DOSE: T+ 0:00		oral	Hops	(tea)
T+ 0:00	350 mg	oral	St. John's Wort
T+ 0:00	330 ml	oral	Alcohol - Beer/Wine
T+ 3:00	400 mg	oral	Valerian	(pill / tablet)
T+ 3:00	382 mg	oral	Hops	(pill / tablet)
T+ 3:00	162 mg	oral	Lemon Balm	(pill / tablet)
T+ 0:00	1 glass	oral	Hops	(tea)

BODY WEIGHT:

118 lb

I read that Hops can help with anxiety and trouble sleeping, so I decided to order some hops from a brewery. They had about 8 other varieties, but I chose Amarillo which is the most popular and smells and tastes strongly of grapefruit.

I seeped about 2 heaping tablespoons in 32 ounces of hot water for a few minutes. It tasted extremely bitter. To my surprise it did have an almost immediate effect, which felt alot like a beer buzz, but it also gave me a bit of a headache. Not a sharp or strong headache, sort of like a hangover sick stuffy head feeling that I would get with wine. I wouldn't say it made me sleepy (note: it takes alot to get me to sleep) but it did have a mild calming effect. We drove to the mall shortly after and while I was riding in the car with my boyfriend, the silence and the speed of his driving didn't bother me as much. It was very tranquil. However, I still had bad anxiety in the store and especially the checkout line. I tried this again the following day and I got a headache again.

Finally I used a percolator and brewed about 6 cups with 4 tablespoons of Hops. The percolator pretty much extracted as much as there is to extract from the hops and the brew was strong. I drank a little and let the rest cool in the fridge. It was very very bitter and gave me that groggy headachy feeling. A little while later I took 350 mg of Saint Johns Wort and drank a beer. That seemed to give me a slight happy feeling for a minute, 15 minutes after taking that but faded. The beer made me feel better than the hops tea does and less of that sick headachy feeling, surprisingly . My boyfriend also took a Saint Johns wort (but not the hops or the beer) and says it made him feel weird all day but he's straight edge and extremely sensitive to any substance).

Three hours later I took 2 tablets of Valeriana Natt which contains 400 mg of Valerian root 162mg Lemon Balm and 382 mg Hops. This gave me some shooting pain in my liver, probably because of the Valerian, but did make me feel sleepy. Its too bad Valerian is toxic to your liver, for that reason, I threw the rest of the box out the next day even though it worked, because I read 2-3 weeks of continual use is enough to cause liver and kidney damage, which I wouldn't doubt given the fact 2 tablets gave me shooting pain.

I was sleepy but not knocked out so shortly after, before bed I tried a cold glass of the hops tea. The brew was very very bitter and I got a more pronounced headache though it also made me feel sleepier (it might have been the Valerian tablets still kicking in though), I felt groggier. Almost like having a hangover. It wasn't a pleasant or relaxing feeling and I think I will try smoking the rest.

I would not recommend taking hops in tea form and I would not recommend taking Valerian either as I've read someone in a liver transplant forum talking about how it was his herbal sleep pill of choice, making no correlation of course to the fact that maybe the Valerian caused some if not all of the damage...Will continue with the Saint Johns Wort. I took one 350mg tablet again today and don't feel anything pronounceable but perhaps it will help over time.

Exp Year: 2011	ExpID: 92781
Gender: Female
Age at time of experience: 32
Published: Jan 26, 2019	Views: 2,522
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Hops (252) : Alone (16), Preparation / Recipes (30), Combinations (3), First Times (2)