To investigate the function of ghrelin in the brain, we generated Ghsr-IRES-tauGFP mice. These mice allow us to clearly identify Ghsr (ghrelin receptor)-expressing neurons and identify which neurotransmitter receptors are coexpressed. In this study, we focused on the dopamine pathway, because it had been shown that ghrelin dose-dependently amplified cocaine-induced hyperactivity in rats. By immunostaining brain sections from Ghsr-IRES-tauGFP mice to detect D1R, we identified neurons that expressed both Ghsr and D1R. This led us to ask whether activation of Ghsr by ghrelin might augment D1R signaling and potentially explain ghrelin modulation of dopamine action.

The presence of Ghsr and D1R in the same neurons suggested the possibility of cross talk between ghrelin and dopamine signaling pathways. Under physiological conditions, cells are stimulated by individual agonists or several agonists simultaneously according to the temporal pattern of endogenous release and half-life of each agonist. Thus, stimulation of one receptor leads to activation of a signaling pathway that has the potential to interact with pathways activated by other receptors. This process ensures exchange of information between individual signaling pathways and provides a molecular basis for their cooperation (23, 24, 25, 26). Because it is not possible to separate direct from indirect effects of ghrelin on dopamine pathways in vivo, we addressed the potential for cross talk in GHS-R- and D1R-expressing neurons by using a model system that allowed us to determine whether ghrelin and the GHS-R could directly modulate D1R signaling.

http://mend.endojournals.org/cgi/content/full/20/8/1772

Ghrelin is a hormone produced when yr stomach is empty. Interestingly enough as well, 95% of yr serotonin resides in yr gut, while the other 5% is mixed around throughout yr body or being produced in yr pineal gland.

Anyone want to speculate on the link between American stupidity, obesity, and the laziness of stoners who end up wasting a chance of consciousness expansion, inspansion, depression, repression, oppression, or otherwise changing, moving, growing, doing something besides just well...sitting eating cheetos and KFC?

Do yourself a favor. Try fasting.

Do ya think leaving a delicious meal in front of your face all day would boost it, more so than just not eating?

Then snorting cocaine? :)

Do ya think leaving a delicious meal in front of your face all day would boost it, more so than just not eating?

Actually, I'm noticing that Rizz said "empty," not "hungry"... and wonder if he's right...

...from there, I also hear rumors that lipid/carbohydrate innervation promotes dopamine and opioid activity, though I'd have to go back and re-read them.

...'n I think to myself of breaking meals into more frequent smaller quantities with a low GI and medium-high unsaturated fat content, spending most of my time on the minor euphoria of lipid/glucose elevation and the euphoria of Ghrelin, while attempting to ensure that the protien factor of said microsnacking happened to be conducive to dopamine and serotonin...

...of course, it's all a house of cards built on two things which would need to be re-researched to specify the contingent points, but... it's just the first thing that comes to mind from the thread.

~shrug~

Hmm. Of course, the REAL question is, does it pass the BBB?

Can it be purchased anywhere?

I tried teh google but didn't find anything...

What do you mean? he's not talking about somethign you buy he's talking about a hormone thats produced when you dont eat..

Exactly. A horomone that also enhances dopamine production.

If it crosses the BBB, that means you could eat a supplement version of Ghrelin, and stimulate dopamine release. Probably not a shitload of fun by itself, but maybe with the addition of opiates\amphetamines\cocaine...

Well, maybe we should look into getting us a pancreas gland :D

Actually, I'm noticing that Rizz said "empty," not "hungry"... and wonder if he's right...

...from there, I also hear rumors that lipid/carbohydrate innervation promotes dopamine and opioid activity, though I'd have to go back and re-read them.

...'n I think to myself of breaking meals into more frequent smaller quantities with a low GI and medium-high unsaturated fat content, spending most of my time on the minor euphoria of lipid/glucose elevation and the euphoria of Ghrelin, while attempting to ensure that the protien factor of said microsnacking happened to be conducive to dopamine and serotonin...

...of course, it's all a house of cards built on two things which would need to be re-researched to specify the contingent points, but... it's just the first thing that comes to mind from the thread.

~shrug~

Well i said that cause i remember a documentary about fat people or something mentioning dopamine levels being high when one is expecting to eat and after reading the wiki page on ghrelin, it saying ghrelin levels are raised before eating and then declining after eating.
Figured there might be a link.

Funny, i always get cravings for pasta, butter and cheese before and after opiates..

Anywho, i'm going to leave this for when i'm a little less tired and a little more into giving a shit. :)

I know since ive been dieting my eating patterns have changed. And usually when im about to go chow down on my lunch/dinner for the day i wait another 15-20 minutes, sip on some water and just ponder/control myself for a few. Like ill stall before i actually go to eat, then i end up murdering off some food.

A lack of sleep also helps, I believe...

Do ya think leaving a delicious meal in front of your face all day would boost it, more so than just not eating?

Then snorting cocaine?

Having something delicious in front of you would only help if you were really psychologically prepared to eat it. I think if you had it in front of you all day you'd either break down or just get over it.

Actually, I'm noticing that Rizz said "empty," not "hungry"... and wonder if he's right...

Well, you're usually hungry when yr stomach is empty, although truth be told none of us have ever experienced true hunger.

It seems that you're quite right on yr theory though:

UPTON, NY — Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Brookhaven National Laboratory have found that the mere display of food — where food-deprived subjects are allowed to smell and taste their favorite foods without actually eating them — causes a significant elevation in brain dopamine, a neurotransmitter associated with feelings of pleasure and reward. This activation of the brain’s dopamine motivation circuits is distinct from the role the brain chemical plays when people actually eat, and may be similar to what addicts experience when craving drugs.

“Eating is a highly reinforcing behavior, just like taking illicit drugs,” said psychiatrist Nora Volkow, the study’s lead investigator. “But this is the first time anyone has shown that the dopamine system can be triggered by food when there is no pleasure associated with it since the subjects don’t eat the food. This provides us with new clues about the mechanisms that lead people to eat other than just for the pleasure of eating, and in this respect may help us understand why some people overeat.” The study will appear in the June 1, 2002 issue of Synapse (now available online ).

http://www.bnl.gov/bnlweb/pubaf/pr/2002/bnlpr052002.htm

Hmm. Of course, the REAL question is, does it pass the BBB?

Actually that's not really the real question, because if something could amplify dopamine signals without passing the BBB it wouldn't really matter, would it?

You don't need to buy anything. Your body produces everything you need, you just need to known how to experiment on yrself.

A lack of sleep also helps, I believe...


Haha, i just read a new scientist magazine that was laying around.

It mentioned something called the "antarctic stare" which appears to be caused by the behavior you're promoting.

Are you intentionally trying to make us all go off with the fairies? :)

http://mend.endojournals.org/cgi/content/full/20/8/1772

Ghrelin is a hormone produced when yr stomach is empty. Interestingly enough as well, 95% of yr serotonin resides in yr gut, while the other 5% is mixed around throughout yr body or being produced in yr pineal gland.

Anyone want to speculate on the link between American stupidity, obesity, and the laziness of stoners who end up wasting a chance of consciousness expansion, inspansion, depression, repression, oppression, or otherwise changing, moving, growing, doing something besides just well...sitting eating cheetos and KFC?

Do yourself a favor. Try fasting.

I agree more with GP, hungry is the key word.

you could pull up that weight loss drug which IIRC blocks/blocks dopaminic activity through antagonizing the anandamide binding site..... thus, interestingly, preventing effects of THC .....

Religious cultures all around the world have known that fasting clears the mind.

smoking massive quantities of weed + fasting is something i am going to try come June.

Haha, i just read a new scientist magazine that was laying around.

It mentioned something called the "antarctic stare" which appears to be caused by the behavior you're promoting.

Are you intentionally trying to make us all go off with the fairies? :)

Coal to diamond: Brother, why so hard?

Diamond to coal: Brothers, I ask - why - so soft?


Religious cultures all around the world have known that fasting clears the mind.


Apparently it does quite a bit more than that. It helps with the immune system by reversing thymic involution caused by aging. The involution of the thymus causes a dramatic decrease in T-cell output, apparently.

http://www.futurepundit.com/archives/004573.html

The deterioration in immune function that occurs as an individual ages is thought to occur because the thymus involutes with age, causing a dramatic decrease in T cell output. New data generated by Dennis Taub and colleagues from the National Institutes of Health, Baltimore, suggest that in mice, thymic involution is caused by a decrease upon aging in thymic expression of both a hormone that is better known as a stimulator of food intake (ghrelin) and its receptor. These results led them to caution that care should be taken when considering blocking ghrelin as a potential approach for treating individuals who are obese and to suggest that harnessing this pathway might provide a new approach to boost immune function in individuals who are elderly or immunocompromised.

The physiological relevance of the decrease, with age, in expression in the mouse thymus of both ghrelin and its receptor was highlighted by the observation that infusion of ghrelin into old, but not young, mice markedly increased thymic mass, improved thymic architecture, and increased thymocyte and thymic epithelial cell numbers. These changes were associated with increased T cell output and increased diversity of the TCR repertoire of the peripheral T cell population. Consistent with these observations, age-associated thymic involution was accelerated in mice lacking either ghrelin or its receptor.

Also here's an article on the, Expression of ghrelin and opioid mRNAs in the hypothalamo–pituitary–adrenal axis after immune system activation (http://www.endocrine-abstracts.org/ea/0016/ea0016p477.htm)

The activity of the hypothalamo–pituitary–adrenal axis (HPA) is under control of endocrine, nervous and immune systems, in which opioids and recently discovered ghrelin play important role. Mannan polysaccharide is often used as an alternatives to antibiotics, however, its role in the stimulation of the immune system is still uncertain. As a part of study dealing with the interaction of different factors during the growth and development the experiment was carried out in order to estimate the effect of prolonged treatment of mannan on the HPA synthesis of proghrelin and proenkephalin. Animal study were performed on the 30-days-old female lambs fed with standard food or with addition of prebiotic – mannan polysaccharide, isolated from the cell wall of Saccharomyces cerevisiae. During 30 days of experiment lambs were i.v. injected with saline (control) or naltrexone (3 mg/kg b.w.) five times every 7 days. Fragments of hypothalami, pituitaries and adrenals were taken out, frozen and directed to measurement of the expression of mRNAs for proghrelin and proenkephalin by the in situ hybridization method. Prolonged treatment with mannan significantly affected the expression of mRNAs for proghrelin and proenkephalin in the hypothalamus and pituitary. Unexpectedly, naltrexone, an opioid receptor antagonist, decreased the expression of mRNA coding for proenkephalin and increased for proghrelin in mannan fed animals.

In contrast, the response of both mRNAs in adrenals to polysaccharide treatment was very weak. Thus, the obtained results showed the interaction of hypothalamo–pituitary–adrenal opioids and ghrelin in the response to activated immune system.

What does all this mean?



smoking massive quantities of weed + fasting is something i am going to try come June.


I tried this roughly a year ago, the thread is probably around here somewhere, if you want to see how I fared with it. Personally it was a bloody wonderful experience and I highly recommend it. In fact, I recommend fasting with all drug use, but especially any kind of psychedelic. Like with LSD I'll end up not eating, drinking, or sleeping for two days.

I tried this roughly a year ago, the thread is probably around here somewhere, if you want to see how I fared with it. Personally it was a bloody wonderful experience and I highly recommend it. In fact, I recommend fasting with all drug use, but especially any kind of psychedelic. Like with LSD I'll end up not eating, drinking, or sleeping for two days.

i remember, i remember.....

i can cue you in to my experience if you wish.........
that is after i experience it.

The more literature i read the more i start understanding how detrimental these inorganic ways of life we have built around ourselves truly are.

Yet I have, and still do, play around with my body/mind chemistry quite a bit via the use of: supplements, herbs and nootropics.