How to Overcome Insomnia

01/26/18 • 48 min

Approximately 90 million Americans now suffer from some type of sleep disturbance. Rejuvenating sleep is an extremely important and fundamental part of feeling great and healthy. Unfortunately, too many of us are plagued with insomnia and miss out on sleep's wonderful healing properties. You'll become more inflamed and more insulin resistant simply by getting 6 hours of sleep or less. Your immune system will also suffer significantly if you don't get enough sleep making you more prone to colds and the flu. This article will explain what you can do (and what you should avoid) to naturally cure insomnia at home. Get Into the Rhythm Getting good sleep is all about balancing your circadian rhythm. The best thing to do to kickstart a healthy circadian rhythm is to expose yourself to sunlight before 8:30 am. When you get up in the morning it is time to tell your brain that the sun is out and it is time to get your body and your hormones going. Step outside and soak up some early morning sunrays or do a brisk walk first thing to get you going. If your work schedule doesn't allow this, just try to set up your workspace near a window or get outside as much as you can during the day when you're on break or during lunch. What About Exercise? Exercise can significantly improve your sleep quality. The earlier in the day the better if you are going to exercise, but some exercise is better than none so do it late if you have to. Moderate and intense exercise raises cortisol so if you are going to exercise late in the day be sure it is something light and gentle such as Tai Chi, light stretching, gentle flow yoga, or a walk around the neighborhood. Stay Away From Drama Avoid watching television before you go to bed as this can disrupt your sleep. Watching the news can trigger negative emotions such as fear, anger, and frustration which will raise cortisol and adrenaline. Avoid intense movies or reading material as this can stimulate your adrenals which will keep you awake. Read some light fiction or learn something that is easy to understand and pleasurable. Social media is the perfect way to upset your mind and your rhythm. Social media increases the sleep-disrupting brain chemical dopamine with all the notifications, flashes, arrows, videos, ads, links, and inflammatory posts by your "friends." Even if you don't have sleep issues I recommend avoiding social media outlets such as Facebook as I mention in this article on how Facebook could be making you sick. Stay Consistent Try and follow a regular sleep schedule. Go to bed and wake up at the same times every day. Make going to sleep a ritual and stick with your plan even on the weekends. Don't stay up late on the weekend and then try to sleep in. This disrupts your consistency and throws off your rhythm. If you really want to change your life and feel better then commit to a consistent schedule. The hours you sleep from 10 pm to 2 am are the most restorative so get to sleep early enough so you're out by 10. I go to bed at 9 pm and read very light material such as fiction and then turn out the lights around 9:30-9:45. You'll notice a big difference in how you feel if you've become a night owl by training your body to go to bed earlier. Don't try and make a big shift right away. Start with 15-minute increments each night until you are falling asleep before 10. Also wake up consistently at the same time every morning and shoot for about 7-8 hours of sleep each night. Sleeping longer than that may make you feel groggy for the early part of the day so be consistent when you go to bed and when you wake up. Can Meditation Help? Begin a regular meditation practice. Meditation can calm the mind, reduce stress, anxiety and help you get clear on what is important so your mind is not racing. I highly recommend www.calm.com to teach you how to meditate. Just 5 minutes a day to start will begin to work and you can meditate up to 20-25 minutes a day ...

Previous Episode

Do You Need the MTHFR Test?

What is the MTHFR test? The MTHFR test or methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase test has become extremely popular due to a number of alternative medicine practitioners promoting it as the source of many chronic illnesses. But is it something you should worry about? This test is basically looking for two types of genetic mutations known as C677T and A1298C that affect the MTHFR enzyme involved in folate metabolism in your body. Proper MTHFR enzyme function ensures that homocysteine is properly metabolized to the amino acid methionine which then makes SAMe. SAMe is known as the “universal methyl donor” which is extremely important for serotonin, melatonin and your DNA. Folate is a B-vitamin and is important because it is at the heart of metabolism and the production of all your cells. Without it, nothing really works well so our list of symptoms and health problems would be extensive. The National Library of Medicine Genetics Reference states that MTHFR: "The MTHFR gene provides instructions for making an enzyme called methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase. This enzyme plays a role in processing amino acids, the building blocks of proteins. Methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase is important for a chemical reaction involving forms of the vitamin folate (also called vitamin B9). Specifically, this enzyme converts a molecule called 5,10-methylenetetrahydrofolate to a molecule called 5-methyltetrahydrofolate. This reaction is required for the multistep process that converts the amino acid homocysteine to another amino acid, methionine. The body uses methionine to make proteins and other important compounds." How common is it? Approximately 5-14% of the US population has two copies of the MTHFR mutation. It is the most common in those of Mediterranean descent and lowest in those of African ancestry. In America, about 25% of people who are Hispanic, and 10-15% of people who are Caucasian have two copies of C677T. Should you worry about Homocysteine and MTHFR? Although controversial in its connection with cardiovascular disease, elevated homocysteine levels may damage blood vessel walls leading to plaque (atherosclerosis) development and thus the potential for a heart attack, stroke or blood clot. Homocysteine requires healthy levels of folate, vitamin B12, and vitamin B6 to be metabolized properly. Recent data, however, shows that supplementation with these vitamins to lower homocysteine levels does not produce any benefit regarding cardiovascular risk reduction. This is most likely due to the complexity of cardiovascular disease which doesn't have a single cause such as elevated homocysteine. Elevated homocysteine levels, however, are rarely connected to a single genetic variant. Patients with elevated homocysteine should be thoroughly evaluated for the causes of elevated homocysteine such as: Hypothyroidism Obesity Diabetes Insulin resistance Inflammation High cholesterol High blood pressure Lack of physical activity Aging Smoking Medications (atorvastatin, fenofibrate, methotrexate, and nicotinic acid) Are there any disease connections to MTHFR? The only conditions with significant scientific support connected to MTHFR are the following: Spinda bifida Homocystinuria Age-related hearing loss Anencephaly (neural tube defect) Blood clots There are many claims on the internet that MTHFR is linked to cardiovascular disease, high blood pressure, stroke, glaucoma, certain cancers, and some psychiatric disorders. All of the studies related to these conditions with MTHFR have mixed results with some studies finding no association. So at this point, there is no clear scientific evidence that MTHFR alone has any connection to these disorders. This is a classic example of cherry picking by alternative practitioners extracting the information from the mixed studies that support their own agenda and ignoring the opposing evidence.

Next Episode

The Gut-Brain Axis with Dr. Jeff Moss

In this podcast, I discuss the gut-brain axis with Dr. Jeff Moss. This was a fascinating conversation about the latest research on the connection between gut microflora and it's intimate connection to the brain and nervous system. We talk about this connection with neurotransmitter imbalances, autonomic nervous system dysfunction, Alzheimer's disease, Autism, gut healing strategies and much more. Here is the transcript of my conversation with Dr. Jeff Moss on the Gut-Brain Axis: Dr. Hedberg: Okay, well, welcome, everyone. This is Dr. Hedberg, and thanks for tuning into "The Dr. Hedberg Show." I've got a very special guest today, Dr. Jeff Moss. And Dr. Moss is a graduate of the University of Michigan Dental School 1974. He practiced dentistry in Grand Rapids, Michigan until 1985. And he employed clinical nutrition in that practice, and he decided to use that experience and enter the professional supplement industry. So, for the last 24 years, Dr. Moss has operated Moss Nutrition, which supplies the Moss Nutrition professional line of supplements to practitioners. And, since 2000, he has served as adjunct faculty at the University of Bridgeport Nutrition Institute, starting with the vitamins and minerals class and most recently adding the assessment in nutrition class to his teaching responsibilities. He's co-authored the textbook, the "Textbook of Nutritional Medicine" by Dr. Melvyn Werbach, and Dr. Moss was president of the International and American Associations of Clinical Nutritionists from August 2000 to June 2001. Moss Nutrition's website is mossnutrition.com, and those of you who are patients of mine know that I'm a big fan of Moss Nutrition products because of the quality and because of all the research behind their products, and just fantastic customer service, and just a great company to work with across the board. So Dr. Moss has definitely been a mentor of mine. He's one of the only doctors out there in the functional medicine world who I listen to and respect, so I'm really excited to have him on. Jeff, thanks for joining me. Dr. Moss: Well, thanks so much for having me. Dr. Hedberg: So today we're gonna be talking about the gut-brain axis. This is a topic that is kind of sweeping the functional medicine landscape with good reason. We've been addressing this issue for a long time, but we're learning more and more about how the gut flora affect extraintestinal aspects of the body, and the brain, and the rest of the body system. So why don't we jump in, and can you just talk a little bit about how the gut microbiota actually interact with our nervous system? Dr. Moss: Sure, there are really several different ways that it does it, and before I get into all of the ways, I guess the big picture here is that why this is so interesting and why it is important and so exciting is, because of the way we've traditionally viewed any type of central nervous system issue, either behavioral or neurodegenerative, we've kind of viewed as the central nervous system kind of hanging out there in space. We view the blood-brain barrier as basically impermeable to a lot of different things, and because of that the way we viewed it and the way we intervene was basically looking at it directly. There really wasn't connected to anything else in the body. And I remember I got this very early on as a dentist. You know, the head is just kind of detached from everything else from a physiologic and mostly in terms of a diagnostic and clinical interventional therapeutic standpoint, and so I think that's the big picture here before we get into the complexities even if some of it's a bit difficult to understand. The big picture here is that the brain is incredibly influenced by what else is going on in the body, and particularly what's going on in the gut. So, with that in mind, there are really several different ways. Number one is what is classically known...we have neuroanatomical pathways,