5 Ways 5-HTP Helps You

What Is 5-HTP? According to Helathline.com, “5-Hydroxytryptophan (5-HTP) is an amino acid that your body naturally produces. Your body uses it to produce serotonin, a chemical messenger that sends signals between your nerve cells.” It’s important we learn about serotonin as well while learning about 5-HTP. According to Cleveland Clinic, serotonin is “Serotonin is a chemical that carries messages between nerve cells in the brain and throughout your body. Serotonin plays a key role in such body functions as mood, sleep, digestion, nausea, wound healing, bone health, blood clotting and sexual desire.” Since serotonin helps all these functions, we’re going to take a look at how that helps you. The body can also use the amino acid tryptophan to make 5-HTP. Tryptophan can be found in turkey, chicken, milk, potatoes, pumpkin, sunflower seeds and much more. The 5-HTP we find in every day supplements is sourced from the seeds of an African plant called Griffonia simplicifolia. Now let’s take a look at how 5-HTP can help you overall.

Schedule

Having a regular sleep and awake schedule is important. The recommended number of hours of sleep for humans is 7-8 hours per night. This can vary widely depending on each person. According to Harvard, “Keeping a regular sleep schedule—even on weekends—maintains the timing of the body’s internal clock and can help you fall asleep and wake up more easily. Even if real life stands in the way of achieving the perfect sleep routine, making just a few small changes can improve your sleep dramatically.” 5-HTP has been known to help some people regulate their schedules. 5-HTP, as we mentioned, helps boost serotonin. Because serotonin is a precursor to melatonin (another naturally occurring chemical in you body) it can help with regulating sleep cycles and taking your body into a schedule. What does that lead to?

Happiness

Happiness is a wildly subjective term. However an overall feeling of wellness and security will be the definition we are looking at today. Serotonin is often cited as the most natural way to build “happiness” in the human body. While exercising we gain serotonin and it helps to make people happier overall. These are also combined with endorphins which help with managing stress relief and more. Using a supplement like 5-HTP helps you to produce more serotonin in your body which will get you up and moving and energetic. This will increase your Focus overall and make you a more active person. The natural building of serotonin through exercise combined with a supplement will help you perform better and be more focused.

Feeling Full

Did you know that over 75% of Americans admit to overeating? As a society we love to snack. It makes sense, cozy up to your favorite TV show or movie at night and eat some snacks. Sounds like a good night. However that can lead to an unhealthy lifestyle. It has been stated by other publications that 5-HTP could help with weight loss. It has been known to add a “feeling full” effect for its users so they don’t eat that extra bite of pie. According to Mount Sinai, “Researchers believe 5-HTP led people to feel more full (satiated) after eating, so they ate less. A follow-up study, which compared 5-HTP to placebo during a diet and non-diet period, found that those who took 5-HTP lost about 2% of body weight during the non-diet period and another 3% when they dieted…” That can help us feel full and then focus more on other tasks.

Calming

When a person remains calm, they reduce the risk of high blood pressure, heart attacks, and other factors. It’s hard to just tell someone to “calm down” as that can actually increase their stress more. Because  5-HTP helps produce serotonin, it helps regulates your mood. This in turn can help calm you down. The boost of serotonin makes you feel more balanced and regulated. It is a natural process that helps you remain calm overall. Subjects have reported feeling overall more calm when they consume serotonin.

Boosting

Because 5-HTP helps you sleep and retain a regular schedule, it helps boost your mood and energy. All of this coalesces to help build a better you. Sleeping better leads to more energy, which leads to people being more active, which in turn leads to being happier overall. If you’d like to check out our focus products we recommend trying our gummies, tinctures, or capsules to help you focus throughout the day. Taking a supplement helps your body to produce a little more serotonin to create a better overall mood.