Friday Tidbits #5: Glycine for Sleep, Inbox Notifications
Welcome to Friday Tidbits. This is a very short email with morsels of information to help you tweak your life and health for optimum longevity and healthy ageing.
1 Dec 2023
Sleep
Glycine supplementation of 3g before bedtime improve sleep quality and reduces daytime sleepiness and fatigue compared to placebo (1) (2).
Glycine is a small amino acid that can act as an inhibitory neurotransmitter. It crosses the blood brain barrier and binds to glycine and NMDA receptors in many brain areas, including the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) located in the hypothalamus. The SCN is known as the circadian pacemaker. The glycine binding in the SCN receptors initiate vasodilation to the skin (3). When blood vessels expands near the skin surface, we lose heat. This helps to reduce core body temperature which helps us fall asleep faster (4). Glycine also triggers muscle paralysis during REM sleep - this is important to prevent us acting out our dreams.
We make ~45g in our bodies per day from choline, serine, hydroxyproline or threonine. We ingest 3-5g from food. Animal foods are good sources of glycine including gelatine, chicken skin, chicken bone broth, slow cooked meats, fish and soy protein.
Glycine supplements are readily available in good health shops or online.
Glycine is also improves many liver functions, help heal the gastrointestinal tract, help reduce inflammation and blood sugar regulation (5). Interesting fact: very high doses of glycine has been used to treat schizophrenia (3).
Stress
The unread mail notification bubble of your inbox increase your stress levels (6).
The picture is a screenshot of a close friend!
Unread emails and text messages can pile up and this is a major source of stress and overwhelm. Even if you say it does not bother you, your subconscious is well aware that there may be “important” things unattended. You can feel overwhelmed and lead to a sense of helplessness.
The unread emails slowly pile up to an unmanageable number and we know that there is not enough time to go through them all. So we ignore all of them - an avoidance strategy.
A proposed (better) strategy to deal with email and texts:
Once off: make time and go through the last four weeks of emails.
And then mass DELETE ALL THE OTHERS. By this time, it is not important.
Change your settings to turn off desktop pop-up alerts and notifications. That little bubble is not working in your favour.
Schedule dedicated email time daily: right before lunch and before finishing work. Checking email less frequently reduces stress (7).
Put any to-do items in your calendar right away.
Unsubscribe from most things.
Move
Stand on one foot while brushing your teeth to improve your balance.
We all brush our teeth twice a day - standing at the basin for 2 minutes at a time. Stand on your left foot in the morning and on your right foot at night. When you start, you can hold on to the countertop, letting go as you get better. Barefoot is better.
I am a big proponent of sneaking mobility, stretching and exercise into your existing schedule. It is much easier to do 2 minutes here and there than plan to do a 30-minute session at the end of the day. Don’t ‘make time’, you simply use your time better.
The risk of serious injury from a fall is a concerning health issue among older adults - as young as mid-50s (8). Approximately 30% of adults older than 65 will have at least one fall per year (9). And more than 30% of these individuals will have another serious fall that results in hospitalisation or death within a year (10).
Training your balance and increasing muscle strength reduce the risk of falling by evoking balance reactions (11)(12). It also gives you more confidence which reduce the fear of falling and in turn reduce the risk of falling (13).
Breathe
Habitual mouth breathing in early childhood changes the shape of the face: narrow face, lower jaw set back, protruding lower lip, narrow palate and head forward position.
The effects of mouth breathing on facial development is evident as early as preschool (14). Small jaws further further contribute to airway restriction and poor breathing. A lot of money is spent at orthodontists to correct misaligned teeth. Proper jaw development relies on having the correct oral posture at rest - lips together, teeth in light contact and tongue resting on the roof of the mouth. Click here to see a visual presentation and read more in Jaws: the story of a hidden epidemic.
Children who mouth breath are likely to experience snoring, sleep apnea, itchy nose, nasal obstruction and irritability during the day (15). Poor concentration and learning difficulties are more prevalent (16). Mouth breathing can be due to allergies, chronic sinusitis, septum deviation and enlarged tonsils (17). The biggest danger is when mouth breathing becomes a habit.
The less you breathe through the nose, the more congested the nose becomes. Early intervention is imperative to resolve the root cause and retrain the breathing pattern.
Nutrition
Eggs are good for your brain.
Eggs yolks and liver are the best sources of dietary choline. Two eggs have ~300mg of choline, supplying ~60-70% of the daily requirement. Choline is an essential nutrient for (nerve) cell membranes, brain development and cognitive function. It is also a precursor for the brain neuromodulator, acetylcholine involved in memory, learning and attention (18).
Acetylcholine is also critical for heart and skeletal muscle contraction. Higher needs for dietary and supplemental choline include pregnancy, children, people with MTFHR gene polymorphisms, neurodegenerative conditions (Parkinson’s and Alzheimers), NAFLD as well as post-menopausal women.
Supplemental form of choline is available as choline, phosphatidyl choline, CDP-choline and alpha-GPC. Many people use a combination of tyrosine and alpha-GPC to increase focus and concentration for a few hours.
References:
Bannai, Makoto et al. “The effects of glycine on subjective daytime performance in partially sleep-restricted healthy volunteers.” Frontiers in neurology vol. 3 61. 18 Apr. 2012, doi:10.3389/fneur.2012.00061
Yamadera W, Inagawa K, Chiba S, Bannai M, Takahashi M, Nakayama K. Glycine ingestion improves subjective sleep quality in human volunteers, correlating with polysomnographic changes. Sleep Biol Rhythms. 2007;5:126–131
Kawai, Nobuhiro et al. “The sleep-promoting and hypothermic effects of glycine are mediated by NMDA receptors in the suprachiasmatic nucleus.” Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology vol. 40,6 (2015): 1405-16. doi:10.1038/npp.2014.326
Kräuchi, K, and A Wirz-Justice. “Circadian clues to sleep onset mechanisms.” Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology vol. 25,5 Suppl (2001): S92-6. doi:10.1016/S0893-133X(01)00315-3
Razak, Meerza Abdul et al. “Multifarious Beneficial Effect of Nonessential Amino Acid, Glycine: A Review.” Oxidative medicine and cellular longevity vol. 2017 (2017): 1716701. doi:10.1155/2017/1716701
Jerejian, A. C. M., Reid, C., & Rees, C. S. (2013). The contribution of email volume, email management strategies and propensity to worry in predicting email stress among academics. Computers in Human Behavior, 29(3), 991-996. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2012.12.037
Kushlev, K., & Dunn, E. W. (2015). Checking email less frequently reduces stress. Computers in Human Behavior, 43, 220-228. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2014.11.005
Hoogendijk, Emiel O et al. “Frailty: implications for clinical practice and public health.” Lancet (London, England) vol. 394,10206 (2019): 1365-1375. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(19)31786-6
Alexander, B H et al. “The cost and frequency of hospitalization for fall-related injuries in older adults.” American journal of public health vol. 82,7 (1992): 1020-3. doi:10.2105/ajph.82.7.1020
Liu, Shan W et al. “Frequency of ED revisits and death among older adults after a fall.” The American journal of emergency medicine vol. 33,8 (2015): 1012-8. doi:10.1016/j.ajem.2015.04.023
Rodrigues, Filipe et al. “Effects of Muscle Strength, Agility, and Fear of Falling on Risk of Falling in Older Adults.” International journal of environmental research and public health vol. 20,6 4945. 11 Mar. 2023, doi:10.3390/ijerph20064945
Devasahayam, Augustine Joshua et al. “The Effect of Reactive Balance Training on Falls in Daily Life: An Updated Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.” Physical therapy vol. 103,1 (2022): pzac154. doi:10.1093/ptj/pzac154
Garbin, Alexander J, and Beth E Fisher. “The Interplay Between Fear of Falling, Balance Performance, and Future Falls: Data From the National Health and Aging Trends Study.” Journal of geriatric physical therapy (2001) vol. 46,2 (2023): 110-115. doi:10.1519/JPT.0000000000000324
Inada, Emi et al. “Incompetent lip seal affects the form of facial soft tissue in preschool children.” Cranio : the journal of craniomandibular practice vol. 39,5 (2021): 405-411. doi:10.1080/08869634.2019.1656936
Abreu, Rubens Rafael et al. “Etiology, clinical manifestations and concurrent findings in mouth-breathing children.” Jornal de pediatria vol. 84,6 (2008): 529-35. doi:10.2223/JPED.1844
Ribeiro, Genef Caroline Andrade et al. “Influence of the breathing pattern on the learning process: a systematic review of literature.” Brazilian journal of otorhinolaryngology vol. 82,4 (2016): 466-78. doi:10.1016/j.bjorl.2015.08.026
Inada, Emi et al. “Factors related to mouth breathing syndrome in preschool children and the effects of incompetent lip seal: An exploratory study.” Clinical and experimental dental research vol. 8,6 (2022): 1555-1560. doi:10.1002/cre2.661
Institute of Medicine (US) Committee on Nutrition, Trauma, and the Brain; Erdman J, Oria M, Pillsbury L, editors. Nutrition and Traumatic Brain Injury: Improving Acute and Subacute Health Outcomes in Military Personnel. Washington (DC): National Academies Press (US); 2011. 9, Choline. Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK209327/