Happiness is influenced by a complex interplay of various chemicals in our brain, particularly four key neurotransmitters, D.O.S.E or Dopamine, Oxytocin, Serotonin, and Endorphins. These chemicals, often referred to as "happiness chemicals," are responsible for creating feelings of joy, motivation, connection, and calm.

However, when there's a deficiency in any of these, it can significantly affect our mood, energy, and overall well-being. Let’s dive into what these four neurotransmitters are, how their deficiency impacts us, and how we can boost their levels naturally.

Dopamine: The Motivation and Reward Chemical

Dopamine is often called the "motivation molecule." It plays a major role in enabling motivation, learning, and the pleasure-reward system in the brain. When we accomplish something — whether it’s finishing a project, completing a workout, or achieving a goal — dopamine gives us that sense of satisfaction and determination to continue.

Deficiency Effects:

When dopamine levels are low, it can lead to procrastination, low self-esteem, lack of focus, and general fatigue. A person might feel anxious, hopeless, or experience mood swings because the brain isn’t getting the reward signals it needs.

Boosting Dopamine:

You can increase dopamine levels by setting and achieving small goals, exercising regularly, eating foods rich in L-Tyrosine (such as almonds, avocados, and eggs), and practicing mindfulness or meditation. Engaging in creative activities like writing or drawing also helps boost dopamine levels.

Oxytocin: The Bonding Chemical

Oxytocin is often referred to as the "love hormone" or "cuddle hormone" because it plays a major role in social bonding and trust. It’s released when we hug, touch, or engage in other forms of physical affection. Oxytocin fosters feelings of connection and emotional intimacy, making it essential for relationships, family bonding, and even team cooperation.

Deficiency Effects:

A lack of oxytocin can lead to feelings of loneliness, stress, anxiety, and difficulties in forming or maintaining relationships. Low oxytocin levels are associated with feelings of isolation and disconnection from others.

Boosting Oxytocin:

You can raise your oxytocin levels through physical touch, socialising, spending quality time with loved ones, and even engaging in activities like massage or listening to soothing music. Acts of kindness, such as helping others or volunteering, also help release oxytocin.

Serotonin: The Mood Stabiliser

Serotonin is responsible for feelings of well-being and contentment. It helps regulate mood, sleep, digestion, and even social behavior. People who have balanced serotonin levels often feel calm, confident, and emotionally stable. Serotonin is crucial in helping people feel valued and significant among their peers.

Deficiency Effects:

Low serotonin levels are linked to depression, low self-esteem, irritability, and mood swings. Individuals may feel overly sensitive to criticism, experience panic attacks, or struggle with social phobias when serotonin is deficient.

Boosting Serotonin:

You can boost serotonin by getting regular exercise, exposing yourself to sunlight, engaging in cold showers or massages, and practicing mindfulness. Simple activities like walking in nature, meditating, or doing yoga are also effective serotonin enhancers.

Endorphins: The Pain Reliever

Endorphins are the body’s natural painkillers. Released in response to stress, pain, or intense physical activity, they help alleviate discomfort and promote a sense of euphoria. Endorphins are what make you feel good after a workout or a hearty laugh, often referred to as the "runner's high."

Deficiency Effects:

Without enough endorphins, people may experience anxiety, depression, chronic pain, and insomnia. A deficiency in endorphins can make daily life feel overwhelming and physically draining.

Boosting Endorphins:

To boost endorphins, engage in laughter, exercise, and stretching activities. Eating spicy foods or dark chocolate can also stimulate endorphin production. Regular massage therapy and meditation are other ways to naturally elevate endorphin levels.

When we think of dialysis, we often picture a machine filtering blood and keeping patients alive. What rarely comes to mind is the small blood vessel in the arm that makes the entire process possible.

For every patient on haemodialysis, the arteriovenous (AV) fistula is quite literally a lifeline. Without it, dialysis cannot be performed effectively. Yet, despite being one of the most important parts of treatment, fistula care remains one of the least understood aspects of kidney disease.

This silent gap in awareness is costing patients their lifeline.

A Growing Burden That We Cannot Ignore

India adds nearly 2.2 lakh new patients with end-stage kidney disease every year, creating a demand for over 3.4 crore dialysis sessions annually.

One of the biggest challenges we see in clinical practice is that patients often seek medical help only after the fistula has already stopped functioning.

The warning signs are usually ignored.

The vibration over the fistula becomes weaker. The arm begins to swell. Bleeding continues longer than usual after dialysis. Needle insertion becomes increasingly difficult. Sometimes dialysis itself becomes less effective.

By the time patients reach an interventional radiologist or vascular specialist, the fistula may already have developed significant narrowing (stenosis) or complete blockage.

Unfortunately, many of these complications are preventable if detected early.

In our experience, nearly 30% of patients eventually lose their fistula because they report too late, when timely intervention could have salvaged access.

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Why Does This Keep Happening?

Unlike diabetes or blood pressure, there is no widespread public awareness around fistula surveillance.

Many dialysis patients receive instructions on medicines and dialysis schedules but very little education on how to examine their fistula every day.

There is also no universally implemented patient education protocol across dialysis centres, leading to inconsistent awareness about fistula care.

The result is simple: patients unknowingly damage the very access that keeps them alive.

Your Fistula Speaks Every Day - Learn To Listen

Patients should examine their fistula daily.

A healthy fistula has a continuous buzzing sensation or “thrill.” If this vibration becomes weak or disappears, medical attention should be sought immediately.

Similarly, swelling of the arm, redness, prolonged bleeding after dialysis, pain around the fistula, or difficulty during needle insertion should never be dismissed as routine.

These are early warning signs - not inconveniences.

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Five Simple Habits That Can Save A Fistula

• Feel the fistula every day for its characteristic vibration.
• Never allow blood pressure measurement, blood draws or intravenous injections on the fistula arm.
• Avoid carrying heavy weights or sleeping on the access arm.
• Maintain good hygiene around the fistula site.
• Report any change in blood flow, swelling or bleeding immediately instead of waiting for the next dialysis session.

These small daily habits can often extend the life of a fistula by years.

Early Detection Can Prevent Major Procedures

One of the greatest advances in dialysis access care is that many fistula problems no longer require open surgery.

If narrowing is detected early, minimally invasive image-guided procedures such as fistuloplasty (balloon angioplasty) can restore blood flow, preserve the existing fistula and help patients continue dialysis without interruption.

The key, however, is timing.

A fistula that is evaluated early is often salvageable.

A fistula ignored for weeks may not be.

We Must Shift Our Focus from Creating Fistulas To Preserving Them

Every successful fistula represents months of planning, surgery and healing. Losing it means additional procedures, temporary catheters, higher infection risk, increased costs and emotional distress for patients already living with chronic kidney disease.

As doctors, we have become increasingly skilled at creating dialysis access.

The next challenge is ensuring patients know how to protect it.

Because for someone living with kidney failure, the fistula is not just another blood vessel.

It is the lifeline that keeps life moving.

By Dr. Avik Bhattacharyya, Senior Consultant - Interventional Radiology, CK Birla Hospitals, CMRI

GLP-1 drugs such as Ozempic, Wegovy, Mounjaro and liraglutide, best known for regulating appetite and aiding weight loss, may also help reduce symptoms of binge eating disorder (BED), which affects more than 17 million people worldwide, according to a new study.

The systematic review and meta-analysis, published in the journal eClinicalMedicine, found that GLP-1 drugs, with semaglutide as its key ingredient, reduced binge eating episodes, loss-of-control eating and emotional eating, highlighting their potential role in treating binge eating disorder alongside obesity.

Binge eating disorder affects over 17 million people globally, and around two-thirds of people with the condition also live with overweight or obesity. It is also common among individuals seeking weight-loss treatment.

"Binge eating disorder, where people regularly eat an excessive amount of food while feeling they have lost control, is common and highly impairing, affecting over 17 million people worldwide," said lead author Dr Ilaria Costantini from the Psychiatry Department at University College London (UCL), UK.

"But treatment options are limited and there are currently no approved medications, so there remains a need for better ways to help people living with this condition. We found evidence that weight loss drugs may help to manage some key symptoms of binge eating disorder," Costantini added.

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What Did The Study Find?

The researchers analyzed 25 randomized controlled trials conducted across 12 countries on four continents, involving 8,069 participants.

The trials evaluated GLP-1 drugs that target the appetite-regulating hormone GLP-1, including semaglutide (marketed as Ozempic or Wegovy), tirzepatide (Mounjaro) and liraglutide.

These medications suppress appetite by acting on the central nervous system and insulin secretion, delay stomach emptying, and may also influence brain pathways involved in reward and impulse control.

Compared with placebo or other treatments, people taking GLP-1 drugs reported:

• Moderate reductions in binge eating severity
• Reduced loss-of-control eating
• Lower levels of uncontrolled eating
• Reduced emotional eating

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The researchers also found that participants taking GLP-1 drugs reported greater cognitive or dietary restraint, meaning they made more deliberate efforts to limit what they ate.

The benefits extended beyond weight loss, with improvements seen in several behaviors associated with binge eating disorder.

More Research Needed on Dietary Restraint

While increased dietary restraint was observed, the researchers cautioned that it remains unclear whether this represents healthy self-regulation or a more rigid, potentially harmful eating pattern that could worsen binge eating over time.

"From the evidence available, we cannot say whether the increase in dietary restraint reflects a positive and helpful form of self-regulation or if it is a more dysfunctional pattern of eating. We hope that future research can clarify whether or not taking weight loss drugs might contribute to more pathological forms of eating restriction such as meal skipping," said Izzy Emptage from UCL Psychiatry.

Researchers Urge Caution

The researchers said GLP-1 drugs could become an important addition to treatment plans for binge eating disorder when used alongside psychological therapies and social support.

However, they also highlighted important limitations. Most of the studies included in the review had a high risk of bias, were funded by pharmaceutical companies, and rarely included participants with a clinical diagnosis of binge eating disorder, reducing the certainty of the findings.

"GLP-1s may offer a promising additional treatment option for people living with both binge eating and obesity," the researchers said, while stressing that these drugs "should not be viewed as a standalone solution to binge eating disorder."

They added that larger, independently funded clinical trials are needed before these medications can be routinely recommended for treating binge eating disorders.

What if staying younger has less to do with expensive anti-aging products and more to do with spending time appreciating the culture. A new study suggests that regular cultural outings may be linked to slower biological aging.

A Trip To The Museum Could Slow Your Biological Age

Expect an unexpected addition to the list of healthy lifestyle habits. Researchers recently found that older adults who frequently visited museums, theaters, cinemas, concerts, and art galleries physically functioned as if they were about three years younger than those who didn’t take part in such activities.

Published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, the researchers say that cultural interaction appears to be associated with a younger physiological age, although the study does not prove that cultural activities directly contribute to slow aging.

What The Researchers Found?

The study analyzed data from 1,899 adults aged 50 years and older who participated in the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing. Participants reported how often they:

• Visited museums or art galleries
• Went to the cinema
• Attended theaters, concerts, or the opera

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Researchers also assessed 10 health indicators, including:

• Blood pressure
• Cholesterol
• Lung function
• Body mass index (BMI)
• Grip strength
• Walking speed
• Blood markers linked to aging

These measures were combined to ascertain each participant's physiological age.

People who participated in cultural activities every few months or more had an average physiological age of 66.9 years, compared with 69.9 years among those with lower levels of cultural engagement, a difference of roughly three biological years.

The researchers also found that every one-point increase in a person's cultural engagement score was associated with approximately a 31-day reduction in physiological age, even after accounting for income, employment, and chronic health conditions.

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Why Might Cultural Activities Help Slow Aging?

Although the study wasn't designed to identify a direct cause, the researchers suggest several possible explanations that can help reduce biological age. Cultural activities may help:

• Strengthen social connections
• Reduce loneliness
• Improve mental well-being
• Encourage people to stay physically active
• Reduce chronic stress

Interestingly, the researchers noted that the association between cultural engagement and slower aging was comparable to the benefits seen with frequent physical activity, highlighting that healthy aging may involve much more than exercise alone.

Culture And Longevity

The latest findings add to a growing body of research suggesting that spending time on cultural activities may benefit both the brain and the body as people age.

Previous studies have found that older adults who regularly visit museums, art galleries, theaters, concerts, and similar cultural spots may have a lower risk of dementia, experience slower cognitive decline, and even live longer than those who rarely engage in such activities.

For example, a 2019 study published in The BMJ reported that adults over 50 who participated in cultural activities every few months or more had a 31% lower risk of death during a 14-year follow-up compared with those who never took part.

Another study from University College London found that frequent museum visits were associated with a reduced risk of developing dementia over the following decade.