Thanks Granny. Good luck with the melatonin and valerian.
To date, I have not had success with melatonin but the advice of your sleep doctor to take less than 1mg 3 hours before bedtime makes alot of sense and is one I may definitely try since I have some of those 200mg melatonin tablets. Still, since I suspect that taking meds or OTC remedies might not be the answer to my problem, I intend to pursue other options to see what I can do to remedy the situation to stay asleep on the machine.
Regarding glycine, I went back and read the study that initially seemed positive. I wish I had read it more carefully because I wasn't as impressed the 2nd go around.
Finally, the issue of doctors and supplement is an interesting one. Recently, out of curiosity, when I thought I had high blood pressure, I purchased a book, The Magnesium Solution to High Blood Pressure, by Jay Cohen, a conventional doctor who found that after a "million" attempts to solve a rare cardiovascular condition, he found that magnesium worked.
Interestingly, he had a lot of citations from the 1990s showing it did work for high blood pressure although admittedly without reviewing them, no one can really evaluate their validity. Anyway, I learned more from him about how magnesium truly works than from any alternative health provider.
He explained that with alot of forms of magnesium, it takes alot of trial and error to find the right form and the right dose and that increasing the amount to adequate levels in the bloodstream to the point where it can fight the condition take a long time and doesn't happen overnight.
Anyway, this makes me wonder if the reason supplements aren't adequately studied is due to the right form and amount not being picked and also not giving the study enough time to show that it works. By the way, this is a criticism I have of med studies as 4 to 6 weeks is definitely not adequate time to study the effectiveness of the med. But I realize longer studies are just not going to happen for either product.
49er
ChicagoGranny wrote:49er,
This is Granny. I had my annual visit (required by Medicare) with the sleep doc this morning. Gramps had told me about the glycine discussion and my doc is amenable to supplements, so I asked him about glycine.
He said they do discuss supplements at sleep academy meetings. He explained that there is very little science done on supplements. Patients experimenting with these things, independent of the medical field, is a type of ad hoc science and the doctors listen to what their patients have to say about their experiences.
He said they don't get many good reports about glycine. What he recommended I experiment with is melatonin (less than one mg three hours before bedtime and valerian root per label instructions). These are the two supplements that get the most positive discussion at their meetings.
Gramps has some 200 mcg tablets of melatonin that he is not using. I may experiment with these (probably starting with 400 mcg) and depending on how that goes, pick up some valerian root to try.
I am generally skeptical about the value of supplements, but since my doc made these comments I may fire a couple of shots in the dark. (heehee)
