Serotonin is a crucial neurotransmitter, which helps regulate our mood and our emotionality.

If it is not possible to precisely measure your daily serotonin level, it is possible to influence it through diet.

But beware, high serotonin levels and good mood are not necessarily correlated.

Is our serotonin level the key to happiness?

This crucial neurotransmitter, involved in regulating mood, is 90% made in our gut and stomach from tryptophan, an amino acid that synthesizes it.

But contrary to what one might think, serotonin is not a hormone.

However, its functioning approaches it since it acts in the central nervous system by counterbalancing the effects of dopamine, another major neurotransmitter.

Its nickname "hormone of happiness", which comes from its action on our mood and our emotionality, is therefore a misnomer. 

A rate impossible to measure

But unlike some hormones like insulin for example, it is not possible to dose or compensate for your own serotonin level on a daily basis.

Because to have an idea of ​​its prevalence it would be necessary to take cerebrospinal fluid, a very invasive operation.

Moreover, the interpretation of the result would be delicate.

Indeed, a low level of serotonin is associated with a depressive syndrome.

But be aware that this is true in some forms of depression, not all.

Just because you have a relatively low serotonin level doesn't mean you will be depressed, just as you can have unrelated depression to serotonin.

However, many antidepressant treatments work by increasing the level of serotonin in the brain.  

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Conversely, a high rate would be linked to a disinhibition inducing an aggressive state.

But beware: these are neurophysiological hypotheses, resulting from work carried out mainly on animals.

Difficult for the moment to extrapolate anything from it for the human being.

Food can affect our mood

On a daily basis, there is only one way to act on your serotonin level: pay attention to your diet.

Tryptophan, which synthesizes serotonin, is present, for example, in sesame seeds, pistachios, mozzarella, chicken, tuna, crab, lentils, eggs… So everywhere.

However, the benefits of these products are canceled out if we adopt in parallel an unbalanced diet with industrial and processed products.

The inflammation resulting from this type of product effectively prevents the conversion of tryptophan into serotonin.