Books: "The DOSE Effect" By TJ Power

 

The DOSE Effect: Optimize Your Brain and Body by Boosting Your Dopamine, Oxytocin, Serotonin, and Endorphins

By TJ Power 

Dey Street Books/HarperCollins Publishers; hardcover, 272 pages; $27.00

TJ Power is the lead neuroscientist at The DOSE Lab, a renowned international speaker and co-founder of Neurify, a trailblazing organization in the mental health sector. The focus of his work is to provide easy-to-adopt, scientifically backed teachings that empower people to take actions toward healthier lifestyles. TJ studied psychology and neuroscience at the University of Exeter, and he has gone on to work with major corporations and health services, and continues to reach millions through social media.

In the new book The DOSE Effect, which is presented as a handbook of sorts, Power reveals the secrets of our brain chemistry, and offers simple and accessible ways to make modifications to your lifestyle to transform your brain.

Power draws on cutting-edge science to explore how biohacking your brain can not only enhance cognitive performance but also improve the aspects of your life that ultimately control a happier, healthier, and more productive way of life.

The framework to achieve this comes from the regulation of four key hormones, Dopamine, Oxytocin, Serotonin, and Endorphins. These comprise the DOSE Effect, which proves the intrinsic connection between lifestyle factors and mental and physical well-being. 

Powell splits this book into four sections to provide the most effective techniques for understanding the key hormones that rule our thinking and our behaviors.

"You must understand that your brain is a survival mechanism," Power writes. "Our brains have managed to help us survive as a species for over 300,000 years, and that wasn't easy. Take a moment now to imagine attempting to survive outside through the cold winters without modern comforts. It's phenomenal that we are still here. The reason we are is because of powerful instincts that have guided us towards survival. They made us want to hunt, to care for our children, to build shelter, and to continue to innovate in every aspect of our lives in order to thrive. When we engaged in these behaviours, we experienced rewarding feelings within our brain and body that made us want to do them more. These rewarding feelings were our brain chemicals activating.

"Now our lives are very different. But our brain chemistry operates in the same way. It is still trying to guide us, just as it was rewarding us for the behaviours that created the optimum conditions for survival. It is now doing the same with the behaviours that are causing our decline. For example, when you procrastinate and scroll on your phone for hours and then feel depleted and demotivated afterwards, it isn't a coincidence. This is your brain knowing that scrolling is not the path to the optimal future for you. So your brain will make you feel awful in order to guide you to adjust your behaviour. The same thing happens when you eat tons of sugar, spend too much time inside, sit down all day, drink too much alcohol, or watch too much porn. All of these actions, which have become a normal part of modern living, reduce our potential as a species. Therefore, our brain chemicals will continue to send us negative messages until we listen, until we make a change."

Dopamine is the motivation and attention chemical for the body, which is built through hard work. It is essential to increase the amount of dopamine the body produces naturally, and with this impact on your motivation, it will open the door to fully pursue what you're in search of in life. It has become very well known in the present moment because people receive small dopamine "hits" when perusing social media, drinking an alcoholic beverage, or eating foods that contain sugar, essentially activities that require little effort.

According to Power, that wasn't always the case, as he writes, "We must understand the "primary function of dopamine" derived from "our former hunter-gatherer selves dopamine was responsible for creating the drive within us to complete the hard tasks that would keep us alive. Let's take the vital daily activity of hunting for food as an example. This was an activity that required a huge amount of motivation and deep focus to achieve. Dopamine would rise within our brains and create a strong desire to find food. Then, during the pursuit of hunting for it, dopamine would continue to rise as we got closer to the goal. Upon successfully hunting down an animal, dopamine would rise once again, creating a huge experience of reward and joy in our brains. This rewarding feeling would then strengthen our desire to complete this challenging activity on a regular basis, therefore maximizing our likelihood of survival."

Oxytocin is the relationship and confidence chemical, has been described as 'The Great Facilitator of Life,' and is one of the most powerful chemicals in your body as it is one of the most vital to procreation and our survival as human beings. The two principles for this chemical include good-quality in-person social connection, and it requires positive, grateful, and internal self-talk.

It has a powerful impact on the human desire to connect with one another, form bonds, work in groups, and have children. It also can shape how we view the world, as it can quiet your inner voice that might be critical, and help improve how you perceive yourself. It can create a more compassionate experience in your mind as you go about daily tasks.

Serotonin is your mental and energy levels chemical, and when it is activated properly, it empowers you towards a more healthy life. Where this is different than the other three hormones is that this one does not exclusively come from the brain. 

In fact, 90 percent of serotonin is produced in the gut, and it has a direct impact on your mood, energy, and emotions, and how the nervous system functions. This is where the term "gut feelings" come into play, as they are feelings that literally come up through your body as challenging emotions. 

Signs of low serotonin levels are nervousness, being anxious, a low mood or low energy levels. The four causes are a processed diet that's not healthy, a lack of quality sleep, not enough time in nature, and a lack of sunlight. One of the steps to improve them is simply being aware of it, and then adopting the behaviors needed to do it, such as taking in nature, increasing your gut health, and underthinking. 

Endorphins are your stress reduction chemicals that help you navigate stress and improve your physical health. There is a fun and engaging set of challenges that are designed to boost your endorphins, and activate them on a daily basis.

They are also related to hard physical exertion, as your brain and body release endorphins for two main reasons. They remove stress from your mind so you can focus on staying alive, and to remove any pain that's in your body. Power writes, "If I asked you to run at your maximum speed for ten minutes, I'm sure you would experience pain, maybe a stitch, maybe an ache in your knees. The endorphins released in this stressful situation work as a natural painkiller to provide you with the greatest likelihood of surviving."