Showing posts with label sleeping pills. Show all posts
Showing posts with label sleeping pills. Show all posts
Sunday, 4 March 2012
Want help for insomnia but don't want to use sleeping pills?
Want help for insomnia but don't want to use sleeping pills? - Maybe you've seen those recent news items about the dangers of taking sleeping tablets (risk of earlier death, increased risk of developing cancer, risk of becoming habituated or addicted, risk of falls, memory loss, etc.) Well one of the ways to help with poor sleep is to take melatonin. It is safer than hypnotics, antidepressants and painkillers. - Melatonin is a natural human hormone and you do not require a doctor's prescription to obtain it. I suggest that if you decide to try melatonin you buy the 3mg capsules and take one each day about half an hour before your bedtime.
Friday, 7 October 2011
Anxiolytic and hypnotic medications linked to increased risk of death
Taking sleeping pills or medication for anxiety is linked to an increased risk of death, according to a study by a University of Laval researcher in Quebec City.
Psychologist Geneviève Belleville found a rise of 36 per cent in the mortality rate among Canadians who reported having used anxiolytic and hypnotic medication to treat insomnia or anxiety at least once in the previous month.
Read article on the CBC News website (Canada)
Years ago I took prescribed sleeping pills and experienced many adverse side-effects, the most harmful and distressing of which was probably memory loss. I also found they were extremely addictive and it took me about 8 months of great struggle to get off them. Some months ago I started to take melatonin and have found these helpful and without any side-effects.
Psychologist Geneviève Belleville found a rise of 36 per cent in the mortality rate among Canadians who reported having used anxiolytic and hypnotic medication to treat insomnia or anxiety at least once in the previous month.
Read article on the CBC News website (Canada)
Years ago I took prescribed sleeping pills and experienced many adverse side-effects, the most harmful and distressing of which was probably memory loss. I also found they were extremely addictive and it took me about 8 months of great struggle to get off them. Some months ago I started to take melatonin and have found these helpful and without any side-effects.
Sunday, 6 March 2011
Melatonin: I take a 3mg capsule of melatonin near bedtime to help me to sleep
Melatonin: On most days I take a 3mg capsule of melatonin near bedtime. It is a natural human hormone that has many roles, but it is as an aid to sleep that I take it. There are many possible causes for a person not secreting enough melatonin. One of the causes is prescribed medication: e.g. beta-blockers such as propranolol can deplete our bodies of melatonin. So if your sleep has deteriorated and you are puzzled as to what has caused this, it may possibly be a side-effect of tablets you are taking or have taken.
But it may be that, like me, you are in a lot of pain and that pain is keeping you awake. - You may feel pretty desperate at times because of severe lack of sleep. You may be wondering whether sleeping pills would be helpful. - I hope you will decide against that course of action. - If you look on the internet you will find a wealth of research findings about the adverse effects of sleeping tablets, or hypnotics as they are also known. And these side-effects are even more harmful to older people. Sleeping tablets are harmful and dangerous and should be avoided, especially by older people.
Doctors often confuse pain, insomnia and depression, so they sometimes persuade patients, particularly female patients, to take antidepressants when they are in pain. Antidepressants do not work for depression and seldom help with pain. They are sometimes helpful for insomnia, but most of them cause serious weight gain and many other adverse side-effects and also cause brain damage years later, so they are better avoided.
The other medication you may be considering, or have very likely tried, is analgesia/painkillers. And you may, like me, have found that they do not help at all with the pain or with the sleep problem. Or you may, like me, be concerned about the many harmful side-effects from them. And you may, like me, prefer 'natural' help when possible, rather than pharmaceutical products.
Well the natural ways to reduce chronic pain are to avoid salt and salty food, and avoid dieting and calorie-counting. And obesity is linked to poor sleep and to greater sensitivity to pain, so it is helpful to lose excess weight. Eat good, nutritious food, preferably low carb, low sugar and high fat of the good sort, such as from grass-fed cows. See LCHF. Make sure you get enough calcium and vitamin D. - See this Fat Retention page, with further information about calcium and vitamin D.
And one of the ways to help with poor sleep is to take melatonin. I believe it is safer than hypnotics, antidepressants and painkillers. - I'm assuming you have already made sure the bed is as comfortable as possible and that the curtains keep out unnecessary light, etc.
But it may be that, like me, you are in a lot of pain and that pain is keeping you awake. - You may feel pretty desperate at times because of severe lack of sleep. You may be wondering whether sleeping pills would be helpful. - I hope you will decide against that course of action. - If you look on the internet you will find a wealth of research findings about the adverse effects of sleeping tablets, or hypnotics as they are also known. And these side-effects are even more harmful to older people. Sleeping tablets are harmful and dangerous and should be avoided, especially by older people.
Doctors often confuse pain, insomnia and depression, so they sometimes persuade patients, particularly female patients, to take antidepressants when they are in pain. Antidepressants do not work for depression and seldom help with pain. They are sometimes helpful for insomnia, but most of them cause serious weight gain and many other adverse side-effects and also cause brain damage years later, so they are better avoided.
The other medication you may be considering, or have very likely tried, is analgesia/painkillers. And you may, like me, have found that they do not help at all with the pain or with the sleep problem. Or you may, like me, be concerned about the many harmful side-effects from them. And you may, like me, prefer 'natural' help when possible, rather than pharmaceutical products.
Well the natural ways to reduce chronic pain are to avoid salt and salty food, and avoid dieting and calorie-counting. And obesity is linked to poor sleep and to greater sensitivity to pain, so it is helpful to lose excess weight. Eat good, nutritious food, preferably low carb, low sugar and high fat of the good sort, such as from grass-fed cows. See LCHF. Make sure you get enough calcium and vitamin D. - See this Fat Retention page, with further information about calcium and vitamin D.
And one of the ways to help with poor sleep is to take melatonin. I believe it is safer than hypnotics, antidepressants and painkillers. - I'm assuming you have already made sure the bed is as comfortable as possible and that the curtains keep out unnecessary light, etc.
Sunday, 16 August 2009
NHS is prescribing more sleeping pills
The Telegraph reports that GPs issued more than a million prescriptions for sleeping pills last year, and that "Zopiclone, also known as Zimovane and Imovane, which was prescribed to 4.7m people, was the most popular sleeping tablet."
The brain is not infinitely elastic and it is your most precious possession. I do not consider that drugging more and more people with brain-altering drugs is a good idea, especially as some sleeping pills are addictive. Drug-induced sleep is not refreshing, life-enhancing sleep like natural sleep is. Sleeping pills benefit the manufacturers, not the patients.
There are safe, drug-free ways to improve sleep, the simplest and most effective being to cut down on salt and salty food and to optimise nutrition. But remember, if worry is the trouble, pills are not the answer. - Pills will render your brain less able to deal with your problems.
The brain is not infinitely elastic and it is your most precious possession. I do not consider that drugging more and more people with brain-altering drugs is a good idea, especially as some sleeping pills are addictive. Drug-induced sleep is not refreshing, life-enhancing sleep like natural sleep is. Sleeping pills benefit the manufacturers, not the patients.
There are safe, drug-free ways to improve sleep, the simplest and most effective being to cut down on salt and salty food and to optimise nutrition. But remember, if worry is the trouble, pills are not the answer. - Pills will render your brain less able to deal with your problems.
Friday, 16 March 2007
Dangerous side-effects of sleeping pills, including Zolpidem.
Pills can make you 'drive in your sleep'
Extract:
"America's most popular sleeping pills can cause users to drive, eat and make phone calls while asleep, the US Food and Drug Administration warned yesterday.
The FDA said it had asked manufacturers of 13 sedative-hypnotic sleep aids to place strong new warnings about such potentially dangerous side-effects on the labels of their drugs.
One of the drugs, zolpidem, is widely prescribed in Britain under six different brand names. The FDA also received reports of people making phone calls, buying items over the internet and having sex under the influence of the drugs."
If you can avoid taking prescribed medications, you will obviously avoid the harm they often do. - To improve sleep without using drugs, one of the little-known ways is to reduce your salt intake. - See http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/conditions.html - Since this is a completely safe measure which has many health benefits, why not give it a try?
Lose weight by eating less salt! Go on! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!
See my website www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk
(The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.)
Extract:
"America's most popular sleeping pills can cause users to drive, eat and make phone calls while asleep, the US Food and Drug Administration warned yesterday.
The FDA said it had asked manufacturers of 13 sedative-hypnotic sleep aids to place strong new warnings about such potentially dangerous side-effects on the labels of their drugs.
One of the drugs, zolpidem, is widely prescribed in Britain under six different brand names. The FDA also received reports of people making phone calls, buying items over the internet and having sex under the influence of the drugs."
If you can avoid taking prescribed medications, you will obviously avoid the harm they often do. - To improve sleep without using drugs, one of the little-known ways is to reduce your salt intake. - See http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/conditions.html - Since this is a completely safe measure which has many health benefits, why not give it a try?
Lose weight by eating less salt! Go on! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!
See my website www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk
(The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.)
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