Sleep is an active brain state. Many parts of the brain are involved in the sleep cycles. Healthy sleep depends on a healthy brain. Drugs cannot induce a sleep state. They can only induce an altered state of consciousness. Note the case of Michael Jackson. Here at OVitaminPro we work with you to improve the health of your neural circuits so you can get real sleep with the real benefits you need.
Speaking of need, you already know that real sleep is not optional for the health of your entire being. You need to know that we know how much you can suffer if you can’t get real sleep.
We see three basic problems from a less than healthy brain: anxiety, depression and insomnia. All of these have many forms but most of what we see falls into one or more of these categories. The brain requires three things to be healthy: oxygen, glucose and stimulation.
The best way to ensure oxygenation of the brain is making sure you have proper hemoglobin levels that is you can’t be anemic and get sufficient oxygen. Exercise is important for so many reasons and oxygenation of the brain is one of them.
Glucose must be closely regulated. If you aren’t controlling your hypoglycemia or diabetes or insulin resistance you will suffer effects in the brain. We can help you with these issues.
Stimulation means that you have to always be learning. Learn a new language, learn an instrument etc.
Now to talk about specific neurotransmitters, we often see two problems in sleep: upregulated gluatamine and down regulated serotonin. Glutamine is very excitatory so if this is too active your brain will be too active too. Serotonin gets converted to melatonin in the brain. A very effective precursor to the production of serotonin is 5-HTP and tryptophan. The strategy for dealing with these depends on your particular issues. There are 3 products by NeuroScience most helpful with these precursors. Serene and Travacor both contain 5-HTP. Kavinace is also helpful for sleep.
Of course we always recommend a neurotransmitter test to see what might be most helpful in getting you back on track and feeling rested and vital again.
Dr. Dan
