Don’t even know what isomers do in the body. I’m trying to find a stimulant that will work well with my brain, it tells me a lot about how my brain works when I can tolerate vyvanse over adderall. I’ve researched on every single stimulant available & they essentially all work on dopamine, seratonin & the other one lmao. I know some have just dextro & then dextro and levo, I get the chemistry of it but how the chemistry works in the brain is confusing me, I get that some tell dopamine to keep producing & some overflow dopamine, I just don’t get what isomers & the many other things it’s doing. I want to know every single detail of what they’re doing to my body and why. I want to find the most effective one for me & know how to keep myself healthy based on what it effects.
Note: I see a psychiatrist but she is not going to teach me chemistry so this is for my own awareness. It is also fascinating. Even if I were to take medical advice, a medical professional would have to approve it so I don’t get those comments.
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I’ll preface this by suggesting to go see a doctor for actual medical information.
Regarding the chemistry, isomers refer to different ways of ordering atoms in space. For example, you can take water, H2O. That’s the formula, but the actual water molecule is H-O-H. If H-H-O existed, it would be a structural isomer of water: the chemical bonds would be different.
In biochemistry, the most important isomers are called enantiomers. These are molecules that have the same structure, are image of one another in a mirror but cannot be superposed (that’s called chirality). For example, your hands are chiral. If you put them in prayer pose, you see that both your hands (normally) match: they are mirror images. But if you place them on top of one another, your thumbs stick out on the sides: you cannot superpose them.
Now, chiral molecules are really interesting because they basically have the same physical properties. Same boiling temperature, melting temperature, polarity, solubility…. However, most of your proteins, enzymes and biological processes are chiral sensitive: if you try to fit cogs together, the shape of the cogs you are using matters and can have different effects. A classic example is the case if thalidomide. This molecule exists as two mirror images: one is a very effective sedative, used to control morning sickness. The other causes deformation in foetuses. A less tragic example is linalool. One smells like lavender, the other like oranges.
TLDR: Isomers are ways to organize atoms in space. Your body’s functions basically use shape recognition to have an effect and can recognize very complex shapes. If the shape of the molecules is wrong, you can either have no effect, or a very different impact.
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