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In this video lecture, Dr. Stasha Gominak discusses her research on the connections with deep sleep and healing. Dr. Gominak used to prescribe CPAP machines and noticed the link between deep sleep and her patients other issues being resolved, like headache and back pain.
Eventually she realized that most of her patients with Sleep Apnea (REM related Apnea) also had significant Vitamin D deficiency. Lower than 50 ng/ml of Vitamin D appears to precipitate a sleep disorder.
Most of the research I’ve recently read have raised the optimal D level to between 60-80 ng/ml. When I began looking more seriously at my own health, my Vitamin D was at 17 ng/ml.
Dr. Gominak has a website with additional information here.
This is a 5 part video that mentions:
Growth hormone in slow wave sleep, Vitamin D deficiency, sleep Apnea, sleep research for headache patients, sleep disorder, migraine, dopamine, melatonin, neurotransmitters, Parkinson’s patient, Vitamin D and sunlight, migraine gene, B12 deficiency, Dr. Walter Stumpf, D hormone, GI tract disorder, hyperglycemia, metabolic syndrome, lipid peroxidation.
…….
What are your thoughts? Comment below and share this information!
This article (Vitamin D and Sleep Apnea) is free and open source. It may be reprinted with permission under this Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License, with attribution to Brad Rowland and Highlyuncivilized.com. December 10th, 2011.
This blog post Vitamin D and Sleep Apnea – Highly
Uncivilized, offers really great tips and I learned exactly
what I had been browsing for. Many Thanks.
thanks for the feedback! i found it very useful for me too, and was hoping it would make it easier to research for people dealing with the same issue.
Have you noticed a significant difference in your health since upping your Vitamin D3 levels?
Definitely. I can sleep longer and more soundly, and I haven’t been sick in about 2 years.
Thank you! Can you remember how long it took to get results? I have an autoimmune disorder and chronic insomnia so I am praying for quick results! Thanks again for your response and for posting this – very encouraging!
P.S.
Sorry to keep bothering you… But what do you take for a supplement? I currently take fermented cod liver oil/high vitamin butter oil blend but am thinking I really need to ramp up on the dose… Thanks again!
Gina no bother at all. I was researching these topics due to my own health issues I was dealing with, so I (think I) understand the urgency and persistence. I can’t tell you exactly how long, but I would say for me at least two months. It was very hard to get my vitamin D levels to go back up and it ultimately took about a year to see the levels rise to ‘normal’ in my blood work. At one point I was taking a liquid supplement (with an eye dropper) of about 10k IU per day, also going to a tanning salon two times a week and using their high UVB beds (supposedly the best tanning bed for vit D), and going out in the sun every day for 30 minutes around 12n. I’ve seen conflicting recommendations on what works best, trying to absorb Vit D through your digestive tract or through your skin via sunlight, so I did them both. I was taking cod liver oil for a while but the good brands are out of my price range and seemed to have very low levels of D (400-800 IU).
At the same time, I switched to a diet called, “GAPS” that was popularized by Dr. Natasha McBride. The greatest positive change I went through during the two years I was dealing with my stuff was after 30 days on GAPS. You can google or youtube, “gaps natasha mcbride” and see her lectures. She focuses on healing the gut, and asserts that if your gut is not healthy it will manifest in a wide variety of health issues, and it’s hard to absorb nutrition from food. I’m obviously not a doctor, but just sharing what I did that seemed to work for me.
Thank you so very much for all the information and sharing what you have been doing. I read the book Autoimmune The Cause and The Cure and have been trying to follow most of their information. I have heard of GAPS and I agree 100% that the gut is where this all starts. But I was fascinated with the studies you linked to on the vitamin D. The authors of the above book I mentioned do not believe in taking supplements as they think it can cause more harm than good when your body cannot absorb them. So as I said, I have been trying to up my levels with the fermented cod liver oil/high vitamin butter oil blend (I agree with you on the cost so during the summer, I was trying not to take it but get my vitamin D like you said, out in then sun at noon), pastured egg yolks and eating organic pastured raw liver. My levels are 28 so what I am doing is not working very well! I believe I will start some vitamin D supplementation and perhaps do the tanning bed as well and also try to be more consistent with the other things I am doing. Obviously as every other day approach is not going to work! I do feel I am making progress with my gut health but will also have to be more consistent with the bone broth, etc. I do kefir (although I just lost my raw milk source), kombucha, fermented veggies and sauerkraut, and have not had very much success with the bone broth. Thanks again for sharing what has worked for you and for sharing the information you have found along the way. I so appreciate your time and wisdom!
I’ve really simplified my approach to bone broth. You didn’t ask, but I’ll tell you anyway. 🙂
I have two cheap crockpots, the $24 oval kinds. About twice a week I will roast and clean an organic chicken, 10 minutes of prep, 3 1/2 hours to cook, about 15 minutes to clean. For broth, I leave all the bones, fat, skin, gick and whatnot in the pot, throw back in the bag of gizzards and liver, a couple tablespoons of apple cider vinegar, salt, spices, chopped onion and garlic, and leave it on low for one to two days. I strain it into the empty crockpot, and refill it with water, salt, spices, and leave it for another day. When I finish the first pot of broth, I know it’s time to start another chicken. I do this all week – it’s very low overhead and I always have broth and fresh chicken available. I use the chicken with sauteed kale or spinach, or with eggs in the morning, or with (real) mayonnaise for chicken salad (or 100 other GAP friendly recipes).
The key for me is that I try to stay full, even if it’s on broth, and then I have zero temptation to change my diet.
As for the ‘synthetic’ versus natural Vit D, I read the same conflicting reports. Mercola suggests only sun or “safe” tanning beds, since he believes that in a natural environment, most people would not get their D through the digestive tract. Other people say to avoid all tanning beds. I tried all the natural D and for a lot of $$$, i was getting very little IU in my diet. I started at around 18, but I think the last blood test showed me in my high 40’s. As I said, it seemed to take a while for it to work it’s way up there and I’m sure the Weston A Price, GAPS, and other folks would probably assert that it’s a combination of getting the right nutrition as well as being able to absorb it better as the gut heals.
We just moved to a different state and you have to do a cow share here, so we’ve started looking around for one, then I’ll restart my kefir.
Yeah, our state when to cow shares also and the dairy I was getting dairy from tried it for a month or two but not a lot of people who were prior customers ponied up and so it became more work than they could afford with no profit….. I have been told that kefir is still very beneficial even with pasteurized milk… I do have available some milk that is less pasteurized so I will go with that and pray for the best!.
Thanks for the process on the bone broth – sounds like it should be doable and a very smart way to do it. Do I understand you correctly that you get 2 batches of broth from the bones of one chicken? I have only worked with beef so far so perhaps going with chicken would work for me. I was able to get some beef feet and from what I was told, I should be able to get several batches of bone broth. As I said, so far I have had little success. I will try your method – thank you for thinking to share it!
I am not really fond of Dr. Mercola… I suppose that my dislike for him might cause me to overlook something important. I hate it that everyone wants to get rich off of the suffering! Seems like I have spent tons of money on entirely too many supplements and products that are suppose to cure. Obviously, most of this is my own fault looking for that one thing that will cure without putting any effort into the cure! I have come to that age where I really am no longer fond of cooking! I think you hit on an important aspect by trying to keep yourself full so that you are not tempted to revert back to the poison we call food.
If your vitamin D levels were last in the 40s, they are still low according to the doctor whose video you have above. Are you still supplementing and if so, with what? I read an article about how eating a carrot a day helps to balance hormones. Since vitamin D is actually a hormone, I am hoping that eating a carrot a day will help this process along!
Again, thank you for sharing what is working for you. It is a process and knowing any tips and tricks certainly helps! I appreciate your blog and all the wisdom you share! God bless!