tryptophan antiageing
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Melatonin is a hormone found in every living organism from algae to people. It’s secreted by our pineal glands set in our brains behind and between our eyes. The pineal gland governs our sleep/wake cycles.
The darkness of night — if we’re sleeping — triggers the pineal gland to produce melatonin, making it from the amino acid tryptophan. That’s an essential amino acid meaning we get it only from the foods we eat. Trytophan is converted to serotonin which gets converted to melatonin.
Melatonin affects glands including the thymus, pituitary and hypothalamus.
Taking melatonin supplements causes sleepiness (which may account for why our Thanksgiving meals make up sleepy. Turkey contains a lot of tryptophan, the precursor to melatonin.) Therefore, many people take supplements as sleeping pills and to counteract jet lag while traveling.
However, its benefits could be more far-reaching. Immunologist Dr. Walter Pierpoli of the Biancalana-Masera Foundation for the Aged found that melatonin treatments extended the lifespans of mice by as much as 25%. They not only lived longer, but were physically younger, healthier, more vigorous and sexually active.
Studies done at the Tulane University School of Medicine in New Orleans found that melatonin may stop or slow down growth of breast cancer cells. In Milan, cancer specialists found that adding melatonin to the regular treatments of cancer patients helped their tumors to regress and the patients to live longer.
Melatonin researcher Dr. Russell Reiter at the University of Texas show that melatonin is a powerful antioxidant, destroying free radicals.
According to Dr. Pierpoli, melatonin appears to be the messenger of the pineal gland that tells the rest of the body, especially the other endocrine glands, what to do. In preteens it signals when to begin puberty. In women it controls the menstrual cycle.
And perhaps it signals to our bodies that it’s okay to slow down and age after we’ve passed the age of reproduction plus child rearing. According to some theories, once our children are old enough to survive without us, we’re useless to evolution.
Supplementation of melatonin may therefore interfere with this aging process by, in essence, tricking our bodies into thinking we’re younger than we actually are.
Our natural levels of melatonin drop off sharply after age forty-five, so healthy people below that age have no need of it except, if they choose, temporarily while traveling.
Melatonin is not regulated by the FDA. If you choose to take it as a supplement, you should do so only at night before sleeping, and on an empty stomach. Start with a low dosage and work up only if you feel no effects after a few weeks. If you’re too groggy in the morning, scale down your dose.
However, the best way to increase your pineal gland’s output of melatonin is to give it more sleep in the dark. Go to bed by 10 PM in the evening. The more sleep in the dark you get, especially if it’s before midnight, the more anti-aging melatonin your pineal gland will release.
It could be that much of modern-day deficiencies in this hormone result from our tendency to stay up late at night. Turn off the TV or computer and go to bed.
Richard Stooker is a writer with a long time interest in fitness, health, anti-aging and nutrition. He also recommends keeping freeze dried foods stored in your home and car in case of emergencies. Check out food dehydrator reviews as well.
Behind the glossy images in magazines, and on television, there lies dangerous anti-aging secrets.
Most skin care products, even the “natural” ones, contain many harsh chemicals used in industrial processes.
These chemicals are known to cause a wide range of adverse health effects, ranging from skin irritation to cancer.
But the skin care companies don’t want you to know this.
If you knew the truth, you’d have second thoughts about buying many of the most popular skin care products on the market……even the expensive brands.
You can stop aging by educating yourself on effective anti-aging skin care and use anti-aging products that will work for you and your skin.
Read What the Big Skin Care Manufacturers Don’t Want You to Know . .
