A Diet for Poor Sleep and Sleep Apnea

Gluten is certainly something to check off if you are trying to identify a problem. Something else is large meals. When you eat a large meal, your blood pressure and respiration often increase about an hour later and stays elevated, particularly in the evening. So eating late can make trying to get to sleep much harder. Not that it happens to me much these days, but I avoid anything but a small snack after 7 (I go to bed about 10:30) for this reason. Popcorn isn't much of a problem although it causes bloating now and then.

Also, if you have diabetes, you have a high probability of developing gluten intolerance. The GOOD news is that for most diabetics who do so, two years of gluten free living will usually eliminate the problem. It is caused by the inflammation from diabetes.

My AHI the past month has been in the 2 to 5 range. But a the last week it's been in the
1.9 to .1 range. Either this is because I am getting a lot more potassium in my diet ( and
I sure hope this is the reason ) or it's because I bruised a rib last Friday ! But back to potasium
here is an article about it's possible effect on OSA .

http://journals.lww.com/jhypertension/A ... .1406.aspx

I think it's interesting to remember (from the first para of the article) that they were dealing with hypertensive patients to begin with... that kind of got left out of the results summation. I also would (if I were you) experiment on myself by taking the potassium at the same dose for a time, maybe a few wks, then stopping it for at least that long and then starting again, etc... to really see if it's making a difference or if other things could be involved like a small weight gain or loss, other incidental meds, a diet change of food, etc. etc. Potassium can be a good supplement, but it can also cause cardiac and other troubles if not taken 'right' or monitored.

AMK wrote:I was startled, when I gave up gluten, to find that an inflammation-related disorder that had dogged me for two decades and required a prescription to barely keep in check just vanished. Also my dry eye syndrome vanished. These two effects are enough for me to have no interest in wheat. It made no difference with apnea though. It's easy to gain weight on a gluten-free diet, though, depending on how hard you lean on the bakery substitutes.

Wow, that's fantastic! I have dry eye syndrome and an inflammation-related disorder as well. I am also pre-diabetic. I've looked into gluten-free but gluten-free stuff seems to have more carbs that their gluten counterparts, and low carb (plus losing weight) has dropped my A1-C to almost normal. I'll have to give this another go and try to balance everything.

Ignore all the packaged gluten free processed junk in the grocery store. It's got too much salt and sugar to make up for the missing gluten. Instead, take a look at the Paleo diet. It's just meat, fish, vegetables and fruit, eggs, olives (organic food if you can afford it). Some people include dairy, just avoid the inflammatory refined sugar, wheat, and dairy is also inflammatory. If you search on Amazon.com for under paleo diet, you will find recipe books or just search the internet for recipes. There's one book in particular called "Wheat Belly", Written by
Cardiologist Dr. Davis. Read the reviews.

WearyOne wrote:Wow, that's fantastic! I have dry eye syndrome and an inflammation-related disorder as well. I am also pre-diabetic. I've looked into gluten-free but gluten-free stuff seems to have more carbs that their gluten counterparts, and low carb (plus losing weight) has dropped my A1-C to almost normal. I'll have to give this another go and try to balance everything.

My dry eye was pretty bad, too. I would have to leave events because my eyes were drying out to the point of pain. I had tried all treatments including plugs. Gave up wheat and I have never had one instance of even a little discomfort. Blew my mind!

I am careful with gluten substitutes. I avoid the panoply of gluten-free cookies, cakes, cupcakes, crackers, donuts, waffles and candy. They are a good way to get fat and have blood sugar all over the place. I do eat a red lentil pasta that I just love and I have small amounts of a specific gluten-free bread (Canyon Bakehouse). But mostly the gluten substitutes are unnecessary to a healthy diet. I get most of my carbs from vegetables. I'm weird, though...I eat vegetable soup for breakfast.

AMK wrote:

WearyOne wrote:Wow, that's fantastic! I have dry eye syndrome and an inflammation-related disorder as well. I am also pre-diabetic. I've looked into gluten-free but gluten-free stuff seems to have more carbs that their gluten counterparts, and low carb (plus losing weight) has dropped my A1-C to almost normal. I'll have to give this another go and try to balance everything.

My dry eye was pretty bad, too. I would have to leave events because my eyes were drying out to the point of pain. I had tried all treatments including plugs. Gave up wheat and I have never had one instance of even a little discomfort. Blew my mind!

I am careful with gluten substitutes. I avoid the panoply of gluten-free cookies, cakes, cupcakes, crackers, donuts, waffles and candy. They are a good way to get fat and have blood sugar all over the place. I do eat a red lentil pasta that I just love and I have small amounts of a specific gluten-free bread (Canyon Bakehouse). But mostly the gluten substitutes are unnecessary to a healthy diet. I get most of my carbs from vegetables. I'm weird, though...I eat vegetable soup for breakfast.

I have the plugs, too; one duct in each eye. That helped a lot, but I still have problems. Fall is the worst time for me. I don't eat bakery goods and sweets, so I'm good there (except I do have a weakness for bread!). I think vegetable soup sounds great for breakfast!

Vegetable soup and some scrambled eggs makes for a calm-feeling breakfast with no big blood sugar spikes. I find that even if I have fruit in some form with breakfast that I start a roller coaster of feeling starving every two hours that lasts the whole day.