Raise your hand if you have been blessed with a slow metabolism like me!

Just kidding! We know that a slow metabolism is definitely not a blessing for multiple reasons, and one of those reasons being that it could disrupt your sleep. Yes, I know we usually think the reason why we're not sleeping is because we have poor sleep hygiene or stress in our lives. And yes, those are definitely drivers of sleep issues.

However, what I like to share about on my blog is the lesser known reasons behind sleep difficulties. Because let's face it, if you're having a hard time sleeping, you're likely trying to reduce your mental/emotional stress as well as improve your sleep hygiene. And if you aren’t seeing the results you want it may be one of the lesser known reasons behind insomnia. One of those reasons is having a low oxidation rate.

What is a Slow Metabolism (Oxidation Rate)?

Let’s start off with what it means to have a slow metabolism or oxidation rate. I'm going to use those two terms interchangeably. Slow oxidation rate and slow metabolism basically mean the same.

To describe it on a very simple level, it means that your body takes food and converts it into energy slowly. Now, from a functional health perspective, what that also means is that your thyroid activity as well as your adrenal activity is slow. As a result you typically have a hard time retaining sodium and potassium and you displace magnesium and calcium. I'm going to discuss in a little bit more detail what that means and what that has to do with your sleep.

Using an HTMA to Determine Your Oxidation Rate

Knowing a client's oxidation rate is really helpful to me as a functional diagnostic nutrition practitioner and I do this by way of the HTMA, also known as the Hair Tissue Mineral Analysis. If you're not familiar with the test, it is where we take about 1/4 of an inch of scalp hair from a couple places on your head. We send it to a lab and they analyze the mineral content and this then allows us to see if you have deficiencies, imbalances, if you're holding on to toxic metals, as well as determine your oxidation rate.

When I'm interpreting an HTMA, one main thing that I am looking at are the first four main minerals - magnesium, calcium, potassium and sodium. I look to see whether they are balanced or not.

What I see with our slow oxidizers is that magnesium and calcium are high. Now, that doesn't mean that they have high levels of magnesium and calcium. It means that magnesium and calcium is in the soft tissue, and that's not where it should be. Magnesium should be in our cell and calcium should be in our teeth, in our body.

The other thing I see is that sodium and potassium are low, so the client isn't retaining those minerals and that could be a problem because sodium and potassium are solvents they help the body to utilize our other minerals So then this results in the build up of magnesium and calcium in our soft tissues and can cause sleep issues. Let's first take a look at why high calcium levels in the soft tissue can make it challenging for you to sleep.

High Calcium Levels in Soft Tissue Can Disrupt Sleep

The cool thing about calcium is that not only does it help to keep our bones and teeth strong, but it also can help to protect us emotionally when it comes to trauma.The calcium is a very calming mineral, so when we experience an extremely stressful event, our bodies will retain calcium so that we feel more numb. And that could be one reason why you are in a slow state of oxidation; because of past trauma that has gone unresolved.

It's really important that you work on resolving your trauma so your body will then place your calcium in your bone and teeth, where it belongs. Because if you build up what we call a calcium shell, you're going to feel disconnected. You're going to have symptoms of anxiety and depression, and then those mental conditions will then exacerbate or cause sleep issues.

High Magnesium Levels in Soft Tissue Can Disrupt Sleep

When my low oxidizing clients see their magnesium levels on their HTMA, they typically think that means that they have high levels of magnesium. Well, actually, what it really means is that they're losing it. Magnesium is not entering the cell which is where we want it to be because of the slow retention of sodium and potassium. As a result, it's being dumped into the soft tissue and that's not a good thing.

When it comes to sleep, we need appropriate levels of magnesium in order to calm our central nervous system, our brain and our body. Something that makes it even more challenging to be in the slow rate of oxidation is that we're typically not consuming enough magnesium to begin with. Research shows that 50% of us are not meeting the daily recommended amount of magnesium through our diet alone.

Magnesium is so important for your sleep that I actually have an entire YouTube video dedicated to the subject, if you're interested in learning more, check that out. But in this blog I'm going to give you a high level overview as to why magnesium deficiency can lead to sleep issues.

So reason number one is because magnesium helps promote the production of GABA. GABA is an inhibitory neurotransmitter that binds to receptors in our brains and inhibits brain function and wakefulness. Therefore we need sufficient levels of GABA in order to sleep. So you can see why a magnesium deficiency can then lead to a reduction in GABA and cause sleep problems.

Secondly, magnesium is really important for blood sugar regulation, which is important for sleep. A lot of my clients are waking up in the middle of the night because their blood sugar is bottoming out at 3:00 o'clock in the morning, causing their body to produce cortisol to bring up their blood sugar. This triggers a wake up.

How Can I Avoid a Slow Rate of Metabolism?

As you can see, it's best not to have a slow rate of metabolism, and you're probably now wondering “how can I avoid that?”

Well, number one, make sure that you're managing your mental and emotional stress.

See a therapist
Do some tapping
Deep breathing exercise
Practice mindfulness
Manage your schedule
Make sure you're not overworking
Go outside - enjoy nature.

All of those things are going to help you to break up that calcium shell.

Secondly, make sure you are eating enough complex carbohydrates in the form of vegetables.

Are you wondering: “What that's gonna do?”

It's going to help to speed up your metabolism. But don't forget to also eat protein and a little bit of fat, because a low protein diet can also contribute to slow oxidation.

Thirdly, make sure you're eating food that is high in magnesium, potassium, and sodium. Now for sodium, the best thing to do is just put a little pinch of sea salt in a glass of water every day. You don't want to overdo it with sodium, but you definitely want to make sure you're getting enough.

And when it comes to potassium, it's really hard to overdo it because our bodies need a ton of potassium! Foods that are a good source of potassium include celery juice, coconut water, hemp seeds, and bananas.

And last but not least, make sure you're eating foods that are rich in magnesium. Foods that have a lot of magnesium include avocados, bananas, spinach, and my favorite, dark chocolate!

What about Supplements?

So I bet you if we were talking right now, your next question for me would be should you purchase magnesium, potassium and sodium supplements. Well, if I had an HTMA for you and I could confirm that you are indeed a slow oxidizer, I would say absolutely.

However, without that data, I would caution you against taking supplements willy-nilly because you can actually make things worse.

So say you're taking magnesium without sodium and potassium and you are a slow oxidizer. What's going to happen is just more magnesium is going to build up in your soft tissue and it will further slow your oxidation rate.

Also, if you are a fast oxidizer and you start to supplement with sodium and potassium, you are going to speed up your oxidation rates and that can lead to sleep issues too, which I'm going to touch on in next week's blog.

This is why for all of my clients, regardless of the package that they decide to purchase, I run an HTMA. It is such an eye opening test. There's so much we can do with it, and we can make sure that they're taking these foundational supplements in the right manner.