Dopamine is one of the chemicals in our brain that has a big effect on both our bodies and our minds. Dopamine is known as a neurotransmitter – this means that it passes messages between neurons, which helps us to control our movements.
For example, Parkinson’s disease is a disease which lowers dopamine levels, and one of the first symptoms that people notice when they have this illness is tension in muscles in parts of the body or shaking and trembling. There is currently no cure for this but a lot of research is being done into curing and treating the symptoms of this illness, such as TQT studies https://www.richmondpharmacology.com/specialist-services/tqt for example.
Another thing that dopamine has a huge affect on is our brains and our moods. It is responsible for focus and enthusiasm – so it helps us to take an interest in things and to concentrate on work we are doing.
As well as this, it also causes feelings of happiness – it is a ‘pleasure chemical’ and a large flood of dopamine can make us feel elated and even euphoric!
One of the things that can have a significant affect on dopamine levels is sleep – although a lack of dopamine can make people feel sleepy, if you are not sleeping enough at night, then this causes dopamine levels to drop, which is one of the reasons why if you have had a few late nights you may not be able to concentrate very easily the next day!
