Question: Can natural sleep aids like melatonin or valerian interact with NRIs? I know that MAOIs should not be taken with NRIs, but I'm trying to find an alternative to (the very dangerous) Ambien. Can anyone point me to a source that will let me know whether natural sleep aids like melatonin can interact with an NRI medication?
Unfortunately many doctors do not support natural alternatives because they do not know enough about them to advise their patients on how to take them. And most doctors in America will not advertise the fact they support natural remedies since it is frowned upon and health insurance companies do not recognise it as medicine.
Answer: i advise u to consult a doctor
Question: Do you agree with article below about so-called vitamin B6 being bad for you? Below quoted from: http://www.brojon.org/frontpage/bomber/bomber1.html
B6 is added, since it is a simple and stable synthetic chemical which does not degrade with age or cooking. It is also very cheap and adding 100% RDA costs almost nothing. But it is NOT a vitamin. It is not found in any natural food. And there is no natural form of B6. It is not a food. It's just a chemical.
It's a long story, which I will tell in a later article. But the average person in America, and now throughout the world, who eats a bowl of cereal for breakfast, a McBurger bun for lunch and other snacks and desserts, gets about 1,000% or ten times the RDA for B6. That is an extreme overdose of B6. This stops all the natural tryptophan in the diet from ever getting into the brain, to become the neurochemicals serotonin and melatonin. B6 is THE SOURCE of the so-called "chemical imbalance in the brain" which affects about half the population. If you were ever diagnosed as have a "brain chemical imbalance,"
Answer: It's nothing more than a crazy conspiracy theory.
Question: Which is a better/more effective sleep aid: melatonin or Tylenol Simply Sleep? I'm looking into buying Source Naturals Melatonin because it's more natural. But it's a little more expensive than Simply Sleep...
Answer: There is controversy with both sleep aids you mentioned. Almost all over the counter sleep aids contain diphenhydramine. This is true of Tylenol Simply Sleep. On the labels of these sleep aids, it generally says not to take the pills for more than a week or two, without consulting a doctor. The pills are not for long term use.
Melatonin is produced by the pituitary gland. There is concern that if you keep taking melatonin in pill form, it will make the gland "lazy" and it will not produce as much melatonin as it should. Again, check with your doctor first.
I once wrote a list of more natural sleep aids. It is so long that just reading it may put you to sleep :-)
What helped me a lot to fall asleep, especially when my mind was racing, was to lie in bed and listen to relaxation CDs, especially those that contain someone speaking with relaxing music in the background. The combination of voice and music is very soothing. Many of these CDs are available on eBay for very low prices.
There are herbs that might help you to sleep, eg, valerian root, kava kava, chamomile, hops, passion flower, skullcap. Probably, valerian root and kava kava are the best. However, what most people don’t realize is that it can take a few weeks for some herbs to build up in your system before they work.
The minerals calcium and magnesium might be helpful for sleep. You can also try 5-HTP or trytophan.
A warm bath is a great way to help you to sleep. If you can’t take a bath, you can give yourself a foot massage with slightly warm massage oil, sesame oil, or castor oil from a health food store.
A helpful technique is to relax your body one part at a time. So you could relax your feet, your lower legs, upper legs, moving up from your lower belly up to your chest, etc., until your whole body is relaxed.
Of course, guided relaxation methods can help, imagining yourself in the country, the beach, or whatever is most soothing to you.
If you have annoying thoughts or personal issues that run through your mind when you are trying to sleep, you might have to deal with those issues first. You might want to talk to a counselor or therapist about that. I suggest avoiding prescription sleeping pills unless nothing else helps.
