more likely to experience mental sharpness, sustained energy, and emotional balance. An imbalance can lead to a lack of focus, low energy, and diminished drive, all of which can disrupt your daily life.

There are more than one hundred different neurotransmitters, and although the exact number is still being researched, this shows the infinite potential of the human brain.¹ There are a few primary neurotransmitters involved in cognitive function. Let's introduce each of them.

Dopamine, often referred to as the "motivation molecule," is closely linked to pleasure, motivation, and reward. It drives our pursuit of goals and sustains our focus and attention. It’s also involved in motor movement and coordination between different circuits of the brain, making it essential to voluntary movement control, which is your willingness to engage in physical activity (like pushing yourself at a spin class). Dopamine also enhances physical endurance, helping you out pace your personal best.²

Regular physical exercise is one of the most effective ways to stimulate dopamine release, not only boosting mood but supporting overall brain health. To take it a step further, set achievable fitness goals to create a positive feedback loop  where each accomplishment releases dopamine, reinforcing your motivational drive.³

Incorporating foods that are high in L-Tyrosine can naturally enhance your dopamine production. By supporting dopamine levels, it can help you stay motivated, focused, and ready to take physical challenges with vigor.⁴

Here are a few foods high in L-Tyrosine:

• Chicken
• Avocados
• Fish
• Eggs
• Tofu

Serotonin, the “happy hormone”, is touted for its role in mood regulation, our sense of happiness and emotional stability, and our stress response, helping attain the elusive cool, calm, and collected mood.⁵ Serotonin also plays a key role in our digestive system, sleep, and sexual health, making it essential to our overall well-being.

Engaging in activities that boost serotonin can sound like a form of self-love; it often involves simply doing things that make you happy, like spending time with loved ones or laughing at a comedy show—so long as the activities you enjoy doing aren’t harmful. Some of the more well-known ways to boost serotonin involve spending time outdoors or having a daily mindfulness practice—both known to enhance your mood and promote emotional balance.⁶

A diet rich in tryptophan provide the building blocks for serotonin production, further supporting your overall mental well-being.⁴ Well-known spices like saffron have also been studied to support mood, well-being, and a response to daily stressors in healthy adults.⁷

Ready to up your tryptophan? Stock up on:

• Turkey
• Cashews
• Pumpkin seeds
• Salmon
• Spinach

Acetylcholine is essential for learning, memory, and attention, and is the star of the show when it comes to staying focused on a task and retaining information (like remembering phone numbers or where you left your keys). Acetylcholine can also act as a neuromodulator, influencing neuron activity in the brain. Acetylcholine ensures that these signals are firing across the brain’s communication system, keeping it balanced and coordinated.⁸ By enhancing acetylcholine production, you can significantly boost attention and alertness, making it easier to concentrate and absorb new information.

The best way to boost acetylcholine? Regularly engage in mental exercises, like puzzles, reading, and playing board games, and try to avoid relying on your calculator for simple calculations or needing your notes app to remember things. By training your brain like you would a muscle in the gym, you not only boost acetylcholine, but can contribute to better cognitive function over time.

Foods rich in choline are key building blocks for acetylcholine production. The average egg contains about 125 mg of choline, contributing significantly to the daily recommended intake of around 425-550 mg for adults. Enhancing acetylcholine production with supplements, like Alpha-GPC (a natural choline compound), can lead to improved attention and alertness, making it easier to focus and retain new information.⁹

These foods are rich in choline:

• Eggs
• Shrimp
• Salmon
• Broccoli
• Soybeans

Norepinephrine plays a critical role in our body's response to stress, impacting our motivation and alertness, particularly during the ‘fight-or-flight’ response.¹⁰ This neurotransmitter prepares the brain and body to respond quickly, and pushes you to want to take action—like how a looming deadline can trigger a burst of focus and energy, pushing you to work harder and finish on time.

It’s also involved in the body’s natural circadian rhythm—the cycle that helps regulate our sleep, wakefulness, and energy levels throughout the day.⁶ When norepinephrine levels are in harmony, it creates a sense of alert-yet-calm, when you’re completely focused on what’s happening, but at the same time, you’re mentally and physically at ease. Research has shown getting sunlight within the first 30 minutes of waking, helps to regulate your body’s natural circadian rhythms, keeping us in balance with nature.¹¹

It may seem simple, but one of the best ways to support balanced energy levels is getting good quality sleep. Especially during REM, norepinephrine levels drop, allowing those receptors to recover and reset, an important process in the sleep-wake cycle.¹² Without enough sleep, norepinephrine remains elevated, activating the body’s fight-or-flight response and increasing stress.

While short bursts of stress can boost norepinephrine, chronic stress depletes it, leading to fatigue, mood imbalances, and difficulty focusing. Incorporating stress-reducing activities can work to support balanced neurotransmitter levels.¹³

Here are a few of our favorite stress-reducing activities:

• Practicing yoga
• Going on nature walks
• Meditating
• Deep breathing
• Listening to calming music

Your daily habits and lifestyle choices play a crucial role in maintaining and optimizing your neurotransmitter levels. Let's explore a few ways you can start to boost yours.

Similarly, sleep deprivation can negatively impact neurotransmitters like serotonin, dopamine, and acetylcholine, disrupting mood, focus, and memory. Prioritizing good sleep hygiene, like avoiding blue light before bed and curating a wind-down routine to get your body ready to rest, is crucial to maintaining their optimal levels.

At the end of the day, understanding the roles and functions of neurotransmitters can empower you to make healthier lifestyle choices that support brain function. By integrating habits such as regular physical activity, balanced nutrition, adequate sleep, managing stress, and incorporating the right ingredients, you can positively influence your neurotransmitter levels, and, as a result, your overall brain health.

Stress is also a factor; it can elevate levels of glutamate, the brain's primary excitatory neurotransmitter—meaning there’s an increase in the activity of nerve cells. While glutamate is essential for learning and memory, when its levels become too high, it can disrupt the balance of GABA, the neurotransmitter that helps calm and works to reduce nerve activity.¹⁵ Picture it like a seesaw: when excitatory neurotransmitters like glutamate are too high, the seesaw tips steeply to one side, making it difficult to find calm and balance—resulting in stress and overwhelm.

Supporting the GABA pathway by eating foods that act as a precursor to GABA and through supplements like Sage and DHH-B (a concentrated form of magnolia bark extract containing an active compound called honokiol) helps bring the seesaw back to a place of equilibrium. ¹⁶-¹⁸

Support GABA production with these foods:

• Spinach
• Tomatoes
• Parsley

At the end of the day, understanding the roles and functions of neurotransmitters can empower you to make healthier lifestyle choices that support brain function. By integrating habits such as regular physical activity, balanced nutrition, adequate sleep, managing stress and incorporating the right ingredients, you can positively influence your neurotransmitter levels, and, as a result, your overall brain health.

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