(03-30-2016, 07:07 AM)green wings Wrote: Thanks for posting this, tmoody. I watched Dr. Gominak's YouTube videos last night. My biggest take-away from them was that she thinks adequate vitamin D3 blood levels are necessary for us to have normal sleep (if I understood correctly).
Yes, and her idea of "normal" is the 60-80 ng/ml range, not the 30-100 that most US medical labs have as the "reference range."
Michael Holick, the scientist mentioned above who discovered the method for synthesizing D3, thinks "normal" is around 50 ng/dl. John Whitcomb, another medical doctor with an interest in D, thinks 60 is about right. Most of these opinions are based on what we find if we measure the levels of people living near the equator, with dark skin, and not a lot of clothing.
Quote:I see a rheumatologist for autoimmune arthritis. She checks my vitamin D3 level about yearly now, since I've given up on supplementing it. In 8 years of tests, it has ranged from 16-25 ng/ml.
The 16 ng/ml occurred at a time when I'd been spending hours each day outside and rarely wore sunscreen, so I've always felt like there are other factors involved (for me, at least.)
There certainly are other factors, but I recently read another book on the subject, Power of Vitamin D, by Sarfraz Zaidi, MD, who practices in southern California. He checked the levels on many patients who were outdoors in that sunny environment quite a lot, and most of them were deficient too. It goes to show that unless you're a lifeguard or making a deliberate effort to sunbathe, you probably won't get enough D from sunshine.
Quote:Anyway, I am feeling motivated to try supplementation again now that I'm using CPAP therapy. I will make sure I'm also taking K2 as well.
I corresponded with Dr. Gominak a bit, and learned that she isn't much of a believer in K2. As she admits in her videos, she has the typical allopathic doctor's aversion to vitamins, and only reluctantly came to accept the power of vitamins D and B5 in relation to sleep. She wrote to me that if the gut bacteria are in working order, we all should have plenty of K2.
From the reading I've done, I think this is as optimistic as saying if we all "get enough sun" we have plenty of D. In any case, from what I've read, the main reason to take K2 is to make the higher doses of D as safe as possible, since D increases calcium retention and K2 directs the calcium away from soft tissues such as arteries and into bones and teeth where it belongs.
Some research is starting to be done on K2 and the brain/nervous system, so I guess there's some possible connection between K2 and sleep, but I think it's way too early to say with any confidence.
One comment by Dr. Gominak really stuck in my mind. She said, in relation to apnea, "We have to stop thinking about the back of the throat and start thinking about the brain." (my paraphrase) Her idea is that even obstructive apnea involves improper muscle paralysis during sleep, not just "fat necks."