Is there anything natural for sleep?

The body should be able to regulate it's own circadian rhythm with proper care.  That means if you are healthy, work in the fields, get up at dawn, sleep at dusk and eat right-the brain has ways of secreting hormones that signal time to wake up and time to fall into brain rest.  The problem will come when we go over and above by watching TV for 24 hours, "sleeping in" for more than to consecutive days, eating poorly or with no regularity, taking stimulants like caffeine/bad carbohydrates/adhd prescriptions.  When you participate in repetative poor scheduling, the brain will think you are in a different time zone and it will not know when dusk is so the quality of deep brain wave rest will be compromised.  You will know by the mere fact that you wake up fatigued, fall asleep at the wheel, become irritable with problem solving, or memory is hampered.  

Snoring is not good.  We often attribute the sound of a child snoring to -"a good sleep".  If the snoring is associated with pauses of apnea (not breathing) then the brain  is not getting oxygen and sends impulses to the diapragm to gasp for air.  It may sound funny on youtube (or annoying to the partner) but the heart also gets shut out from oxygen and it will suffer by sending out a stress response and turning on adrenaline and epinephrine.......two hormones that are not supposed to be floating around the blood stream during peaceful shut-eye.  The only way to find out about if a loud snorer is going through apnea is a sleep study.  Medical insurance will pay for sleep studies in the lab but you usually have to get a "Home Sleep Unit" from the lung specialist and wear it for 1-7 nights.  This will document a problem and signal to your insurance doctor that a more formal and detailed test is required.  The end result is a positive pressure mask or nasal canula to wear at night so the soft tissues of the nose/mouth/throat stay open at night to allow air flow in and out.  (thus no obstruction)  NOTE-usually if you lose weight the soft tissue that is blocking the passageway will shrink allow the breathing tube to remain open.  Imaging that, a non surgical, non chemical way to get rid of sleep apnea!!!! Oh but weight loss isn't covered by insurance.  What is covered by insurance is a nasty surgery called the UPPP (see link)   

If there is not apneic issue and you are just suffering from shift work sleep problems, sometimes you can do things naturally to help the brain drift off into a sleep rhythm again but it takes ritual pattern establishment over 21 days or longer.  See my lecture on sleep  Today we have immediate access of over 100 channels of stimulating TV programs and usually a closet full of equally stimulating processed food.  Run away! Run away like you are running from zombies!!  It is too easy to open a package and say you will just have 1-2 bites but then feel guilty you ate 20 servings before the TV program finished!!  It is hard to stay true to a diet when you are weak....that is usually about 10pm to 2am. (and in ancient healing like Ayurveda and traditional Chinese medicine-one is not supposed to be filling the stomach at these hours)

You can schedule your macro nutrients to assist in bringing the brain to bedtime, you can also keep your exercise to day time, you can practice the relaxation response to induce positive serotonin secretion to help in training the brain to establish a good circadian rhythm but if this doesn't work then there are hypnotic prescriptions that will force you to sleep but it usually results in poor dream state and an addiction to the medicine.

I feel fine, do I need a check up?

I was in an online meeting with Deepak Chopra and he announced current research projects regarding telomeres.  These are the end caps of our chromosomes (DNA) that protect these delicate message carriers from chemicals, radiation, bad food, viral invasion....the external world.  His research finds if you meditate regularly, your telomeres stay long.  (when they get short the end is near-damage to DNA occurs and just a matter of time before mutation occurs and something grows the wrong way)  He has even enlisted the expertise of Elizabeth Blackburn who is a Nobel Laureate who discovered telomerase, the enzyme that keeps your telomeres long.

Dean Ornish's Program for Reversing Heart Disease has found reproducible results if people change to a mostly vegan diet, walk, practice stress reduction/yoga and go through group therapy.  He took the same program and proved with Elizabeth Blackburn's help the the telomeres in early prostate cancer patients stayed long and the prostate cancer in some was reversed.  Herb Benson and Jeff Dusek found the the more you meditate, the more genes change (published in PlosOne) .....imagine, that is a positive effect and you don't even have to leave your bedroom!  So now the problem is getting people to make changes like the above before disease occurs.  VERY HARD.

Luckily the price for checking telomerase activity is available and decreasing slowly.  The only company that offers the test to the public is Spectracell Labs.  For 200.00$ you can find out if you compare to others in your age group.  (The Today Show)   If your level is better than expected for age, it would be reinforcement that your lifestyle is probably healthy.  The problem could come up if an obese smoker gets the test and it looks "ok"- this might serve as positive ammunition to continue with dangerous living.  I think you would need 2 tests in time (spaced out by 5-10 years to figure if you are improving or worsening.

I would guide my patients to challenge their lives by introducing healthy Thinking/Eating/Activity to their daily routine.  It has to be a routine and you have to like it for sustainability.  If you jump off the deep end and just commit to taking vitamins and "eating when you can".....NOT SUSTAINABLE.  I believe every person has to construct their own template for change and often it is difficult to hold the microscope to yourself.  An outside opinion would always be valuable.  It is too easy to procrastinate the "Change" - something will always come up and we will reason our way out of our plans.  I like the way the registered dietitian at First Health Associates thinks.  Tom likes to develop an "implementation intention" when designing programs for weight loss.  You set a goal (easy) and when you attain goal, you are triggered to go onto the next challenge.  "Lets get you below 400 pounds first then talk about 395.".

Ultimately if you catch yourself saying, "I gotta stop this" or "I know what I am doing is bad"....every cell in your body has already unraveled the DNA, created a protein, changed the protein into a hormone, sent the hormone to your brain and created a message that "you have to change".  If you choose to ignore the message, the only thing that gets damaged is your DNA and sooner or later it won't be able to form messages anymore.  BYE!!

Have one for me!!!

Guy:    How much alcohol intake is considered healthy?
DrRic; That's a loaded question, what other medical problems do you have?
Guy:    Are you saying alcohol is a medical problem?
DrRic:  I believe it's effects can be used to "quiet emotional reactions" and some people can start out using it recreationally but end up depending on it like medicine "to get through occasional tough times"
Guy:     I saw on Dr Oz that red wine has resveratrol, an antioxidant to help fight cancer.....and I don't have any tough times in my life.
DrRic:   Reseveratrol does help as an antioxidant to neutralize dangerous life choices but you would have to take alot of volume and the toxic effects of alcohol on judgement, fatty liver, sleep and digestion make it more of a burden to the body.
DrRic:   Also, it's not the amount of tough times it's the learned reaction to them.  Stressors are a part of all human interaction (inescapable), some react badly (generalized anxiety) and some react seemlessly (meditator).  For every rise in adrenaline and cortisol the body goes through in a day, there will be less room for serotonin and oxytocin (love hormones/procreation).  That would be akin to a proinflammatory life vs and antiinflammatory life.  Developing a dependence on alcohol to neutralize the adrenaline/cortisol times will set you up for more alcohol as the challenges of life accumulate with age.

I have the above conversation with patients (mostly male) on a regular basis.  I will always expect a defensive stance from the patient with what is supposed to be a rhetorical question to me- "What is your healthy alcohol intake?" (expecting I will fire back with stumbling words or some form of denial) Then I boldly say I don't drink.  The reaction is raised eye brows and "really!".   Then I mention my story about the last beer being after I finished the 10/10/10 Chicago Marathon.  I decided to detach myself from this thing that no longer served me.  Truthfully I began to feel brainwashed into thinking the only way to watch a sporting event, relax after work, or finish some sweaty endeavor like cutting the grass was to order two beers, (one for chugging now and the other if the waitress took too long to come back for my next request).
Most who went to college know alcohol is a right of passage in starting to leave the nest and search for a life partner (or maybe just the next hook up) but it revolves around the keg party.  THERE!....it IS synonymous with party!!!   Somehow it transcends into middle and old age as well.  Some people will use it as an excuse for doing lewd acts...."oh...I was drunk"  or  "you were so funny last night!"(intoxicated).  So you can see how people can easily step on the throttle and increase consumption to deal with bigger life challenges. (when the right thing would be to tactically problem-solve with a clear mind). Those of you who just said to yourselves "..but I do think better with a glass in my hand" really should investigate other ways to problem solve and compare the difference.    Be patient, alcohol is immediate (like xanax) vs techniques of controlling the stress reaction take a while to learn (I'm going on 5 years and I am still a novice).  You just might be able to stop an addiction.  I don't bother with candy coating the word dependence-I just reveal it as I see fit and I don't like the effects of drinking.
It can be considered a drug that dehydrates.  Alcohol and water don't mix.  The more you drink, the drier every cell becomes.  Athletes are told not to drink before competition as it decreases stamina, strength, and performance.  I mentioned fatty liver before and this is one of the biggest contributors to the abnormal blood tests.  When the body has to detoxify alcohol, it does so with the liver.  This organ is already busy with high sugar foods, pesticides, GMOs and then we have a few drinks.  The liver starts to suffer and back up, it's called hepatic congestion....I call it slow liver failure leading to cirrhosis.  Reverse your ways now or you will be feeling the sharp end of a surgeons knife replace your liver.
So are you if you are in training for competitive sports-don't drink alcohol.
                  if you are adopting a new lifestyle change- don't drink alcohol.
                  if you are trying to lose weight - don't drink alcohol.
                  if you have a major medical problem and taking medication-don't drink alcohol.
                  if you are being treated for any psychiatric problem-don't drink alcohol.
                  if you are trying to detox your life-don't drink alcohol.
                  if you have any history in the family of alcoholism-don't drink alcohol..
You can find other docs who say it's ok to drink with any of the above but the fact that you had to look probably means you should consider abstaining.