Norepinephrine (NE) is another of the brain’s arsenal of neurotransmitters, important in primitive drives and emotions like sex and in memory and learning. When the level of NE in the brain is too low, people become depressed and their immune systems do not function normally. (That’s because NE can cause the brain to release growth hormone, which is essential to proper immune system function.) The brain uses phenylalanine and tyrosine, amino acids found in meat, eggs, and cheese (for example), to make NE. Both amino acids have been used successfully to treat people for depression arising from a variety of causes. Effective dosage of
phenylalanine in one study was 100 to 500 milligrams a day for two weeks. For best results, the phenylalanine should be taken on an empty stomach at night just before going to bed or immediately after awakening in the morning. Some health food stores now offer phenylalanine.
Another important neurotransmitter is dopamine, which affects sex and other drives, locomotion, tissue growth and repair, the immune system, and mood. The dopaminergic system is one of the systems which declines most in the aging brain. Lipofuscin age pigment (containing the same material
as age spots in skin) forms especially rapidly in the dopamine- dependent tracts in the brain with age. Parkinsonism (tremors) is caused by damage to these dopamine-dependent brain areas. L-Dopa, an amino acid the brain uses to make dopamine, can increase the life span of experimental animals by up to 50 percent. The ability of old rats to swim has been improved to the level of young rats by L-Dopa treatment. Some patients on L-Dopa have experienced an increase in sex drive. L-Dopa is an excellent antioxidant because it is a catechol and has been used to protect against exposure to high energy radiation. It should be used in conjunction with other
nutrient antioxidants. (Warning: Using L-Dopa, phenylalin-
ine, or tyrosine in large quantities, however, may cause a pre-
existing pigmented malignant melanoma [a serious form of
cancer] to grow faster.)
Hydergine® (Sandoz) is a prescription drug which can help older persons with low to moderate‘levels of symptoms of senility (confusion, dizziness, apathy, lack of self-care, forgetfulness) to recover brain function. At 12 milligrams per day for only two weeks, Hydergine® improved both simple
alertness and high-level cognitive function in normal volunteers.
Hydergine® is the fifth most popular prescription drug in the world and the number-one favorite in France. It provides a lift like caffeine, but without the letdown or jittery aftereffects of caffeine. And Hydergine® stimulates the brain to grow neurites, the connections between nerve cells which are necessary for learning. One reason you can’t teach an old dog
new tricks is that he can no longer grow enough new neurites. Hydergine® is able to promote neurite growth like the natural hormone nerve growth factor, which you have less and less of as you age. We know of three cases of partial recovery of impaired sensory function with Hydergine® (two
cases of hearing loss and one case of a person born without a sense of smell).
In this brief introduction to the major neurochemicals, we want to mention the important hormone, vasopressin. The prescription drug Diapid® (vasopressin, made by Sandoz) increased both memory and learning abilities in men in their 50s and 60s in one study. The men also experienced faster sensory-motor reactions. The dose used was 16 I.U. per day.
No side effects occurred at this dose. Vasopressin is made in the brain and may slightly affect blood pressure and controls urine volume, and is also a memory and learning chemical.
When a person has an accident that is a close call, he sometimes sees “his life flash before his eyes.”’ That effect may possibly come from massive vasopressin release. In another study, vasopressin enabled people who had suffered amnesia in accidents (sometimes involving periods of amnesia as long as months) to recover their memories. The recovery of memory by the amnesiacs took from several hours to a few days in the studies so far published. Restoration by Diapid® of an amnesiac’s memory can
sometimes occur almost instantly.
Dopamine, norepinephrine, and acetylcholine are three of the most important neurotransmitters in the brain. (See diagram of synaptic junction coming up.) Called catecholamines, dopamine and norepinephrine, though separate chemicals with different functions, are very closely related chemically. In fact, each can be chemically converted to the other in the
brain. Acetylcholine has a different structure and, in most
cases, different functions from the catecholamine neurotransmitters.
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