Two mechanisms, drawn
The stress hormone that is also the body's steroid, and the chain that turns a cytokine into a foggy afternoon.
View full illustration ↗
View full illustration ↗Neuroplasticity
The brain rewires in response to what it is repeatedly asked to do, and inflammation slows that rewiring: chronic cytokine exposure lowers BDNF, the growth factor that lets neurons form new connections. The reverse is also true. Sleep, exercise, learning and a calmer stress axis raise it, which is one reason the habits in this section compound over months rather than days. Polyphenols belong in this conversation too: curcumin, resveratrol, EGCG and the anthocyanins in bilberry cross into the brain in small amounts and act on the same NF-κB and Nrf2 switches there that they act on in the gut wall.
Melatonin, briefly
Melatonin has its full entry at C-08, and I treat it as a hormone rather than a supplement: sparingly, at night, and at far lower doses than most people take. If sleep is the problem, the herbal formula on the following pages is what I reach for first. When melatonin is the right tool, its card is repeated at the end of this section, alongside magnesium glycinate.
How the five products map onto these two drawings
Phosphatidylserine (M-05) and Rescue Remedy (M-02) work on the first drawing, the cortisol curve: one by blunting the hormone's response to a stressor in trials, the other, if it does anything for you at all, by taking the edge off the moment. L-tyrosine (M-04) and L-theanine (M-03) work on the second: the raw material for dopamine when inflammation has run it down, and the calming counterweight that keeps focus from turning into anxiety. The herbal sleep formula (M-01) works on both, because a night of real rest is where the stress axis resets and the reward circuits recover. None of these is the large lever. The large lever is the night's sleep itself, the movement and the practice that quiets the alarm, and the next page shows why those compound.
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Options to explore with your care team. These are not a recommendation to take them together. Andrew earns a commission on Fullscript purchases. US shipping only.