Serene days and excellent sleep? Hard to find in these turbulent times? Or are they? We forget that our mental and emotional states are based on hormones and brain chemicals, not only on what is going on around us. And most of us are not yet aware that we can use nutrition to optimise and harmonise how we think and feel.
There is an important natural brain chemical, for example, that plays a key role in whether or not we experience happiness. When we have enough serotonin in our system, we not only feel full of contentment, we also sleep deeply, feel less hungry for carbohydrates and less sensitive to irritation and pain.

THE GOOD MOOD MOLECULE
To capture serenity we need to have enough serotonin running through our nervous system. Modern anti-depressants and obesity drugs do just that. They raise brain levels of serotonin. But these drugs have side effects, sometimes very undesirable ones.
Alternatively, we can correct a low serotonin level by taking a natural amino acid, called 5HTP, the immediate precursor of serotonin in the body. Scientists have discovered that 5HTP can now be extracted from a West African herb.

EMOTIONAL RESILIENCE
Drugs such as Prozac®, are often taken by people who are not ill, but who simply want more confidence and emotional resilience. Yet when researchers gave 5HTP or an anti-depressant to sixty-three patients they found that both were as effective, but that 5HTP was superior, because the drug had side effects. Raising serotonin naturally with 5HTP works well for anxiety and panic attacks too, Dutch scientists have reported from the University of Utrecht.
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However, the brain can also convert serotonin into the sleep hormone, melatonin. For a good night’s sleep take 5HTP in the evening.

A BETTER PERSON?
It isn’t only dieters that get irritable. Could raising serotonin make us a better person? Studies show that serotonin plays a major role in aggressive behaviour in animals and humans. In monkeys, low levels of serotonin are associated with aggression, and this has been observed in humans too. And when researchers inhibiting serotonin synthesis in humans, aggressiveness was increased.
Interestingly, women with severe PMS have been found to have a profound drop in serotonin levels before their period starts. Could this be connected to their mood swings or period pains?
Certainly serotonin reduces sensitivity to pain - and a lack can make us hypersensitive to irritating sound, light and other stimuli. One American magazine compared taking 5HTP with ‘a trip to Hawaii’. It may not bring on the guitars, but it will smooth out some of the rougher edges of life.