Ray Peat on insomnia
"Phosphate, which predominates in grains, beans, nuts, meats, and fish, increases our production of parathyroid hormone, while calcium and magnesium inhibit its production. This hormone, which increases with age, suppresses immunity, and in excess it causes insomnia, seizures, dementia, psychosis, cancer, heart disease, respiratory distress and pulmonary hypertension, osteoporosis, sarcopenia, histamine release, inflammation and soft tissue calcification, and many other problems."
- September 2017 - Ray Peat's Newsletter
0 upvotes"Following Brewers research, I saw that extra sodium should help in other situations involving circulatory inefficiency. Premenstrual edema, insomnia, and even high blood pressure often respond very well"
- Nutrition For Women
0 upvotes"Although tryptophan supplements are available for insomnia, I think its chronic use would be as dangerous as the tranquilizer, reserpine, which acts on the same biochemical system, and which increases the risk of breast cancer."
- Nutrition For Women
0 upvotes"Using aspirin at bedtime, to inhibit prostaglandin synthesis, is likely to be helpful in age related insomnia. Progesterone and vitamin E act in various ways to prevent excessive stimulation by prostaglandins."
- March 2018 - Ray Peat's Newsletter
0 upvotes"Several serotonin antagonist drugs are increasingly recognized as antidepressants, and also for treatment of chronic fatigue and insomnia, and many of the degenerative diseases, but since most of them are prescription drugs, their use wont be widespread as long as most doctors accept the myth."
- July 2019 - Ray Peat's Newsletter
0 upvotes"Since I had become a sound sleeper as soon as I began taking thyroid, and had seen that thyroid alone would cure most people’s insomnia (sometimes, as one doctor described his experience, better than morphine) I began to understand that the adrenalin which disturbed sleep was an indicator of defective energy production, and that the things which restored sleep—thyroid, salt, sugar, protein, and progesterone, for example—were acting directly on the cells’ energy production."
- 2000 - January - Ray Peat's Newsletter
0 upvotes"In the last 20 years, | have seen almost everyone’s insomnia disappear when they correct their hypothyroidism, sometimes just with dietary changes, but more often with a thyroid supplement. Many times, people have told me that they get to sleep within a few minutes when they take a minimal dose of thyroid at bedtime. By increasing the rate of energy production,"
- 1994 - April - Ray Peat's Newsletter
0 upvotes"While many people think of thyroid as a kind of stimulant, because it can cure the coma or lethargy of myxedema, this is a very misleading idea. In hypothyroidism, the brain exciting hormones adrenalin, estrogen, and cortisol are usually elevated, and the nerve-muscle relaxant magnesium is low. Normal, deep sleep is rare in a hypothyroid person. The correct dose of trilodothyronine (the active thyroid hormone) with magnesium is a reliable treatment for insomnia, cramps, and anxiety, whether these symptoms are caused by fatigue, or aging, or alcohol withdrawal."
- 1991 - June- Ray Peat's Newsletter
0 upvotes"In the mid-1970s when I pointed out that menopause resembles Cushing’s syndrome I hadn’t investigated that disease of cortisol-excess enough to know the full extent of the parallel: for example, hot flushes, night sweats, and insomnia, such common menopausal symptoms, are also common symptoms in Cushing’s syndrome. Estrogen’s tendency to increase cortisol production should be considered in connection with the brain-aging effects of both estrogen and cortisol"
- 1991 - April - Ray Peat's Newsletter
0 upvotes"Epilepsy is an example of a very low energy state of brain cells. insomnia is a low energy state, and is usually cured by the right dose of thyroid hormone, with adequate glucose and other nutrients."
- 1986 - February
0 upvotes