Dr. Weeks’ Comment: I have written extensively on sleep disorders and centsible remedies.
GHB (gamma hydroxybutyrate) has been demonized but is a naturally occurring sleep and health aid which deserves a second look.
“While most of the sleeping medications are unsafe and ineffective drugs that are best avoided, one actually worked and frequently produced miraculous results. In turn, I know of numerous cases where my colleagues prescribed it to chronically ill patients with challenging conditions (e.g., non-restorative sleep is one of the classic symptoms of fibromyalgia) who almost completely recovered once they received it.
That drug, originally developed in 1874, is gamma-hydroxybutyrate, and in 1964, it began to be marketed in Europe as an intravenous anesthetic but never quite caught on due to its unusual properties. On one hand, it is an ideal anesthetic as:
•It slows the heart rate without creating a loss of blood pressure.
•It doesn’t irritate the veins.
•It doesn’t suppress the respiratory centers in the brain.
•It relaxes the muscles.
•It induces sleep without reducing oxygen consumption.
•It protects tissue from injury due to blood loss (e.g., during hemorrhagic shock) or from reperfusion injuries after a temporary loss of the blood supply.
•It permits an easy reduction and maintenance of the body temperature and reduces the metabolic demands of the brain.
Conversely:
•Its duration of action is somewhat unpredictable.
•The central nervous system remains active (and hence the autonomic nervous system will regulate the body in response to external stimuli).
•In adults (not children) it is insufficient for total anesthesia and hence normally needs to be used with another anesthetic (which is given at a lower dose).
Because of this, while it was much safer than a typical anesthetic, it was not practical to use during surgeries and was much more appropriate for use in the intensive care unit.
Over the decades that followed, a wide range of research was done on this substance, where it was discovered it had a variety of other extraordinary properties and very low toxicity (e.g., it metabolized to succinate and then water within the mitochondria, its LD50 was 4.28 grams/kg, no deaths have ever been conclusively attributed to it, and when humans have been kept asleep for 24 hours on it or rats for 5 days, they recover immediately once it wears off).
The most apparent benefit was that it was a powerful (and consistent) sleep aid that immediately put the recipient deep into the sleep cycle, resulting in the benefits of those cycles being restored for many who had previously lost them, and the individual waking up feeling completely refreshed and energized. Furthermore, it frequently could allow people to feel fully refreshed after just a 3-4 hour sleep, was unlikely to be addictive, and did not suppress the reticular activation system.
Note: while its benefits have been clearly demonstrated for those with sleeping disorders, its effect on the sleep of relatively healthy individuals is much less understood.
As scientists (and then members of the public) began exploring the drug, according to Ward Dean MD (who provided extensive references to support his claims), they found a variety of benefits from GHB including:
- It dramatically increased the levels of growth hormone (e.g., 2.4 grams given intravenously, in 30 minutes, caused a 16-fold increase in GH levels). As growth hormone heals and repairs the body (but greatly declines with age), this resulted in many previously frail elderly patients on GHB having significantly increased strength, stamina, muscle mass, and function, while in younger patients, significant improvement was seen in their healing from musculoskeletal injuries.
Note: I know one doctor who gave GHB to their adolescent son to increase his growth, and it did appear to work (and it did not have any side effects). - It produced remarkable results in the treatment of a variety of addictions, particularly opioids (e.g., see this study), alcohol (e.g., see the results of this study), and benzodiazepines, along with helping mitigate the withdrawals from each of these substances. Conversely, GHB was not addictive.
- It increased dopamine levels within the substancia niagra (thereby counteracting the effects of Parkinson’s disease).
- It aided childbirth by relaxing the mother, dilating the cervix, and protecting the fetus from respiratory depression.
- It had a variety of aphrodisiac effects, such as making people much more comfortable with sexual intimacy, dramatically increasing their sensitivity to touching or being touched, improving male erectile capacity and premature ejaculation, and increasing capacity for female orgasms.
- Helping individuals address subjects they are otherwise inhibited from exploring during therapy (thereby allowing therapeutic breakthroughs to happen). GHB was also found to be particularly helpful for couples therapy.
•Having a disinhibiting effect like alcohol but making individuals friendly rather than aggressive.
- It temporarily helped with anxiety but without many of the side effects seen with benzodiazepines. Similarly, in France, it was frequently used by students who had to pass an exam or give a public presentation.
Given these remarkable benefits and the decades of research supporting its use, why has no one ever heard of it?”
For an excellent summary of sleep do enjoy this article by an anonymous Midwest doctor
https://www.midwesterndoctor.com/p/why-isnt-there-a-cure-for-insomnia