Chronic inflammation removes motivation

Chronic inflammation removes motivation by reducing dopamine in the brain

“The underlying hypothesis is that the body needs more energy to heal a wound or overcome an infection, for instance, both of which are associated with low-grade inflammation. To ensure that energy is available, the brain uses an adaptive technique to reduce the natural drive to perform other tasks which could potentially drain away the energy needed for healing. This is essentially a recalibration of the specialized reward neurons in the motivation center of the brain, so that ordinary tasks no longer feel like they’re worth doing.

Modern life is relatively soft and less challenging. With less physical activity, low-grade inflammation is chiefly due to factors such as obesity, chronic stress, metabolic syndrome, aging and other lifestyle illnesses. This could mistakenly cause the mesolimbic dopamine neurons to produce less dopamine. Lower dopamine levels in turn decrease the motivation for work, by reducing the perception of reward while increasing the perception of effort involved. This ultimately conserves energy for use by the immune system.”

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