In the last article, we spoke about how doing hard things both mentally and physically is what keeps your brain fast, responsive, and alert as you age.
We broke down how challenge drives neuroplasticity - your brain’s ability to adapt and stay sharp, no matter how old you are.
But the ability, and the willpower to do those don’t come from magic (or motivational quotes)
There’s a system inside you that controls it, and it’s the reason you feel “FAST and ALIVE” some days, and slow and dull on others.
It decides how focused you stay… how fast you learn… and how long you can keep your edge as the years go by.
That system runs on one key fuel: dopamine.
And in this article, we’ll show you:
• How dopamine actually works with neuroplasticity
• Why it drops with age
• And what you can do to stop that decline and protect how you think, move, and function long before things start slipping
Let’s get into it.
You Need This EVERY SINGLE MINUTE.
A signal, a push from inside your brain that says:
“Hey, this thing/challenge/skill is worth it. Let’s wire in this new skill, this new memory, this new habit.”
That signal is dopamine.
Whenever you do something hard, or “new”, or “rewarding”, dopamine spikes.
It lights up your reward system, tells your brain to pay attention, and starts laying down new connections.
This is what keeps us chasing our needs and wants and making sure we survive.
But, less dopamine = less motivation to get things done.
And without motivation, the whole neuroplasticity process never really kicks in.
Now here’s the catch:
As you age, dopamine starts to fade…doesn’t happen overnight, but a slow decay.
Let’s see why.
What Dopamine Levels Fade With Age.
It’s caused by a handful of mechanisms that don’t make big news
like what happens with other ageing related issues like heart and joint problems...
but it wrecks your brain health one “layer” at a time.
And unless you understand what’s going wrong, you won’t know how to fix it.
1. You’re Losing the Neurons That Make It
Your dopamine comes from a small handful of neurons buried deep in your brain.
They fire every time you’re motivated to act, learn, move, or feel rewarded. But with age, some of these neurons start dying off.
Why?
Because they’re fragile. They’re sensitive to stress, inflammation, and oxidative damage. (And all these are things that happen naturally as you age)
And unlike other brain cells, they don’t regenerate easily.
So as the years go by, you slowly lose your ability to produce dopamine at the same levels.
Fewer neurons firing = less spark to get moving, learning, or adapting.
2. The Enzyme That Makes Dopamine Slows Down
To make dopamine, your brain needs an enzyme called tyrosine hydroxylase.
It gets sluggish, partly from wear and tear, partly from lower nutrient availability, and partly because ageing just makes everything slower.
So, even if your brain WANTS to make dopamine, it can’t do it fast enough.
You don’t feel the same satisfaction from things you used to love.
3. Your Brain’s Dopamine Recycling System Breaks Down
After dopamine gets released, your brain is supposed to recycle it.
It’s like a cleanup crew gathering up the excess so you don’t stay overstimulated or lose sensitivity.
But with age, this recycling system becomes erratic.
Sometimes it clears dopamine too fast, so you don’t get the full effect.
Sometimes it leaves it lingering too long, so your brain stops responding to it.
(And builds “resistance”, similar to how your cells develop insulin resistance if it lingers around too much on your blood stream)
This messes with your ability to find motivation and do things that are rewarding.
You might also get sudden rushes of energy when you don’t need them, and feel slow when you might want a lot of energy. .
4. Your Brain Stops Listening to Dopamine Signals
Dopamine only works if your brain can “hear” it.
That job falls on the dopamine receptors.
These are the sensors that tell your brain something is worth pursuing, learning, or doing.
As you age, your brain starts removing some of these sensors….like turning down the volume on a radio.
Why?
Because your system “thinks” it’s doing you a favor by avoiding overstimulation.
But it backfires. Suddenly, things that used to excite you don’t even register in your mind.
This is what scientists call a “blunted response”,
but you’ll know it as boredom, lack of drive, and a foggy feeling that’s hard to shake.
Anyway, if you piece all these 4 reasons together, you’ll find
Less dopamine = less drive = less neuroplasticity.
And, as we told you already, neuroplasticity is what keeps your brain fast, responsive, and alert as you age
Now let’s see how you could make sure dopamine stays in healthy numbers, no matter how old you are.
How to Keep Dopamine Firing As You Age (Without Burning Out)
You can’t just “think” your way into higher dopamine.
You have to EARN it.
And that takes friction and challenge. Might have to put yourself in a difficult place.
See, dopamine doesn’t spike when things are easy. There’s no reason for it to happen.
It spikes when you challenge yourself. When you do things your brain finds slightly uncomfortable. Unfamiliar. Awkward.
That’s how you keep your dopamine system responsive.
Because every time you do something hard learn a new skill,
struggle through a new movement, pick up something you’re terrible at,
your brain gets the signal:
“This is worth adapting for. Pay attention.”
That signal is THE KEY. It’s what tells your neurons to make more dopamine.
It’s what keeps the feedback loop alive.
Effort → reward → effort → reward. That’s what makes neuroplasticity possible.
But here’s the thing most people miss:
You can spike dopamine 2 ways.
One, spike dopamine constantly on the wrong things, like bingeing on food, endless scrolling, chasing novelty without purpose.
By doing this, you don’t build anything. You just fry the system.
That’s what leads to burnout. That’s what numbs the receptors. That’s what kills your drive in the long run.
What works is a “targeted, consistent” challenge.
Small moments of discomfort repeated “often enough” to reshape the system.
That’s how you preserve the ability to want things.
To wake up with purpose. To keep chasing, building, doing, without forcing yourself through grit alone.
We already have an article that tells you the things you need to do to start.
It won’t put you through routines that make you hate yourself. Instead, it goes a bit deep into the science of neuroplasticity (you can skip it if you want),
And gives you some important things to do for healthy longevity .
Click here to read that.
What Now?
If you want to take healthy longevity a step further…and if you want to see how this all ties into how fast (or slow) your body is actually ageing,
there’s one thing you need to check out next.
It’s your biological age.
That number tells you how well your brain and body are holding up against the number of years you’ve been living.
Click here to see how to calculate yours.
