Mental Health
Addiction: More Than What Meets The Eye
Last week, we discussed sugar addiction and its effects on the brain. We briefly went through its effects, both direct and indirect, on it. To recap, sugar triggers both insulin and dopamine release in the bloodstream and the brain respectively. Insulin is the hormone that lowers blood sugar when there’s too much of it, while also dilating blood vessels, thus increasing blood flow to the different organs; dopamine is a neurotransmitter (a chemical messenger in charge of message transmission between brain cells) that is responsible for reward and pleasure. Too much sugar leads to resistance and tolerance of each, respectively causing less blood supply to the brain and less dopamine…