- 1). Ask your doctor if you need to take medication to increase the amount of dopamine in your system. This could be the case if you have Parkinson's disease. A drug called L-DOPA (levodopa) can be given to supplement low dopamine levels in the brain of Parkinson's patients. Parkinson's disease causes people to lose neurons that contain dopamine; and as a result their body produces more dopamine receptors on other neurons. L-DOPA stimulates dopamine receptors and breakdown even when the dopamine neurons are lacking.
- 2). Ask your doctor if you should take prescription amphetamines. They increase the concentration of dopamine and breakdown of dopamine in your system. Amphetamines are similar in structure to dopamine.
- 3). Drink caffeine; it stimulates the production of dopamine in your body. Caffeine increases the production of dopamine in the brain's pleasure circuits.
- 4). Ask your doctor if you can have a glass of wine every evening. Alcohol also helps to increase the breakdown of dopamine, by a process that involves curtailing the activity of the enzyme that breaks dopamine down.
- 5). Don't start smoking if you are a non-smoker. But if you quit, you will reduce the effect of dopamine in your system. A substance in tobacco smoke, not yet clearly identified, inhibits monoamine oxydase B (MAO B), an enzyme that breaks down dopamine. The result is a higher concentration of dopamine in pleasure center of your body. This contributes to a smoker's dependency.
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