Gominak on vitamins, gut health, and sleep

[tmoody]

When I first joined ApneaBoard, I had watched some videos by neurologist Stasha Gominak about the possible links between vitamin D levels, certain B vitamins, and sleep disorders. I even experimented on myself, raising my blood levels of D3 to 80, and taking extra B vitamins to see if it would make any measurable difference. I started some threads on it.

It didn't make any measurable difference.

Here's a more recent video of Dr. Gominak on the same subject: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74F22bjBmqE

As you can see, it's a fairly long video. I'm posting this not because I think she has any "remedies" for OSA or CSA but just for the edification of anyone who might be interested in this sort of thing. Dr. Gominak clearly has a very active interest in trying to understand disordered sleep, and to discover treatments that might help her patients, some of whom also use xPAP therapy.

I am intrigued by her hypothesis that even OSA involves some sort of dysfunction of the sleep paralysis mechanism. She gives a lot of attention to PLMs, which apparently she is herself afflicted with. She mentions being on a medication for it but doesn't say what it is: perhaps gabapentin.

Anyway, for those who find this sort of thing interesting...happy viewing!

[Sleep2Snore]

Yeah!  I have seen this sort of thing before and did watch one of the videos, however, where is all the evidence to back any research up?
There is a few started down this route a while back but I never hear of any of them these days.
I had dismissed it after reading a bit more somewhere, however, it might help with some sleep disorders, but Sleep Apnea I have my doubts somehow.
A handful of vitamins is not going to stop my throat from closing, if this was the case none of us would have CPAP machines.

Then again, playing the Devils advocate, are they not telling us this and making us buy expensive machines when all we need is some vitamin D.
I think not!

[tmoody]

Yeah!  I have seen this sort of thing before and did watch one of the videos, however, where is all the evidence to back any research up?
There is a few started down this route a while back but I never hear of any of them these days.
I had dismissed it after reading a bit more somewhere, however, it might help with some sleep disorders, but Sleep Apnea I have my doubts somehow.
A handful of vitamins is not going to stop my throat from closing, if this was the case none of us would have CPAP machines.

Then again, playing the Devils advocate, are they not telling us this and making us buy expensive machines when all we need is some vitamin D.
I think not!

Yes, where indeed is the evidence? Dr. Gominak seems to think that obstructive apnea is a neurological problem. The closing of the airway, in her view, is due to a dysfunction in neuromuscular control of the airway, not just a mechanical collapse. If she could gather solid evidence from a controlled study it would be a breakthrough, but I'm just not seeing it yet.

[chill]

It did not affect my OSA in any detectable way, but getting my vitamin D levels up vastly improved the quality of my sleep and the duration of periods of sleep.  If anyone is interested, The Vitamin D Solution by Michael Holick PhD, MD is a very readable account by one of the main researchers.  It is partly the life story of a medical researcher (and interesting for that alone) and partly an exploration of what we do and don't know about Vitamin D and how it affects our bodies.