Increase Dopamine Levels Naturally and Beat Depression Without Pills

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Dopamine is word that gets tossed around, but you might be wondering what dopamine is, exactly, and why you would want more of it. Essentially, dopamine is a chemical your brain produces that makes you feel good and have plenty of self-confidence. If you have ever felt yourself get super excited when making plans for a vacation or when you complete a big project, that happy sense of self satisfaction or anticipation is dopamine at work. You get a rush of dopamine many times when you eat something you really enjoy, and almost everyone feels it after sex.

However, when our brains don’t make enough dopamine, we feel depressed, slow, and uninterested in life. Many people turn to prescription drugs to increase their dopamine levels, but these often come with a high price in side effects.

Some people see depression as a type of personality defect, but this isn’t the case. Depression is an actual disease that causes physiologic changes in the brain. Depressed people don’t have personality defects, they have a medical problem that needs to be addressed. For many people, the problem is simply low dopamine levels.

You don’t need to choose between drugs or depression, however. We are going to show you 10 ways you can naturally increase your dopamine levels so that you don’t have to suffer either with the side effects of drugs or live with the blues. Keep reading because getting a dose of dopamine is much easier than you might think.

1. Stop Getting High from Sugar

Sugar dramatically alters your brain chemistry by interrupting your body’s production of dopamine. Sugar is similar to drugs and alcohol in that it stimulates pathways that make you feel happy and excited for a short time. Unfortunately, it also depletes the levels of dopamine in your brain. You want to feel that happy feeling again, so you eat more sugar, you feel good, you crash, so you eat more sugar, and on and on and on. Sugar truly is addictive and now you know why. So first, cut back on sugar as much as possible. If you have severe sugar cravings that you don’t feel you can control, try taking chromium picolinate supplements as these have been shown to reduce sugar cravings.

2. Decrease Your Caffeine

Although coffee gives us a much needed boost in the mornings, like sugar, it is only temporary. After the initial kick of caffeine is over, dopamine levels in the body decrease. So if you feel you need coffee to get going, enjoy one cup. After that, go decaf or drink plain water.

3. Get Sufficient Magnesium

If your body is low on magnesium, it is probably also low in dopamine. Common symptoms of a magnesium deficiency include high blood pressure, cravings for sugar or salt, muscle pain or spasms, headaches, and irritability. Your doctor can do tests but they aren’t always accurate. Try taking a good magnesium supplement or use a magnesium lotion or oil.

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