Most people who come to Kat are already on melatonin — and one of the first things she does is figure out whether they actually need it. The gap between how people take melatonin and how their body uses it tends to be where the confusion lives. This video walks through three things that change […]
When I Actually Suggest Melatonin… (Almost Never) Read Post »
A glass of wine at dinner can feel like it’s helping you relax and fall asleep faster — but alcohol is also altering your autonomic balance, impairing blood sugar regulation, and disrupting REM sleep in ways that converge at 3 a.m. Even one to two standard drinks can alter the natural sleep architecture your brain
Physiological studies show that total daily GH output begins to fall in our 30s largely because the bursts of GH released become smaller.
In longevity circles, that observation is often interpreted in a linear way: GH decreases with age, so perhaps the solution is to increase GH again.
Yet major endocrine reviews and guideline statements have not endorsed raising GH as an anti-aging approach in otherwise healthy adults. Trials in older adults without GH deficiency have produced modest improvements in body composition but also higher rates of adverse effects, and there is no GH-raising therapy approved specifically for anti-aging.
The reason is that GH is not a single dial that can be turned up.
GH output emerges from a regulatory network in the brain involving multiple interacting inputs:
growth hormone–releasing hormone (GHRH), which stimulates GH release
somatostatin, which suppresses GH release
ghrelin, which amplifies GH release
These inputs interact continuously with sleep depth, metabolic state, and reproductive hormones such as testosterone and estrogen.
So when GH changes across the lifespan, the more complete explanation lies in the upstream regulators.
In this article we will look at:
what growth hormone–releasing hormone (GHRH) is and how it stimulates GH production
the lesser-known role of GHRH as a sleep-promoting neuropeptide tied to deep sleep
what tends to change after midlife in the sleep–GHRH–GH axis
whether aging itself is the primary driver of those changes — or whether age is partly a proxy for modifiable factors
Let’s get started.
Everybody talks about growth hormone. Almost nobody talks about what controls it. Read Post »
Peeing at night is often misunderstood, and the specific pattern of nighttime urination points to different potential causes and different solutions. For the generally healthy individual, nighttime peeing falls into sleep-related and non-sleep-related categories, each with distinct drivers. Changes in antidiuretic hormone regulation, reproductive hormones, and sleep disruption all play a role in why this
A deep-dive on how dietary cholesterol might or might not affect your LDL-C
Cholesterol is one of the body’s most tightly regulated and energetically expensive molecules; however, it is still widely portrayed as something to restrict or minimize.
Every nucleated cell can synthesize it, and several organs use substantial metabolic resources for its local production. In some tissues, most notably the brain, dietary cholesterol does not materially influence cholesterol content under normal physiological conditions because lipoprotein-bound cholesterol does not cross the intact blood–brain barrier.
This raises a central biological question: if cholesterol can simply be obtained from food, why did evolution invest in such an elaborate and tightly regulated system to manufacture it internally?
The answer lies in the indispensable structural, metabolic, and signalling roles of cholesterol and the biological necessity of local, on-demand synthesis.
Cholesterol is not only useful but also essential for multicellular life.
Is dietary cholesterol required for good human health? Read Post »
The assumption that we need less sleep as we age is widespread — but it’s not what the research shows. A 2021 Stanford study of over 4,000 adults found that those sleeping six hours or less had higher rates of depression, higher body mass index, and more amyloid beta buildup in the brain compared to
Waking at 3 a.m. with racing thoughts isn’t just about work pressure, relationships, or caregiving responsibilities — those are only one category of stressor. There are at least 4 elements that activate the same stress response pathways and can keep your brain in a more activated state during sleep: physical stressors, metabolic issues, chronic low-grade
Is It Just Stress? 4 Reasons You’re Waking at 3 A.M. Read Post »
A fixed caffeine cutoff sounds precise, but it’s really an estimate at best — what matters is how much caffeine is still in your body when you’re sleeping. Genetics, the number of coffees you had, your gut, medications, and food all change how much is absorbed and how fast it’s processed, meaning “an 11am cutoff”
Why Your Caffeine Cutoff Time Is an Estimate, Not a Rule Read Post »
Worse sleep in midlife is usually blamed on age — but for generally healthy adults, age itself isn’t the problem. What changes is your vulnerability to disruptors that were always there, now compounding through shifts in your underlying physiology. Three underappreciated factors — chronic low-grade inflammation, blood sugar instability, and stress tolerance — are often
Difficulty falling asleep and difficulty staying asleep are almost different problems with almost completely different solutions. Staying asleep is very often more complex — a 3 a.m. or early wakeup is usually related to being in a lighter than ideal sleep, making you more vulnerable to disruption from bathroom trips, thoughts, pain, or dreams. The
