So

what sorts of activities, what sorts of things increase dopamine and

how much do they increase? Dopamine? Well,

let's take a look at some typical things that people do out there or

ingest out there that

are known to increase dopamine. So let's recall that you have a baseline level of dopamine and that everybody does And

even within a family, you might have family members who are very excitable happy and motivated and others

who are less excitable happy and motivated. But your level of dopamine has everything to do with those genetics. But also with

what you've experienced in, the previous day's and the previous month's. And so on, when

you do or ingest certain things, your levels of dopamine will rise above Baseline transiently. And

depending on what you do or ingest, it will rise either more or less and it will be very brief oral last a long time.

So let's take a look at some of the typical things that people take and do and eat some are good for us. Some are not good for us. And let's ask how much dopamine is increased above Baseline.

Now, of course, these are averages, but these are averages that have been measured in so-called microdialysis studies in animals. So actually, extracting from particular brain areas how much dopamine is released or for measuring the serum

the the circulating levels of

dopamine in humans? Chocolate.

They

didn't look at milk versus dark chocolate,

but chocolate will increase your Baseline level of dopamine 1.5 times. Grab. So, it's a pretty substantial increase in dopamine. It's transient. It goes away. After a few minutes or even a few seconds. I'll explain what determines the duration in a minute, but 1.5 times for chocolate. (expletive), both the pursuit of (expletive) and the act of (expletive) increases dopamine. Two times. So it's a doubling above Baseline. Now,

of course, there's going to be variation there. But that's the average increase in Baseline dopamine caused by (expletive), later.

I will talk about how the different

aspects of the so-called arousal art. The different aspects of (expletive), believe it or not, have a differential impact on dopamine, but for

now as a general theme or activity (expletive) doubles. The

amount of dopamine circulating in your blood. Nicotine

in particular nicotine that is smoked like

cigarettes and so forth increases

dopamine, two and a half times above Baseline. So there's a peak that goes up above Baseline, two and a half times higher. It

is very short-lived. Anyone who's ever been a chain smoker or observed a chain smoker understands that the increase in dopamine from nicotine is very short. Loved

cocaine will increase the level of dopamine in the bloodstream two-and-a-half times above Baseline. An amphetamine, another drug that increases. Dopamine will increase the amount of dopamine in the bloodstream. 10

times above Baseline, a tremendous increase in dopamine exercise.

Now, exercise will have a different impact on the levels of dopamine depending on how much somebody. Actively enjoys that exercise. So if you're somebody who loves running chances are it's going to increase your levels of dopamine to times above your Baseline,

not unlike (expletive) people

who dislike exercise will achieve less dopamine increase

or no increase in dopamine from exercise. And if you like other forms of exercise, like yoga or weight, lifting or swimming, or what have you again, it's going to vary by your subjective. Brands of whether or not you enjoy that activity. This is important

and it brings us back to something that we talked about earlier. Remember that me so cortical limbic pathway. Well, the cortical part is

important. The cortical part actually has a very specific part, which is your prefrontal cortex, the

area of your for brain. That's involved in thinking and planning and involved in assigning a rational explanation to something and involved in. Earning a subjective

experience to something. Alright. So for instance the pain that I'm holding right now is when these pilot v5s, I love these pilot v5s. They don't sponsor the pockets. I just happen to like them. I like the way that they write how they feel. If

I spent enough time thinking about her talking about it. I could probably get a dopamine increase

just talking about this pilot V5 and that's

not because I have the propensity to release dopamine easily. It's that as we start to engage with something

more and more and what we say about it, and what we

encourage our self to think about it. Has a profound impact on it's

rewarding or non rewarding properties. Now,

it's not simply the case that you can

lie to yourself and you can tell yourself. I love something. And when you don't really love it and it will increase dopamine, but what's

been found over and over again

is that if people Journal about something where they practice some

form of appreciation for something or they think of some aspect of something that they enjoy, the amount of dopamine that that behavior

will evoke tends to go up. So

for people that Hate exercise. You can think about some aspect of exercise that you really enjoy. However, I will caution you against saying to yourself. I hate

exercise where I hate studying or I hate this person, but I love the reward. I give myself afterward later. We're going to talk about how rewards given act afterward. Actually make the situation worse. They won't make you like exercise more or studying more. They actually will undermine the dopamine release that would otherwise For that activity. So certain

things chemicals have a universal effect. They make everybody's dopamine go

up. So some

people like chocolate, some people don't of course, but in general, it make has causes

this increase in dopamine, but

(expletive). Nicotine cocaine amphetamine those things cause increases

in dopamine in everybody that takes them things

like exercise. Studying

hard work working through a challenge in a relationship or working through something hard of any. And that is going to be subjective as to how much dopamine will be released and we will return to that subjective component in a little bit.