Please Stop Calling It A Dopamine Fast. It’s A Stimulation Fast.

Happily scrolling through the New York Times Style section on Nov 8th, 2019 I read this headline, “How to Feel Nothing Now, in Order to Feel More Later — A day of dopamine fasting in San Francisco.” I was curious having never heard of this dopamine fast, but I was slightly offended as well.

I have Young Onset Parkinson’s Disease, which is essentially a forced dopamine fast. Now, I wouldn’t normally describe Parkinson’s in this way, but with this phrase suddenly popping up everywhere, and for the purpose of this article, the description is necessary.

The UCSF psychologist, Dr. Cameron Sepah who promotes this dopamine fast on his blog says that, “Dopamine Fasting 2.0 has gone viral worldwide! Unfortunately, there’s also been a lot of public misunderstanding due to media misportrayals, so let’s start with what it ISN’T. To be clear, we ARE NOT fasting from dopamine itself, but from impulsive behaviors reinforced by it.”

Huh? This makes absolutely no sense! Dr. Sepah has chosen to, as he says in his blog to “rebrand meditation” with the phrase “dopamine fasting” and then in bold letters for clarity says “we ARE NOT fasting from dopamine itself.”

No wonder people are so confused. Dr. Sepah says in the NY Times article, “dopamine is just a mechanism that explains how addictions can become reinforced and makes for a catchy title…The title’s not to be taken literally.”

But people are taking it literally…and if the “catchy title” is not to be taken literally when you say “it’s more of a stimulation fast,” then just call it that to avoid all the confusion.

Personally I am not a fan of rebranding. Think up something new and if you just want to play with the phrasing, at least make it true. People who are interested and practicing stimulation fasting, yet referring to it as a dopamine fast are promoting a concept that isn’t true because they’ve been misled.

As consumers and beings who are influenced, what also became clear to me reading the NY Times article is that some of us are gullible when it comes to any concept that includes the trendy word fasting. Myself included.

I have yet to come across an article about this new trend that truly informs people of what dopamine is and does. My Parkinson’s diagnosis came my way when I was 38 years old, and opened my eyes to the necessity and complexity of dopamine.

According to the Mayo Clinic, “In Parkinson’s disease, certain nerve cells (neurons) in the brain gradually break down or die. Many of the symptoms are due to a loss of neurons that produce a chemical messenger in your brain called dopamine. When dopamine levels decrease, it causes abnormal brain activity, leading to symptoms of Parkinson’s disease.”

When Dr. Sepah and practitioners use the phrase “dopamine fast” it gives the impression that by using this technique the person fasting has total control over their dopamine levels. That by simply not making eye contact or talking you are able to isolate the exact pleasure part of the dopaminergic process.

“Dopamine is a messenger molecule in the brain that allows certain nerve cells to communicate with one another. Underestimated at its discovery, dopamine proved critical to central nervous system functions such as movement, pleasure, attention, mood, and motivation. Discovering dopamine’s role in Parkinson’s disease changed the field of neuroscience and led to a profound breakthrough in the treatment of the disease.” — BrainFacts.org

In the mental health realm other neurological diseases associated with a loss of dopamine are depression, schizophrenia, and psychosis. In the physical realm low dopamine levels effect swallowing, maintaining balance, stiffness, walking, and beyond.

“In 1961, Hornykiewicz, working with neurologist Walter Birkmayer, gave intravenous L-dopa to 20 volunteers with Parkinson’s disease. The results were dramatic: L-dopa treatment restored the ability of patients with severe Parkinson’s disease to resume normal movement for up to 24 hours. Patients who had been immobile and bedridden not only sat up, but could stand and walk. Some even ran and jumped. The drug also allowed some patients to speak normally for the first time in years.” — BrainFacts.org

The medicine I take to manage my symptoms is a synthetic form of dopamine called Carbidopa Levodopa. To put how little dopamine my body now produces in perspective, Parkinson’s is a progressive disease, I take one pill approximately every 2–3 hours. A one month prescription = 270 pills. (Update 4/11/23 one pill every 1.5 hours - 2 hours = 290 pills)

Thankfully, I am still doing quite well!

I had hoped that I’d never see anything having to do with a dopamine fast again, but it keeps popping up.

In Dana G Smith’s Medium article, she asks Dr. Sepah straight up, “So what about that unfortunate name? When asked why he termed the practice dopamine fasting, Sepah responded via email, If I had known the media would have caused such confusion, I probably would have [called it something else]. But cat’s out of the bag.”

The doctors misleading rebranding strategy seems to be working, it’s “catchy” indeed. He can stop blaming the media and set the record straight. This fast should be called what it really is, what he himself has called it, a stimulation fast.

Hopefully more people will learn the truth about how dopamine functions in its entirety, and how people like me with Parkinson’s disease wish that we were still able to produce enough of this essential neurotransmitter.