Comment · Thu, November 14, 2013 · Ceretropic
Alpha Brain/Huperzine choline downregulation?
Original post in this thread
thereisnohell · 8 points
Alpha Brain causes dreams, I have read that it does this because it contains Alpha-GPC and huperzine A, which would make sense since Galantamine + Choline is a known lucid dream aid. People seem okay with people taking Alpha Brain, but whenever I look into threads on Huperzine on its own people are very cautious and warn against choline downregulation.
I want better dreams and I own a lot of Alpha-GPC, I am just wondering if it would be dangerous for me to occasionally take a cap of Huperzine. Galantamine is a fairly extreme method in terms of the potential sleep paralysis and Alpha Brain never gave me anything like that.
What they were answering
willonz · 1 points
memantine acts on 5-HT3 and nACh (ionotropically excitatory), and dopamine2 receptors as well. D2 agonization is technically inhibitory, but 5HT-3 antagonization is associated with antidepressant effects.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23926691
The sadness you're feeling could be due to a hyper-emotional response, which could be similar to the antidepressant-like effects found in the above article
EDIT: More on D2 distribution throughout the brain:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2528968
D-2 receptors were also found in areas which appeared to contain only low amounts of D-1 receptors such as the glomerular layer of the olfactory bulb, bed nucleus of the stria terminalis, hypothalamus, habenula, stratum lacunosum moleculare of the hippocampus, intermediate lobe of the pituitary, lateral mammillary nucleus, periaqueductal gray, inferior colliculus, nodulus of the cerebellum and the dorsal horn of the spinal cord.
antagonizing D2 receptors (inhibiting adenyl-cyclase) will result in less activity in these regions, which could account for the sadness as well.
u/MisterYouAreSoDumb · Ceretropic
The sadness is more a latent effect from the vivid dreams. Since they are so vivid, I remain affected by them for a little while after I wake up. It doesn't seems to be causing sadness during waking hours, though. However, perhaps a dopamine mechanism is leading to the sad dreams during sleep.