Sleep Related – Just Potent: The Best Supplements, Period!

Melatonin Rich Foods

Below are the certain types of food that are rich in melatonin and excellent for a healthy dosage of melatonin, which in turn promotes a healthy lifestyle, and stabilizes your internal biological clock.

According to the Alaska Sleep Clinic, “sleeping foods”, a.k.a foods that are rich in melatonin are generally divided into five groups. The first set is called Tryptophan, Magnesium, Calcium, Vitamin B6 and Melatonin

Tryptophan

Tryptophan is an amino acid that when ingested, is turned into the neurotransmitter serotonin and then converted into the hormone melatonin. Here are some of the best foods loaded with tryptophan according to the Alaska Sleep Clinic:

Dairy Products (milk, cheese, low-fat yogurt)
Poultry (chicken, turkey)
Seafood (shrimp, salmon, halibut, tuna, sardines, cod)
Nuts and seeds (flax, sesame, pumpkin, sunflower, cashews, peanuts, almonds, walnuts)
Legumes (kidney beans, lima beans, black beans split peas, chickpeas)
Fruits (apples, bananas, peaches, avocado)
Vegetables (spinach, broccoli, turnip greens, asparagus, onions, seaweed)
Grains (wheat, rice, barley, corn, oats)

Magnesium

Magnesium is a powerful mineral that is instrumental in sleep and is a natural relaxant that helps to deactivate adrenaline. A lack of magnesium can be directly linked to difficulty going and staying asleep. Magnesium is often referred to as the sleep mineral. Excellent sources of magnesium are:

Dark leafy greens (baby spinach, kale, collard greens)
Nuts and seeds (almonds, sunflower seeds, brazil nuts, cashews, pine nuts, flaxseed, pecans)
Wheat germ
Fish (salmon, halibut, tuna, mackerel)
Soybeans
Banana
Avocados
Low-fat yogurt

Calcium

Calcium is another mineral that helps the brain make melatonin. A lack of calcium can cause you to wake up in the middle of the night and have difficulty returning to sleep. Calcium-rich diets have been shown to help patients with insomnia. Dairy products that contain both tryptophan and calcium are among the best sleep inducers. Sources of calcium include:

Dark leafy greens
Low-fat milk
Cheeses
Yogurt
Sardines
Fortified cereals
Soy beans
Fortified orange juice
Enriched bread and grains
Green snap peas
Okra
Broccoli

Vitamin B6

Vitamin B6 also helps convert tryptophan into melatonin. A deficiency in B6 has been linked with lowered serotonin levels and poor sleep. A deficiency in B6 is also linked to symptoms of depression and mood disorders which can lead to insomnia. The highest sources of B6 are:

Sunflower seeds
Pistachio nuts
Flaxseed
Fish (tuna, salmon, halibut)
Meat (chicken, tuna, lean pork, lean beef,)
Dried Prunes
Bananas
Avocado
Spinach

Melatonin

Many of the vitamins and minerals that are on this list are there because they help aid in the production of turning serotonin into melatonin. However, there are a few excellent sources of naturally occurring melatonin in foods:

Fruits and vegetables (tart cherries, corn, asparagus, tomatoes, pomegranate, olives, grapes, broccoli, cucumber)
Grains (rice, barley, rolled oats)
Nuts and Seeds (walnuts, peanuts, sunflower seeds, mustard seeds, flaxseed)

And there you have it! Do you think you will try any of these foods to experiment on your sleep pattern? Let us know in the comments below! Adios!

Sources:

Phillips, Kevin. “Alaska Sleep Education Center.” Foods for Sleep: A List of The Best and Worst Foods for Getting Sleep, 23 Jan. 2018, www.alaskasleep.com/blog/foods-for-sleep-list-best-worst-foods-getting-sleep

Why Garcinia Cambogia Works For Weight Loss

Back Story

The year was 2014, and I was in the greatest shape of my life. Life as I knew it was good. I was keeping up good grades, working out at least five times a week and was generally in a good place. Life was good. Everything was good, and I was getting a lot better sleep than I had in years (well, quite a few years). The secret was that I was eating well, exercising and using Garcinia Cambogia to supplement my diet. That was one of the most successful years of my life because I felt good, and looked good. My tendencies to fall into seasonal depression during winter made me make a conscious effort to follow the instructions for dosage and adhere to the right dosage amount. What was the big deal about all of this? The big deal is that I started using Garcinia Cambogia supplements, and truly, they made a world of a difference. I was eating better, controlled, and healthy portions of food and all was very good in the world.

Photography of Woman Surrounded by Sunflowers

What is Garcinia Cambogia?

Also known as the Malabar tamarind fruit, Garcinia Cambogia is a fruit that originated from Southwestern India and is popularly farmed in most parts of Asia. Although it appears to be round, stocky, and unassuming, garcinia cambogia as a supplement is made from the extract of the fruit (hydroxycitric acid).

Garcinia has gained prominence and popularity over the past decade for it’s ability to aid weight loss through suppressing food cravings and promoting better sleep. It originates from a tropical fruit whose main ingredient hydroxycitric acid (HCA) does a wonderful job of blocking fat as well as suppressing hunger. Usually, when people take this supplement, what happens is that they get filled up easily, and therefore tend to eat smaller portions of food. Another amazing fact about this supplement is that it inhibits the chemical called citrate lyase, which is responsible for fat production in the human body after carbohydrates are eaten and digested.

Why Should I Take Garcinia Cambogia?

Unlike most supplements out there, garcinia cambogia is a supplement that has been confirmed by numerous studies to work. If you are looking to maintain a healthy and wholesome lifestyle, then garcinia cambogia might be perfect for you. The great thing about it is that it is very adaptable to the human experience and lifestyle. What this means is that if you are a freelance writer like I am, or a doctor, nurse, or actress always on the go, it is possible to make garcinia cambogia fit into your schedule and complement whatever lifestyle that you live.

It is true that as humans, our lifestyles, clothes, emotions and even fridge contents change with times and seasons, and that’s okay, but what is even more excellent is the fact that garcinia cambogia adapts to shifting lifestyles and changes. Also, it is excellent for weight loss, and weight maintenance, but only if you follow the dosage prescriptions coupled with a healthy diet, regular exercise and sleep.

Image result for garcinia cambogia

One of the many questions that people tend to ask about garcinia cambogia is whether or not it is effective once it is taken. Research has shown that garcinia cambogia really does work if it is taken at the right time, with the correct dosage. According to WebMD, a review published in the Journal of Obesity found that people who took garcinia cambogia in studies lost about 2 pounds more than people who didn’t take it. Also according to WebMD, garcinia cambogia may make it easier for the human body to effectively use glucose — the sugar that human cells produce.

Per WebMD, a recent study showed that mice that got garcinia cambogia had lower insulin levels than mice that didn’t. That, according to the scientific study is another reason, besides weight loss, that people with diabetes are interested in garcinia cambogia. It is important to note that if you are diabetic and are taking garcinia cambogia along with any medication that is meant to control your blood sugar, your glucose levels could get dangerously low, which could lead to hypoglycemia. Low blood sugar or hypoglycemia is defined as a condition that occurs when the body’s blood sugar (glucose) decreases and is too low to sustain the body. Blood sugar levels that are below 70 mg/dL (3.9 mmol/L) are considered low.

Woman With White Sunvisor Running

Just Potent Garcinia Cambogia

Garcinia cambogia; while an excellent weight loss product, comes in different brands and styles depending on the manufacturer. Going to the pharmacy has never been more overwhelming than it is presently. It can be overwhelming to find the right product to buy simply because marketers and advertisers never make it easy to just pick one supplement. Sometimes, it can get so overwhelming that customers tend to forgo the entire process entirely.

If this sounds like you, fear not because you have come to the right place. Just Potent Garcinia Cambogia contains one hundred percent all-natural ingredients that are scientifically proven to help you on your weight loss journey. What is even more brilliant about Just Potent Garcinia Cambogia supplement is that it gives you a bigger bang for your buck. On average, most bottles of garcinia cambogia contain 90 capsules to 180 capsules and are recommended in such a way that depletes the product faster, which tends to be more expensive in the long run. On the other hand, Just Potent Garcinia Cambogia contains a whopping two hundred (200) capsules and lasts for a hundred days. That is not a bad deal at all considering how much you’re paying per capsule.

Just Potent Garcinia Cambogia Dosage

Just Potent Garcinia Cambogia contains 200 capsules and offers 1,000 mg per serving. A bottle of this supplement could last you a hundred days since the recommended serving size is just two capsules per day. This supplement also has powerful fat-burning and fat blocking benefits and could hasten the efforts that you are making towards weight loss.

This supplement is powerful, we advise that people who take this supplement should not take more than the serving size recommended. For better results, it is best to take the supplement two times a day, thirty minutes before breakfast and thirty minutes before dinner.

How to Use Garcinia Cambogia

For safety reasons, women should not consume this product when they are pregnant as this could affect the growing child. This item should be stored in a cool and dry area away from children, and if for any reason you experience adverse effects during use, then it is advised that you discontinue use immediately. If you are already on some form of medication, then it is important to consult your doctor about adding garcinia cambogia to the mix.

Melatonin: Your Sleeping Potion?

What is Melatonin?

Hello and welcome to today’s article. If you are half as obsessed with health articles as I am then you have definitely come to the right place. Today we will be looking at melatonin and it’s various functions in the body, but mostly in the brain. I’ll share my personal story, and how melatonin helped me to find stability in mental health journey, but first things first, what exactly is melatonin? Why is it produced in the body? For what purpose? Let’s explore a little further by looking at the brain, and most specifically, the human brain.

The brain is one of the most delicate organs in the body, and because of that, it is imperative that we know exactly what goes on up there (or at least some of it). Without further ado, what is Melatonin? What is it’s relationship to the brain?

Melatonin is a chemical hormone that is produced by both humans and animals in the pineal gland primarily in the brain. Melatonin, popularly known for its ability to induce sleep in humans as well as animals. According to Mayo Clinic, melatonin is a primary chemical that plays a huge role in sleep and its production increases as the day.

Full Moon — Melatonin increases in the body as the day progresses.

According to , the production and release of melatonin in the brain is directly connected to time of day, increasing when it is dark and also decreasing when it’s light. Melatonin production is a hormone that declines with age in both humans and animals. Apart from its natural production in humans and animals, melatonin is also produced in the form of supplements, and melatonin produced artificially is usually made in a scientific lab. You can check out our web page for supplements that can be taken to produce sleep.

Melatonin and the Brain

Two months ago, I was diagnosed with bipolar disorder, which is a mental condition that is characterized by manic episodes, low mood, and low energy spells and a chemical balance in the brain. For many years, my disorder went had in hand with low mood swings and low energy spells. For many people who struggle with this mental condition, their sleep patterns are affected. Thankfully, there are ways to address bipolar disorder and lessen its blow. Naturally, the human body has a biological clock that acts in sync with the environment that it is in. This has a lot to do with a circadian rhythm.

Gray Double-bell Clock — Biological clock example

What is a circadian rhythm? It is a biological process associated with living things, human beings included and it revolves around a 24-hour cycle. The circadian rhythm affects a lot in the body, but most importantly, it influences the sleep-wake cycle of human beings, and this is where melatonin and bipolar disorder are linked. When a person has a bipolar disorder, there is a dysfunction in the sleeping rhythm of the human being, and melatonin helps to balance that equation and create an equilibrium of stable sleep and wake cycles.

Melatonin and Bipolar Disorder

In the last paragraph, we briefly brushed on the topic of circadian rhythms and it’s relationship with mental health and how melatonin comes into the picture, but it is time for us to have an in-depth conversation about bipolar disorder, and how it affects the body in the general sense. The first time I paid attention to Bipolar disorder was when rapper Kanye West shared that he had been diagnosed with a mental condition after living with the condition for over forty years. Ironically, I was diagnosed with the same condition two weeks later, and it helped me to look closely at my behaviors, sleep-wake patterns, and my energy levels. Knowing what was wrong empowered me and gave me a deeper insight into how to handle the issue as well as what medication I needed to take.

Pharmaceutical Grade Melatonin (5mg) by Just Potent | Better Sleep | Brain Health

One of the many symptoms that I went through were bouts of irritation and restlessness followed by long hours of tossing and turning in my bed helplessly waiting for sleep to come. After my diagnosis, my Doctor prescribed my medication, and one of the supplements that I happened to take was rich in melatonin and this significantly stabilized my sleep-wake pattern. Of course, taking the medication in the evening influenced a positive result as well. If you or a loved one suffer from any form of health challenge that induces sleeplessness, then melatonin is a supplement that you can take to help you. Be sure you talk to your physician about what supplements will

work best for you. For a list of melatonin supplements, head to our website and get your dosage today.

Advancements in Melatonin Research

Thank you for making it down to this section of the article. Stay with me as we look at scientific and medical advances in the medical research of melatonin. According to researchgate.com,

Increasing clinical pieces of evidence suggest that melatonin receptor agonists can represent a fresh therapeutic approach for the treatment of sleep disturbances and depression. A variety of studies also revealed a role of melatonin and its receptors in different patho-physiological conditions. Due to the multiple positive effects of this hormone, the design of new agents able to interact selectively with melatonin receptors has become an area of great interest during the last decade. A comprehensive review of structures recently claimed as melatonin receptor agonists and a broad overview of structure-activity relationships for these ligands suggests that. After 5 decades of research, the field of melatonin receptor agonists comprises of a variety of selected chemical entities, belonging to structurally different classes. Patents filed since 1999 claim new melatonin receptor agonists, characterized either by improved pharmacokinetic or pharmacodynamic properties, compared to those of melatonin receptor agonists are already approved for clinical uses. The results of preclinical studies on animal models show that melatonin receptor agonists can be considered promising agents for the treatment of CNS (central nervous system)-related pathologies.

Conclusion

Although that last paragraph/blockquote was unarguably a lot to take in, it did two things: first, it established what we talked about in previous paragraphs about how awesome melatonin is, and how effective is in the treatment of mental health lapses, namely bipolar disorder or manic depression. I am going to conclude this article by making a list of the different types of food, fruits, and vegetables that have a certain amount of melatonin in them.

Melatonin: Your Drug-Free, Non-Habit Forming Sleep Aid

Melatonin, contrary to public perception isn’t a drug, but a natural hormone produced in the human brain. This hormone also referred to as N-acetyl-5-methoxy tryptamine in scientific terms, helps regulate our sleep / wake cycle.

Although melatonin can also be found in plants and other animals, this article will focus on the human side of things. In this post, I will be talking about melatonin dosage, safety, side effects, who should use it as a sleep

aid, alternatives to melatonin, and my verdict on its efficacy.

Who Should Use Melatonin?

Melatonin is for anyone, I mean most people who find it difficult to fall and/or stay asleep. If you have difficulty falling sleep or just getting tired to make the final descent into “sleepdom”, you need melatonin. If you’re traveling intercontinental and want to sync your wake/sleep cycle with that of your final destination, you may need melatonin. If you are like me and millions of others who have read scientific research backing melatonin as preventative medicine for some serious diseases (this topic will be for another post), you should use melatonin. If your brain isn’t producing enough melatonin, you doctor may recommend that you take melatonin. If you’re a pet owner, you will be surprised to learn melatonin is good for dogs, just like it is for humans. Your dog agitated? Barking your ears off on 4th of July? Melatonin will help!

Melatonin Dosage

For sleep, the dosage of melatonin will depend on many factors. Factors

such as: melatonin levels in your brain, past melatonin use, your body’s tolerance, and a host of others. If you have low levels of N-acetyl-5-methoxy tryptamine, you definitely need to supplement with melatonin. If you have used melatonin in the past and didn’t experience the desired effect; the effect of getting tired and just falling into “sleepdom”, then you need to re-evaluate your dosage amount. If you’re special in your own way, regular dosage amount may not be enough.

If you are new to melatonin or you haven’t used it before, it is best to start at 1mg to 3mg dosage. This dosage amount means you need just little assistance falling and staying asleep. If you’re in this category, don’t run off to go order yourself a 1mg pill or say, 3mg pills; order higher milligram pills instead. The reason is this: if you ordered a 1mg pill and it didn’t work for you, then you may be out on few dollars and be stuck with a bad experience with your first use of melatonin as a sleep aid. BUT, if you ordered 3mg or 5mg, you can cut a tablet in half to start with. If that half tablet dosage amount doesn’t work for you, then you can safely increase your dosage.

If you have used melatonin in the past and the experience was bad, you may have made the mistake mentioned above, ordering just 1mg pills. Or, it could be that you ordered a brand that has more fillers and additives than the active ingredient.

Another point I would like to make regarding past experiences – if it didn’t work for you in the past, it may just mean that you didn’t take the right dosage amount. If 1mg melatonin worked for Mr. Kramer, it doesn’t mean the same milligram amount will work for you. We are all different in our body composition and special in our own ways. What has worked for Marie may certainly not work for Mary.

So what dosage amount of melatonin should you take? There is no straight answer to that question. You’d have to test the amount (mg) that works for you. You start off from between 1-3mg and work your way up until 10mg if you have to. It is not uncommon for people to use in excess of 20mg per dose. Here a comment one of our customers left us recently:

My daily dose of Melatonin is 30mg. Just Potent is the largest sold at 10mg and 3 work as well as my prior compounded melatonin.

Here is another customer:

works great!! I take 3 tablets [30mg] before bed and I am asleep within the hour 🙂

Is Melatonin Safe? What Are The Benefits?

If you’re healthy and don’t have any serious illness preventing use, melatonin is pretty safe. This is because it naturally resides in our body. So yes, taking real melatonin, free of undeclared additional ingredients or fillers is pretty safe for most people. Be sure to consult with your doctor before use or if in doubt.

One major benefit for why you want to take melatonin is sleep. If you have difficulty falling sleep, you may sleep better from melatonin supplementation.

Since this aritcle is about sleep, we will limit the benefits to confines of sleep and sleep problems. Be sure to stay tuned for upcoming posts on other melatonin benefits.

The Side Effects of Melatonin

The side effects mostly associated with melatonin use is grogginess. If you have took melatonin the night prior and you wake up groggy instead of refreshed, you may need to lower your dose. While some people will get away with taking 30mg per night, some can’t get away with taking 5mg per night. When you take melatonin for sleep, make sure you have enough hours to sleep. You really don’t want to take melatonin knowing you have just 2-3 hours of time to sleep.

Melatonin Alternatives

There are various alternatives to melatonin, the majority being herbs and teas. Chamomile, passionflower, valerian, lavender and many other herbs have been shown to help some people sleep better. Although the studies on these herbs are scarce, melatonin still remains one of the go-to sleep medicine for majority of people.

The Verdic

Should you or should you not? I say this: what have you got to lose? Give melatonin a try and see whether it helps improve your sleep, AND life. As we all know, lack of sleep is very detrimental to our overall health. If you get enough sleep, you are generally healthier and you think clearer than someone who doesn’t. Sleep is a good thing and if you’re not getting enough sleep because you can’t fall or stay asleep, it is incumbent on you to find a solution to help you manage this problem. Melatonin supplements like the Just Potent Melatonin is a definite good choice and I encourage you to try it.