AHA moment!

[Junior]

After another bad night's sleep, I was standing in the shower this morning and had an 'aha moment' (as you do). I know what has caused this deterioration in my sleep! It's bizarre really ...

For some time now I've been eating chocolate - too much of it Like 3 family sized blocks a week Initially I knew it was because my body was craving dopamine - it has phenylaline which is a precursor to dopamine - so I didn't worry. But recently I've been gaining weight again (uggh) and decided I'd better quit the chocolate. That was a week and a half ago... and it was after a couple of days that my sleep deteriorated.

How's that for bizarre? So... I'm back on the chocolate... at least until I see my naturopath. I need my sleep!!!

[stan]

too much chocolate is not good
better eat vegetables, fruits, little honey, fish
i eat each morning chocolate, but try to not much eat
the excesses are bad for health but the man is weak

good ! it is morning here, time to take breakfast with my chocolate

[Jonno]

Interesting point Junior - I have been craving chocolate but didn't know why.

I also found that I felt worse if I stopped eating it so I have just gone with the flow and have a litle chocolate each day. The rest of my diet is good - just fresh chicken, vegetables, fruit and salad - so no real weight gain yet.

I would be interested in any info you get from your naturopath.

[Junior]

I'm still feeling the effects from the 2.5mg drop I did a few weeks ago so I think my body has interpreted the lack of chocolate like a further withdrawal.

[Celaine]

Thank you for bringing this up. After reading this post, I realized that I've been craving chocolate and sweets like crazy. I never really did before. Usually I would crave more salty foods, but recently I want sugar all the time. I allow myself a piece of dark chocolate a day. Trying to stay away from chocolate completely is just too frustrating, so I try to keep control on how much I eat. This is really interesting that I'm not the only one, and I did suspect that it had something to do with the WD's. Thanks again.

[Songbird]

I read that broad beans are also high in dopamine!

[Cici]

I think everyone loves chocolate, but broad beans are a love them or loathe them vegetable. We love them, but I grew too many this year, and although my hubby is busy podding some for dinner (it gives him an excuse to watch cricket) my freezer is going to be full of dopamine!

[Junior]

Originally Posted by Songbird

I read that broad beans are also high in dopamine!

I'll express this as simply as I can:

YUK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Songbird]

[texgirl]

There was a program on PBS over the weekend about chocolate, and (I only saw a minute of it) the narrator was talking about some ancient religious culture not knowing whether to treat chocolate as a medicine or a food. (It had to do with whether you could eat [or "take"] it during the fasting season.) No question, chocolate is powerful stuff. If you can use it in small quantities, I say go for it. I have no control over the stuff personally. Since I know I'm helpless, I just try to work out more. :-)

[Junior]

Went to see my naturopath today and she agreed that chocolate was helping with the dopamine I need. As a result she is changing direction with my treatment as the sleep problem has been basically ongoing since I first developed a tolerance to Paxil. She also said that dopamine can increase metabolism which I found very interesting. So maybe it's not the chocolate that has caused my recent weight gain. Grasping at straws, I know but can you blame me? ;-p

Anyway, she's given me two new naturopathic medicines - one to help with dopamine production and the other works on GABA and acts like an anti-histamine, which Paxil also does. It will be interesting to see what effect these have but she is expecting that I will soon be sleeping a lot better.

As far as the chocolate, it is now being recognised more and more that cocoa is actually calming and people are starting to include it in natural medications. Proper cocoa that is,not milo and the like.

[Songbird]

What are the naturopathic medicines she is using?

That is interesting about chocolate - people were saying to give up tea, coffee and chocolate because of caffeine - I have given up tea and coffee, but I haven't had any problems with hot chocolate drinks, or my nightly cup of ovaltine.

[Junior]

They are practitioner only medicines SB and have several ingredients each so I don't know if you will know them. The brand is "Dr Vera's" and they PreHist and PreDop.

There are a couple of other things two - including one that is full of vitamins and minerals to keep up my general health and wellbeing throughout withdrawal.

[Junior]

It's funny about the caffeine thing too. We were talking about that and she said that it seems to be genetic. Some people can't drink caffeine after 3pm if they want to sleep that night whereas others have no trouble. I stopped my evening coffee because of my more sensitive nervous sytem but I was always unaffected in the past. I even stopped having drinking chocolate but apparently it is calming rather than stimulating - it has to be the proper drinking chocolate though, the bitter stuff, not your sugary chocolate drinks. Apparently cocoa is actually calming. So there you go!

[kathleen2]

Dark chocolate's supposed to be the best, mental-health-wise--the higher the cocoa content, the better. This is good b/c I have no will power w/ milk chocolate, but b/c dark's less sweet, I can eat a few squares then stop. I wonder how calories compare?

[pboy]

This is good to know I can't seem to go many days at all without chocolate, but it's milk chocolate I have.

At least now I don't feel so guilty about my inability to stop eating the stuff.
I was reading on some other health forums that people were taking raw cacao as a supplement.

kathleen - I think dark choc is quite high in fat, but because it's hard to eat a lot at once it's not much of an issue.

[Junior]

One of my new 'meds' has cacao in it!

[Songbird]

Originally Posted by kathleen2

Dark chocolate's supposed to be the best, mental-health-wise--the higher the cocoa content, the better. This is good b/c I have no will power w/ milk chocolate, but b/c dark's less sweet, I can eat a few squares then stop. I wonder how calories compare?

Originally Posted by pboy

kathleen - I think dark choc is quite high in fat, but because it's hard to eat a lot at once it's not much of an issue.

I don't think the calories are much different, but because the really dark chocolate (at least 70% cocoa) is so rich, you eat less of it. Four squares a day is supposed to be good for your health.

[Songbird]

Originally Posted by Junior

They are practitioner only medicines SB and have several ingredients each so I don't know if you will know them. The brand is "Dr Vera's" and they PreHist and PreDop.

I've found their product brochure and they look interesting. I'm confused about why you would be on PreHist, Paxil already works as an anti-histamine and as you taper the effect reduces - why would you want more histamine?

Also, the pre-dop has a warning about taking it with SSRIs or TCAs.

I thought the pre-GABA looked interesting, it contains glutamine, taurine, vitamin B6 and zinc.

[Junior]

I need the histamine effect because I have had so much trouble sleeping.

[Songbird]

It's anti-histamines that help people to sleep.

[Junior]

Yes I know. That's my point.

[Songbird]

I'm confused! Histidine is the pre-cursor for histamine, so if you take more histidine, won't you get more histamine?

[Junior]

Ooops. I stuffed up. Yes, histidine does make histamine. It's the dopamine that I need to help me sleep. The histamine supposedly helps with rapid thoughts which I often have. I know it helps to produce the myelin sheath with coats nerve axons and this in turn slows down transmission of action potentials. This is probably how it slows down thoughts.

[Songbird]

The myelin actually speeds up transmission of action potentials, but I doubt that is the cause of rapid thoughts. This supplement could potentially cause anxiety and sleep problems - not saying it does, just something to keep in mind. The products look quite interesting. Let us know how you get on with these supplements, and the chocolate, of course!