Brain, Mood, & Sleep Support

What Is Brain, Mood & Sleep Support?

Your ability to focus and think productively, your emotional state, and the quality and quantity of sleep you get on a regular basis are important. They affect work performance, relationships, and your overall satisfaction and enjoyment of life. And all three — brain, mood, and sleep — are closely tied together. It’s a complex relationship. Poor sleep can lead to emotional changes, anxiety, depression, and cognitive difficulties, while all of these issues can make sleeping soundly more difficult.

The bottom line is that you need to take good care of all three. However, that isn’t always easy to do. Stress, aging, hormone imbalances, and life events can cause problems in one of these three areas to cascade into the other two. Medication can help ease problems that keep you from feeling and doing your best.

Types of Medications

Low dose naltrexone is one medication that can be used for brain and mood support. It stimulates the release of endorphins in the body. Endorphins are the chemicals your body releases during moments of pleasure, for example when you’re eating your favorite foods, listening to good music, having sex, exercising, or laughing. Natural endorphins reduce pain, boost pleasure, and give you a feeling of well-being. Supplementing your endorphin levels through low dose naltrexone may help alleviate depression, reduce anxiety, boost self-esteem, and even help in weight loss.

In addition to low dose naltrexone, Belmar compounds oxytocin as a treatment option for brain and mood support. Oxytocin is a hormone your body produces naturally, especially during activities like sex, hugging, and cuddling. Research has shown that supplementing oxytocin can increase relaxation, trust, and a sense of well-being, while lowering stress and anxiety.¹

In women especially, addressing the hormonal imbalances common during menopausal shifts may also improve sleep quality. Insomnia risk increase with age, and when combined with hot flashes, night sweats, or mood changes, restful sleep can feel out of reach. Estrogen and/or progesterone hormone replacement therapy could be the key to unlocking a good night’s rest.

Sleep Support

Lack of sleep is making life harder for millions of Americans today. Unfortunately, poor sleep does far more than just make you tired the next day. It can cause:

Short- and long-term memory issues
Moodiness and anxiety
Trouble concentrating and problem solving
Weakened immunity
Higher risk for accidents
High blood pressure
Weight gain
Low sex drive
Risk of diabetes and heart disease

All of this makes sleep critical to good health. Belmar compounds two treatment options designed for sleep support. One can be used to help you fall asleep. Melatonin is a hormone that your pineal gland (within the brain) produces in response to darkness. The pineal gland sleeps during daylight but gets to work when night falls. Its hormone helps regulate your internal clock and make you feel sleepy at the right time. Having too much light in your home at night, particularly in your bedroom, can prevent the release of melatonin. Melatonin supplements may help with jet lag, resetting your internal clock (delayed sleep-wake phase disorder) and adjusting to a new work schedule. They may also shorten the time it takes to fall asleep and help with temporary insomnia.

Our other sleep support medication, modafinil, is prescribed to help you stay awake when you need to be. It can reduce extreme daytime sleepiness due to narcolepsy and other sleep disorders, such as sleep apnea. It can also be used to help you stay awake during work if your work schedule keeps you from having a normal sleep routine (shift work).

¹ Psychopharmacology, 2012

Who May Benefit from Brain, Mood, & Sleep Support?

In today’s busy, fast-paced world, most of us probably could use brain, mood, or sleep support at some point in our lives. The technology that helps us do more with our day, for example, can also create sleep problems at night. Working too many hours, not taking vacation time, relationship and family difficulties, relocating for a new job, financial problems — all of these can contribute to not feeling your best and brightest. Although some issues are temporary, if you find that problems like trouble sleeping, anxiety, depression, moodiness, foggy thinking, etc, are having a significant impact on your life, talk to your doctor about whether medication support could help.

Who Should Avoid These Types of Medications?

Short-term problems with mood, concentration, or sleep may not be a reason to need support. Minor problems often go away by themselves. One or two bad nights’ sleep or a bit of worry over an upcoming presentation at work are probably no cause for concern. However, you and your doctor should discuss problems that have continued for a while, are wearing you down, or affecting your sense of well-being.
Your doctor can also tell you which of the medications for brain, mood, and sleep support might be best for you and which, if any, you should avoid, based on your physical condition and medical history.