I don’t know about you but sleeping through the night is something I’ve struggled with most of my adult life. I can fall asleep easily, I just don’t stay asleep and wake numerous times during the night. I’m always on the lookout to find ways to help with getting quality sleep. The one thing I’ve never done is resort to prescription medication and I know that’s not a path I’ll take.
I’ve tried just about everything to find my magic formula for sleeping through the night. I’ve taken supplements, purchased a new mattress with adjustable base and even changed my sheets and pillow. I changed up my evening routine to avoid screen time and have blue blocker glasses. I don’t drink anything with caffeine after 1pm in the afternoon and I try to have my evening meal before 5pm giving my gut time to digest. I try not to drink water past 8pm. I’ve been to different naturopathic and traditional doctors, and even met with a fellow nutritional therapist and nothing seems to get me sleeping through the night. There have been many theories tossed around about why I seem to wake around the same time which is between 1-3am.
One theory is it’s ancestral as the women in their clan would wake around 2am to check on the fire and make sure everything was ok. Yeah, ok that makes sense but not really on board with that concept since we’ve evolved past looking for the sabre tooth tiger. Another theory was a drop in blood sugar was alerting the brain to eat. I never checked my glucose levels at 2am, so I can’t be 100% certain if that’s it. Again, this makes some sense. I’ve tried eating something with carbs before bed like a few bites of sweet potato or some nuts. Whether I eat or not, I still wake.
You name it and I’ve tried it (excepts meds).
Why am I sharing this with you? What works for one person may not work for another. Many people swear by using supplements and others by changing their evening routine. There have been times when I dread going to bed knowing I won’t sleep well and that makes it worse. With all this I have found what seems to work best for me. I have an evening routine to let my brain know it’s time for bed. I keep my bedroom cool and as dark as possible. All electronics are off and no cell phone by my head. I’ve started taking the supplement phosphatidylserine. The benefits of this supplement help maintain cortisol levels and could stimulate the release of dopamine. It’s also used with Alzheimer’s disease, age-related decline in mental function, improving thinking skills in young people, attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), depression, preventing exercise-induced stress, and improving athletic performance.
What I’ve come to understand is my sleep is perfect for me. My body and brain are signaling each other, and I accept whatever they do. Some nights are better than others, so I’ve just come to accept my sleep as it is. Sleep is time for the body to repair and rejuvenate itself. I function well during the day without brain fog and I have great energy throughout the day. I know insomnia is real and can disrupt and impact people’s lives in a big way. Getting to the underlying cause of insomnia can be difficult and expensive. I don’t believe there’s a one size fits all solution to restful sleep. What I can share is if you don’t feel well and think sleep is robbing you of energy search for a healthcare provider who will work with you to get to the root cause of your insomnia, without just treating the symptom.
I’d love to hear what your sleep experience is so please comment below or send me an email to pat@putoldonholdjournal.com.
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Main Topics of Book; Give up preconceived ideas of what cures cancer and what doesn’t. Alkaline diet does not prevent or treat cancer.
Recognize it has been known for over 100 years that diet controls cancer.
Three types of diets have been shown to control cancer: calorie restricted (fasting), low carbohydrate (limit bread, rice, pasta, sugars) and ketogenic (high fat, high protein, no sugar or carbohydrates).
Modern oncology recognizes cancer cells burn sugar for energy as evidenced by PET scans that determine the size and location of tumors by their ability to take up radioactive sugar.
Sugar, largely derived from the liver as glucose and sucrose and fructose from the diet comprise most of the sugar used to fuel tumor cells.
Limited intake of dietary sugar is a potent way of controlling the growth of cancer.
Metformin, an anti-diabetic drug, reduces the amount of glucose produced in the liver, reduces the size and growth of tumors and also reduces cancer mortality.
There are natural alternatives that are far stronger than metformin but go overlooked. Patients have direct access to them without prescription. Resveratrol, known as a red wine molecule, is one of those molecules.
The signal that cells are oxygen-deprived (hypoxic) triggers healthy cells to convert from using oxygen to utilization of sugar for cell energy is called hypoxia-inducing factor-1 or HIF-1. There are natural molecules that block HIF-1 and therefore blunt the conversion of cells to utilize sugar instead of oxygen for energy. The inhibition of HIF-1 would also diminish the invasive outcropping of new blood vessels that facilitates nutrient delivery to the tumor cell and is destructive to tissues in the eyes, kidneys and other organs.
Combination therapies are considered best (i.e. diets + drugs and/or nutraceuticals).
Unless cancer patients can overcome their fears and learn to make independent health decisions, nothing will likely change in cancer care. Otherwise the “slash, burn and poison” paradigm will continue in oncology. Doctors will continue to make health decisions for patients with their own interests being paramount. From Amazon.com
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