Natural Hormone Therapy: Training, Eating, Sleeping
Part III – The Snooze

 By Elena Voropay

Natural Hormone Therapy: Training, Eating, Sleeping
Part I – The Workout

Natural Hormone Therapy: Training, Eating, Sleeping
Part II – The Diet

Shifting to a 24-hour-a-day society may be better for economy, but has the opposite effect on health. Harvard-run Nurses’ Health Study has linked insufficient or irregular sleep to increased risk for colon cancer, breast cancer, heart disease and diabetes. But besides all the frightening illnesses that are waiting to attack your system whenever you fail to protect your immunity, there is that special issue on your mind – muscle size and body fat. You need to get enough shut-eye therapy to keep your fat stores at minimum - researches supported that those who sleep less than seven hours a night happen to be more obese, possibly due to the effect of complete rest on the body hormones and proteins. Downsize your quite night time to four hours, and you are up to 73 percent more likely to pack some serious lard on your body. We are not talking just being overweight, we are saying ‘obese’! If you haven’t become one yet, try to take some preventive measures. And one of these is as simple as hitting the sack.

As you can see, the club of insomniacs, which is almost 40 percent of all people according to Sydney's Royal Prince Alfred Sleep Health and Respiratory Support Clinic, doesn’t seem to have a lot of fun. And as you may know it, intuitively or from experience, optimal sleep translates into optimal performance, be it the eye-popping workout for your body or the mind-absorbing expense report for your wallet. Both physical and mental abilities are a direct reflection of how much and how well you sleep. Since currently you are concentrating mainly on your mass gaining skills, you probably can’t wait to find out about the restoration that occurs within muscles during deep sleep.

There are many hormones that come into play when it comes to resting. Here, we’ll concentrate on the most important ones as they help you build the picture perfect healthy body.

Melatonin (5-methoxy-N-acetyltryptamine) is a hormone which lives and thrives when you sleep. But it is not a simple human sleep enhancer. The hormone is found in all living creatures from algae to plants, from birds to animals. You produce the sleepy hormone in the brain’s pineal gland, in the retina of your eyes, and even in your digestive tract. When it is initiated in the brain, Melatonin acts as endocrine hormone that is released into the blood. But when your eyes or the insides of your stomach make it, the hormone joins the army of paracrine hormones. Melatonin is naturally synthesized from the amino acid tryptophan derived from the feel-good chemical in the brain serotonin.

The size of the pineal gland, where Melatonin is mainly produced, is very small, just about the size of a pea. But it is not its size that regulates how much hormone is produced. Rather, its your eye’s exposure to darkness and light. When your eyes see the light, your system naturally stimulates a nerve pathway from the retina to the special centre known as Supra-chiasmatic nucleus (SCN). Here it starts the chain reaction of events by signaling other parts of the brain that control practically everything, from various hormones to body temperature, from hunger to thirst, from fatigue to alertness. Through its actions on all other systems, your pineal gland keeps you in sync with the rhythms of the day and the season. It is this tiny gland nestled in the middle of your head that tells you when to wake up. It also tells your girlfriend when to have her period. It even tells your dog and cat when to shed their coats and the migrating birds when to visit your local park.

Your pineal gland works only when you sleep and is inactive when you stay up regardless of the activities you do – be it passively watching night infomercials or going for a bike ride in the middle of the night when you can’t fall asleep. Ok, lets say your pineal gland started working by the feature of the nature’s clock. However, it may not work properly and produce the so much needed Melatonin if the lights are on. Normally, light inhibits Melatonin while darkness stimulates it. Hence, keeping your eyes closed, logically done at night when the stars are out, gives the featured hormone the most perfect environment for flourishment. The secretion of “the hormone of darkness” peaks in the middle of the night, then slowly falls as the night progresses.

How much of the hormone is produced depends on many factors, and age is one of them. The younger you are, the more Melatonin you make. That’s why older people have so many sleep problems and keep kava, valerian and other hypnotics on top of their medicine jar. Maybe we all try to restore our lost youthful state, and healthy Melatonin levels are not an exception. For one reason, scientific studies suggest that reconditioning our sleep system may bolster the immunity and keep all cells from disintegrating. Just think of your own body’s natural capability to restore and rejuvenate tissues and cells, giving your muscles the power to recover after each workout faster and work more efficiently when you hit the weights next time. And you can do of this by simply sleeping better. You can also think of changing your lifestyle to take control over your Melatonin levels. You know, the good old stress reduction, time management, drinking/smoking closure, and eating/training long before bed time so that your body has some preliminary time to relax before you peacefully retire to bed.

But disappearance of sun rays does not automatically mean that your light exposure is stopped. The mutiny of modern civilization has presented us with artificial light which fosters our desire to stay up as long as we possibly can. This disturbance of endogenous Melatonin production makes its blood concentrations inadequate thus jeopardizing a multitude of normal body functions.

Did you know that oxygen can harm us and Melatonin is a much more potent anti-oxidant than even vitamin C? The reason is that other free-radical killers can be recycled back to oxidants repeatedly, thus counterbalancing the initial praise of anti-oxidants and promoting the DNA damage. As a result, you actually can get too much of a good thing. That’s right. Anti-oxidants can be as bad for your health as oxygen itself. Both of these generate highly reactive molecules, known as free radicals. These cell corroders weaken your muscles and bones, smash up your brain and speed up your inevitable aging. To shorten the list of over 60 degenerative diseases instigated by the free radicals, we’ll just note muscle wasting and obesity. To protect the body from all health invaders, you probably try to eat well, exercise and use the supplement dreamlike tricks. Here you can do too much of a good thing as these glorified anti-oxidants oblige all body cells to metabolize additional oxygen. Say, you take too much vitamin A or E, and you get liver damage and endocrine disorders to name a few. Even exercise taken to the extreme stimulates more free radicals than your body can cope with (recall the marathon running controvercy – run for or against your heart’s health?).

When it comes to the health of your brain, the most important asset of the human body, Melatonin receptors appear to be important in how fast you learn new things and how well you remember them. Just figured out a new exercise or training routine? You may forget the whole thing by the next time you come to the gym. Sleep a few sound hours more to get the Melatonin factory going, and you will dredge up what to do with your muscles instinctively once you touch the weights. Melatonin’s effect on hypothalamus also keeps all other hormones with a great payoff you will see as your body will be stronger and firmer.

But let’s get back to Melatonin – it doesn’t work in the same way as other anti-oxidants. Once oxidized, it cannot be recycled back to its oxidative state. Instead, it forms stable end-products that attack free radicals. Hence, it kills the bad guys and prevents DNA damage, stops cancer and Parkinson’s disease, keeps your heart healthy and extends your life without any body harm.

This is probably the most noteworthy part of muscle building. You know that you stress out your muscle cells with every dumbbell lift. These growing tissues need all the support they can get from natural restoring environment to become bigger and stronger. Give your immunity an anti-oxidant boost by setting proper environment for optimal Melatonin production.

Can you fix your sleep by downing Melatonin pills? The answer to this question has been a constant battle since the discovery of pineal gland as Melatonin’s main faucet back in 1959. Millions of insomniacs began popping the hormone pill not only as a nightcap, but also as a natural immunizer, longevity promoter, hallucinogen and even contraceptive (attributed to women only). Some early risers and frequent travelers say Melatonin is a godsend. But some of the pill’s promises sounded too excessive, and the side effects outweigh the potential benefits. For example, Melatonin’s link to the hormone estrogen has put the pill on the list of breast cancer fighters, PMS suppressors, memory enhancers, thyroid function regulators and sex life drivers. So, just about everyone started gobbling on Melatonin. You know the typical mentality – if a little bit is good, more must be better, and taking the hormone in megadozes should fix all problems caused by the lack of it. The side effects have coasted the promises. Even though it is natural and nontoxic, but it may inhibit the breakdown of your own endogenous hormone, exacerbate your immunity, reduce blood flow to the brain and effect nerve activity and drive your libido down. There are many reasons why you cannot buy Melatonin as a supplement in Australia any more. Maybe it’s a good thing – the Australian Therapeutics and Goods Administration tries to protect your health and prevent any feasible dangerous consequences.

The hormone Leptin may be one of your grand answers to lean mean razor-sharp muscle machine. This is because Leptin is something that keeps your appetite in check and may assist weight loss goals. Leptin is produced by your fat cells and it tells the brain whether you need to start eating. Once Leptin has been secreted by your fat cells, it travels to the hypothalamus, the part of the brain which controls how hungry, thirsty or sleep-deprived you are. Leptin activates anorectic nerve cells, the natural ultimate appetite suppressants. Simultaneously, Leptin prevents orexigenic cells from stimulating your appetite.

Staying on a weight-loss track has a prize – it shrinks your fat cells. But when these get too small, or your body fat is dropping, your Leptin is also on the down side. Of cause you want to burn every single fat cell and get that shredded competitive look. But you know that as you get closer to your desired look, your hunger pain increases. Thank your Leptin for this.

But it goes beyond your diet and exercise. When you are stressed, your Leptin levels drop too. And when these get too low, the body continuously thinks it's hungry. So you eat more than your body needs. Then you raise your blood sugar levels so high, that your Insulin gets disrupted and you can’t recognize how hungry or satisfied you really are. This is your sure way to obesity – forget the look of striated muscles.

Interestingly, Leptin’s role in the body goes beyond simple appetite suppression by altering the function of brain circuits. When levels of Leptin are optimal, you mood may be much better. And you generally feel so good, that overeating doesn’t even cross your mind.

This hormone also counterbalances stress, a very familiar feeling of workout junkies. Think about the times when you are stressed. You can’t sleep, restless thoughts and worthless worries never leave your mind, and you feel hungry all the time. This is your brain telling you: “I am so tired, that I can’t rest!” Your stress hormones take toll, you find yourself depressed and search out for food as a temporary fix to your negative feelings. It feels like every body cells cries for energy fix. And so you follow these sensations. You wake up in the middle of the night in search for food and thoughtlessly downing everything in sight. This is exactly when you are doubling up your fat storing danger. Not only the additional calories will travel to your stomach and cover up the already invisible six-pack, but your disrupted sleep will upset all of body systems and develop additional problems in regulating blood sugar levels.

You are probably thinking that if fat cells keep Leptin levels up and appetite down, then why do obese people eat so much and still don’t find satisfaction? Theoretically, sufficient amount of the featured hormone should balance the eating behavior. The problem is that circulating Leptin in the bodies of obese people is not active where it needs to be — the hypothalamus. Instead, the poor fat-storing victims seem to have developed a form of Leptin resistance. This is a condition where Leptin just can’t "jump" from the blood to the brain where the satiety apparatus works non-stop.

Keeping your fat stores up may be the number one strategy to keep the hunger down. But if you don’t even consider this as a possible option and try to fry all the fat you can, then you need to sleep more. Study after study has demonstrated that sleep and Leptin walk the healthy path together – as your sleep goes down, so does the level of this hungry hormone. There are some theories floating around about why our bodies function in such a way. One of these attributes the sleep-fat signal to our past. can be found in our past. Throughout evolution human bodies have learned to store fat during the summer, the time when the nights are shorter and food is abundant. During dark winter nights we, supposably, haven’t been able to find enough in order to prepare for the dark winter months when food was scarcer.

Also, if you remember, Leptin effects orexogenic cells that make you hungry. Orexin is a substance that not only tells your body to eat, but is also involved in the sleep-wake cycle by stimulating neurons that keep you up at night. So, the endless circle continues – if you can’t sleep, you suppress your Leptin, stimulate your orexin, stay up longer, eat more, disrupt all other hormones, and push the fit and healthy body further away. It may not be as simple as saying, "More sleep, more Leptin, less hunger, smaller meal portions, and smaller fat cells”. Our systems are more complicated than that. But sleeping seven to eight hours per night may make you leaner, stronger and happier at the same time, as researchers say.

So, who do you think would drown in an ocean of circulating Ghrelin? Hungry people, of course. Anorexics, dieters, unhealthy lean and malnourished, elderly and those with digestive problems show to have so much Ghrelin, you wonder if they will ever be able to stop eating once they start. Please, try to eat a well-rounded balanced diet, just like your mother told you.

Controlling appetite is not the only job of this newly discovered chemical. You may not even be concerned with your food at all since you are pre-occupied with cartoon-like overblown mountains of muscle mass you go to the gym for. So, here is your answer - Ghrelin sparks your Growth Hormone from the anterior pituitary gland in your brain. Namely, Ghrelin is a G-protein coupled receptor, which previously was referred to as Growth Hormone Secretagogue receptor. In other terms, it is a Growth Hormone-Releasing peptide. That’s right, Ghrelin is your muscle igniter.

You probably haven’t even heard about the existence of Ghrelin before 1999 when it was brought to everyone’s attention. But that doesn’t mean that your lean gains took off only seven years ago. The growth of every cell in the body was linked to this interesting hormone and even the name for Ghrelin tells about its effect on your muscle gains – it comes from the root ghre, or growth.

You read it right – Ghrelin is one of the most important links in cognitive adaptation to change and stress and plays quite a big part in the learning process. Life is never without stress, and training piles more bricks to the already huge pile of stuff you have to deal with. As stressors roll out, catabolism surges, and your anabolic muscle gains go down the drain. But keeping Ghrelin in check will help you body deal with all the tension, and be able to adapt and thrive with it. Translation – you can have a tougher and more profound workout every time you come to the gym, and be able to recover from it faster. Your brain and muscles will remember the novice regimen better, and your horizontal growth goes the right way (fat-free, that means). Here, Ghrelin’s appetite stimulation can actually help your lean tissue to balloon.

During sleep deprivation, Ghrelin levels rise, leading to unsatisfied cravings. Studies demonstrated that daytime concentration of hungry hormone were one third higher in sleep deprived individuals. Additionally, these people also gobble down more calories (up by 33 to 45 percent) with each meal when were given the freedom to eat until satiety. The connection with sleep deprivation is that the activity of the gut-brain road, known as vagus nerve, is altered when you jeopardize your shut-eye therapy.

You know that weird sensation inside your tummy when it feels like sharks are eating it from inside and you feel like you can swallow the entire food section of the supermarket. This is when your eyes are bigger than your stomach. And it may be all related to stress, sleep, Leptin and Ghrelin. Simply put, lack of sleep can negatively change the levels of these hormones making you feel more stressed and unreasonably hungry. And the calories add up. As you eat more, you may move less, Then sleep becomes a problem. Getting fit and healthy is definitely not on your mind at times like these. You just want to get through the day. The tough part is accept that all of this was brought by simple lack of sleep. Think about it – the less hours you spend sleeping, the more hours you may spend eating. Now it is a snowball that goes down faster than your senses can catch it. Keep the snow flake in your hands while you can. This is your tiny shining treasure of fit and healthy life.

Also known as hGH, Human Growth Hormone is your “master substance” that directs and supports the function of just about every gland and organ in the body. As a protein comprised of a certain sequence of 191 amino acids, it is larger than other steroid hormones, such as estrogen and testosterone. It is produced by the anterior pituitary gland cuddled up in your brain. The hormonal king works in bursts every 24 hours continuously moving throughout your blood and binding to target cells. These cells, in turn, stimulate specific responses that promote tissue repair and cell regeneration in the bones, muscles and vital organs, stimulate the immune system and renew the old cells. In fact, hGH can do more for your natural immunity than any antioxidants known to date. But that doesn’t make Melatonin any less important. The two different endocrine substances can only help each other to get the job done well. The feature of Growth Hormone is to rally round DNA repair through more effective cell division. This is how your muscles grow. This is how your fat melts. This is how your skin, hair and sperm cells proliferate. This is the complexity of living machine in the simplicity of natural growing restoration.

Unfortunately, human bodies are not eternal and are prone to aging. And who would you thank for that? The decrease in Growth Hormone production by 14-50 percent every ten years after the age of 31. Somehow you probably figured out that hGH secretion was at its highest point when you were a teenager – approximately 780 mcg in 24 hours. Unfortunately, by the time you turn 80, you make only 25mcg – what a difference! You brain, pancreas, kidneys and liver are slowly dying, losing their capacity by 30 percent when you turn old. Can you say “No!” to aging and say “Yes!” to better health and stronger fitter body? You bet. You CAN moderate the hormonal dive. But you gotta watch out how you live your life.

You may think that diet and exercise are your prime hGH movers. But in reality, you should prioritize sleep. Grow muscles and burn fat while you sleep! – heard this money-making promise? Indeed, the multi-billion-dollar supplement industry has learned the sure-proof way to your mind and belief system. No, manufacturers of pills and powders that help you sleep are not lying. The reason is that your body naturally produces the most amount of Growth Hormone during your quite hours. So, if you have trouble sleeping, you are suppressing your natural muscle-building and fat-burning plant. There is one disastrous assault of time – sleep generally deteriorates with age. Have you noticed that now you have more trouble falling asleep, wake up often, sleep fewer hours and less deeply than when you were younger? It’s everyone’s dream to ‘sleep like a baby’, and bodybuilders may cry for it more than others. The reason? To wake up rested and refreshed and to grow just like a kid. But growth here has to be horizontal rather than vertical, and only as it relates to lean dense muscle mass.

Ok, before your memories take you to the childhood land of worrisome existence and ideas about getting stronger and bigger, concentrate on the current issue – more Growth through better sleep. If your body is satisfied with its growth, you can turn your nose away from other problems, such as body fat, muscle and joint injuries, wrinkles, hair loss, poor heart and lung functions, and lacking cholesterol profile. Stimulating hormonal production will give you an idea about its effects when your physical and mental performance goes up, your memory is improved and you generally feel terrific. Isn’t that what you are looking for when something is missing from workout motivation?

Levels of many hormones go up and down during the day. Women, of course, are much more familiar with this nature’s gift of fluctuating hormones. It’s understandable, living with a female partner may not always be easy, but you just have to face and accept the gender difference. One minute she feels irritated, an hour later she is crying, and by the time you are exhausted and ready to hit the sack at the end of the day, that someone special wants to make love. How does it apply to your muscle growth? Very simple – knowing when your hormones are at the most optimal level in the current of the day can actually help your training. If you apply your sleep patterns to circadian rhythms, you may double up your training and diet gains. Here is how your body chemicals communicate with sun and moon.

Anabolic Testosterone peaks in the morning and drops at the end of the day. Catabolic Cortisol is also highest in the morning and usually goes down when the night time approaches. But you can change the whole picture depending on when you train. As you remember from the first part of this article – Natural Hormone Therapy: Training, Eating, Sleeping – The Workout (published in the October 2006 issue of Australian Ironman), pumping weights brings up your Testosterone and Cortisol, regardless of when you train. So, what if you train in the evening when the natural levels of these two muscle hormones are at their lowest? Here comes the most interesting part.

Training in the evening elevates Testosterone more than training in the morning. Cortisol, normally higher in the morning, literally soars if you train in the first part of the day. Going to the gym in the evening, on the other hand, does not provoke the same Cortisol lift. Is it a good thing? Well, if want to build more mass, then too much catabolic Cortisol floating through your blood stream is not going to help. Instead, the hormone will break down more muscle cells and your system is going to have a hard time reconstructing these. That makes pumping iron in the morning least desirable. For your best muscle gains you want to keep anabolism up and catabolism down. Better yet, you want to get the hormonal ratio (T/C) as high as you can. And that ratio is best achieved after evening workout.

Then why are the gyms so overcrowded in the morning? Are the most disciplined ones wasting their time? No, if they are doing the cardio workout to lose body fat. Taking into account that high Cortisol destroys all tissues, including adipose, cardiovascular work done in the morning further enhances fat burn.

The remarkable part is that it’s not just simple conclusions generated from unknown sources. Scientists have been looking at unpredictable hormone levels and the effect of training during different parts of the day. The results of one of such researches were covered on the 2005 National Strength and Conditioning Association's annual meeting in Las Vegas. It’s been clearly shown that evening training stimulated much more lean mass growth than morning workouts Muscle mass increased by 3.2 percent in the evening group, and only 0.6 percent in the morning group after 10 weeks of training. What’s more, fat melting was also hotter for the night owls as their body fat dropped by 4%. Sorry if you are one of larks – fat stores actually increased by nearly 5%, even though the workouts were exactly the same. So, should gyms close for the morning altogether? Not necessarily, none of the research results have demonstrated any sufficient evidence to make these statistically important.

What if you love to train in the morning, or maybe that’s the only time you can get to the gym? Translate this into your individual Chronotype – are you a Lark or an Owl? The most important part is to workout whenever you can, regardless of what the clock shows. So, go with your own flow and do what is best for you. Only owls can capitalize on their gym night time as hormones and circadian rhythms work right for their muscle gaining dreams.

Ok, now you know what happens in your body during sunrise and sunset. What about the midday? - you wonder. Have you ever trained in the gym during your lunch hour? Than you might know what a great energy boost you feel when you return to work after the workout. Now you are ready for an appetizing lunch and can go out with friends at night instead of hitting the weights or treadmill in the overcrowded sweat-smelling four corner room. If you eat your lunch right before training, you may notice some ‘dip’ in energy. You may even feel like hitting the sack instead of hitting the weights in the early afternoon. But don’t think that something was wrong with your food as this is the time of the day when your body really needs rest, not the stress of exercise. Circadian rhythms seem to play a role here as well. Researchers have found that certain aspects of performance deteriorate without a corresponding decrease in body temperature and even if no food is eaten at lunchtime.

We all have good days and bad days and there'll be times when you won't be able to match your circadian rhythms to your workout schedule or set records every time you train. But that’s Ok. It’s not worth stressing out about it (which brings up your on't be discouraged. It's a lot more important to work hard and be consistent than to waste time and energy second-guessing whether you're training at the "right" or "wrong" time of day.

There is one more thing which tracks your circadian rhythm and you probably suspect about. It’s your body temperature. As night begins, your body temp gushes as the day goes on reaching its minimum right after you go to bed. So, whichever way you get heated – it wakes you up. Exercising, eating, even thinking hard all elevate body temperature. That’s why it is better to get all the hard work done a few hours before you hit the sack. At the same time, a slight raise of your inner warmth some time before you decide to rest will stimulate the following core temperature drop making rest more sound. Keep in mind that sleep is promoted by coldness. You may know that since it is much harder to fall asleep when the air is hot and humid. No wonder here – this is the most counterproductive atmosphere for rest.

Sleep sounds lovely, but it's just not happening. But simply falling asleep is not enough – you need to sleep well, and wake up rested.

Poor sleep or the comlete lack of it isn't always that complicated. For some, it's a matter of breaking that late-night TV habit and turning in earlier. For others, it is creating the right sleep environment. Some "sleep hygiene" rules you may find helpful:

· Get up and go to bed at the same time every day

· Minimize daytime naps

· Avoid eating or exercising two hours prior to rest

· Make the air in the bedroom dark, cool and dry

· Avoid stimulants like caffeine, nicotine, and alcohol, especially before bedtime

· If you feel restless when it’s time to sleep, unwind by taking a warm bath, meditating or reading something easy

· Drinking warm milk may also help you relax as it contains amino acid triptophan which stimulates the production of sedating serotonin

· Don’t forget to take Magnesium, Zinc and Glutamine before bedtime – these are your natural muscle building sleep enhancers

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