Hormonal Supplementation and Herbal Calmatives 

Melatonin

We are able to attain deep sleep by a hormone called melatonin, whose cycle varies daily and naturally. Production of melatonin drops, as we grow old. This plays a major role in ageing and the declines related to functional efficiency.

Melatonin prevents the mechanism of the Central Nervous System to generate wakefulness and thereby regulates the sleep wake cycle. The 3 main characteristics of human sleep that can be beneficial through the administration of melatonin are REM sleep, Sleep consolidation “sleep spindles” and “slow waves” and latency to sleep onset.

In the near future melatonin administration will be used to treat circadian phase disorders. Within one hour of the treatment, melatonin promotes sleep, irrespective of the time that it has been administered.

Griffonia Simplicifolia, Natural source 5-Hydroxytryptophan (5-HTP)

The existence of migraine in Fibromyalgia sufferers is a common feature. Defects in the adrenergic and serotogenic systems cause migraine. And parallely FM sufferers are also affected by a defect of adrenergic transmission and dramatic failure of serotonergic systems. Increasing adrenergically mediated analgesia while enhancing serotonergic analgesia is an important tool in FM. Significant improvements in FM were found after the administration of 5-hydroxytryptophan (5-HTP). When patients were administered 5-HTP for extended period for treatments of all the clinical variables (fatigue, quality of sleep, anxiety, pain intensity, number of tender points) they showed significant improvement.

Pregnenolone

It has the ability to modify the EEG sleep in humans, enhance memory and is a critical steroid. The relationship between neurosteroid levels and functional and emotional state of stressed animals was confirmed through tests. A shift in the metabolism of pregnenolone levels is necessary for survival during chronic severe stress. But unfortunately pregnenolone levels drops in chronic disease. Mercury poisoning can cause a defect in the conversion of cholesterol to pregnenolone. And this diminishes stress tolerance. Slow-wave and deep sleep can be significantly increased in healthy males by using a very low dose of pregnenolone.

St John’s Wort

St John’s wort extract are both the most best selling non-prescription and prescribed anti-depressant in Germany. Synthetic anti-depressants like amitriptyline, imipramine and maprotiline have found it difficult to keep pace with St John’s Wort. Besides compared to imipramine and amitriptyline, St John’s wort extract tolerability was clearly superior. Within 2 weeks of administration benefits were observed.

Seasonal affective disorder’s (SAD) is a subgroup of major depression. Initially, Light Therapy (LT), specific antidepressants and St John’s wort extract were found beneficial in the treatment of (SAD). But when Bright light therapy combined with St John’s wort extract was compared with the results of St John’s wort extract alone, there was no significant difference. This indicated that the benefit was coming from the extract itself. Ultimately in patients with SAD St John’s wort extract was recommended as a potentially effective therapy as it is well tolerated.

Kava

For people with anxiety disorders, herbal extract of kava-kava is recommended over synthetic psychopharmacological agents, because of their calming effects. The kava extract is known for its high level of efficacy and for its good tolerance.