Sweet Slumber

For years I have experienced problems with sleep: trouble getting to sleep, trouble staying asleep, sometimes lying abed half the night staring at the ceiling trying to calm the racing mind.

I have tried many remedies. The latest formula was Valerian (herbal supplement) and Coffea Cruda (homeopathic tablets); these helped often, but not every time I experienced insomnia.

Then I started the ketogenic diet. I think I threw my body into shock when doing this because  I spent several nights in a row staring at the ceiling with that awake "monkey mind."

What to do?

One of my favorite on-line (AND in person) mentors is a wonderful chiropractor, Dr. Eric Berg. I went to see him (in northern Virginia) several years ago for some acupressure work and found him to be an amazing practitioner. He now has a huge on-line following. He has learned the art of reaching millions of people via the internet. Just look for him on YouTube and you will find incredible video blogs of all kinds. He also does a weekly on-line live call-in show via Facebook.

Dr. Berg is an expert on the ketogenic diet, not only for weight loss but for cancer. He and his wife offer a lot of incredible recipes for the keto diet. When I was having sleep issues, I found this amazing YouTube video outlining Dr. Berg's formula for dealing with insomnia:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cqbQAWpOJVE

If you view this, you will see that he talks about several possible reasons why insomnia takes hold of you on the ketogenic diet. I was particularly struck by what he said about intermittent fasting, lack of potassium and lack of vitamin B1. (In other videos, he discusses these three problems as separate issues.) So I began dealing with all three of these.

1) Intermittent fasting. I try to restrict my eating to 4-6 hours in a 24-hour period. At first it was difficult; but after a few days, I became accustomed to it.

2) Potassium deficiency. I remedied this by taking a shot of wheat grass daily. It tastes nasty but according to Dr. B, it's a great way to boost potassium intake. He has developed a powder that is not the complete wheat grass in dried form but the wheat grass JUICE in dried form; it's much more concentrated and more effective.

3) Vitamin B1 deficiency. This is alleviated by taking a spoonful of nutritional yeast a couple of times a day. Found this at My Organic Market. It's not very expensive and is easy to take; can consume it "straight" (has a lovely nutty taste) or sprinkle it on food.

4) Adrenal supplements. Dr. Berg has developed a couple of adrenal support supplements that I take to help "awaken" the adrenal response in the morning and "relax" the adrenals at bed-time. Just look up this topic on Dr. Berg's YouTube site if you need more info. It's all there.

After beginning the above protocol, I began experiencing AMAZING sleep. No kidding; I didn't know it was possible to sleep through the night! I consider this new-found information nothing short of miraculous. Dr. Eric Berg is terrific. Check him out: https://www.drberg.com/blog