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Read This Before You Take A Prescription Sleep Aid

Prescription Sleep Aid

Use Among Adults:

United States, 2005-2010

A Report for the Centers for

Disease Control and

Prevention

Approximately 4% of U.S. adults – or nearly 9 million - over

the age of 20 used prescription sleep medications during the

past month;

Persons with increased age and higher education levels are

more likely to use prescription sleep aids;

More women than men use sleeping pills;

One in six adults with a diagnosed sleep disorder and one in

eight adults with trouble sleeping reported using sleep

medications.

Back to the (Sleep) Basics

And that’s because insomnia, the

inability to fall or stay asleep, is

one of the most common medical

complaints seen by health care

practitioners. At least 30% of

individuals, adults as well as

children, experience this common

sleep disorder one or more times

during their lives.

Early Death

Accidents Obesity

Strained Relations

Higher Costs

Brain Fog

Slower Reactions

Fatigue Pain

Some Consequences of Poor Sleep

Sleep and Diabetes

• 161 African Americans studied

• Sleep curtailment (and not BMI, waist:hipratio, frequency of exercise, frequency of glucose monitoring, duration of diabetes) impairs glucose control:

“The prevalence of sleep curtailment may be a contributing factor to the ‘current epidemic of type 2 diabetes.”

Kristen L. Knutson, PhD, University of Chicago

Arch. Int. Med. 2006; 166:1768-74

• Japanese study of 14,000 male workers followed for eight years

• Day shift, night shift (7%), rotating shifts (12.8)

• Rotating shift workers were 3X more likely to get prostate cancer

• Pure night shift workers slightly more than day workers to get prostate CA.

• Purported mechanism: chronic circadian de-synchronization.

• “Shift workers” shown in other studies to be at greater risk for breast and colorectal cancers.

Kubo, et al. Am J Epidemiology, 2006, Vol. 164, Number 6, pp 549-555.

Putting the Grave in the Graveyard

Shift

Insomnia and Mortality in Older

Adults

Dew MA et al. Psychosom Med. 2003;65:63-73.

Sleep latencies >30 minutes: 2.14x

greater mortality risk (p=0.005)

Survival as a function of sleep latency

Sleep efficiency <80%: 1.93x

greater mortality risk (p=0.014)

Survival as a function of sleep efficiency

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latency, ≤30 min.

latency, >30 min.

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1.0

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efficiency, ≥80%

efficiency, <80%

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Insomnia in Adolescents

• 4,253 adolescents aged 12-18 studied

• 9% reported insomnia

• Insomnia increases the risk of multiple health

problems several fold.

0

1

2

3Binge Drink

Smoking Cigarettes

Marijuana

OtherDrugs

Depression

Suidicality

Brandy M. Roane, University of North Texas at Dallas

Nurses Health Study

• 68,000 women followed for 16 years

• Adjusted for age and BMI, exercise

and diet

• Sleep duration of less than 6

hours/night is an independent

predictor of future weight gain and

obesity.

Dr. Sanjay R. Patel, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland

Presented at the annual meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies, 2006

Good News: You Snooze, You Lose

• A 2007 study out of the

University of Michigan shows

that if you increase your daily

amount of sleep by one hour,

you are likely to eat 6% less

which could translate into

losing up to 14 pounds in a

year.

So Why Not Take a Prescription

Sleep Aid?

1) They don’t work for long;

2) Many are addicting;

3) They often have many side

effects; and

4) There was another reason,

wait, it will come to me…oh

yeah,

• “Patients receiving prescriptions for zolpidem

[Ambien], temazepam [Restoril], and other hypnotics

suffered over four times the mortality as the

matched hypnotic-free control patients.”

• Even patients prescribed fewer than 18 doses of

sleep meds per year were more likely to die of any

cause, with “greater mortality associated with

greater dosage prescribed.”

• In those prescribed hypnotics, the incidence for

several specific types of cancer was increased “with

an overall cancer increase of 35% among those

prescribed high doses.”

An Alternative To Prescription

Sleeping Aids

Sleep Hygiene

Establish a regular sleep-wake schedule;

Develop a relaxing evening routine one hour

before going to bed;

Reserve the bedroom for sleep and sex only,

preferably not at the same time;

Maintain a very dark room for sleeping – no

electronic gadgets or LED lights;

Keep the room temperature 70 degrees or less;

Limit afternoon naps to 20-30 minutes;

Avoid vigorous exercise and excessive alcohol

in the evening;

Eliminate caffeine in the afternoon and evening;

and

Find ways to manage emotional turmoil.

Sleep Supplements

One the most beneficial uses of complementary

and alternative medicine (CAM) is in the arena

of natural treatments for sleep problems. I look

for supplements that combine ingredients

designed to accomplish three things:

1) Treat the symptom of insomnia, in other

words, get and keep you sleeping TONIGHT;

2) Correct the hormonal and neurotransmitter

imbalances causing your sleep problems in

the first place; and

3) Re-synchronize your 24-hour clock so that

you are sleeping when you want/need to be

and fully awake when you want/need to be.

But Are They Safe? Let’s Look At

The Numbers

Let’s look at the numbers

EU citizens taking pharmaceutical drugs run a risk of death from

side effects that is 123,125 greater than the mortality risk

experienced through taking a food supplement.

Preventable Medical Injury (Hospital),

350,000

Smoking, 175,000

Pharmaceutical Adverse Drug Reaction, 123,000

Obesity, 120,000

Diabetes, 12,000

Traffic Accidents, 7000

Food Poisoning, 200

Struck by Lightning, 26

Supplements, 1

0 50,000 100,000 150,000 200,000 250,000 300,000 350,000 400,000

Preventable Medical Injury (Hospital)

Smoking

Pharmaceutical Adverse Drug Reaction

Obesity

Diabetes

Traffic Accidents

Food Poisoning

Struck by Lightning

Supplements

Relative Risk to the Individual

Relative Risk to the Individual

http://www.anhinternational.org/news/anh-exclusive-risk-data-reveals-%E2%80%98big-lie%E2%80%99-european-natural-health-regulation. Accessed Sunday 25th November 2012

http://www.anhinternational.org/news/anh-exclusive-risk-data-reveals-%E2%80%98big-lie%E2%80%99-european-natural-health-regulation. Accessed Sunday 25th November 2012

Societal versus Individual Risk of Death in Europe (The Bigger the Bubble, the Deadlier the Activity)

Another Advantage of Our Approach

We test for neurotransmitter

and hormonal imbalances

causing your insomnia.

That way we can customize

your treatment.

One of Our Best Selling Natural

Sleep Supplements

Click here to

learn more.