MTHFR, Lithium, Dopamine and You

There is something surprising about dopamine... It determines a lot about your life choices and behavior. Dopamine is a critical neurotransmitter for pleasure seeking, motivation, focus and attention. You thought you were in the driver's seat? Think again... This neurotransmitter has a massive impact on your choices. Think sexual attraction. How sane is that? It is totally driven by dopamine. It's temporary insanity... (Anti-psychotic medications universally act to reduce dopamine.) In love? It's the rise of dopamine.... Euphoric feelings, increased awareness, and a tolerance for lack of sleep are all a part of the dopamine surge of the attraction phase of romantic love. You think it's your beloved, because they are so splendid? It's not... It's because they stimulate dopamine secretion in you. You want the dopamine, and so you want them. And when you habituate to that impact, the honeymoon is over. Very, very sad, but true. The attraction phase of love is temporary insanity from high dopamine. Either it passes or you walk around perpetually insane... So what are the mechanisms that modulate dopamine in your body? Lithium has been known for years to be useful for mood disorders. No one has described why lithium has this stabilizing impact on mood. And, if you have a mutation in the MTHFR C677T gene, you are likely to have mood fluctuations, and you are also likely to have low serum lithium levels. Lithium comes together with MTHFR, methylation and dopamine at the enzyme catechol-o-methyl-transferase, or COMT. COMT deactivates the neurotransmitter dopamine. It uses methyl groups to do this, and MTHFR is important in the production of methyl groups. Lithium increases the transport of B12 and folate into the cell. B12 and folate are pivotal substances in the production of methyl groups, which happens inside cells. So lithium supports the production of methyl groups inside the cell. Lithium may also increase the production of COMT, which then uses the methyl groups MTHFR helps to make to deactivate dopamine. So, one of the modes of action of lithium may be to reduce the level of dopamine in the body by enhancing the production of methyl groups and increasing the level of COMT. Dr. Amy Yasko noted that a number of adults and children using her protocol have low lithium levels. She started looking carefully at lithium levels and noticed correlations between low lithium, symptom formation and particular mutations in the methyl group producing pathway. Certain SNPs are associated with excess lithium excretion. These mutations are MTHFR C677T +, MTR+, SHMT+, and CBS+. Lithium is an essential trace element. You must get it from your diet. The average intake of lithium from the diet should be up to 3100 mcg, or 3.1 mg, per day. What it takes to increase your serum lithium levels into the normal range can be significantly more. There is more information on methyl groups, methylation, COMT, lithium, and dopamine on Nancy's blog at chronicdiseasetalk.wordpress.com/