Hersheys As Medication?

[OneStepBack]

I'm so jealous.  I like a bar of chocolate occasionally but it does nothing for me psychologically or emotionally.

[Kenzo]

No, try 70%...95% is just torture.

Yes, raw chocolate is not so good , taste good....70% is better .

[Kaiju]

 

Interesting. Have you tried eating it in the morning, just to see if it might be the effect it has on your sleep that is giving you the benefit?

[Tecate]

There’s a direct correlation with high Flavanol chocolate such as dark chocolate ~75% and increased tryptophan and serotonin in the brain providing enhanced mood as well as other increased brain function.

Chocolate may help boost mood (psychcentral.com)

I as well, will occasionally buy good chocolate for a treat and feel better after. My wife absolutely loves it and we often buy sweet chocolate to enjoy with good tequila.

When I worked in the far east, I worked with a number of Turks who would put chocolate between their teeth and sip coffee through it or drop it in and stir it up before drinking it. Bars of chocolate was like packages of cigarettes in prison there!!

Wonderful stuff!

Tecate

[rickymouse]

With bipolar, you need a small amount of food that stimulates dopamine on a regular cycle.  If you eat a lot, then eat none, some people produce too much enzymes that break it down and if it disappears from the diet, dopamine levels crash till restored.  That gives highs and lows and sometimes rapid swings.  So yes, Hersheys can be a medicine, but it needs to be used right.  A small amount consistantly.  If you eat a lot, it jumps up the enzyme and you need more and more just like a drug addiction.

Many things can stimulate dopamine creation.  Tyramines of all sorts, and tyramine like things like sugar.  Tyramines are created by aging processes...microbes usually make them, but also some companion enzymes in the meat,fruit, or veggies.  That is a complex subject.  I have an opposite problem, I cannot properly break down tyramines so they give me a headache.  I can break down histamines well from food, but still have to watch not to consume too much, especially foods that block the DAO enzyme created by the liver I believe.  I avoid avacados, and tomatoes have histamine increasing properties and moderately effect the DAO production.  

I have known about my cheese headache problem since I was young, maybe fifteen or so.  I now know how to moderate it.  Not only aged cheese was a problem, so was most fermented alcoholic beverages....three day hangovers every time I had over two beers or many boozes.  If I drank three beers I might as mell get drunk was my belief back years ago.  It was hard to just have two when with friends.  So understand that I had headaches half of the months in my twenties.  One FRiday night going out meant I had a hangover till tuesday morning.  But back then...I believed it was normal and worth the long lasting headaches.  But one bar had a band Wednesday night, so I only had two days without headaches a week at most, if I went out Friday and Saturday, I only had one day headache free a week.

Now how what I say interacts with medicines used to treat the condition, I cannot say.  Doses are usually evaluated by interaction with diet, so making changes to diet might require re-evaluation of medicines or it can cause side effects.