There are rules and regulations, however inadequate or poorly enforced, about making scientific claims in adverts. Unless it's online. Then you can just make sh*t up
Preach! Honestly, I may cause an act of harm one day as a result of science garnish. I do understand the whole 'don't police language' thing, but at the same time, if we don't police it a little, it just becomes meaningless word salad. I feel violent every time anyone mentions dopamine hits and pops of dopamine. I also feel sad on behalf of acetylcholine. It feels very transmitterist to constantly chat on about dopamine.
I see Instagram posts all the time that tell women they are "addicted to dopamine", or that they need a "dopamine detox". It sounds very accusatory. And ads for apps tell us
that our vagus nerve is 'imbalanced' and needs 'rebalancing'. Does it? How does one go about rebalancing a nerve? Can anyone tell me?
Exactly. There's no such thing as 'dopamine addiction'. Given how the brain works, either ALL addictions are dopamine addictions, or none of them are. It's like saying you have a 'fluid' problem if you're an alcoholic. But even vaguer than that.
Annoyingly, the vagus nerve tone is a real thing. The vagus nerve is the main cranial nerve that links all your organs to your brain, and thus is believed to be a source of depression, as it means problems with organs (the digestive system in particular) get relayed to the deep levels of the brain and cause emotional disorders etc.
So altering the tone (activity) of the vagus nerve is a relatively recent therapeutic intervention. If we disrupt/prevent the unpleasant signals from the organs, the brain will be better, and mental health will improve.
But this is still very much in the research stages as a therapy. And even if it weren't, there's no known way to do it with an app, or whatever
That's interesting. Thanks Dean. I was sceptical about claims that twiddling my ears would stimulate the vagus nerve and reduce anxiety, and wondered what mechanism could account for it.
Preach! Honestly, I may cause an act of harm one day as a result of science garnish. I do understand the whole 'don't police language' thing, but at the same time, if we don't police it a little, it just becomes meaningless word salad. I feel violent every time anyone mentions dopamine hits and pops of dopamine. I also feel sad on behalf of acetylcholine. It feels very transmitterist to constantly chat on about dopamine.
I see Instagram posts all the time that tell women they are "addicted to dopamine", or that they need a "dopamine detox". It sounds very accusatory. And ads for apps tell us
that our vagus nerve is 'imbalanced' and needs 'rebalancing'. Does it? How does one go about rebalancing a nerve? Can anyone tell me?
Exactly. There's no such thing as 'dopamine addiction'. Given how the brain works, either ALL addictions are dopamine addictions, or none of them are. It's like saying you have a 'fluid' problem if you're an alcoholic. But even vaguer than that.
Annoyingly, the vagus nerve tone is a real thing. The vagus nerve is the main cranial nerve that links all your organs to your brain, and thus is believed to be a source of depression, as it means problems with organs (the digestive system in particular) get relayed to the deep levels of the brain and cause emotional disorders etc.
So altering the tone (activity) of the vagus nerve is a relatively recent therapeutic intervention. If we disrupt/prevent the unpleasant signals from the organs, the brain will be better, and mental health will improve.
But this is still very much in the research stages as a therapy. And even if it weren't, there's no known way to do it with an app, or whatever
That's interesting. Thanks Dean. I was sceptical about claims that twiddling my ears would stimulate the vagus nerve and reduce anxiety, and wondered what mechanism could account for it.