>

SAM-e: Miracle Health Supplement!

While excessive use of sam-e could trigger insomnia, regular, responsible, sensible use of same-e should have the opposite effect; it should help to induce deeper and healthier sleep. The reason is that sam-e helps convert the seratonin in your brain – a neurotransmitter related to feeling good – into melatonin, the hormone naturally produced by the body to induce sleep.

While melatonin will be discussed in another article, it must be mentioned that melatonin is one of the only substances ever discovered to increase lifespan in laboratory experiments with animals. Animals fed melatonin in their diets lived on average about 30% longer than those that did not receive the melatonin. Everyone should take melatonin over the age of 30, period. Anywhere from 1/2 to 5 grams is a fairly normal range. The only side-effects I’ve ever heard of are grogginess the next day if you take too much, and nightmares, which are really rare.

In addition, melatonin may be the safest substance ever discovered. Scientists always try and find the fatal or toxic dose of a substance when they study it. That means they take some animals and continue to give them higher and higher doses until they die. That gives scientists an idea of that important threshold.

When scientists tried to feed laboratory animals with fatal doses of melatonin, not only were they unable to kill the animals, some of the animals exhibited a lower incidence of certain cancers! Talk about safety!

As to side effects, although most anti-depressants cause debilitating side-effects such as loss of sex drive – which is why so many people stop taking them – sam-e does not have this effect. Sam-e is also easy on the stomach and won’t cause ulcers. Additionally, it has been shown to reduce pain with certain conditions.

As with most super foods and supplements, you will often read not to take sam-e without a doctor’s supervision. As long as you educate yourself as to the proper doses, listen to your body and exercise sensible and reasonable caution and moderation, there is no reason that a doctor’s supervision is required. Consult an anti-aging specialist if treating a specific disease.

Sam-e is highly unstable and so carefully sealed in individually contained foil packets. This helps preserve the freshness and potency, so never leave unprotected pills lying around for long periods. Because of the importance of quality, be sure to purchase your sam-e only from large, reputable manufacturers.

High quality sam-e is also manufactured in enteric coated tablets to prevent destruction by stomach acids so it can pass into the intestines where it is most effectively absorbed. It is also easier on the stomach.

Endorsements such as these are common:

“Once i heard about sam-e i hesitated to try it because of the high cost of this supplement. But as my sciatic pain raged on for months with no sign of improvement i knew i had to do something. I was told by doctors that i had sciatica and arthritis in my hips and that this would deteriorate as i got older. I have been taking 400 mg a day of sam-e since october 1999 and have found that sam-e has helped improved my mood and reduced the need for prescription pain relievers. I am not paid to endorse any commercial sam-e products and am simply sharing my experience with this supplement.” – http://www.altnature.com/library.sam_e.htm

It is possible that foods high in folic acid, dark green leafy vegetables, may help the body produce its own sam-e, but supplementation is necessary to treat any type of disease or for those who are aging.

[News update: New research just released in the 08/2009 issue of the journal Hepatology provides strong evidence that SAM-e can help in the prevention of liver cancer! However, once the liver cancer was already established, the effect of SAM-e diminished. More evidence that it is better to prevent disease than treat it! Great news!]

Leave your experience of and questions for SAM-e in the comments section below.

Pages: 1 2

116 comments to SAM-e: Miracle Health Supplement!

Leave a Reply

  

  

  

You can use these HTML tags

<a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>