The new trend involves planned temporary abstinence from activities that bring pleasure. Adherents of this asceticism believe that it stimulates brain function and increases productivity. We decided to check how scientifically sound this practice is.

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The concept of dopamine fasting (aka dopamine diet, dopamine detox) arose in the late 2010s. Its inventor and main popularizer is Californian psychiatrist Cameron Cepa. His clients, including many IT specialists from Silicon Valley, complained of fatigue from constantly being at the computer and the inability to cope with it on their own. Using a psychological approach called cognitive behavioral therapy, Sepa asked his patients to analyze how they distract themselves from work and how they spend their free time, and to identify those stimuli that bring short-term pleasure but increase the level of anxiety. At the next stage, clients were asked to replace these activities with something else - for example, instead of scrolling the social media feed, take a walk with friends and thereby give the brain a rest. Sepa advised setting aside special intervals for this and gradually increasing them - say, starting with an hour at the end of the working day, then spending a weekend without disturbing stimuli, and then several days in a row. This approach is intuitive - a relaxed Friday evening, a weekend with family or a vacation with friends is better suited for such “training”, and later the method can be used during more stressful working hours.

The key to Sepa's approach was to identify stimuli that, although briefly enjoyable, subsequently lead to increased anxiety, and to briefly abstain from them. Psychiatrist highlighted six such activities:

emotional eating, that is, an attempt to eat away stress;
excessive Internet use;
gambling and spontaneous purchases;
viewing pornography and masturbation;
recreational drug use;
obtaining vivid and/or new sensations.

And if the first five points are formulated quite clearly, then a lot can be attributed to the sixth, with a certain desire. It is on this uncertainty that the concept of dopamine fasting, perverted by Sepa’s followers, is built, which involves giving up almost any enjoyable activity: eating tasty (even not harmful) food or preparing it, sex, communicating with friends, hobbies, etc. Adherents of such a “diet” are sure: after abstinence, the same activities will bring much more satisfaction. Moreover, if Sepa used the word “dopamine”, probably only because of its wide popularity, then these people directly link the effectiveness of the proposed practices with the level of this substance in the body.

Dopamine - hormone and neurotransmitter, which is responsible for the transmission of nerve impulses between neurons, especially in the central nervous system, and plays a key role in regulating motivation, mood, motor activity and cognitive functions. In the brain, dopamine is involved in the reward system, providing a feeling of pleasure and satisfaction (this, in turn, stimulates the repetition of certain actions). In addition, it affects the functioning of the cardiovascular system, kidneys, pancreas and digestive tract, regulating vasodilation, urine output, insulin production and intestinal motility.

In the human body dopamine synthesized from the amino acid tyrosine supplied with food. This process occurs in several brain regions, including the substantia nigra and nucleus accumbens, involved in motor control and motivation, respectively. The production of dopamine is stimulated by various internal and external factors: pleasant sensations, anticipation of reward, tasty food, exercise, as well as stressful situations and pain. These stimuli activate in the brain nigrostriatal path (it is responsible for motor activity) and mesocorticolimbic way (for motivation). Thus, dopamine not only provides a feeling of joy, but also helps the body adapt to environmental changes and maintain vital functions.

Increase dopamine production Can in two ways: either saturate the body with tyrosine, or stimulate the corresponding areas of the brain. In the first case, you should eat foods rich in this amino acid - chicken, bananas, beets, chocolate, green tea, oatmeal, oranges or tomatoes. In the second case, there is no universal way - a person needs to do things that bring him pleasure (this could be, for example, physical exercise, meditation, yoga, massage, playing with a pet, walking in nature or reading).

Psychologist Susan Albers in a commentary for the respected Cleveland Clinic explains: Many adherents of dopamine fasting believe that by giving up certain activities, they reduce the level of dopamine in the body and that this is beneficial for the body. This misconception is based on the belief in dopamine tolerance - that its too frequent effect on the body causes a kind of addiction, and this makes life less pleasant. However, dopamine is not a stimulant, not a drug or a toxin, but a hormone; it is impossible to force the body to produce less of it than necessary. What's more, low levels of dopamine are found in those suffering from Parkinson's disease, depression, restless leg syndrome and ADHD, and have been shown to cause health problems ranging from chronic constipation to memory problems.

Doctor of Medicine Peter Grinspoon agrees with his colleague. In a paper for Harvard Medical School, he writes: “While dopamine levels do increase in response to pleasurable activities or as rewards, they do not actually decrease when you avoid overly stimulating activities, so dopamine fasting has nothing to do with actual dopamine levels.” According to the expert, the perverted interpretation of Sepa’s technique has gone so far that people on a dopamine diet refuse those activities that the author himself proposed to replace unhealthy ones with - for example, they abstain from sports or communication with friends, and also limit themselves to such neutral things as listening to music.

Experts have expressed other concerns regarding dopamine fasting. For example, neurologist Nandakumar Narayanan from the University of Iowa (USA) bother dietary supplements promoted as dopamine-lowering agents. There is no documented benefit from such drugs, and what actually is in their composition and how it affects the body is unknown. Psychologist David Zall sees Another problem associated with dopamine starvation: a sudden cessation of enjoyable activities for a person can negatively affect his mental health. “There can be a rebound effect when the detoxification period ends and people feel a strong urge to do things they previously restricted. This leads to binge drinking-like behavior and defeats the purpose of detoxification,” explains Zall.

Finally, neuroscientist Stephanie Borgland from the University of Calgary (Canada) statesthat the dopamine system is simply too complex for “fasting” to change it. “It takes much more time for the brain to relearn,” the scientist emphasizes, citing the results of experiments with rats. Thus, as part of laboratory studies, rodents were “hooked” on drugs, and after drug withdrawal, the dopamine system remained in an altered form for at least a month (with a rat’s total life expectancy of two to three years).

At the same time, experts agree that the original concept of abstaining from unhealthy activities, “sold” by Sepa under the sonorous, but not related to hormones, name “dopamine fasting”, is generally quite justified. In fact, this is a long-known and well-proven method of cognitive behavioral therapy, in which people identify ineffective habits of thinking, behavior or relationships with loved ones and replace them with more useful ones. At the same time, this direction of psychotherapy does not promise or give any reduction in dopamine levels, although it effectively to balance compulsive behavior and behavioral addictions to, for example, gambling or sex.

Thus, there is no reason to give up joyful activities in order to reduce dopamine levels. Firstly, the dopamine system is quite complex, and a few hours or even a week of abstinence will not change it. Secondly, in any case it will not lead to a decrease in the level of this hormone. Thirdly, a reduced level of dopamine will not bring any return to the taste for life. At the same time, gradually giving up bad habits and replacing them with more useful ones is a common (and quite working) psychological practice.

Cover image: Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay