I just reviewed excellent clinical research conducted by a neurologist, Dr. Gominak. As a neurologist she has been treating patients for years with what she would have referred to at the time as secondary sleep disorders. But what she is discovering is that sleep disorders may in fact precede the dis-ease or neurological consequences. (Note: sleep is not the only important preceding factor to dis-ease so please read through). She states this:
there are many neurologic diseases that can be treated or improved by allowing the patient to stay in deep sleep longer. It seems to work in my practice, for headache, dizziness, attention deficit, tics, epilepsy, vertigo, Parkinsons, cerebellar ataxia, and depression.- Dr. Gominak
In functional nutrition, sleep is one of nine sources of chronic inflammation and is one of my primary focuses with my client, if it’s their main complaint or not. But why are there sleep disorders?
Dr. Gominak discovered accidentally that her patients with neurological consequences also suffered from Vitamin D deficiency. She reminds us that like the thyroid, the adrenals and so on, Vitamin D is a hormone that if deficient can have multiple affects on the bodies ability to function.
She further states that “D hormone deficiency causes sleep disorders; insomnia, sleep apnea, REM related apnea, unexplained awakenings to light sleep, inappropriate body movements during sleep.
All of these disorders keep us from healing our bodies during sleep.
When the sleep improves the headaches, seizures, tremor, back pain, balance difficulties, depression, memory loss, etc. all get better.”
Vitamin D receptors are in multiple organs throughout the body: salivary glands, teeth, stomach, ovaries, testes, as well as on our red and white blood cells. Specifically, vitamin D deficiency affects the entire digestive system. When the D hormone is deficient, the good bacteria cannot thrive and our white blood cells function poorly. This results in greater risk for infections and secondary B vitamin deficiency. We know that B vitamins are essential in supporting our neurotransmitters, our built-in calming mechanisms. At least two of the B Vitamins are required to sleep restfully. These are Vitamins B5, pantothenic acid, and B12, also referred to as methylcobalamin. Both of these B vitamins are necessary to make Coenzyme-A. CoEnzyme A below the neck makes cortisol (which supports our stress response), but above the neck makes acetylcholine, a neurotransmitter that plays a role in alertness and in REM, apparently helping to paralyze us correctly in sleep. If there is no REM sleep, seretonin reuptake inhibitors cannot make sufficient seretonin. In other words, deep sleep is needed to make neurotransmitters that we need to keep us calm and it’s vital that we discover any nutritional deficiencies.
If the body is deficient in hormone D, then it’s safe to presume that the body will be deficient in B12 and B5, Coenzyme A, seretonin and sleep. Each of these deficiencies have been correlated with seizures. There are over 100 medical research articles on sleep and its correlation to seizures and epilepsy. Here’s one that caught my attention:
Seizures and poor sleep are correlated in nearly all controls.
Some of you may think that you or your loved one sleep well. I did too. Yet, when my son was having seizures, I would notice that even though he would go to sleep at 8pm and wake up at 7am, his bed was in shambles and he would kick and rotate.
Do you have?
The inability to fall sleep or stay asleep?
Inability to wake up or stay awake, feel tired despite sleeping?
Trouble getting out of bed for school in the morning, trouble falling asleep at the usual time.
Do you wake with pain in the morning? Childhood leg pain on awakening is a sleep disorder. Bedwetting is a sleep
disorder.
Do you walk, talk, snore, kick, chew in sleep? History of sleep walking or night terrors?
Do you take OTC sleep aides- from Dr. Gominak’s website.
Where to go from here? It’s important to seriously consider whether you or your loved one is suffering from sleep disorders (yes, sleep apnea can occur in young children as well). Likewise, it’s necessary that you find a practitioner that can assess and make recommendations that will help support sleep.
Be well,
Lynn
