40p-a-day GP-backed supplement gives 'stressed' shoppers a 'full night's sleep'
Many people struggle to switch off at night, unwind, destress and achieve a good night's sleep. A study by Restorez revealed that 65% of individuals seldom wake up feeling refreshed and recharged, often seeking methods to improve their sleep quality.
It's not uncommon for individuals to hunt for hacks, tips, and tricks to facilitate easier sleep, which can become overwhelming if unsuccessful. Now, customers can purchase the supplement Pause from Noggin from £23.99, claimed to soothe the mind, promote relaxation, and foster peaceful, quality sleep.
Noggin was founded by GP Dr Clara Doran and is free of fillers, additives or unnecessary ingredients. Customers can now try Pause for themselves with the premium supplement featuring a unique blend of botanicals, minerals and medicinal mushrooms, specifically selected for their clinically proven brain-supportive and nootropic properties.
All components have undergone research and clinical testing, providing reassurance to those seeking relaxation that it will indeed be effective. The Pause supplement contains a variety of key ingredients chosen to support brain health and reduce stress and anxiety. These include Ashwagandha, an adaptogenic herb native to India that helps balance the body and mind, reports the Express.
It's also shown to reduce cortisol levels, enhance GABA receptors, regulate serotonin, and protect the brain from oxidative damage. Other ingredients include lemon balm, l-thenanine, hop extract, rhodiola rosea, and lion's mane mushroom.
For optimal results, customers are advised to take 1-2 capsules with food daily. However, those who are pregnant, breastfeeding, or on medication should consult their healthcare practitioner before use. It's also important to note that the product is not intended as a substitute for a varied diet and healthy lifestyle.
Usually £29.99, the supplements can be purchased cheaper via the brand's subscribe and save service. (£23.99) If taking one per day, it would work out at 40p a day, or 80p a day if taking two.
This brand isn't the only supplement on the market for stress and sleep and shoppers can try some alternatives. For example, there is the JSHealth Calm + De-Stress 60 Tablets for £15.99 from Boots which is designed to promote serenity and mental wellbeing through a combination of adaptogens, herbs and vitamins.
Another option is Bach RESCUE Peaceful Night 30 Capsules for £18.25 from Holland & Barrett which is said to support a peaceful night's sleep and is vegan.
Pause has received a high rating of 4.9 out of 5 stars on Noggin's website. One satisfied customer shared: "I've been taking PAUSE for 3 weeks and already feel much calmer and my sleep is so much better."
Another wrote: "I've been trying PAUSE for a few weeks and seen a difference. It has helped relax me when I feel anxious and quite stressed throughout the day which then affects my sleep at night. First time in years I had a full nights sleep and improved my overall mood."
Not everyone was bowled over and failed to experience all the advantages. One two-star rating read: 'I really wanted to love this product having read all the other reviews, but it didn't seem to work for me. I am back to trying to find a solution to the daily afternoon slump.'
However another wrote: "I've been going through a lot of stress at home and couldn't sleep as a result. I've been taking PAUSE for a week and it has made it easier to shut my worries off when I go to bed and actually get some sleep. Less stressed and anxious when I wake up which is such a relief."
For those wanting to relax, de-stress and enjoy a proper night's rest, Pause from Noggin might be a brilliant supplement to consider.
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The Guardian
9 hours ago
- The Guardian
How will Israel's ‘humanitarian pauses' affect Gaza's starvation crisis?
On Sunday morning, Israel announced it would begin a daily 'humanitarian pause' in three densely populated areas of Gaza as it comes under increasing international pressure to alleviate the territory's worsening starvation crisis. Other measures also announced include the resumption of airdropped aid, the activation of a desalination plant and the provision of humanitarian corridors to facilitate UN aid deliveries within Gaza. Last week the territory slipped into a full-blown starvation crisis, with dozens dying from hunger. According to the World Food Programme, 90,000 women and children are in urgent need of treatment for malnutrition, while one in three people are going without food for days. Doctors in Gaza have described struggling to keep up with the number of patients coming in seeking treatment for malnourishment, with few tools at their disposal to provide them help. 'Our malnutrition ward in the hospital is extremely overcrowded. Due to the large number of cases, some children are forced to sleep on the floor,' said Dr Ahmad al-Farra, the director of paediatrics at Nasser medical complex. The hunger crisis has affected virtually everyone in the Gaza Strip, with organisations like the UN describing their staff as 'walking corpses'. After resuming fighting in mid-March, Israel blocked all aid from entering Gaza for two and a half months, in what it said was an attempt to exert pressure on Hamas to release hostages. In May, Israel started allowing a trickle of aid in, mostly through the private US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF). Israel proposed the GHF as an alternative to the UN-aid system after claiming – without providing evidence – that Hamas was systematically stealing aid from the UN. More than 1,000 people have been killed while trying to get aid, most of them near GHF food distribution sites. In total, Israel has let in 4,500 UN aid trucks into Gaza since May – an average of about 70 trucks a day. This is a far cry from prewar figures of 500-600 trucks a day, which the UN said is a requisite amount to help restore the health of Gaza's population. Israel has announced airdropped aid will resume, which humanitarian organisations have said will provide a negligible amount of supplies. It also said that humanitarian corridors will be established to facilitate the entry of UN aid trucks into Gaza, though the number of trucks that will be allowed in is unspecified. NGOs say these steps may ease aid access, but with mass starvation already under way, far more is needed. In particular, humanitarian groups have called for a full ceasefire in order to get civilians the help they need. 'We have to go back to the levels we had during the ceasefire, 500-600 trucks of aid every day managed by the UN, including Unrwa, that our teams would distribute in 400 distribution points,' said Juliette Touma, Unrwa director of communications. She explained that aid agencies had previously walked Gaza back from the brink of starvation and that to do so again, an unimpeded flow of aid would be needed to 'reverse the tide and trajectory of famine'. Unrwa, which Israel banned from operating in Gaza in January, has 6,000 trucks of aid loaded with food, medicine and other hygiene supplies in Jordan and Egypt. The WFP said on Sunday it had enough aid to feed the population of Gaza for three months. Israel's latest announcement also is unclear about how long it will maintain humanitarian pauses and corridors. Humanitarians have said that consistency is key to their work. It also appears that Israel is relaxing some of its restrictions on the role of the UN in distributing aid in Gaza, but to what extent is unclear. The UN has said that only it is able to distribute aid efficiently within the territory, pointing to the deadly killings around the GHF as an example of why expertise is needed. Palestinians are reacting to Israel's announcement with caution, unwilling to raise their hopes after repeated promises of an imminent ceasefire have fallen through. Local people said they saw no immediate difference in the availability of food and of prices – with the exception of flour, the price of which dropped 20% over night. It is the first day of Israel's humanitarian pauses, so it could be a while before increased aid has a noticeable effect on the ground. However, Gaza's population is running out of time. Each day, more people die from hunger and the number of people suffering from severe malnutrition grows. Doctors have also warned that alleviating the starvation crisis will not be as easy as flipping a switch. People who are suffering from acute malnutrition need specialised treatment, as they can develop refeeding syndrome if they resume eating normally after a prolonged period of hunger. 'All of these folks who have been deprived for so long, we worry about the complications that they may have developed,' said Dr Thaer Ahmad, a doctor who has worked on medical missions in Gaza.
The Guardian
14 hours ago
- The Guardian
A hero among hormones: why cortisol is something to celebrate rather than stress about
Of all the hormones produced by the body, cortisol is the most misunderstood. It's essential to any number of biological processes, and yet commonly typecast as 'the one to do with stress' – an evolutionary adaptation for different times, wildly unsuited to modern living, something to reduce with meditation, reset with ice baths or regulate with red-light therapy. Personal trainers will tell you to avoid long runs in case they result in 'cortisol belly', while influencers diagnose 'cortisol face' as a sign of too much pressure in the office. To top it all, social media has recently seen the rise of the 'cortisol cocktail' – a combination of coconut water, orange juice, salt, and lemon that TikTokers claim can reduce stress and help with weight loss. But how much of this has any kind of scientific validity – and is worrying about your cortisol levels doing you more harm than good? The first thing to understand is what cortisol is, and what it actually does: and yes, that does include helping to manage our response to external stressors. In situations that the body perceives as fight-or-flight, it helps the body to produce immediate energy – as well as suppressing non-essential functions such as digestion or repair (we'll get to whether this is a bad thing or not shortly). 'Cortisol plays a vital role in blood-sugar regulation, by prompting the liver to produce glucose and helping ensure a steady supply of fuel to the brain and body,' says Hannah Alderson, a nutritionist, hormone specialist and author of Everything I Know About Hormones. 'It also helps modulate inflammation, keeping immune responses in check and preventing them from going into overdrive. It's key in how we metabolise fat, protein and carbohydrate.' It also regulates blood pressure, can act as a mood buffer, and kicks in to help fight infection if we're recovering from an acute illness. But one of its most vital roles is also its least talked-about. 'It's the hormone that gets us out of bed,' says Angela Clow, emeritus professor of psychophysiology at the University of Westminster. 'You get this burst of it in the morning, which is called the 'cortisol awakening response'. That's not a bad thing or a stress response – it's the body's way of waking up and promoting cognitive function. You've probably experienced a time when you have an early flight or a busy day ahead, and your body anticipates it and wakes you up without needing an alarm clock. That's cortisol priming your brain to be more alert and more active, preparing you for the day ahead.' Research published earlier this year confirmed that cortisol is already increasing from its lowest point about three hours before you wake up – putting to rest any idea that getting up itself is stressful for the body, and suggesting instead that rising cortisol levels are part of what gets us ready for the day. Like every other higher organism on the planet, we've evolved to live in an environment that's dark for (roughly) half of every day, and so our body needs a way to switch from restoration into activity, which seems to be one of cortisol's key roles. 'A very large proportion of the genes in your body are sensitive to cortisol,' says Stafford Lightman, a professor of medicine at Bristol Medical School and co-author on the recent research. 'And so cortisol has a daily rhythm, and that daily rhythm regulates multiple genes in multiple tissues; in your brain, your liver and your immune system.' As part of this process, cortisol levels gradually decline throughout the day, with periodic bursts approximately every 90 minutes helping to maintain proper bodily function. This certainly isn't a bad thing, but it does make gauging it difficult: you could take two measurements 30 minutes apart and get two wildly differing numbers. Under laboratory conditions, researchers take cortisol readings from blood or saliva multiple times a day to obtain a general picture of how volunteers' levels fluctuate and respond to stressors. At-home tests are much less useful: if you're only testing yourself once or twice a day, the only thing you might notice is that your levels are very high or very low. So what about the idea that the minor stresses of everyday life are constantly keeping our cortisol levels perilously high? One common characterisation of the way this might work is that our bodies, evolved to deal with sabre-tooth tiger attacks and flash floods, can't easily distinguish between those sorts of immediate, physical threats and more psychological ones – an argument on the school run, say, or a nasty email from a client. Social stressors, the theory goes, can be insidious: they're basically ever-present, especially if we're prone to catastrophise, and if our bodies' restorative systems switch themselves off every time we encounter them, we'll never have time for rest and repair. In baboon troops – which are very social and hierarchical – this effect is visible, with the lower-pecking-order males suffering with worse immunity and shorter lifespans, as their fight-or-flight systems are constantly prioritised over the rest-and-digest ones. But baboon lives tend to be genuinely far more stressful than human ones – if you're kicked out of the troop or can't find a mate, you're facing a genuine, near-immediate threat to your genes' survival, rather than just feeling a bit put out. There's speculation, of course, that our bodies can't make this sort of distinction, and that we still internally respond to having our birthday forgotten at the office like we would to banishment on the savannah. But is that really true? As it turns out, probably not. To test the effect of short-term bursts of stress, psychologists have developed all sorts of unpleasant laboratory procedures – from cold-water immersion to problem-solving under time pressure, to the Trier Social Stress Test, where volunteers are tasked with delivering a speech and mental arithmetic task in front of an unresponsive panel of evaluators. And the effect isn't as pronounced as you might have been led to believe. 'Trying to stress a human is really difficult,' says Lightman. 'Even plunging your hand into freezing-cold water has very little effect. If you've got a really important job interview that is going to govern the rest of your life, then yes, that's probably going to be stressful. But it's very subjective – some people, of course, actually like giving presentations in front of a crowd. With things like the Trier test, you might get a reaction the first time, and then you won't again – just understanding what the test is about is enough to destroy the effect.' This means you're unlikely to be suffering spikes in cortisol from the odd snippy Zoom call or altercation at the self-checkout – and, even if your body sees those situations as a threat to your wellbeing, there are other systems that kick in first. 'It's not just cortisol that goes up in stressful situations,' says Dr Thomas Upton, a clinical research fellow who also worked on the recent study. 'There are other hormones – like catecholamines, your adrenaline and noradrenaline – that play key roles in the immediate part of the fight-or-flight response. This is what helps you 'fight the lion' and get yourself out of the situation, followed up by cortisol release if the stress is strong enough or long enough. What you're feeling in a very stressful situation like a jump scare is a rush of adrenaline that makes your heart pound and your mouth go dry and all the rest of it.' Brief, short-term stress is probably not doing you any harm, then. But does this mean heightened cortisol becomes more of an issue when you're continuously stressed over the long term – for instance, from worrying about a family problem or the mortgage – or even deliberately putting yourself through too many difficult workouts? 'That's a bit trickier,' says Prof Clow. 'If you just have a short burst of perceived stress, you will have a little burst of cortisol. That's fine: your body will speedily return to normal cortisol secretion. But if you're chronically stressed, repeatedly getting these bursts, that can affect the regulation of your underlying circadian pattern, which is regulated by your biological clock. So that, instead of having a healthy dynamic pattern of cortisol secretion over each 24 hours, you get 'flat-lining', which is not able to regulate other processes adequately.' Constant stress, then, is probably bad for your cognitive function and health. But cortisol is unlikely to change how you look, unless there are larger problems at play. 'If you had Cushing's syndrome, which is a rare condition where cortisol levels in the body are very high, for example due to a tumour of the adrenal gland, then yes, you might gain extra weight around the stomach, or notice that your face becomes round and puffy,' says Niamh Martin, a professor of endocrinology at Imperial College London. 'But that tends to be with very, very high cortisol levels.' And, while it's true that something like a long run can elevate cortisol levels over the short term, that doesn't mean there's any need to ditch your plans for a new personal best. 'Doing, say, a marathon is a massively stressful situation for the body,' says Upton. 'You need a cortisol response in that situation, and there's nothing wrong with it: if you didn't have that response, the results would probably be terrible. You might actually die.' The good news, then, is that you can happily ignore the most outlandish advice about keeping cortisol in check with cocktails or cold plunges. Unless you're suffering from a clear medical issue, you probably also don't need to worry about how your cortisol's changing on a daily or hourly basis. Several companies are working on methods for continuously monitoring cortisol levels as you go about your everyday life – but even these could do most people more harm than good. 'Something that we've seen with glucose monitors is that they create a lot of 'worried well' people who put one on, have their breakfast and say, oh hell, my blood sugar's gone up too much,' says Lightman. 'And then they start worrying about doing all sorts of things and make themselves ill. If you're an Olympic sprinter or something, continuous monitoring might be useful. But, among most people, there's so much individual variation that the range we call 'normal' is huge.' There's one more obvious question here, though: if cortisol isn't the culprit, why does stress seem to go hand in hand with poor health, immune-system disruption and weight gain? 'It's very difficult to unpick,' says Martin. 'For instance, many of us have a complex relationship with food – and there are behavioural reasons why we eat besides being hungry – so it's easy to blame cortisol if we notice that we're gaining weight, but it might also be that, because we're stressed, we're eating in a different way. Similarly, you might be having a tough time at work and that means you don't have time to exercise, or you're not sleeping well because you're stressed and that's negatively affecting your cortisol levels, rather than the relationship going the other way. Part of the issue is that we still don't fully understand the chronic stresses that modern life involves and what their impact is on our bodies over a long period of time.' So what does all this mean for you and your life – stressful or otherwise? 'I think the most evidence-backed approach is to treat cortisol as something like a bystander, rather than blaming it for any issues you're having,' says Martin. 'If you're chronically stressed, that's something to deal with for health reasons, but it's not necessarily a question of artificially finding ways to keep your cortisol down – it's more holistic than that. The most important thing is to look after yourself, rather than reaching for an expensive supplement or a cortisol cocktail or anything like that.' 'There are a few things that seem to help keep cortisol well regulated,' says Clow. 'The research suggests, for instance, that the earlier you wake – within reason – promotes a healthy and dynamic cortisol rhythm. So getting plenty of sleep and then getting up relatively early seems to be very good for you. There's increasing evidence that night-time light exposure inhibits your melatonin secretion, which liberates cortisol and allows it to rise while you sleep.' It's worth mentioning, though, that getting enough sleep – and on a regular schedule – might be more important. Physical exercise seems to keep cortisol well regulated but, if you can't face the gym, that's not necessarily a bad thing. 'Gentle exercise, like walking, stretching or pilates, can regulate cortisol far better than an hour-long Hiit class on an empty stomach,' says Alderson. 'Breath work is amazing and you can do it anywhere. Micromoments of joy are a lot simpler to weave in than grand gestures like week-long yoga retreats – and, even if they're not directly affecting your cortisol, they matter more than people realise. A laugh, a hug, a walk in nature: this stuff really matters.' Finally, it's important to remember that, even if modern living does occasionally nudge your hormones outside optimal levels, cortisol is on your side. Your body's stress response to most things should be good for you. Try to get some exercise every day, sleep on a regular schedule, and eat as sensibly as you can. Don't worry about the other stuff: you really don't need the stress.
Daily Record
2 days ago
- Daily Record
Bacon will be perfectly crispy in 45 seconds using this unusual method
This easy method for cooking bacon will save you time and effort when cooking up your next fry up It might not top the list of healthiest breakfast, but sometimes nothing hits the spot quite like crispy rashers of bacon. Whether you're enjoying them alongside soft, yolky eggs and a splash of tomato sauce or sandwiched between slices of fresh bread on a lazy summer morning, bacon remains a beloved treat. But what if you could enjoy that indulgent bacon fix with less hassle, fewer calories and in a fraction of the time it takes to fry? Surprisingly there's a quicker and cleaner way to cook bacon - all you need is a microwave. At first, the idea of microwaved bacon might not sound especially appetising. But food experts say it can deliver delicious results that rival traditional frying - without the oil, the splatter or the washing-up, the Express reports. Whether you prefer smoked or unsmoked rashers, this method is fast, easy and surprisingly effective. How to cook bacon in the microwave According to BBC Good Food, it's simple: Line a microwave safe plate with some sheets of kitchen roll Lay your bacon rashers flat, making sure they don't overlap If you prefer softer bacon, cover the plate with a microwave safe lid Set your microwave to high power (if adjustable) and cook according to your desired crispiness: For medium crispy bacon - 1 minute per rasher. Extra crispy bacon - 2 minutes+ per rasher Check the bacon halfway through cooking to ensure it's cooking evenly and turn over if necessary If you like American style bacon, just extend the cooking time until you reach the perfect crunch. This method is backed by other food websites and bloggers, for creating the perfect rasher of bacon in minutes. The Healthy Recipe Blog says: "This bacon is absolutely amazing. I resisted the idea for a long time, thinking it couldn't possibly be as good as pan-fried or oven bacon." The blog's host admitted that they were wrong, saying: "Happily, I was wrong! Using the microwave to cook bacon is just as good as using the oven or a frying pan. The bacon cooks evenly and comes out perfectly crispy. And it's a fast method - faster and easier than any other." "You can use this bacon like any other bacon! It's an obvious breakfast choice," they continued. If you have any leftover bacon, or you have just over estimated how much you can eat, the blogger gives tips for storage, saying: "You can keep the leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge for up to four days. Once they are cool, I store them in a resealable food storage bag." The best part of this method is there is no oil needed. Meaning you are skipping the extra calories that come with pan frying bacon.
