hey, guys. dr. axe, here, doctor of naturalmedicine and founder of draxe.com. in this video, i'm going to go through a seven-stepprocess on how to overcome sleep apnea. if you struggle with sleep apnea, snoring, insomnia,just trouble sleeping at night, these tips are going to help you big time. the number one thing you've got to start doingif you want to overcome sleep apnea is look at your diet. now, sometimes sleep apnea canbe related to weight gain. it can be related to inflammation in different areas of yourbody. but if you can follow these dietary tips, it's going to help tremendously. the first thing you want to do is you reallywant to focus on supporting your metabolism.
you want to focus on getting three thingsevery single meal: good quality protein, healthy fat, and fiber, those three things. most peoplewith sleep apnea, most people tend to consume too many carbohydrates and too much sugar,which can actually affect your insulin levels and your metabolism, which causes sleep apnea.so again, healthy protein, such as bone broth protein, organic chicken and turkey, wild-caughtfish, grass-fed beef, getting good quality protein is important. number two, fiber, getting more vegetablesand fruits in your diet and whole-sprouted grains, such as brown rice, that's where youwant to get your fiber. the healthy fats, things like coconut oil, olive oil, organicnuts and seeds, those are some ways to get
some good healthy fat in your diet. so again,focus on a healthy diet, a diet that's anti-inflammatory and that helps balance out insulin levelsis going to be big when it comes to beating sleep apnea. number two, there are certain things you wantto avoid. if you have sleep apnea, you want to avoid intake of alcohol, caffeine, smoking,and also you need to be aware of sedatives. if you're taking sedatives on a regular basis,that can really cause sleep apnea. stay away from those things. if you're saying to yourself,"well, i'm still going to do caffeine and alcohol," then what i would do is not do coffee.i would just do a little bit of tea, like a green tea during the day.
so again, just tone it down some. the otherthing i would do is, if you're drinking alcohol, limit it to one glass. when you start doingmore than one glass, more than one beer, more than one glass of alcohol, that's really goingto affect your sleep cycle. and no more than two days a week. again, bring the alcoholdown, because that will absolutely cause sleep apnea. the number three tip is to treat acid reflux.many people with sleep apnea have heartburn, gerd, or acid reflux, or some type of digestiveissue that's causing their sleep apnea. now, the way to overcome that is to follow thesedietary tips. you want to eat smaller meals, so you don't want to overeat, and get moreorganic meat, vegetables, and fruits.
you've got to be careful overconsuming thegrains, the pastas, the breads, the chips. all of those things will really cause acidreflux and sleep apnea. also, supplementing with digestive enzymes, probiotics, and applecider vinegar. so probiotics, enzymes, and apple cider vinegar, all of those can helpin the natural treatment of acid reflux and reduce sleep apnea. the number four thing you want to considerdoing to beat sleep apnea is getting a humidifier in your bedroom. oftentimes, it's the humidityor being too dry in the bedroom that actually causes sleep apnea. so look into getting ahumidifier and sometimes an air purifier. so a humidifier, an air purifier, those thingscan actually help support your body and you
breathing better and overcoming sleep apnea. number five is your sleeping position. manypeople with sleep apnea sleep on their back. some of them sleep on their stomach. you wantto sleep on your side. what you want to do is get a good pillow that you're comfortablewith laying on your side, and then you want to get a body pillow, something you can reallyhave in between your knees and hug with your arms. it might be two pillows, or it mightbe one big body pillow. but you want to sleep on your side if you have sleep apnea. it mightbe the number one effective way to overcome sleep apnea, again, sleeping on your side. listen, it takes a while to sleep on yourside if you've been a back or a stomach sleeper.
i know, for me, i was a stomach sleeper throughoutmy adolescent life, and it got to the point where it gave me back pain. so i started sleepingon my side, and it took me two weeks to fall asleep. but after two weeks, i started sleepinglike a baby again. so again, it does take time to get used to, changing your sleepingposition, but that is a very crucial thing in overcoming sleep apnea. number six is exercise. you don't have todo any type of radical exercise, but just getting out and moving. if you're very sedentaryand sitting all the time, that will cause sleep apnea. we really need to open up yourairways, improve your lung capacity. the best way to do that is through cardiovascular exercise,weight training, or doing burst training is
fantastic as well, but really increasing youroxygen capacity. cycling is fantastic. swimming is great. running is great. but cycling andswimming especially are great ways to open up those airways. number seven, use essential oils, specificallypeppermint oil and lavender, a blend of peppermint and lavender. lavender calms your body, andpeppermint opens the airways. eucalyptus and chamomile are other essential oils you mighttry. those are the four most effective essential oils to help relax the body and open up thoseairways. i guarantee if you try those seven tips, you're going to see improvements insleep apnea. for a more in-depth guide on how to overcomesleep apnea, check out my website. it's draxe.com.
that's draxe.com. just search on there "sleepapnea". you'll find an article with all of this in greater detail with more tips. also, hey, i've got more natural remediesand natural cures coming out here on youtube. make sure you subscribe here to the youtubechannel if you want to get the latest news on how to naturally heal your body. hey, this has been me, dr. josh axe, talkingabout natural treatments for sleep apnea.
