Ok you and I both have to go to sleep, but now you’ve got me wondering about the eternal debate amongst our medical residents about benzos vs. barbiturates for acute alcohol withdrawal. I’ll have to read up on this some more
I just had to look that shit up haha. I’ve never thought to check into it beyond just “you’re not breathing, so I’m about to make you very angry by reversing your high, sorry bro” lol
So, it’s interesting, because it’s well-known to have effects on the same GABA receptors as benzodiazepines (like Xanax), but none of the addictive, physical dependence problems, and apigenin doesn’t respond consistently to the drug we use to reverse benzos (called flumazenil).
So… we’re not entirely sure? It could still be the GABA effects that help with sleep. But there’s also a host of antiinflammatory neurological effects that probably better explain its efficacy against Alzheimer’s, for example.
Now, if you really want to put yourself to sleep, feel free to crawl through this alphabet soup of a research article lol:
Literally the only thing that gives me refreshing sleep. (See also: mitochondrial dysfunction that I mentioned in my other comment about CQ10.) Apigenin seems to improve what’s called “sleep architecture” in a way that none of the pharmaceuticals I’ve ever tried do.
Yeah, long QT syndrome is estimated around 1/2000 people. Relatively rare. I fully confess that I’m just traumatized by my personal experiences with patients taking the drug lol
I actually WOULD recommend this for seniors. It does not have any anticholinergic side effects like a lot of pharmaceutical sedatives do, and it doesn’t interact with the most common blood pressure or cardiac meds that older folks often take.
I have the same problem with magnesium supplements. Mag glycinate has less of that laxative effect than mag citrate, so she could try that as well.
The only two caveats I would add are: she should definitely tell her doctors she’s taking it, as with any OTC supplement. And if she’s specifically on a drug called warfarin (Coumadin), she should be very cautious. (Even Tylenol can cause warfarin to build up in the body. Warfarin sucks, so we don’t use it as much anymore, but it’s not unheard of.)
Hope that helps! (I’m a cardiac nurse. I work with older folks a lot.)
It’s really safe even in absolutely large doses. (There are studies performed using doses in the multiple GRAM range.) I highly recommend trying it. Personally I take 400mg/night, which is twice the dosage you’ll see advertised. I only mention because I think the standard advertised range is probably too low for people like me.
Personally, I think everyone should be taking this. Extremely safe, improves cardiac outcomes, some evidence that it can reverse damage in chronic kidney disease. Most people won’t feel different, but I take high dose CoQ10 for mitochondrial dysfunction, and I can tell you it definitely has a huge impact. Love this stuff.
Derived from chamomile flowers (and other plant sources), I’ve found this to be more successful in treating my chronic insomnia than any of the pharmaceutical options. (And believe me, I’ve tried them all.)
Heads up to anyone with cardiac issues, especially long QT syndrome or other meds that prolong the QT internal: Ondansetron is so notorious for QT prolongation and cardiac arrhythmia problems that we have to perform an EKG before we’re allowed to give you a second dose on our cardiac unit.
I have scary anecdotes that bias me against it lol