Mary
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A few years ago when I was tapering off of lorazepam I discovered that vitamin C can help ameliorate glutamate-induced excitotoxicity in the brain - in short, it helped a fair amount with sleep. Unfortunately, it made me acidic, causing aches and fatigue. So then I had to take baking soda and then discovered potassium bicarbonate to help with acidity. I eventually went on to try other things, including Chinese herbal combinations, magnolia bark, Unisom, trazodone, the list goes on, and stopped the C.
I did try sodium ascorbate a few years ago to see if it would work for sleep without causing the over acidity of ascorbic acid, but it did nothing for sleep, and left me feeling flat.
I restarted taking vitamin C at night several days ago - the dose is a work in progress, but one night I took 2000 mg with dinner, then 3000 mg before bed and 3000 mg more middle of the night. Last night I skipped the dinner dose, and still did well. I am still a bit acidic in the morning, but not as bad as when I first tried the C a few years ago. At that time I was taking it almost round the clock, but the withdrawal from lorazepam was pretty rough. So now I take some potassium bicarbonate when I first get up and it's great. The sodium bicarbonate was raising my BP.
Anyways, it's taken me all this time (don't ask me why! } to get back to the Vitamin C. Here are a couple of articles showing the efficacy of vitamin C in handling excess glutamate. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25701025
http://web.stanford.edu/group/hopes/cgi-bin/hopes_test/vitamin-c/
It feels too good to be true, but so far so goo}d. I also take several other things, but none of these were enough to ensure sleep, and I might eventually be able to stop some of them: niacin (the kind that makes you flush), glycine, inositol, l-theanine, lemon balm, melatonin, lots of magnesium at night.
Re magnesium: many of you know this already but calcium can contribute to excitotoxicity in the brain, so have cut out my calcium supplement, and doubled my magnesium glycinate. I take the magnesium at night in 2 doses, 400 mg. before bed and 400 more middle of the night. This has helped a fair amount too, but on its own was not enough. Now that the C is helping so much, I'm going to try adding back a small amount of calcium (in the morning only!) and see how I do.
And for those who are unaware, high cortisol at night can cause severe insomnia that I don't think anything will touch until cortisol levels are normalized. I had this many years ago and was given Seriphos (phosphorylated serine - NOT phosphatidyl serine which is not nearly as effective). The Seriphos worked great for normalizing my cortisol levels. I had to titrate up to find the correct dose, we're all different, and eventually I was able to pretty much cut it out.
I did try sodium ascorbate a few years ago to see if it would work for sleep without causing the over acidity of ascorbic acid, but it did nothing for sleep, and left me feeling flat.
I restarted taking vitamin C at night several days ago - the dose is a work in progress, but one night I took 2000 mg with dinner, then 3000 mg before bed and 3000 mg more middle of the night. Last night I skipped the dinner dose, and still did well. I am still a bit acidic in the morning, but not as bad as when I first tried the C a few years ago. At that time I was taking it almost round the clock, but the withdrawal from lorazepam was pretty rough. So now I take some potassium bicarbonate when I first get up and it's great. The sodium bicarbonate was raising my BP.
Anyways, it's taken me all this time (don't ask me why! } to get back to the Vitamin C. Here are a couple of articles showing the efficacy of vitamin C in handling excess glutamate. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25701025
http://web.stanford.edu/group/hopes/cgi-bin/hopes_test/vitamin-c/
It feels too good to be true, but so far so goo}d. I also take several other things, but none of these were enough to ensure sleep, and I might eventually be able to stop some of them: niacin (the kind that makes you flush), glycine, inositol, l-theanine, lemon balm, melatonin, lots of magnesium at night.
Re magnesium: many of you know this already but calcium can contribute to excitotoxicity in the brain, so have cut out my calcium supplement, and doubled my magnesium glycinate. I take the magnesium at night in 2 doses, 400 mg. before bed and 400 more middle of the night. This has helped a fair amount too, but on its own was not enough. Now that the C is helping so much, I'm going to try adding back a small amount of calcium (in the morning only!) and see how I do.
And for those who are unaware, high cortisol at night can cause severe insomnia that I don't think anything will touch until cortisol levels are normalized. I had this many years ago and was given Seriphos (phosphorylated serine - NOT phosphatidyl serine which is not nearly as effective). The Seriphos worked great for normalizing my cortisol levels. I had to titrate up to find the correct dose, we're all different, and eventually I was able to pretty much cut it out.