How To Optimize Human Growth Hormone (HGH)

A hormone of the utmost importance

Human Growth Hormone, or HGH, is a hormone of the utmost importance. Just like testosterone, it is vital for both men and women. However, to the difference of testosterone, HGH is a peptide hormone, not a steroid hormone.

HGH offers many benefits: increased bone density, muscle mass, energy, decreased risk for heart disease, etc. It's a very powerful hormone that many athletes inject into their bodies (like testosterone) to increase their muscle mass, their bone health (to avoid injuries), their recovery, and their performance.

But, of course, we want to do all of this naturally. We want to optimize HGH levels naturally so we can live a healthy and richer life. But how to do so? Well, here is the 3 step framework for optimizing HGH levels naturally:

Sleep, Nutrition, and Exercise.

Sleep

Sleep is extremely important: it's the part of your day that allows your body to rest, recover, rebuild your muscles, and strengthen your body. However, many people do not have enough sleep or if they do, they go against their circadian rhythm natural inclination.

Let's get straight to the point: to optimize HGH you need to optimize your sleep because HGH is particularly produced during the sleeping phase of an individual. And to optimize your sleep is to follow a few steps. Firstly, it is to sleep at least 7 hours per day, preferably 8, and more if possible. Sleeping 8 hours a day doesn't mean you're in your bed for 8 hours, it means you're in your bed for at least 8 hours and 30 minutes or even 9 hours.

Secondly, you need to fix your circadian rhythm by waking up roughly at the same time every day and going to sleep roughly at the same time every day, with a 30-minute interval. Then, every morning, 3 hours upon waking up, watch the sun for 10-20 minutes on sunny or cloudy days. Do not directly look at the sun of course but try to get sunlight in your eyes, even indirectly by simply looking at the sky or facing the direction of the sun.

On cloudy days, you should spend more time outside and look directly at the sky. Do it without anything blocking your view: a window, sunglasses, anything. Glasses are alright tho.

And of course, reduce light exposure before bed. It's important to minimize blue light exposure and generally bright lights before bed because it suppresses the production of melatonin or blocks it. Melatonin, if you didn't know, is a quintessential hormone for sleep: it is the hormone of sleep, the one giving you this "tiredness" feeling.

This is why you should maybe consider using a melatonin supplement if you struggle with falling asleep. Using one will make your body shut off for sleep and is generally recommended for people with sleep problems.

Also, DO NOT MISS THE FIRST 90 MINUTES OF SLEEP. This is very important, especially for HGH (Human Growth Hormone). Let's say for example you go to sleep every day at 10:30 pm and you wake up every day at 7:30 am. Following this logic, you should not miss the first 90 minutes of sleep, meaning you should not miss the sleep cycle from 10:30 pm to midnight.

According to Dr. Gina Poe in the Andrew Huberman podcast, each cells in our bodies have an internal clock, and they are normally all synchronized. These cells are ready to receive Human Growth Hormone but if we miss the first 90 minutes, there might be some release of HGH but the clock would have already moved on to another part of your sleep, to other goals. It's like missing the bus or the train, you have to be on time.

Let's move on to the second principle of this three-step framework to optimize HGH levels.

Nutrition

Of course, as with everything in our bodies, one of the fundamentals of living a healthier life is to eat healthier. Eat a healthy and balanced diet, with stable ratios of healthy fats, a good amount of protein (2g per kg of body weight) and a good to low amount of carbohydrates.

Eat whole foods, mostly 100% natural foods, and be weary of estrogenic foods and processed foods as a whole. Try to always opt for the 100% natural option. Use an Omega 3 supplement as it has been linked to increased growth hormone and use Vitamin D as it has been linked to increased levels of IGF1 (insulin-like growth factor 1), or in other words, if we put it broadly and generally, HGH (even tho it's not exactly the same thing). Also, taking Creatine has been proven to increase HGH significantly after 6 weeks of use.

You can also use a calcium supplement or a magnesium and zinc supplement. I also recommend buying an Arginine supplement because it has been proven to help with Human Growth Hormone in a few studies. However, consult with a medical professional beforehand because Arginine has been linked to health complications further down the line, and in general, it's always good to see if it won't cause health problems tailored to your body and needs.

Also, taking a GABA (Gamma-aminobutyric acid) supplement might prove to increase HGH levels significantly. A 2008 study found that taking a GABA supplement led to a 400% increase in HGH at rest and a 200% increase after exercising.

Finally, practice intermittent fasting. Studies have found that a 24-hour fast increases HGH by 2000%. Therefore, try to do 24-hour fasts here and there and/or simply do intermittent fasting. Intermittent fasting might not work as efficiently as a 24-hour fast for HGH but it still is a good tool to have in your arsenal.

To practice intermittent fasting, simply do not eat in between meals. Have an 8-hour eating window. For example, eat at 6 AM, then at 12 PM, and finally at 8 PM. In this order, you wouldn't eat for 8 hours in between each meal. This would probably increase your HGH levels slightly, and it's generally healthy for your body and mind.

By the way, losing body fat also is important for boosting HGH. People who tend to have higher body fat percentages often have decreased HGH production compared to people with lower body fat percentages. Fat directly affects HGH, maybe in a straight-forward way or in an underlying way, but anyway, be careful about the fat around your waist. It could prove to be hurting your HGH levels.

Finally, be careful about sugar and alcohol, as well as processed foods and estrogenic foods. Sugar (higher insulin) affects Human Growth Hormone and alcohol hurts your sleep, which as we've seen before plays a major role in producing HGH, so try not to drink alcohol 4 to 6 hours before bedtime. Processed foods and estrogenic foods are generally bad for your health and are full of artificial sugars, sugars, sometimes even alcohol, unhealthy vegetable oils, etc, which could hurt your hormones and therefore HGH.

Let's move on to the last step, exercise.

Exercise

To naturally increase HGH, try out aerobic exercises. High-intensity exercises such as sprinting, HIIT, or CrossFit have been proven to increase Human Growth Hormone significantly. However, try to opt for sprinting or very high-intensity biking or swimming for a short duration. You see, the HGH increase formula through exercise is short duration very high-intensity exercise (30 seconds sprints for example), and a long rest period (90 seconds).

For example, a study found that sprinting can increase HGH by 771%, which is doubly as effective as if you directly injected HGH into your body. So, sprint for 20-30 seconds, rest for 90 seconds and repeat the process 8 times in total. Also, be careful not to sprint for too long, do not go over 30 seconds. The longer you sprint, the longer you stimulate cortisol (the hormone of stress) and then it's going to be less effective or even detrimental for HGH.

If you can't sprint, as I've said before, you can do this whilst cycling or swimming. The goal is to stimulate your cardio in an intense way so it produces more HGH.

During rest days, have an active recovery if possible. Stretching, walking or a light jog is an example of active recovery. Active recovery will ensure that you recover better.

Conclusion

Optimizing or bettering your levels of HGH naturally requires you to sleep well and have a consistent sleep schedule, eat a healthy and 100% natural diet, and use supplementation as a health booster, all of this whilst practicing high-intensity exercises at least twice a week, and exercising regularly whilst having an active lifestyle and active recovery days.

Finally, thank you for reading. I hope this article was of help. As always, focus on the fundamentals of sleep, exercise and diet, and then see what you could optimize to increase HGH.

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