Serotonin and Bulimia


Reduced serotonin activity related to low tryptophan intake may lead to bulimia nervosa

In a recently published article, researchers found that recovering bulimics are very vulnerable to the effects of low serotonin. "These findings suggest that lowered brain serotonin function can trigger some of the clinical features of bulimia nervosa in individuals vulnerable to the disorder," the authors commented.

Dieting makes low serotonin levels worse.

If you are sugar sensitive, you are likely to have both low levels of serotonin and low levels of beta endoprhion. The low serotonin levels can be made worse by dieting. This means you have even less impulse control than you started with.

You may feel stressed, overwhelmed and inadequate (a function of low beta-endorphin) and one day try some sort of bulimic behavior such as throwing up, using laxatives or doing compulsive exercise. These all evoke beta-endorphin.

Your continuing low self-esteem, trigger events, or stress still demand the need to "feel better." DO SOMETHING your brain yells, and you choose the most effective tool for feeling more in control.

Low serotonin levels mean low impulse control.

If you have been dieting, your serotonin levels are depleted and your impulse control goes out the window. Even though rationally you know that throwing up is not a good solution, you will feel more confident and safer when you do. Even if you tell yourself to stop, you are not able to control the impulse.

The brain chemistry of the PnP plan is VERY real. The plan can have a huge effect on helping resolve an eating disorder such as bulimia.

The Potato Plan helps you get back on track.

Here is how: regular, consistent meals with protein increase tryptophan levels in the blood. The spud before bed gets tryptophan into your brain to raise serotonin levels.

The vitamins help the conversion of tryptophan into serotonin. Going off sugars stops the beta-endophin priming which creates craving. Exercise, meditation, prayer, Mozart, relational sex, raise beta-endorphin levels naturally to create confidence and a sense of well being.

Do the food plan outlined in Potatoes Not Prozac, and you will find a huge support for your own recovery from bulimia.

(c)Kathleen DesMaisons 2006. All rights reserved.