his Is What Happens To Your Cells When You Experience Happiness

November 27, 2014 / 350 views

By: Dr. Marianna Pochelli, preventdisease.com | Too much research has been
devoted to the science of stress, depression and the connection to disease and
not enough to the biology of joy. If a greater emphasis was placed on why we
dont go to doctors when we are feeling optimistic, happy, and joyful, there would
be less value and importance placed on the emotional states that coincidentally
generate more money for those manufacturing medication. There are many ways
to experience pleasure in our brains and happiness might be the one emotion
that prevents and reverses the cascade of cellular events that lead to disease.
ARTIFICIAL HAPPINESS
A lot of people get addicted to chemicals alcohol, cocaine, amphetamine,
heroin, and nicotine. Why do they do that, and why arent they happy? It is
because brains have a variety of chemical systems that regulate their electrical
activities in waking and sleeping, and the addictive drugs artificially stimulate
those systems, but the feelings are not those of joy.
For example, a chemical called dopamine is broadly spread through the brain by
specialized nerve cells, when a person achieves some kind of reward, such as by
satisfying hunger and thirst, winning a game, or passing an examination.
Dopamine is often called a reward hormone. Its chemical actions are produced

also by closely related compounds such as amphetamine and cocaine. They give
feelings of bouyant optimism, energy, power, and knowledge.
This same chemical linked to drug addiction may also contribute to obesity,
researchers have found.
It is not surprising that people who have no other avenues to success, living in
poverty and hopelessness, will spend their food money on some transient
chemical bliss. But that isnt happiness, and even people who are bloated on
academic or business success, and who feel elation, arent liable to confuse that
feeling with happiness.
Other chemicals called endorphins act in the brain as natural pain relievers.
Their action is imitated by heroin and morphine, also alcohol. Again, it is small
wonder that people who suffer from the emotional pains of regret, shame, guilt
and despair might find relief from their demons in forgetfulness. But that isnt
happiness.
Yet another chemical called serotonin is important in bringing mental relaxation
as an important condition for getting to sleep. We dont really know yet what
sleep is for, but we know that we cant survive without it. The relief from agitation
and anxiety that is mediated by serotonin leads also to recovery from some forms
of depression. That is why the chemical fluoxitine (Prozac) has become so
popular. It doesnt act like serotonin, but it prolongs the action of what little
serotonin the brain is producing, if it is in short supply. But return to tranquillity
from anxiety and depression is not the same thing as happiness.
So, is there a chemical for joy? Scientists are beginning to understand that this is
a wrong-headed question. There is no such chemical, and even to ask the
question is to expose a deep ignorance about how brains and people actually
work.
HAPPINESS IS DIRECTLY LINKED TO OUR HEALTH
Dr Derek Cox, Director of Public Health at Dumfries and Galloway NHS, suspects
that for decades health professionals have been missing a big trick in improving
the health of the nation.
Weve spent years saying that giving up smoking could be the single most
important thing that we could do for the health of the nation.
And yet there is mounting evidence that happiness might be at least as powerful
a predictor, if not a more powerful predictor than some of the other lifestyle
factors that we talk about in terms of cigarette smoking, diet, physical activity
and those kind of things.
The science of happiness is increasingly suggesting a link between happiness and
health.

Andrew Steptoe, the British Heart Foundation Professor of Psychology at

University College London, has found that happier people also have greater
protection against things like heart disease and stroke.
We know that stress which has bad effects on biology, leads to those bad
changes as far as health is concerned, said Mr Steptoe.
What we think is happening is that happiness has the opposite effect and has a
protective effect on these same biological pathways.
WHAT HAPPENS TO OUR CELLS WHEN WE ARE HAPPY?
The increasing prevalence and debilitating effects of depressive symptoms, has
motivated intense research investigating the biological basis of mood disorders
and negative affect. However, the immense volume of research investigating
pathophysiology has yet to be paralleled by research of positive affect.
Specifically, this emerging field is focused on identifying contributing factors and
various effects of positive subjective experiences and emotions, such as hope,
optimism, and spirituality. Positive affect is a term encompassing various
components, including happiness, contentment, life satisfaction, optimism, and
well-being. It appears thathappy people who are highly effective have the same
habits.
The study of positive psychology is encouraging more researchers to study a
proactive prevention illness by identifying attitudes and personality traits that
contribute to positive mood and increase quality
of life.
For example, happy people, as compared with less happy people, tend to have
greater immune system functioning, a reduced risk of cardiovascular disease,
and report greater marriage and job satisfaction. It is therefore valuable to
develop a deeper understanding of the positive affect by investigating its
biological basis. Several studies have begun to investigate potential biological
markers of positive affect.
Research investigating the association between potential biological markers.
Depressed individuals have a lower concentration of prolactin. Most people
associate prolaction with enabling women to produce milk, however, it is
influential over a large number of functions.
Prolactin also plays an essential role in: metabolism; regulation of the immune
system; and pancreatic development. In humans, prolactin is produced at least in
the pituitary, uterus, breast, lymphocytes, leukocytes and prostate. As prolactin
response increases, so do the positive effects associated with happiness and this
correlates with cognition and neural connectivity affecting our ability to perceive
remember, and reinforce existing neural connections.
To protect the brain from stress, it releasese a protein called BDNF (Brain-Derived
Neurotrophic Factor) is a neurotrophin which functions to translate activity into

synaptic and cognitive plasticity in the adult animal. This BDNF has a protective
and also reparative element to memory neurons and acts as a reset switch.
Thats why we often feel so at ease and things are clear after moments of stress
and eventually happy.
At the same time, endorphins, another chemical to fight stress, is released from
the brain. Endorphins main purpose is to minimize discomfort and block the
feeling of pain by stimulating pleasure centers, many of which even lead to
euphoria.

BDNF and endorphins are the reasons exercise makes us feel so good. The
somewhat scary part is that they have a very similar and addictive behavior like
morphine, heroine or nicotine. The only difference? Well, its actually good for us.
Endorphins are chemicals that are able to cross through the gaps between
neurons in order to pass along a message from one to the next. There are many
different kinds, and much remains to be learned about their different purposes
and functions, but endorphins can be released with many different types of
activities.
Endorphins act as both a painkiller and as the pay-off for your bodys reward
system. When you hurt yourself (or eat a hot chili pepper), you may get a big
dose of endorphins to ease the pain. You may also get an endorphin blast from
talking to a stranger, eating a satisfying meal or being exposed to ultraviolet
light. (Everyone has different amounts of endorphins, and what may trigger an
endorphin rush for one person could very well produce a dud for someone else.)
The pay-off in the form of your body tapping into its own stash of opiates is to
let you know youve had enough and convince you to do it again sometime
soon.

Overall, the net benefit of cells undergoing all the above changes leads to:

stimulating the growth of nerve connections.

improving cognition by increasing mental productivity.

improving our ability to analyze and think.

affecting our view of our surroundings.

increasing attentiveness.

leading to even more happy thoughts.

WHY HAPPINESS IS NOT MADE BY A CHEMICAL

Where we humans find joy is in surmounting this solipsistic barrier between us
and sharing our feelings and comforts. We cannot ever really cross it, but, a bit
like neighbors chatting over a fence, we can be together. However, there is more
to this communion than mere talking. There is trust, which underlies true
friendships and partnerships. What is the chemistry of trust?
Answers are found when we look back on our mammalian ancestors. Raising a
helpless infant to childhood requires intensive parental care, which comes with
bonding between the parents and the infant. Now, how does a carefree child,
when it has grown up, become a parent? This change in role requires a
catastrophic change in beliefs, attitudes and values to make new parents. We
humans would say that they fall in love, first with each other, and then with their
offspring.
Scientists have learned that, when animals mate and give birth, specialized
chemicals are released into their brains that enable their behavior to change.
Maternal and paternal patterns of nursing and caring appear. The most important
is a chemical called oxytocin. It doesnt cause joy. On the contrary, it may cause
anxiety, because it melts down the patterns of connections among neurons that
hold experience, so that new experience can form. We become aware of this
meltdown most dramatically as a frightening loss of identity and self control,
when we fall in love for the first time.
Bonding comes not with the meltdown, but with the shared activity afterward, in
which people learn about each other through cooperation. Knowing another
person doesnt come with foreplay and orgasm. It comes in cooperative activities
during and afterward. Trust emerges not just with sex, but also with vigorous
shared activity in sports and combat, through which people bond into teams by
learning to trust each other.
So oxytocin is not a happiness chemical, but a brain tool for building trust and
this is well known in mother-child bonds. Perhaps a million years ago our
ancestors learned how to use this mammalian mechanism to promote social
bonding beyond sexual union, in order to form groups and tribes. They did it, and
still do it, with dancing, rhythmic clapping and chanting, singing and making

music together all day and night, into exhaustion and collapse. When they
awaken, they are reborn.
Nietsche realized this. Emil Durkheim and other anthropologists have shown how
people engage in Dionysian orgies and religious ceremonies, as the most
effective way in which to create group identities. The joy they experience comes
in dancing and singing with each other, thereby forming the bonds of trust. Trust
comes when we are able to predict what other people will do, and we achieve
that by repeated cooperative actions.
Aristotle wrote: Happiness is activity of the soul in accordance with virtue. That
is rather abstract. We can see virtue as a set of shared goals for the good of
ourselves and our children. Joy comes with activities that we share with people
we have learned to trust, and that enable us to share meaning across the
solipsistic barrier that separates each of us from all others.
So happiness is not made by a chemical. That would be the same as treating a
violin sonata as nothing but rubbing horse hair on strings of cat gut in order to
make a wooden box resonate. Violin makers have to know their materials to make
one, and physicians have to know about the brain chemicals in order to treat
patients, when the chemistry of brains has gone wrong, but they cant give us a
pill to make us happy. We create our own joys, and we feel happiest in learning to
trust each other.
THE POWER OF POSITIVE THOUGHTS
As far as your brain, every thought releases brain chemicals. Being focused on
negative thoughts effectively saps the brain of its positive forcefulness, slows it
down, and can go as far as dimming your brains ability to function, even creating
depression. On the flip side, thinking positive, happy, hopeful, optimistic, joyful
thoughts decreases cortisol and produces serotonin, which creates a sense of
well-being. This helps your brain function at peak capacity.
Happy thoughts and positive thinking, in general, support brain growth, as well as
the generation and reinforcement of new synapses, especially in your prefrontal
cortex (PFC), which serves as the integration center of all of your brain-mind
functions.
In other words, your PFC not only regulates the signals that your neurons
transmit to other brain parts and to your body, it allows you to think about and
reflect upon what you are physically doing. In particular, the PFC allows you to
control your emotional responses through connections to your deep limbic brain.
It gives you the ability to focus on whatever you choose and to gain insight about
your thinking processes. The PFC is the only part of your brain that can control
your emotions and behaviors and help you focus on whatever goals you elect to
pursue. It helps you grow as a human being, change what you wish to change,
and live life the way you decide!
WHY OPTIMISM LEADS TO GREATER HAPPINESS

Neuroscientists have discovered that people who have a more cheerful

disposition and are more prone to optimism generally have higher activity
occurring in their left PFC. But thats a brain explanation. Interestingly, behavioral
scientists have observed fascinating differences between optimists and
pessimists. Optimism, for example, involves highly desirable cognitive,
emotional, and motivational components. Optimistic people tend to have better
moods, to be more persevering and successful, and to experience better physical
health. One factor may be simply that optimists attribute good events to
themselves in terms of permanence, citing their traits and abilities as the cause,
and bad events as transient (using words like sometimes or lately), or the
fault of other people. In addition, optimists:

Lead happy, rich, fulfilled lives

Spend the least amount of time alone, and the most time socializing

Have good relationships

Have better health habits

Have stronger immune systems

Live longer than pessimists

On the flip side, pessimistic people explain good events by citing transient
causes, such as moods and effort, and bad events as permanent conditions
(using words like always or never). A study by a University of British
Columbia researcher found that some people are genetically predisposed to see
the world darkly. Negativity is all-pervasive, it seems. Pessimists:

Automatically assume setbacks are permanent, pervasive, and due to

personal failings.

Are eight times more likely to be depressed than optimists

Perform worse at school and work

Have rockier interpersonal relationships

Die sooner than optimists.

According to Sonia Lyubomirsky, a University of California researcher, unhappy

people spend hours comparing themselves to other people, both above and
below themselves on the happiness scale; happy people didnt compare
themselves with anyone.
According to a study from Lund University, collective picture of what makes us
happy is more about relationships and people, and less about things.
The good news is that you can use your mind to train your brain to tamp down
the negative thoughts that lead to pessimism, while ramping up the types of
positive thoughts that lead to optimism. You can be the master of the neuronal

changes that will lead to greater happiness, and the rewiring starts in those
teensy miracles known as your brain cells, or neurons. Even if depression runs in
your family, you have the capability of improving the way your brain functions, of
setting up neuronal roadblocks and diminishing the neuronal patterns linked to
negative thinking. You may not be able to eradicate a genetic disposition towards
depression, but you can greatly reduce its impact and its reoccurrence.
NEGATIVE THINKING, NEGATIVE BALANCE
Negative thinking slows down brain coordination, making it difficult to process
thoughts and find solutions. Feeling frightened, which often happens when
focused on negative outcomes, has been shown to decrease activity in your
cerebellum, which slow the brains ability to process new information-limiting
your ability to practice creative problem solving. Additionally, the fear factor
impacts your left temporal lobe, which affects mood, memory, and impulse
control.
Your frontal lobe, particularly your PFC, decides what is important according to
the amount of attention you pay to something and how you feel about it. Thus,
the more you focus on negativity, the more synapses and neurons your brain will
create that support your negative thought process.
Your hippocampus provides the context of stored memories, which means the
emotional tone and description your mind creates can potentially rewire your
brain by creating stronger neuronal pathways and synapses. What you think and
feel about a certain situation or thing can become so deeply ingrained that you
will have to work hard to dismantle the negative connections and rewire your
brain in order to be less afraid, to think positively, to believe that dreams can
come true, to trust that your efforts will be successful.
TRAIN YOUR BRAIN TO THINK MORE POSITIVELY
One of the oldest precepts of neuroscience has been that our mental processes
(thinking) originate from brain activity: that our brain is in charge when it comes
to creating and shaping our mind. However, more recent research has shown that
it can also work the other way around: that focused, repetitive mental activity
can affect changes in your brains structure, wiring, and capabilities.
The actions we take can literally expand or contract different regions of the brain,
firing up circuits or tamping them down. The more you ask your brain to do, the
more cortical space it sets up to handle the new tasks. It responds by forging
stronger connections in circuits that underlie the desired behavior or thought and
weakening the connections in others. Thus, what you do and what you think, see,
or feel is mirrored in the size of your respective brain regions and the connections
your brain forms to accommodate your needs.
What does all this mean? It means that what we think, do, and say matters; that
it affects who we become on the outside, the inside, and in our brain. Mostly, it
means that you can retrain your brain to be more positive.

Start by thinking happy thoughts, looking on the bright side, and refocusing your
brain when negative thoughts occur. Your mind has the ability to determine how
your brain thinks about what happens in your life. Use it to your own advantage
to reframe events and think positively.
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Sources:
ubc.ca
berkeley.edu
bbc.co.uk
psychologytoday.com
illinois.edu
bmj.com