# Insomnia



## Lathika (Oct 14, 2016)

Hello
Iam new to this forum. I have hashimoto's since my early 30's. Now iam 45. I have thyroid flare up going hypo to hyper in just 4 to 5 days. Mostly hyper like symptoms like severe insomnia, palpitations and shortness of breath. Iam tired of going to endo's as no one helped me to sort out my problem. Sometimes I cannot sleep even an hour. Recently I took my antibodies test.
Thyroid microsomal antibody: 347.94
Normal: 5.61
Thyroglobulin antibodies:11.09
Normal: less than 4
My thyroid tests are always within normal range but my symptoms continue. 
Also I take the following supplements 
Vit C:1000mg
Cal:1000mg
Vit d3: 4000iu
Fish oil: 1000mg
Probiotics:4 billion
Magnesium and b vitamins are started taking in a liquid form. Just started 2 days before.
Kindly help me to sleep well. What do I need to do further for my sleep well.
Also I find difficult to digest any form of protein. So I fear I might have protein deficiency.
What are the tests I need to take further to find my deficiencies.
Thanks in advance
Regards
Lathika


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## joplin1975 (Jul 21, 2011)

Do you have thyroid labs -- TSH, free t4, and free t3 -- that you could share?

Are you on medication? If yes, what and how much?

Have you had an ultrasound?


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## BurntMarshmallow (Feb 26, 2016)

Hi Lathika, I wrote you already separately, but in case anyone else has insomnia, I wanted to add some tips here:

When insomnia is accompanied by palpitations and shortness of breath, I automatically think about iron.

Iron can cause sleep problems indirectly, because we need iron to convert tryptophan into serotonin - and from serotonin we make melatonin which helps us sleep. Low iron makes us feel depressed from low serotonin, and sleepless from low melatonin.

Low iron can also cause an "awareness of the heartbeat". If you lie down on the pillow and you can hear your heart in your ears, or even if you are sitting at the table resting, and you feel like your heart is "pounding", that can happen from low iron. Breathlessness is another clue. The heart pounding and breathlessness are a very early sign of anemia. It means you can't get oxygen from your lungs to your heart, brain and muscles very well. All of the b-vitamins are also involved in these processes. Being low in any b-vitamin can cause the same symptoms too, because we need b-vitamins to incorporate iron into red blood cells.

If you have a heart skipping a beat, or beating irregularities, this is more of a nerve signaling problem, iron is less of an issue here. The b-vitamins, magnesium are more likely to be involved, because these help control the messages to the heart through the nervous system.

B-vitamins also regulate sleep. To make serotonin, we need B6, and to make melatonin from serotonin, we need B3.

For sleep to happen, serotonin is supposed to fall as it gets dark. Less light hitting our eyes triggers us to use up serotonin to make melatonin. Because of this, the timing of taking supporting nutrients matters. You don't want to take all of your vitamins at one time before bed. Too much B6 then may suddenly increase serotonin, and keep you awake. By the time you have converted it to melatonin, it could be four hours later. So taking vitamins (especially b-vitamins) spread out during the day with food, keeping your levels up and steady, is the best way.

Melatonin is available as a supplement in some countries, like the US. If you take melatonin as a supplement, you must be very careful. Melatonin is a hormone which controls many things besides sleep. It is also a signal which affects fertility hormones. In fact, melatonin is the hormone which controls when all mammals go into heat (the estrus cycle). In humans, melatonin levels rise in the winter months as the days get shorter and less light hits our eyes, and this slows down the thyroid, and at the same time increases fertility hormones. Taking melatonin once in a while might help you sleep, but it is also probably going to confuse the other hormones, and may make your thyroid slow, and then rise again suddenly when you stop. If you do take melatonin, a very lose dose like 0.3 mg is closest to what the body normally produces. The supplements which are 1, 3 or even 5mg should be avoided completely, and never start or stop these suddenly.

Other chemicals involved with sleep are things like cortisol, histamine and GABA.

Histamine isn't only about making you itch, it also makes you feel alert and is important for a lot of things in the body. But if histamine is too high at night, we can feel wired and tired. Again, all the b-vitamins are involved in regulating histamine. Taking an antihistamine (like the one in "Unisom") can be a quick solution to help with this aspect of sleep, until your body gets better at managing histamine levels. You can break the tablets in half, or even quarters, to find the right dose for you. A pill cutter is great to have around.

GABA is a neurotransmitter which calms the brain for sleep. I haven't read as much about this one. But I know we need B1 (thiamine) to make GABA.

Cortisol also has a 24 hour cycle. At night, cortisol should fall, which helps you sleep. Taking zinc lowers cortisol naturally, so dinner time is the best time to take zinc. We can all use some extra zinc, because making TSH uses up zinc. Anytime you have elevated TSH, you are using zinc to make it, which leaves less zinc for other things.

And lastly, protein. There are 20 different types of proteins that we need to live. Of the 20, there are 9 that are essential, because we cannot make them from other proteins. We have to get them in food. But if we are low in some vitamin, we can have problems making the proteins that normally we should be able to make. Eating a wide variety of protein can help compensate for not being able to make all the proteins well. Taking a digestive enzyme with each meal will help break down the proteins. If that isn't enough, adding lemon juice or vinegar to meals also helps break food down when our stomachs can't do the job well.

We need certain proteins to make sleep happen. We need tryptophan, but also methionine which helps clear histamine. And those are just the two that I know about, I'm sure there are more. Pumpkin seeds and turkey are great sources of tryptophan. Eggs are a great source of methionine. Or you can take these as supplements which makes them more convenient and more easily absorbed.

I know that all sounds overwhelming. In summary, taking a digestive enzyme, multivitamin (preferably one that you take a little of with each meal), and maybe a b-complex (also with each meal), extra iron after breakfast, a little tryptophan with each meal, and then an antihistamine, zinc (with copper) and magnesium after dinner, you'll be sleeping like a baby.


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## Lathika (Oct 14, 2016)

Hi
I received a message already from you and this has additional information. Thank you so much.
I have ordered the supplements and waiting for it to come. Meanwhile do I need to go strictly gluten free diet?Even very less fruits are allowed? Iam partially vegetarian. Can you give me diet plan how to eat for hashimoto's disease? Mainly I want to know what are the foods I need to avoid?
Thanks again


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## Keba (Aug 11, 2012)

I'm sorry for what you're going through. Vitamins are a great place to start. I currently had to switch from melatonin to Tylenol PM's and I'm hoping I can stop those once my levels are stabilized.


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## BurntMarshmallow (Feb 26, 2016)

Cherries are wonderful for helping with constipation. I buy them frozen, and put four or five on my cereal or yogurt in the morning. They thaw out quickly.

Some people feel better when they avoid gluten, and other people notice no difference. Gut health depends on a lot of things, and I can't really say if you should avoid gluten or not. Many people say avoid gluten if you have hashimoto's, but the research out there is pretty much split on both sides - some say avoid gluten, others say it's fine.

Since you are trying a lot of new things (supplements) right now, I would not start any dietary restrictions. Wheat is one of the few grains with a lot of protein. And if you are mainly a vegetarian, wheat might be one of your main sources of protein. Soy and dairy are good sources of protein when you are not eating meat. Beans, nuts and seeds are also good protein sources. Some people have trouble with certain foods while other people are just fine with those same foods. I take a digestive enzyme which helps me eat any type of food without problems. I cannot say enough good things about taking a digestive enzyme. I wish I had discovered this decades ago.

My son is a very picky eater, and in his case, I know he isn't getting enough of certain things, based on his diet. If you are struggling with knowing what to eat, you might want to find a nutritionist to review your general diet, and help you figure out if you are getting enough protein and things like essential fatty acids.

The more varied your diet, the better. Different foods contain different proteins, and vitamins. Avoiding foods, or eating too much of a single food for a long period of time is generally not a good idea. Variety is good. Everything in moderation is a good philosophy.

That said, there are a couple things to limit, because they can interfere with the thyroid or the use of minerals and vitamins:

Sugar - fruit is fine. But anything else that has a lot of sugar should be avoided. If you read the label, see how many sugars are listed in the carbohydrates section. You want to avoid foods and drinks where the sugar is 50% or more of the carbohydrates. If you crave sugar and find it hard to avoid, take extra pantothenic acid (B5). This is AMAZING for sugar cravings.

Alcohol - it takes effort from your liver to process alcohol. Alcohol will lower thyroid hormones, and deplete you of many vitamins.

Tea and coffee - both contain tannins which interfere with absorption of iron, thyroid medication, and other nutrients. If you must have tea or coffee, do not take your medication or supplements, or food along with them. Wait at least an hour after. And do not soak tea bags for more than two or three minutes. (Herbal tea like mint, or chamomile tea is fine).

Avoid yellow dye #5 - it depletes B6.

Do not take antacids. If you have stomach upset, take a digestive enzyme with or after your meal instead. You can also take apple cider vinegar 30 minutes after eating, or anytime you have an upset stomach (straight from the bottle, or buy it powdered in capsules). Apple cider vinegar can speed up the emptying of the stomach into the small intestines, and help with constipation too. Some people take it for weight loss because it is pretty good at moving the bowels.


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## Lovlkn (Dec 20, 2009)

I take 2 capsules of L-Triptophan 1 hour before bed and usually sleep quite well. I have noticed if I take for a week or 2 my resting heart-rate gets awful low so I now take a few days on and a few days off.

I've had insomnia since the birth of my first son who is 23 1/2. Have tried everything - prescription sleeping pills, benzo's, valerian, melatonin and Holy Basil to try and even out my cortisol levels, so far to no success. I take a steroid nasal spray and figure that might be the issue


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## Keba (Aug 11, 2012)

I chose to supplement with magnesium citrate and that took the constipation away.


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## BurntMarshmallow (Feb 26, 2016)

Lovlkn said:


> I've had insomnia since the birth of my first son who is 23 1/2. Have tried everything.


One thing unique about pregnancy is that we use a lot of vitamin A and can be a bit low after a pregnancy. We normally store about two years of it in the liver. It's not safe to take much during pregnancy. And it's not unusual to experience some low vitamin A symptoms after having a baby. When it gets low, poor night vision is the symptom we usually notice. I hadn't thought about what that might do to sleep, but you made me wonder and then I found this:

http://www.westonaprice.org/our-blogs/cmasterjohn/vitamin-plays-essential-role-setting-circadian-rhythm-allowing-good-sleep/

It's just a theory but it makes sense. It's interesting bcs I never thought much about how the rods of the eye would effect our ability to perceive light and how that could influence cortisol and melatonin and the circadian rhythm

I had poor night vision for years and years after I had my two sons. I never thought to mention it to a doctor though. I didn't sleep well either but I thought it was my own fault somehow, I couldn't shut off my brain sometimes, even when the kids finally did sleep.


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## Lovlkn (Dec 20, 2009)

Hmmmm, very interesting. I've had poor night vision for a very long time and assumed it was due to the Graves.


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## Lathika (Oct 14, 2016)

Hi all,
Thank you very much for your message. I update you my progress once I start my multivitamin and multi enzymes . Thanks again for your support ????


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## spunky (Oct 24, 2016)

i know drugs are bad...but i have to take them. nothing else ever worked. for me its been Ambien and Trazadone. also the new one Belsomra is good

if there was a supplement that worked for me.. would sure take it


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## Lathika (Oct 14, 2016)

BurntMarshmallow said:


> One thing unique about pregnancy is that we use a lot of vitamin A and can be a bit low after a pregnancy. We normally store about two years of it in the liver. It's not safe to take much during pregnancy. And it's not unusual to experience some low vitamin A symptoms after having a baby. When it gets low, poor night vision is the symptom we usually notice. I hadn't thought about what that might do to sleep, but you made me wonder and then I found this:
> 
> http://www.westonaprice.org/our-blogs/cmasterjohn/vitamin-plays-essential-role-setting-circadian-rhythm-allowing-good-sleep/
> 
> ...


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