Insomnia

What Does the Latest Study on Sleep and the Use of Sleeping Pills Tell Us?

Up to 43% of older adults use benzodiazepines (Valium, Xanax, Ativan, etc.) for anxiety and insomnia, often chronically, even though their long-term effectiveness and safety remain unproven. In a study, published September 2014 in the British Medical Journal, researchers found that older adults who used benzodiazepines for three months or more had a 51% greater risk of Alzheimer's disease than those who did not. The risks increased the longer the drugs were used. This study echoed four earlier studies that came to the same conclusion.

Alzheimer’s Can It Get Any Worse Than That?

In his e-book “The Dark Side of Sleeping Pills”, Daniel Kripke, MD, discusses a study he participated in as a researcher that was published in 2012 in the British Medical Journal. “We have now published a new study of over 10,000 patients who took sleeping pills and over 20,000 matched patients who did not take sleeping pills. The patients who took sleeping pills died 4.6 times as often during follow-ups averaging 2.5 years. Patients who took higher doses (averaging over 132 pills per year) died 5.3 times as often. Even those patients who took fewer than 18 pills per year had very significantly elevated mortality, 3.6 times that of patients who took no hypnotics. In addition, those who averaged over 132 sleeping pills per year were 35% more likely to develop a new cancer!”

What Is An Insomniac To Do?

Is it really worth risking Alzheimer’s, cancer, and an early death to get some sleep using sleeping pills? Of course not.  Benzodiazepine sleeping pills work by upregulating the brain neurotransmitter GABA and its receptors. There are specific vitamins, minerals and amino acids that are required to produce GABA. Research shows that there are also safe plant extracts that upregulate GABA receptors just as effectively as these drugs but without any side effects.

Chiropractic adjustments remove nerve interference and return balance to the nervous system. Someone who has an unbalanced autonomic nervous system can experience insomnia. That is why chiropractic can help you with sleep.  Call Savage Chiropractic today to look forward to a better night’s sleep.