One of the most complaints that I hear in the office involves sleep-either trouble falling asleep or staying asleep. There are many medical and psychological causes of insomnia but more and more, we are looking at micronutrient deficiencies as a cause of sleep disorders. In the past, one had to guess what supplement to take to help with sleep. The problem with this is that it involved guesswork and some vitamins and minerals might be contraindicated due to certain medications or diseases.

The most common nutritional causes of sleep disorders include deficiencies of:

Vitamin D

Calcium

B-Vitamins

Inositol

Chromium

Serine

Magnesium

Many people who take medications for heartburn will be low in calcium and magnesium. The most common diabetes medication, Metformin commonly causes Vitamin B-12 deficiencies. Other diseases like kidney disease and inflammatory bowel disease are often associated with nutritional deficiencies.

Routine blood tests are inaccurate as they only measure nutrients in the bloodstream and not the cells of the body. This is why we check for FUNCTIONAL DEFICIENCIES in the lymphocytes (white blood cells). This gives us a 4-6 month snapshot of how your body actually uses vitamins, minerals and amino acids and lets us customize a repletion program that is scientific and not guesswork. It also allows us to make adjustments to prevent medical complications.