How to Yawn #5

By Atom Bergstrom

Atom’s Blog

Fred Cicetti (“Here’s Why You Yawn,” Live Science, May 29, 2014) wrote …

“Yawns seem to be caused by chemicals in the brain — serotonin, dopamine, glutamic acid and nitric oxide. The more of these compounds activated in the brain, the greater the frequency of yawns.”

Translation?

Yawning MINIMIZES adverse effects of serotonin, dopamine, glutamine, and nitric oxide.

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Serotonin?

Ray Peat (“Serotonin, depression, and aggression: The problem of brain energy,” 2012) wrote …

“Serotonin research is relatively new, but it rivals estrogen research for the level of incompetence and apparent fraudulent intent that can be found in professional publications.”

I’ve written elsewhere about serotonin, so I won’t chew my cabbage twice.

For example, see “Gut Venom Makes Us Happy,” Atom’s Blog, One Radio Network, Apr. 5, 2017.

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Dopamine?

According to Mental Health Daily (2013-2018) …

Dopamine’s adverse reactions include …

aggression / bizarre posturing / burning tongue / depression / delusions / digestive tract problems / hallucinations / hiccups / muscle twitching / nausea / salivation / suspicious thinking / vomiting / bipolar disorder / drug “high” / psychosis / schizophrenia

What to do for a burning tongue?

Stick out your tongue. It promotes yawning and stretching.

Stick it straight out, to the upper left, to the upper right, to the middle left, to the middle right, to the lower left, to the lower right, and suck it in and out.

Yawn and stretch to and past the point of contortion.

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Glutamine?

M.A. Medina, “Glutamine and cancer,” Journal of Nutrition, Sept. 2001) wrote …

“Glutamine is the most abundant free amino acid in the human body; it is essential for the growth of normal and neoplastic cells and for the culture of many cell types. Cancer has been described as a nitrogen trap. The presence of a tumor produces great changes in host glutamine metabolism in such a way that host nitrogen metabolism is accommodated to the tumor-enhanced requirements of glutamine. To be used, glutamine must be transported into tumor mitochondria. Thus, an overview of the role of glutamine in cancer requires not only a discussion of host and tumor glutamine metabolism, but also its circulation and transport. Because glutamine depletion has adverse effects for the host, the effect of glutamine supplementation in the tumor-bearing state should also be studied. This communication reviews the state of knowledge of glutamine and cancer, including potential therapeutic implications.”

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Nitric oxide?

Outside the body, it’s an environmental pollutant.

Inside the body, it’s an “extremely reactive and potentially dangerous free radical.”

On the positive side, nitric oxide is a biological signalling molecule, a vasodilator, and an anti-inflammatory.

But carbon monoxide is all of those, yet I don’t feel the need to supplement by sucking on the tailpipe of my Ford Focus.

According to Wikipedia (last edited on Mar. 26, 2018) …

“Following the first report that carbon monoxide is a normal neurotransmitter in 1993, as well as one of three gases that naturally modulate inflammatory responses in the body (the other two being nitric oxide and hydrogen sulfide), carbon monoxide has received a great deal of clinical attention as a biological regulator. In many tissues, all three gases are known to act as anti-inflammatories, vasodilators, and encouragers of neovascular growth.”

See “The Dark Side of Nitric Oxide,” Atom’s Blog, One Radio Network, Oct. 20, 2016.

(To Be Continued)
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