Dr. Stasha Gominak (Neurologist/Sleep Specialist) - January 2020 Interview - Illness, Microbiome, Vitamins D & B5 and Sleep

[Wally]

Could neurologist/sleep specialist, Dr. Stasha Gominak, be getting closer to connecting some of the key puzzle pieces for how to re-set disrupted restorative sleep to help treat a variety of illnesses, including complex neuro endocrine immune illnesses like M.S., Parkinson’s, Autism and M.E.)?

Linked below is Dr. Gominak’s most recent interview (published on 1/16/2020) discussing current research, clinical findings and hypotheses re the connection between illness, sleep, the microbiome and Vitamins D & B5. There are other posts about Dr. Gominak’s work here on the Forum, but some of the information is now outdated and/or links to lectures are no longer available on Youtube. So to start the New Year, I am posting a new interview with Dr. Gominak that should provide updated information about related research, clinical findings and hypotheses.

The interview is about an hour long (interview starts at minute marker - 1:30). I believe it is important to listen to the entire interview in order to understand how her original hypothesis, about Vitamin D’s connection to sleep and the treatment of illness, has evolved. from when she first began treating herself and her patients for sleep problems with Vitamin D..

In addition to this video, her website at https://drgominak.com/about-2/ provides more detailed information about her medical background, research, clinical findings, other interviews and hypotheses.

Note - I have no affiliation with Dr. Gominak nor have I tried the specific vitamins/protocol that she believes can treat sleep dysfunction and many co-existing illnesses.

Jan. 2020 Interview - Dr. Stasha Gominak - Relationship Between Illness, Restorative Sleep, Microbiome and Vitamins

 

[Wally]

This interview with Dr. Gominak is from a year ago and it is linked on her website (link provided in first post above). But I thought I would go ahead and post it here because the first part of the interview (first 18 minutes) adds some interesting historical perspective to when a number of illnesses with a sleep disorder component appear to have become more prevalent.

Jan. 2019 Interview - Dr. Stasha Gominak

 

[Wally]

Anothder recent and informative interview witit Dr. Gominak that includes additional information about how connections between the microbiome, Vitamins D and B, adequacy of sleep and health/illness were discovered.

Dec. 2019 Interview - Dr. Stasha Gominak. (Note - Intervew starts at the 20:05 minute mark.)

 

[PatJ]

Thanks for posting this information @Wally.

My sleep improved dramatically several months ago when I started taking 4000IU of D3 per day, along with magnesium. I had avoided vitamin D for years because it increased some of my symptoms and fatigue. Then I learned about the importance of taking magnesium with vitamin D to avoid side effects.

 

[Wally]

@PatJ - Are you considering adding in B vitamins, as discussed by Dr. Gominak, to see if this could add any additional benefit to symptoms you might still be experiencing? Also, thanks for adding in a reply to this post because I had missed the other posts that you had made about your success in combining Vitamin D with Magnesium for improving the quality of your sleep.

What I found so interesting about what Dr, Gominak is talking about, re an apparent missed connection between restorative sleep Vitamin D and B5, is how she has been able to use this treatment with some level of success in such a large sampling of patients who suffer from a variety of underlying health issues.

I am also intrigued by what Dr. Gominak has presented because it does not seem that difficult, time consuming or expensive to experiment with her protocol to see if her ideas have any merit either for someone who has M.E./C.F.S. or for family members/friends who might have other health concerns, along with poor quality of sleep.

 

[Wally]

Another interview with Dr. Gominak from Oct. 2017 that I would recommend watching. Interview starts at minute marker - 3:20. Note - there is some information that will be repeated in each of the interviews that I have linked to in the previous posts. However, I found that each interview has some important bits of knowledge and/or observations that I would have missed if I had not listened to the whole interview. Also, while these are videos of interviews (one is a podcast) there are no graphics/slides included with the interview, so you can just listen without needing to watch the videos.

Oct. 2017 - Interview with Dr. Stasha Gominak

 

[PatJ]

I should add that I still rely on melatonin and Dr. Christopher's Relax-eze to improve my sleep. They're additive in effect with the vitamin D. I also wake in the same period every night (between 11am and 1am) and have found that I need to take a small amount of potassium and magnesium to get back to sleep.

As far as ME/CFS symptoms, initially I had more energy after starting the vitamin D, and was able to take very short walks around my yard but that effect faded after a couple of months. I do seem to still have a little more stamina that I used to.

Are you considering adding in B vitamins

I'll give it a try.

Another interview with Dr. Gominak from Oct. 2017 that I would recommend watching.

@Wally could you please edit the link. It isn't working.

 

[Wally]

I should add that I still rely on melatonin and Dr. Christopher's Relax-eze to improve my sleep. They're additive in effect with the vitamin D. I also wake in the same period every night (between 11am and 1am) and have found that I need to take a small amount of potassium and magnesium to get back to sleep.

As far as ME/CFS symptoms, initially I had more energy after starting the vitamin D, and was able to take very short walks around my yard but that effect faded after a couple of months. I do seem to still have a little more stamina that I used to.



I'll give it a try.



@Wally could you please edit the link. It isn't working.

@PatJ - Edited to add in new link for Oct. 2017 Interview. It is working for me, but let me know if you are still not able to access it. On YouTube the video is titled “ “Strength Chat #43: Dr. Stasha Gominak - VIDEOCAST”.

I wonder if the loss of some of the improvement in the level of fatigue you were experiencing is just what can happen if you do not have Vit D level above 40 (maybe higher as she describes as the sweet spot between 60 to 80) and also add in a 3 month course of all the B vitamins at the dose that she suggests?

From watching/listening to all the interviews that I have posted plus culling thru her website, it seems like the balancing of Vitamin D with all the B Vitamins would be difficult to do on your own without having access to at least her “workbook” to guide you through this process. The workbook costs $24.99 and it is available on her website. She also does one on one coaching, if you want more individualized help when following her protocol/workbook. Cost of 30 minute coaching session is $179. https://drgominak.com/

I found another video where she is being interviewed by someone in Mexico where she answers questions about why she has tried to make her sleep protocol accessible for very little cost. She candidly answer questions on whether someone with very limited resources could figure out how to adjust their restorative sleep through just using nutrition (food) and observational monitoring of symptoms. Her protocol seems to provide more of a step by step guide with the ability to monitor progress through both blood testing and symptom observation. She has designed this protocol for someone who is not getting good restorative sleep, who is currently experiencing health problems, who does not or cannot spend a good portion of the day outdoors, who may have a less than an optimal microbiome and who sees value in using a few select vitamin supplements (in addition to food) to improve their microbiome.

I am including in this post a link to the November 2017 interview where she specifically discusses resource accessibility of using her protocol. As I said, I was impressed with the candor of her response to these questions/issues. Worth a listen if you have the time to watch this part of the interview. Go to hour/minute marker at 1:46:13 to the end at 2:25:39

The complete interview is 2 hours and 25 minutes long! 🥺. It does cover a lot of the same information as in the other videos and the interviewer’s style of asking questions was not as easy for me to listen to. However, since I am trying to dig out as much information from her recent interviews//podcasts that have been published online (with free access), I stuck it out to the end,. 😜

Once again I am glad I listened to the complete interview because I think some good and important questions with honest answers were given towards the end of the interview that many people would probably have missed because of the length of the video. I also liked that she admits that people from many cultures have probably been doing something similar to what she is trying to accomplish through her protocol, by relying on good nutrition (food) and regular sustained exposure to sunlight.

Nov. 2019 - Interview with Dr. Stasha Gominak (with Spanish Subtitles)

 

[ScottTriGuy]

@Alvin2

 

[Alvin2]

@Alvin2

Thanks for the shout out


My vitamin d was found to be basement level low, despite hours of sunlight, suggesting my body can't create it. And i have no idea how long its been low for, could be many, many years


That said i am not buying this theory, those issues named have sleep issues from separate causes and one way to treat them all defies what we know about medicine. That said i will listen to the podcast, might have some ideas.

Also since taking 2000IU a day i got up to the minimum level, i recently upped my intake to 5000IU, hoping the next blood test will be up to mid level or a bit higher.

 

[raghav]

when I take vitamin D3 5000 iu my heart rate increases beyond 95 !

 

[Alvin2]

I listened to it, loads of supposition, so many diseases are apparently caused by the same thing with no evidence, and the treatment protocol is vitamin D and B50 for several months and it will fix sleep, autoimmunity, malabsorption and most diseases except cancer.

 

[Wally]

Here are four short videos geared to a lay person audience that discuss how the following issues influence how Vitamin D interfaces with other metabolic processes in the body. Perhaps some of the information presented in these videos might help explain why supplementing with Vitamin D requires a lot of detective work, including the monitoring of Vitamin D levels and current health symptoms, as well as the need to balance other vitamins and minerals for Vitamin D to work most effectively.

1) How some pathogens are known to block Vitamin D Receptors (VDR) -

,
2) How gastrointestinal problems can block the proper manufacture/absorption of Vitamin D and/or the co-factors that work in concert with Vitamin D -

(minute marker 2:30 for reference to Vitamin D) and

(discussion in this video relates to problems created by low stomach that can prevent the proper metabolic functions of vitamins/minerals),
3) How Vitamin D influences gut bacteria and the brain -

.

I am also including a sampling of articles/videos about Vitamin D, Vitamin K, Calcium and Magnesium as additional ideas to think about when discussing the pros and cons of supplementing with Vitamin D. These articles and videos address ideas regarding the need for Vitamin D to work in combination with Calcium, Magnesium and Vitamin K. Other vitamins such as Viamin A and the B vitamins also come into play with Vitamin D, but I have only included Magnesium, Calcium, and Vitamin K because these are the three top micronutrients that often appear to be overlooked when investigating whether some type of Vitamin D deficiency may be a partial cause of a health issue.

Also, the articles/videos linked in Dr. Gominak’s videos and the videos listed in this post are based on the hypothesis/belief and/or research that many people (especially in industrialized countries) are deficient in Vitamin D and this defiency could be having a direct impact on a variety of health issues. However, there are also a number of physicians, nutritionists and scientists who feel that the idea of widespread Vitamin D deficiency is misplaced and the need for Vitamin D supplementation to correct or cure a myriad of health issues is more hype than proven science. Here is an article addresseing some of those concerns and it is included to acknowledge that the exact role that Vitamin D plays in our health is by far from settled. See, https://www.vox.com/2018/10/4/17933880/vitamin-d-health-sun-diet

Linked below are some articles and videos that discuss how Vitamin D works in combination with Vitamin K, Calcium and Magnesium.

1) Vitamin D and Vitamin K
a) https://info.dralexrinehart.com/articles/vitamin-d-and-vitamin-k2-benefits-connection
b) https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5613455/#idm139969117075600title
c)

d) https://youtu.be/_zqatJkyhPU
e) https://youtu.be/flfg5b9b8Vw
f) https://youtu.be/1AHdm6xRN1A
g) https://youtu.be/ThDBb-QoqdU

2) Vitamin D and Calcium
a) https://www.bones.nih.gov/health-in...ion/calcium-and-vitamin-d-important-every-age
b) https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2757873
c) https://lpi.oregonstate.edu/mic/minerals/calcium
d) https://youtu.be/r-IpzwZJDYM
e) https://youtu.be/lYdwc0oCumU

3) Vitamin D and Magnesium
a) https://lpi.oregonstate.edu/mic/vitamins/vitamin-D
b) https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28471760/
c) https://jaoa.org/article.aspx?articleid=2673882
d) https://www.easy-immune-health.com/magnesium-and-vitamin-d.html
e) https://youtu.be/J9ft6cPJWMQ
f) https://youtu.be/qSLS6MB5COM

 

[Wally]

Adding another link to a video about Vitamin D3 that I believe is worth watching. This video was produced by the Riordan Clinic and was published on 10/23/2019.

The Importance and Safety of High Dose Vitamin D3

 

[HABS93]

This is the complete opposite of what I'm about to try . This goes against Marshall protocol . Again that VDR I've heard countless times . I have sarcoidosis and currently believed to be a bacterial pathogen that causes the immune system to overreact . In the Marshall protocol you avoid but D at all cost to stimulate the VDR and use your immune system to fight the infection off. Alot of people have had success on it so I can completely downgrade it either. It seems we have alot of information about Vit D but differences in opinion. I'm glad you posted this because I like to play devil's advocate with my own findings.

 

[Wally]

@HABS93 - Sarcoidosis is one of the illnesses (along with several other conditions) where supplementing with Vitamin D may not be recommended. See for example,

There is a lot of information about Vitamin D to sort through with new studies on the horizon, so there is no one video, study or scientific consensus on whether supplementing with Vitamin D is necessary as currently recommended or proposed by a particular person or organization, at what dose, for how long and in what combination with other micronutrients.

I think it is important in discussions about this Vitamin that examples are identified where supplementation could be counter indicated and even dangerous. Thanks for raising (to a more prominent position) the issue of conditions where supplementing with Vitamin D could negatively impact a pre-existing health condition or may become toxic based solely on the dose. For those who may not be aware of other discussions about the Marshall Protocol, there are many threads/posts on the Forum with discussions about this protocol and Vitamin D. (Linking to one of the more recent detailed threads about the Marshall Protocol and ME//CFS. See - https://forums.phoenixrising.me/thr...s-linked-to-other-viruses.77780/#post-2231900

I am personally doing more research on the subject of Vitamin D because each of my doctors (primary care, infectious disease, gastroenterologist, etc...) has a slightly different opinion (based on my individual medical situation) on whether I should or should not supplement with Vitamin D. and in what amount and with or without adding other micronutrient supplements. (My Infectious disease/ME/CFS Specialist and my Gastroenterologist (who also practices functional medicine) come the closest in their Vitamin D recommendations.)

 

[HABS93]

@Wally That explains alot of the info I watched on those videos you posted. I just realized you posted that video talking about certain diseases like sarc. It appears we are on opposite sides of the spectrum for what we theorized lol. Did you look into the Satasha gominak about Vit D and B5 . Specifically targeting perfect sleep is also a theory I've thought about ironically.

 

[HABS93]

@Hip My brain fog is so bad I don't remember you talking about the VDR in sarcoidosis or if you mentioned it before. The amount of success people have had with MP in my specific illness is kind of remarkable. I'm only worried about low blood pressure . I'm assuming I'll be bed ridden for months . I also already have low Vit D. Worked nightshift for years in Canada . Some winter's I literally didn't see the sun for weeks. Anyways sorry just trying to brain storm while I have the energy righhtt now.

 

[Hip]

I'm only worried about low blood pressure . I'm assuming I'll be bed ridden for months .

I tried the Marshall Protocol for a couple of months one, and did not notice any blood pressure issues.

 

[HABS93]

I tried the Marshall Protocol for a couple of months one, and did not notice any blood pressure issues.

Interesting. My doctor laughed and said I'll be on the floor because you have low blood pressure. I laughed and said I'm the one that tells you how the disease works lol. He's a good doctor but graduated in the bottom half of you know what I mean.
My BP goes from 120/70-110/60 because of weed before bed.
I have the low Vit D it requires but I'm in Canada you can't get benicar so how do you get it ?