Archive for the ‘sleep’ Category

High Fructose Corn Syrup, A Gateway Drug

Wednesday, February 11th, 2009

High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS) as found in many beverages consumed by teens is so detrimental to health it should be banned from the food supply. However, a massive lobbying effort by the corn refiners prevented the feeble-minded American Medical Association from issuing a warning on the obesity risk associated with HFCS. The corn refiners have now taken the lack of an AMA warning to be a safety endorsement and are running national TV ads proclaiming the safety of HFCS. Where, might I ask, is the FDA when they are actually needed?

An animal study shows that consuming HFCS makes the animal stupid. Maybe that is why the teen dropout rate is so high.

A rather alarming study (at least to me) showed that HFCS, compared to fruit, inappropriately raises triglyceride levels in the blood over a 24-hour period. Elevated triglycerides block leptin from getting into your brain in the proper amount, a problem that starts prior to obesity and primes the future obesity pump. When leptin does not get into your brain correctly then the hypocretin-driven arousal thermostat will start going higher.

Consuming large amounts of HFCS is sure to throw this system off, causing sleep problems and opening the door for drug abuse. Many children and teens get up to 20% of their calories from HFCS! Imagine the combined effect of HFCS and typical teen stress on the arousal thermostat. Next step – substance abuse.

Parenting Solutions

Parents have tremendous power to help their children have a healthier future. It starts with pre-pregnancy planning for mom. Ensuring her body weight, eating habits, and mood are good before getting pregnant. Ensuring life is stable during pregnancy. Ensuring that good sleep, eating, and exercise habits are taught throughout the early years of life – in an environment that is as stable and stress-free as possible.

There are many natural options that can be employed to help children and teens sleep better. The basics are eating quality food, following the Leptin Diet, developing good problem-solving and stress management skills, taking the time to exercise, and staying on a consistent sleep schedule along with getting enough sleep.

Changing a wound up arousal thermostat can take some time, although many improvements will be noticed early on. Your brain has tremendous capacity to adapt and change circuitry (brain plasticity), including making changes in a positive direction. Part of real health is quality sleep not based on the use of knock out drugs that do little more than put a Band-aid on a very important health topic.

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Obesity, Sleep and Addiction Risk

Tuesday, February 10th, 2009

Where do Problems Start?

The key issue is that the hypocretin-driven arousal thermostat is set too high. This activates cravings for pleasure and reward. Keep in mind this is a normal system that enables awakeness and positive motivation. Thus, we are talking about an out-of-balance overheating of stimulatory nerves that not only interfere with sleep but may lead a person into substance abuse.

One way to excessively activate hypocretin is by having a leptin problem. If leptin does not get into your brain properly then hypocretin lacks “parental supervision” and tends to run wild, resulting in an arousal thermostat set too high.

Research also shows that excess hypocretin is driven by stress, and that stress is adequate to reactivate cravings for drugs like cocaine via a wound up hypocretin system. This means that the other primary way of getting your arousal thermostat set too high is from chronic stress that causes your brain to be hyper vigilant.

An enlightening study showed that if mom was depressed before or during her pregnancy, then her child was much more likely to have sleep problems. This brings up the interesting topic of fetal programming. The developing nerves of the fetus are highly influenced by mom’s stress. Too much stress sets the arousal thermostat too high, as the developing nerves learn the lesson that there is a need to be hyper-vigilant to deal with issues. Unfortunately, this type of fetal programming is more like hardware than software – setting a child up for sleep problems.

Likewise, a mother’s weight and leptin-related food problems going into pregnancy can also fetal-program leptin circuits relating to food acquisition. We know that children born to overweight mothers are at risk for future obesity. Mothers who diet during pregnancy (malnourished) as well as mothers who eat too much (over-nourished) create leptin-related fetal programming problems.

Thus, stress problems and food issues while in the womb are the first predictor of a child’s likelihood for setting their arousal thermostat too high. During the first few years of life, once again as the brain is establishing more core circuits, the issues of stress and food will continue to have bearing on this system. How stable is the home environment? How much love is there? How much quality food is available? Is your child learning to eat vegetables and fruit – or are they already on a sugar and junk fat trend? Is your child learning good sleep habits?

The failure of parents to provide stability and quality nutrition in the early years of life (including in the womb) is a prime risk factor for a child having sleep problems and increasing the risk that your child could go down a path of substance abuse.

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Obesity and a Lack of Sleep

Monday, February 9th, 2009

Individuals who are tired from a lack of sleep will typically want to eat extra food the following day so as to get energy from the food. As time goes along the extra calories are likely to be stored as fat, resulting in weight gain and eventual obesity.

The new science paints a clear picture of changes in brain chemistry that actual start before weight is gained. It is a combination of the arousal thermostat set too high and leptin resistance (high leptin in the blood that is not getting into the brain properly)

Hypocretin neurons that comprising the arousal thermostat contain leptin receptors, meaning that leptin speaks directly to them so as to slow them down. When leptin is not entering the brain properly then there is a lack of instruction to not eat. This causes the over-stimulated hyporcretin system to desire excess food, a misguided signal left over from the days of the hunter-gather when extra mental vigilance and less sleep was needed during times of famine so as not to miss a hunting opportunity.

I might point out that there are many teenagers whose arousal thermostat is set too high, who have trouble sleeping, but are not overweight. While their leptin system is being challenged, it has not yet faltered. Their wired metabolism is burning all the calories they can eat and they may even have trouble gaining weight or keeping weight on. Such teens will be at high risk for becoming overweight later in life.

Many teens are not so lucky, and their leptin system has started faltering at an early age, not only causing obesity-related metabolic problems to lock into place but seriously compromising future health.

Current research clearly shows a lack of sleep in children is an independent risk factor for obesity, as poor sleepers have a 92% higher risk of obesity compared to the best sleepers. Researchers have also identified how a lack of sleep produces a stress response (cortisol excess) that also turns down fat burning and helps lock leptin problems into place.

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Sudden Cardiac Death Linked To Sleep Apnea

Thursday, November 20th, 2008

People with obstructive sleep apnea are far more likely die suddenly in their sleep from heart-related problems than the rest of the population, according to researchers at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. They found that the pattern for people with obstructive sleep apnea is actually opposite that of the general population, who are more likely to die from a heart attack, cardiac arrest, or other heart-related incidents during the day.

In a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine, the researchers reviewed the death certificates of 112 Minnesota residents who had been tested for sleep apnea and who died suddenly from cardiac causes between the period of July 1987 and July 2003.

Of those who died between the hours of midnight and 6 a.m., 46% had obstructive sleep apnea, compared with 21% who had other diagnoses. Among the general population, only 16% die from cardiac causes during the specified hours, the authors note.

The study also found that the likelihood of dying of cardiac causes overnight correlated directly with the severity of obstructive sleep apnea.

The overnight hours are generally thought to be a period of reduced risk of sudden death from cardiac causes because sleep minimizes the stresses that can trigger heart attacks and other problems. In fact, in the general population or among people with other diagnoses, the risk of suddenly dying from a heart-related incident peaks between the hours of 6 a.m. and noon, the researchers say.

Sleep apnea is a condition that causes sufferers to stop breathing for numerous brief periods during sleep. This causes oxygen levels in the body to drop and carbon dioxide levels to climb, straining the heart.

While the causes of sleep apnea can vary, the Mayo Clinic study dealt specifically with people who suffered from obstructive sleep apnea. An estimated 17% to 24% of North American adults suffer from this specific form of sleep apnea, which occurs when air can’t get into the lungs due to a blockage in the upper airway. This condition is most common in people who are overweight, though it can also occur in people of normal weight who have a physical characteristic, such as a large tongue, which can restrict airflow.

These interruptions in breathing typically cause the sleeping person to briefly wake up gasping for air, as many as hundreds of times during the night. Many people with sleep apnea are also loud snorers and tend to feel extremely tired in the daytime due to the pattern of repeated waking during the night.

But while these things may seem like an exhausting inconvenience (both to sleep apnea sufferers and their partners), the Mayo Clinic study is one of the first to highlight the risk that may be associated with this condition. A previous study found that habitual snorers were more likely than occasional snorers or people who don’t snore to die of cardiac causes during sleep, but it did not delve into the cause of the snoring.

But while this research underscores the danger, a majority of sleep apnea cases go undiagnosed. If you snore, are constantly tired during the day or wake up gasping for air, it’s important to talk to your doctor.

While there are no medications to treat sleep apnea, lifestyle modifications such as losing weight may help. People with sleep apnea can also wear a mask that supplies a constant airflow through the nose or special dental appliances that stop the throat from closing or the tongue from falling back. In some cases, surgery may be required to prevent overnight lapses in breathing.

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