August 13, 2022
Angelo Keely is the co-founder and CEO of Kion, a performance and longevity supplement and functional food company dedicated to helping people fully experience a joyful, active life by providing pure, energy-enhancing solutions. Angelo Keely, along with yours truly, first started Kion in 2017 with a dream of creating something that motivated people to continue on their personal health journeys.
Since 2017, Angelo has taken part in helping to develop many of the highest-possible quality supplements on the market, cultivated an incredibly passionate team, and has helped fuel the growth of Kion.
Angelo was born to hippie parents in Austin, Texas, and raised in an old, funky, hand-built house nestled in the outer regions of the suburbs. They were health-nut pescatarians. He didn’t have a birth certificate or see a doctor until he was six. He didn’t have his first haircut until the summer before fourth grade. So, as you can imagine, he got very comfortable being “weird” early on.
He then had a series of traumatic accidents in his adolescence and early adulthood. Nearly stabbed and beaten to death at 16, he left home and became independent at 17, and was then involved in a deadly bus accident in the foothills of the Himalayas at 21. These events gifted him with the confidence to navigate all situations and a profound appreciation for simply existing.
Angelo spent several years working in Europe and India in his 20s. Thanks to this experience (and a lot of talking out loud to himself), he now speaks multiple languages. He was drawn to these experiences because he loves to see things, and himself, from new perspectives, and he's enthralled by the challenge of understanding new systems.
Angelo is also a multi-instrumentalist and loves to make music with unique variations of vocals, drums, piano, and guitar.
In this conversation with Angelo Keely, a special podcast re-release, you'll discover:
-What's been up with Angelo lately…10:20
- Podcasts with Angelo Keely:
- What Yoga Trapezes, Laser Lights, Kettlebells, Mini-Meditation & Ketogenic Doughnuts Have To Do With Building A Nutrition Supplements Empire.
- Everything You Need To Know About Protein Powders, Amino Acids, Animal Vs. Plant Protein, How Much Protein You Need & Much, Much More With Kion’s Angelo Keely.
- Kion Sleep
- Diving into sleep research as part of the product formulation process
- Doing 3x/week psychoanalysis for the last two years and its impact on sleep and dreams
- Dream journaling
-Why sleep is important…22:20
- We’ve learned a lot in the last 100 years, but we still know surprisingly little
- Hans Berger
- What do we know? (specific health impacts and specific brain wave impacts in humans, combined with the mechanism of action studies in animals)
- We are rhythmic natural beings: sleep/wake is the core rhythm
- What we still don’t know? (difficult to analyze mechanisms of action on humans)
- Brain energy reserves
- Kion Aminos
- Kion Creatine
-The science of sleep…40:42
- What is the definition of sleep?
- How do we primarily measure sleep? Speed and amplitude of waves?
- What are the stages of sleep (What does each one do? Why?)
- Delta: synchronized
- Beta: unsynchronized
- How do cycles change throughout the night?
- What are circadian rhythms, and how do they affect sleep?
- NuCalm
- Circadian rhythms supersede sleep cycles
- Light cues the circadian rhythm
- Articles on sleep:
- Everything You Need To Know About Sleep Cycles (And Four Ways To Hack Your Sleep Cycles)
- The Last Resource On Sleep You’ll Ever Need: Ben Greenfield’s Ultimate Guide To Napping, Jet Lag, Sleep Cycles, Insomnia, Sleep Food, Sleep Supplements, Exercise Before Bed & Much, Much More!
- How I Track Sleep, The Top 7 Sleep Parameters To Track, Interpreting Your Sleep Trends & Much More.
- 10-3-2-1-0: Five Numbers To Remember For Lulling Yourself Into A Deep, Restorative Slumber (Without Fancy Biohacks Or Supplements).
-Possible purposes of sleep…56:35
- Brain energy reserves
- Memory consolidation
- Sleep And Olfactory Cortical Plasticity
- Not seriously considered due to the fact that they don’t require unconsciousness:
- Reduce energy expenditure
- Predator avoidance
- Edison would hold brass balls in his hand while sleeping on a bench in his lab
- The Road Less Stupid by Keith Cunningham
-The Kion Sleep formulation…1:04:46
- Why Kion chose to make this product
- The product development process
- Mechanistic studies on sleep
- Sleep latency
- Sleep disturbances
- Sleep quality
- How and why we landed on this formula (optimal nutritional support)
- Focus on regular use for long-term improved sleep quality (vs. unique sleep disruption; e.g. international travel or short-term stress)
- Why specific ingredients and doses?
- Tryptophan is a precursor of 5-HTP; 5-HTP is a precursor of serotonin; serotonin is a precursor of melatonin
- Why not other ingredients?
- Natural sleep system (using dietary approach and knowledge that sleep has shown to regulate over weeks)
- Daily use; ingredients studied long term with best-supporting research in humans (additional animal research for mechanisms of action also interesting)
- Effective ingredients at the right price; no fairy dusting or including “traditional remedies” that lack clinical proof (e.g., 100mg of tryptophan or some herb/botanical just because it sounds good to people)
-Uses of Kion Sleep…1:25:45
- When to use at night?
- How often?
- Can you use it for naps?
- Why sleep is important for human health?
- Basics of getting good sleep
- How Kion Sleep fits into daily nutrition
- Can be used safely with other supplements, like Magnesium
-And much more…
-Upcoming Events:
- Keep up on Ben's LIVE appearances by following bengreenfieldlife.com/calendar
Click here for the full written transcript of this podcast episode.
Resources mentioned in this episode:
– Angelo Keely:
- Kion
- Kion Sleep
- Kion Aminos
- Kion Creatine
- What Yoga Trapezes, Laser Lights, Kettlebells, Mini-Meditation & Ketogenic Doughnuts Have To Do With Building A Nutrition Supplements Empire.
- Everything You Need To Know About Protein Powders, Amino Acids, Animal Vs. Plant Protein, How Much Protein You Need & Much, Much More With Kion’s Angelo Keely.
– Podcasts And Articles:
- Everything You Need To Know About Sleep Cycles (And Four Ways To Hack Your Sleep Cycles)
- The Last Resource On Sleep You’ll Ever Need: Ben Greenfield’s Ultimate Guide To Napping, Jet Lag, Sleep Cycles, Insomnia, Sleep Food, Sleep Supplements, Exercise Before Bed & Much, Much More!
- How I Track Sleep, The Top 7 Sleep Parameters To Track, Interpreting Your Sleep Trends & Much More.
- 10-3-2-1-0: Five Numbers To Remember For Lulling Yourself Into A Deep, Restorative Slumber (Without Fancy Biohacks Or Supplements).
– Other Resources:
- The Road Less Stupid by Keith Cunningham
- MagSRT
- NuCalm
- Human Brain Glycogen Content And Metabolism: Implications On Its Role In Brain Energy Metabolism
- The Role of Brain Glycogen in Supporting Physiological Function
- Sugar For The Brain: The Role Of Glucose In Physiological And Pathological Brain Function
- Sleep And Olfactory Cortical Plasticity
- Creatine-Supplementation Reduces Sleep Need And Homeostatic Sleep Pressure In Rats
- Spark Creativity with Thomas Edison’s Napping Technique
- Hans Berger
- Theanine
- GABA
- Tryptophan
Episode sponsors:
Inside Tracker: InsideTracker provides you with a personalized plan to build endurance, boost energy, and optimize your health for the long haul. Get 20% off the entire InsideTracker store, go to insidetracker.com/ben.
Organifi: Get the restful sleep you need with the most soothing ingredients! Gold is a delicious superfood tea that contains powerful superfoods and mushrooms to help you sleep and recover so you can wake up feeling refreshed and energized. Go to organifi.com/Ben for 20% off your order.
Seed: If you’re taking supplements, but not a probiotic, you might be overlooking your gut—which affects your whole-body health. Adding a probiotic + prebiotic to your daily, use code BEN15 to redeem 15%off your first month of Seed’s Daily Synbiotic.
BIOPTIMIZERS (MASS): MassZymes is a powerful best-in-class enzyme supplement that improves digestion, reduces gas and bloating, and provides relief from constipation. Go to masszymes.com/benfree now to get your exclusive free product bundle.
Kion Aminos: Building blocks for muscle recovery, reduced cravings, better cognition, immunity, and more. Go to getkion.com/ben and receive my special discount on your first-time purchase.
Your post tells me a lot of useful things. I hope that you will keep putting out more useful content in the future. Thank you
Chronic pain issues…. osteoarthritis needing hip and knee replacement surgeries. I get very little sleep. Can this help me have a better sleep?
I’d first do high doses D3&K2 and some Borax
https://www.earthclinic.com/borax-remedy-for-arthritis.html
here is a great magnesium-oil recipe, incorporating healing Borax and more, should help a lot
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cX3CXJ3pD1M
Considering this is an old podcast, revived, here’s what I’ve been doing with presented data in the meantime
been experimenting with these 3 amino acids in powder form and different weights, for myself I’ve found a higher amount of GABA than L-Theanine (3:1) is perfect, with L-Tryptophan coming in at 1,44g
makes sense since my neurotype is low in GABA. It does help…
https://tailoredcoachingmethod.com/neurotype
Hi,
The last few episodes ha ent been making it into the BG Life folder in VLC on my android. Has anyone else noticed thar?
Cheers
Love your supps. Clients do too. Ordering Kion Sleep now. (Stopping most of what I’m currently using). I’m a health coach and a mom…and a fit, 51yr old woman (not menopausal yet), using a keto-like diet in response to polymorphisms in genes indicating a predisposition to all types of inflammation…also issues with glutathione (taking NAC and Lipo gluta)…lots of other micronutrient supps as well. Regardless of how beautifully I eat, with micro nutrient testing I still see deficits and need supplementation…upped protein with your AA product to put more muscle back on my small frame with increased resistance training (vital longevity is my goal)…Im 5’2” 109lbs, I can’t “let go” of keto testing bec I can literally tell when I’m in ketosis after waking (use Biosense and blood ketone tester to confirm) without even testing because I feel so much better (lighter physically, more agile, more flexible, more clarity cognitively, more vital in general) in ketosis. I test to see how much I can “push” my diet as well (increasing protein). To stay where I need to be to wake up feeling this way (vital, clear!), I have to keep my carbs really low, like below 15 g (protein about 55-60g). It’s honestly not hard for me, but I’m wondering if I should increase carbs based on all the conversations about ketones NOT being a super fuel for the brain, and about needing a certain amount of carbs (especially being female, Perimenopausal, sleep disturbances). Here’s my question, should I increase my carbs and protein more, and just take your amino‘s and a ketone product in the evening? (Inducing ketosis extrinsically.) After dinner or before bed? or if I feel good where I am with eating low-carb, and when I say that, I eat all the vegetables I want and can tolerate. Being a small person there’s only so much food I can get in my body without being miserable. I use your AAs early morning to kickstart my body as well…with breakfast 3-4hrs later. Too many words, sorry. Context is critical though.