Hey, I’ve got two quick questions and my copy of Boca’s Brain is nowhere in sight.
What is the hormone that causes drowsiness in mammals? Carl Sagan said it has been injected amongst different species and the result is the same.
Is it possible for somebody to be allergic to this hormone? Well, be allergic and still live to adulthood?
P.S. My science teacher put this on a test once:
How do you make a hormone?
and the last choice was
d) refuse to pay her.
Errr, 1 hormone responsible for sleep? Serotonin perhaps? It certainly plays a role in inducing sleep but I don’t recall it acting as a tranquiliser the way you describe.
If it is serotonin you’re thinking of then it’s quite possible to have a negative recation to it in the wrong place. Many insect stings contain either serotonin or serotonin analogues to induce irritation, aches etc. However it wouldn’t be possible to have an allergy to your own serotonin since it’s produced from very early on in foetal development and the body would be well adjusted to it by the time the immune system kicks in. I imagine it would be possible to suffer an imbalance/overproduction problem however, just as with other hormones.
Why do you ask?
seratonin is the hormone that makes u feel in love, it’s produced in the brain. as far as i know it doesn’t make u sleepy. ecstacy produces seratonin and durin my experiments with it have never felt sleepy.
Could you possibly be thinking of melatonin? It’s gotten a lot of press as a “sleep hormone”, and it’s very widespread, not only in mammals but also in birds, reptiles, and amphibians. Its effects seem rather more complex than just a “sleep hormone”, though.
And like other important neurotransmitters has also been implicated in feeling fear, loathing, lust, pain, hunger, bliss and almost any other emotional or psychological state. Brain chemistry is great. There is no one hormone that makes u feel in luv any more than there is one chemical that makes you feel greedy.
True, but IIRC mostly in the gut and bone marrow.
As far as I know it doesn’t either as I said above. From what I can recall it does play a major role in enhancing the onset of sleep under conditions where it would occur naturally.
http://www.csuchico.edu/psy/BioPsych/serotonin.html
“This finding suggests that serotonin may play a role in sleep induction.”
or
serotonin, a neurotransmitter required for sleep. Serotonin reduces neuron activity, thereby preventing excess nervous stimulation at night so that sleep can occur. Increasing serotonin levels usually improves ease of falling asleep and may reduce the problem of waking up during the night.
No, all evidence I have seen suggests ecstacy dumps serotonin already within the system. This causes the body to try to compensate in the short term (less than an hour after the drug enters the bloodstream) by producing more serotonin to replenish the dumped supplies. After a short time serotonin production levels fall to well below normal levels as the system reacts to the sudden serotonin flush caused by the poison. After regular use the serotonin levels fall to absolute minimum permanantly, less than 15% of normal and, hey presto, you have a chemical imbalance in your brain and all the associated behavioural and physical co-ordination problems.
In short, ecstacy definitely does not produce serotonin except in the sense that, in the very short time after the initial overload caused by serotonin release, production goes up temporarily. At all other temporal scales ecstacy causes a decrease in serotonin production.
That’s probably because ecstacy depresses serotonin levels in the long term. Drop an E early in the evening and you can keep going all night because after an hour or two serotonin levels have fallen to well below normal.
Seriously though, please bear in mind that you are discussing illegal drug use on a board open to all ages. Many other posters do the same thing, but they always make the attempt to ascertain what they are doing to themselves before posting. ‘Ecstacy:- produces the hormone that makes u feel in luv’ sounds like an add campaign from the manufacturers, not an attempt to eliminate ignorance.