March 26, 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” at an early age.
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, 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 in to 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 and 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 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:
–Joy Mode: Want to spice things up in the bedroom and boost your sexual performance? And do it naturally without nasty prescription drugs? We have a special offer for the Ben Greenfield audience.
–Lucy Nicotine Gum: If you are looking for a cleaner and tastier alternative to other nicotine products, then this product is for you. The gum comes in three flavors – Wintergreen, Cinnamon, and Pomegranate – and the lozenges in cherry ice. To save 20% on any order, just use discount code BEN 20.
–Boundless NFT: You can “bid” to own your own digital recipe card that features one of the unique recipes from my Boundless Cookbook…AND…if you own that recipe card, this summer you're going to get to take a private online cooking class and have a private online dinner party with me!
-Hapbee: Hapbee’s smart, wearable technology goes beyond monitoring your body, and actually impacts how you feel. Try it now risk-free and get $100 off 90-Day Free Trial of our all-access subscription to the Hapbee Signals catalog.
–Kion Sleep: Contains only natural ingredients with long clinical research history behind them that are safe to take every night. There’s no grogginess: You’ll wake up feeling refreshed, recovered, and energized!
–Greenfield Botanics: Fellas and ladies alike, if you, like me, are fanatical about only using the highest quality clean ingredients on your skin’s microbiome, this is for you. You can get 10% off your bottle of Serum or Oregano Oil when you use code BENG10
Hi, Ben, haw can I find the transcript for this podcast?
Big fan of yours.❤️❤️
Hi Kate — here it is: https://bengreenfieldlife.com/transcripts/transcript-sleep-podcast-angelo-keely/
Is the dose the same for men and women using Kion Sleep?
What is Bens promo code for kion sleep?
getkion.com/bengreenfield
Interesting fact from the study you linked above
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6366437/
“Results: GABA/l-theanine mixture (100/20 mg/kg) showed a decrease in sleep latency (20.7 and 14.9%) and an increase in sleep duration (87.3 and 26.8%)”
yet in the kion sleep product it was chosen for GABA to be the lowest amount of all 3 amino acids.
whats up with that?
What is the best sleep tracker?
I highly recommend the Oura Ring: https://bengreenfieldlife.com/article/self-quantification-articles/sleep-tracking/
Do I use serum at the day or night? don’t want to mess with skin sensitivity in the sun.
Hi Tom! This is Cindy from Greenfield Botanics. You can use Pure Radiance serum morning and night for the best result. I haven’t gotten any feedback regarding sun sensitivity due to serum use, but if you are experiencing it, try using it once per day, preferably at night. Thanks for asking.
Where is the skin care serum that you mentioned in the podcast? can’t seem to find in the show notes
I actually found it in the bottom and currently ordering the pure radiance serum. is there a good sunscreen anyone knows I can pair with it to keep? thanks
Hi Thomas! This is Cindy from Greenfield Botanics. Thanks for making the effort to find Pure Radiance serum again. I’m working to expand our product line and sunscreen is on the list. Good to know that our serum customers are interested in sunscreen.
Hi,
You said that you don’t recommend taking melatonin with you Sleep product. What if you are older? I’m 77. I am taking your Sleep product along with 3 grams of Melatonin because I go to bed at 5:00 PM and get up at 2:00 AM. I have read and heard that older individuals do not make as much Melatonin as younger folks. So what day you about this?
Bill
Yeah 0.3-3mg daily of melatonin seems to help in older individuals for sure…