If chemicals like oxytocin, dopamine, and serotonin are so crucial to our mental health, why can’t we monitor them the same way diabetics monitor insulin?
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Neurotransmitters are tiny molecules used only to send signals from one brain cell (neuron) to another one right next to it. One cell releases only a few molecules of them, they cross the tiny gap between cells, and then they are reabsorbed. They don’t just hang out in your brain between cells over long periods, and the amounts are too small to measure anyway.
But the bigger issue is that your brain doesn’t use “blood.” It’s actually completely separated from your bloodstream by a special filter called the blood-brain barrier. Your brain cells instead swim in something called cerebrospinal fluid, and the barrier only lets very specific molecules from your blood in/out of this fluid. Neurotransmitters are not one of them.
In other words, we can’t draw blood from your arm to figure out what’s going on in your brain. We would have to cut into your brain. And doing that breaks the blood-brain barrier, which is dangerous and harmful. And even then, we would have no way of reaching in between cells and measuring the tiny amounts of neurotransmitters firing between them in real time anyway.
Now, there happens to actually be some neurotransmitters in your bloodstream. Serotonin, for example, is also used as part of digestion, and can be picked up in a blood test. But this blood serotonin is not passing in/out of your brain, so is not a useful measurement for mental health, for the same reason an injection of serotonin in your arm wouldn’t help you there either.
Neurotransmitters are tiny molecules used only to send signals from one brain cell (neuron) to another one right next to it. One cell releases only a few molecules of them, they cross the tiny gap between cells, and then they are reabsorbed. They don’t just hang out in your brain between cells over long periods, and the amounts are too small to measure anyway.
But the bigger issue is that your brain doesn’t use “blood.” It’s actually completely separated from your bloodstream by a special filter called the blood-brain barrier. Your brain cells instead swim in something called cerebrospinal fluid, and the barrier only lets very specific molecules from your blood in/out of this fluid. Neurotransmitters are not one of them.
In other words, we can’t draw blood from your arm to figure out what’s going on in your brain. We would have to cut into your brain. And doing that breaks the blood-brain barrier, which is dangerous and harmful. And even then, we would have no way of reaching in between cells and measuring the tiny amounts of neurotransmitters firing between them in real time anyway.
Now, there happens to actually be some neurotransmitters in your bloodstream. Serotonin, for example, is also used as part of digestion, and can be picked up in a blood test. But this blood serotonin is not passing in/out of your brain, so is not a useful measurement for mental health, for the same reason an injection of serotonin in your arm wouldn’t help you there either.
Neurotransmitters are tiny molecules used only to send signals from one brain cell (neuron) to another one right next to it. One cell releases only a few molecules of them, they cross the tiny gap between cells, and then they are reabsorbed. They don’t just hang out in your brain between cells over long periods, and the amounts are too small to measure anyway.
But the bigger issue is that your brain doesn’t use “blood.” It’s actually completely separated from your bloodstream by a special filter called the blood-brain barrier. Your brain cells instead swim in something called cerebrospinal fluid, and the barrier only lets very specific molecules from your blood in/out of this fluid. Neurotransmitters are not one of them.
In other words, we can’t draw blood from your arm to figure out what’s going on in your brain. We would have to cut into your brain. And doing that breaks the blood-brain barrier, which is dangerous and harmful. And even then, we would have no way of reaching in between cells and measuring the tiny amounts of neurotransmitters firing between them in real time anyway.
Now, there happens to actually be some neurotransmitters in your bloodstream. Serotonin, for example, is also used as part of digestion, and can be picked up in a blood test. But this blood serotonin is not passing in/out of your brain, so is not a useful measurement for mental health, for the same reason an injection of serotonin in your arm wouldn’t help you there either.
Neurotransmitters inside the brain and spinal cord act differently outside. These neurotransmitters and their action are so complicated, the best you can do is make sure you have enough of their precursors in your diet.
Also insulin is rarely measured in diabetes, blood sugar is which is the result of poor control caused by diabetes.
You can simulate this (measuring the outcome) by regular mood assessments.
Neurotransmitters inside the brain and spinal cord act differently outside. These neurotransmitters and their action are so complicated, the best you can do is make sure you have enough of their precursors in your diet.
Also insulin is rarely measured in diabetes, blood sugar is which is the result of poor control caused by diabetes.
You can simulate this (measuring the outcome) by regular mood assessments.
Neurotransmitters inside the brain and spinal cord act differently outside. These neurotransmitters and their action are so complicated, the best you can do is make sure you have enough of their precursors in your diet.
Also insulin is rarely measured in diabetes, blood sugar is which is the result of poor control caused by diabetes.
You can simulate this (measuring the outcome) by regular mood assessments.
My psychiatrist told me the seretonin/dopamine theory has been falling out of favor within the scientific community. The brain is much more complex than a few chemicals. I think depression has more to do with your mental state, memories, beliefs etc. and giving someone seretonin doesn’t fix those problems. SSRIs don’t work for a good majority of people that are prescribed them btw.
My psychiatrist told me the seretonin/dopamine theory has been falling out of favor within the scientific community. The brain is much more complex than a few chemicals. I think depression has more to do with your mental state, memories, beliefs etc. and giving someone seretonin doesn’t fix those problems. SSRIs don’t work for a good majority of people that are prescribed them btw.
My psychiatrist told me the seretonin/dopamine theory has been falling out of favor within the scientific community. The brain is much more complex than a few chemicals. I think depression has more to do with your mental state, memories, beliefs etc. and giving someone seretonin doesn’t fix those problems. SSRIs don’t work for a good majority of people that are prescribed them btw.
A decade ago, I had a mystery illness, and my doctor threw science at the wall to see what sticks.
Turns out it was celiac disease.
But the relevant thing here was that he also had my serotonin tested, and it was wildly low, like three standard deviations low. So **that** blood test **really does exist.**
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