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Snooze
AND Lose:
How A Good Night's Sleep
Means You're Going To Lose Weight
Sleep is a delicious and precious thing. But when you lay your
head down on the pillow, do you get a fitful, peaceful rest? Or
do you toss and turn? Or wake up intermittently? Even worse, are
you tormented with nightmares?
Of course, these problems assume you can fall asleep in the first
place. How many sheep do you have to count before you doze off?
Sleep problems generally are the result of a calcium/magnesium
and/or a zinc/copper imbalance. These two ratios, of course, also
determine your basal body metabolic rate (translate: how much fat
you'll burn every day.) If you get these two ratios into a healthy
balance, you'll have better ZZZZZs and lose Lbs. (as in pounds!)
Not Enough Magnesium
People with a magnesium deficiency suffer from "Type II insomnia." They
fall asleep easily but only experience a relatively short period
of deep, restful sleep, that delicious time when your body is able
to rebuild muscles, skin and bones. Most of the night they are
trapped in light, useless sleep. They toss and they turn. Then,
they wake up exhausted.
Ironically, people with too little magnesium in relation to calcium
develop this trouble because they don't have enough energy to sleep
fitfully. Restful sleep requires a certain amount of energy to
reach the stage of rejuvenating rest, which is characterized by
rapid eye movement (REM). When you can't maintain REM sleep for
a prolonged period, fatigue eventually becomes chronic during your
waking hours. (Your energy is zapped because you have too much
calcium in relation to magnesium.)
People under stress are prone to this kind of insomnia because
stress sops up all the magnesium it can find, creating a shortage.
Not Enough Calcium
Insomnia (the Type I kind) has been associated with calcium for
centuries. Did your Momma serve you a warm glass of milk and cookies
before bedtime?
People who don't have enough calcium have two sleep-related problems.
First, they have great difficulty falling asleep. In most cases
this occurs because low tissue calcium produces irritability. They're
just too upset to be able to fall asleep.
Second, people with low calcium levels are plagued with muscle
cramps at night. These painful cramps occur even without any real
exertion during the day. A calcium to magnesium imbalance causes
these muscles to remain in a constant state of contraction. Ouch!
Warm milk (without the cookies, of course) before bedtime can help
people lacking calcium fall asleep faster. But more dietary changes
are needed to deal with the muscle cramps.
Too much calcium:
Frequent urination at night is one symptom of too much calcium.
When excess calcium settles in the muscles surrounding the bladder,
it reduces the bladder's holding capacity. Frequency and urgency
are increased. It's hard to have a good night's sleep when you
constantly have to get up and go.
Too much copper:
High copper levels affect the neurological system. They also stimulate
the right side or creative hemisphere of the brain. (Artists typically
have higher copper levels than electrical engineers.) Unfortunately,
too much copper causes nightmares. Don't eat chocolate, peanut
butter or grapes before bedtime if you want to have sweet dreams.
So what's weight loss have to do with this?
All four minerals are also crucial to the weight loss process.
Calcium and copper can sedate or overstimulate the adrenal and
thyroid glands, basically snuffing out your weight loss efforts
with an ineffective metabolic rate. Fix the cal/mag and zinc/copper
ratios and you can burn off those pounds, even while you sleep!
So, how do you know what your calcium or copper level is and how
do you fix it if it's broke? You order a special lab test, never
before available to consumers, which will chart your calcium, copper,
magnesium and zinc levels along with 31 other trace elements and
heavy metals. This test, called a Tissue Mineral
Analysis, includes a specific eating plan geared to your body.
For example, if you have too much copper and not enough zinc, the
report will tell you to eat more eggs and fish but give up nuts
and mushrooms. The test will even tell you what aspirin to take
(typically no ibuprofen but plenty of acetaminophen) to speed up
your metabolism so you can lose and snooze!
For the scientific, the proper calcium to magnesium ratio is 3
to 11 milligrams per 100 grams. The healthy zinc to copper ratio
is 4 to 12 milligrams per 100 grams. Thanks for asking!
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