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Insomnia:
Insomnia is another one of those
symptoms that the body uses to communicate with
you.
Insomnia, the inability to get quality sleep, is an epidemic in the United
States, if not the world.
Your sleep is controlled by hormones. These hormones are
affected by darkness and light. The entire cycle is called the
circadian rhythm. You go through four cycles of this sleep through the
night and each cycle ranges from light sleep to deep rejuvenating sleep. If
everything is working, you can go to sleep, stay asleep and wake up feeling
awake and refreshed.
Glands called the adrenals
produce the main hormone, which if working correctly can allow normal sleeping
to occur. These glands are called stress glands because they counter
environmental and other stresses (dangerous situations, threats of danger and
things that remind you of danger). Just reading the newspaper can remind you how
dangerous it is out there, creating a stress response. Certain foods like
sweets, junk foods, etc. can also create body stress. Typically with most people
these hormones are being produced in excess. It’s these hormones produced in
extra amounts that prevent a person from getting any deep rejuvenating sleep. A
person will either experience a superficial sleep or awake feeling just as tired
as they went to bed. Or they will wake up between 2:00am to 5:00am for no good
reason. A person just can’t sleep with adrenaline flowing through their blood
stream.
How does one calm the adrenals and allow normal sleep cycles to occur?
The first thing is exercise.
Because exercise does increase stress hormones, it’s important to keep you pulse
rate low (below 130). This way it doesn’t activate the stress response but
instead does the opposite. It trains the body to keep the adrenals in slow
mode. The worst thing to do is do weight training or a
high pulse rate intense exercise just before bed as this will severely
activate your adrenals and keep you up.
The second thing is food. Sugar of any kind will activate the adrenals.
Sugar creates stress and
prevents the adrenals from being calm. Sugar also depletes potassium, which the
adrenals need to function. Potassium is the body’s
natural tranquilizer. Without potassium, your heart will beat harder and
it will be very difficult to get into a deep sleep mode. Have you ever gone to
bed and felt your heart beat pulse in your ears? Normally you should never feel
your heart or pulse beat at all. The best food for potassium is avocados,
grapefruit and melons. Bananas are a bit too sweet.
Solution: The Body Restoration Technique
-BRT. This method of analysis and
treatment allows us to rapidly find the source of your problems (symptoms) and
bring about profound improvements to your health. Combined with nutrition
and quality exercise, BRT can help your body increase the communication so
it can alleviate symptoms that are keeping you unhealthy.
For A Free
Consultation with Dr. Beth, please call 626-844-7451
Email Dr. Beth
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