What are the Benefits of Hops Flower Powder?


Hops are widely known for adding flavor to everyone’s favorite beer. They are the flower on the hop plant, scientifically known as Humulus lupulus. The flowers are artichoke-like buds that have the flavonoids xanthohumol and 8-prenylnaringenin and the essential oils humulene and lupuline. For centuries, hops were used for medicinal purposes before the rise of Western medicine. Today, people are looking to natural substances and ingredients to reduce anxiety and help them get a better night’s sleep. For the past few decades, Western medicine has used prescription medication to treat anxiety, stress, and depression with tons of chemicals and ingredients that we can’t even pronounce. Now, we are starting to see that pharmaceutical companies are in it for the money and maybe aren’t selling us the best products that the market can produce. Enter natural supplements with real ingredients, like here at Calm. 

The relaxing properties of hops were originally discovered in the fields that they were farmed. Before the Industrial Revolution, hops were picked by hand. It was noticed that hops pickers tired easier than other pickers during harvest time and it was decided that this was because of a sticky resin that the plant excreted when it was cut. Now, we understand that humulene and lupuline are the reason for this. These essential oils have a mild sedative property and can induce sleep.

There have been other studies showing that hops has reduced anxiety and led to better sleep. In 2012, a study was published in Plos One involving female nurses. These nurses were given non-alcoholic beer with their dinner for two weeks. Their sleep was then monitored using a wristband tracker. It was found that the beer helped them fall asleep 8 minutes faster on average and also reduce the nurse’s anxiety. 

A second study done in 2014 was on a group of 30 college students. This one lasted three weeks and used questionnaires about their sleep-quality index to find the results. After the first week, the students drank non-alcoholic beer alongside dinner for the final two weeks of the study. Researchers found that the students experienced improvement in their sleep scores and in how long it took them to fall asleep.

By combining hops flower powder with valerian root powder and passionflower powder, it creates a natural alternative to classic prescription sleep medicine. There was a study done in 2013 and it compared to a popular sleep medication to the combination of hops flower, valerian root, and passionflower and the results were found to be the same.

Calm includes all three of these ingredients, so it may be an alternative to something your doctor might prescribe... But we're not claiming it cures or prevents any diseases. Please be sure to speak with your doctor before making ANY changes to your medications or diet!

Another benefit of the hops flower is that it helps alleviate hot flashes and night sweats for menopausal women. The flavonoid 8-prenylnaringenin that’s in the hops flower is considered a phytoestrogen. This means that it’s a plant-based compound the mimics estrogen. Because of this ingredient, hops is believed to reduce hot flashes and increase libido. And, since it’s natural, there are none of the negative effects that hormone therapy can lead to.

Hops is also thought to help improve cardiovascular disease. It contains the compound xanthohumol which has anti-restenotic effects which means that it relaxes blood vessels and helps improve the blood circulation in the body. Another positive of xanthohumol is that it’s been shown to increase HDL, or “good”, cholesterol.  By increasing HDL cholesterol, you’re decreasing your risk of atherosclerosis which is the hardening of arteries and the accumulation of plaque inside the artery. This is usually what leads to a heart attack or stroke. 

There are two other health issues that hops is thought to have a positive effect on, but there isn’t enough information to consider it a truth yet. These two conditions are depression and cancer. Because hops can reduce stress and anxiety, it’s also thought to help reduce the effects of depression as well. If you have depression, taking hops might be helpful because it will reduce your feelings of stress and anxiety which are two major symptoms of depression. When it comes to cancer, the compound xanthohumol is what is thought to be effective in fighting the disease. There have been studies that showed xanthohumol actually killing cancer cells as well as programmed cancer cell death. Researchers are looking into this further, but it’s not far fetched to think that an anti-cancer drug containing hops could be on the horizon.

Calm was formulated with hops flower powder because we understand how beneficial it can be to our bodies in reducing stress and anxiety. The goal of Calm is to help busy people like you feel focused, relaxed, and healthy. Our mental health professionals looked at all of the research surrounding the hops flower and knew that it had to be included in our formula. In every dose of Calm, you’re getting hops flower powder along with other beneficial ingredients.

In today’s fast paced world where we’re expected to go, go, go without ever stopping to take a breath, we can find ourselves drowning in the feelings of stress and anxiety. Sleep evades us, we start to suffer at work, and then this only leads to more anxiety and stress. For anyone that’s experienced this vicious cycle, you can understand how difficult it is to pull yourself out of the spiral. Sometimes it feels easier to just swim down and let the darkness overtake you. We at Calm don’t want you to ever feel hopeless. Our goal in creating this supplement was to help you fight the stress and anxiety with all-natural ingredients that you can actually pronounce.

The hops flower is an ingredient that has been known to reduce stress and anxiety for centuries. The mental health professionals at Calm were familiar with the studies involving the hops flower and decided it had to be included in the formula. 

If you have any questions about Hops Flower Powder, or how you can incorporate Calm into your lifestyle, please contact us!

0 comments

  • There are no comments yet. Be the first one to post a comment on this article!

Leave a comment

Please note, comments must be approved before they are published