In my clinical practice, I have found there are seven things that contribute to good sleep. They are:
- Cleansing heavy metal toxins from the body
- Healing the detoxification pathways through the liver, bowels, and kidneys
- Having enough supply of healthy minerals
- Plenty of proper exercise (which lowers stress hormones)
- Having a plan to handle life stress
- Healing stressful belief systems (for example: “I’ll never be able to heal.”)
- Keeping the blood sugar balanced
But people often want to take something to help them sleep. I always tell them to get the seven essentials of sleep in place before taking anything to sleep. Otherwise, you’re not correcting the cause, you’re treating the symptom, and that fails 100% in the long term. So if you have the seven essentials in line first, here is what I check to help people sleep.
1. Tryptophan-this is a naturally occurring amino acid in food. It tends to be deficient in low protein diets, and people who are under stress. It’s the precursor to serotonin (the feel good hormone), and melatonin (the sleep hormone). This amino acid hits a lot of home runs!
2. Melatonin-Most people could use a little help with this because they have poor diet and their sleep cycle is off. I test people to see if they need tryptophan or melatonin.
3. Magnesium-Most people are deficient in magnesium, and supplying it helps them to relax and sleep better. People who tend to have muscle pain, or pain in general, and tend to have sluggish bowels usually do very well on magnesium (Warning-most over the counter magnesium supplements are garbage, I use only magnesium lactate, because that’s the only one that seems to work!)
4. Parasympathetic Nervous System stimulating minerals/trace minerals-most people are deficient in these. Supplying them help people’s nervous systems relax, so that they can heal and sleep. I test for a variety of different trace mineral preparations in my office.
5. Valerian, passionflower, hops, and other relaxing herbs-some people just need a chill pill every once in a while-for them, this tend to work well.
For a full evaluation to find out what areas your system needs support, call us at (717) 392-6606.
