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Nap attack, especially after drinking unsalted water after meal
My worst symptom is "nap attacks." I've had this symptom over three years now. It generally seems triggered by drinking water or by eating. Walking outside in sunlight or movement might help trigger it too. Over the next one or two hours I feel increasingly brain fogged and discouraged. I don't feel particularly sleepy, but I eventually decide to lie down or sit against a wall. I'll fall asleep within minutes, even if I'm in public, and wake in about 20-30 minutes. After waking I still can't think clearly, and I feel quite depressed. But my brain usually improves within an hour or two.
There were some days where this pattern was very obvious: I'd wake up feeling quite awake and smart and motivated. First thing, I would drink water (always with a supplement or something in it) and quickly get foggy and tired and go back to bed. But it can be triggered at any time of day, at late as 10pm at night -- leaving me unfortunately unable to sleep for hours afterward.
Sometimes drinking unsalted water also gave me a headache, but this didn't seem correlated with nap attacks.
The following practices seem to help me avoid the nap attack problem, but I don't know why:
- warming the water in the microwave instead of drinking it at room temperature
- putting salt in my water (salting food doesn't appear to help)
- most important: drinking water one hour before a meal, instead of water with a meal
- spacing meals four hours apart
I do the above practices for a while, it seems to work, then I start pursuing another theory/treatment and stop doing them, and the gut/brain problems get worse. Months later I remember the practices again and regain some control. This cycle has happened maybe four times now.
My best guess is that I have "leaky gut" which is perhaps endothelial injury to gut lining from Vitamin A, that drinking water dumps food particles or something into my bloodstream and brain, and that salting the water makes it more easily absorbed higher up in the gut away from the colon.
My labs are pretty normal, including a normal colonoscopy, but I do have abnormally high calprotectin and EPX (markers of gut inflammation), as well as abnormally high perinuclear neutrophil antibodies (p-ANCA) which suggests ulcerative colitis. Also a 24-hour urine collection (during a day when I was deliberately drinking unsalted distilled water) showed abnormally low chloride levels and very low sodium levels.
Does anyone else have a similar symptom or advice?
We solve the problem of naps and water fatigue, have you found a solution?
I seem to remember something about tiredness after food being low potassium. I think this was from Garrett Smith but I’m not sure. That would maybe fit with water diluting electrolytes too. I don’t know. The leaky gut idea seems sensible but just thought I’d mention my initial thought incase it’s helpful.
Garrett Smith programme uses 50:50 salt (sodium and potassium) and/or supplements and/or food sources. He says that vA blocks potassium channels so leads to low potassium.
‘VA toxicity blocks potassium channels, effectively creating an "intracellular potassium deficiency" presentation, even though blood potassium may look fine.’ (From LYL programme). Also he says copper and vitamin D supplements deplete potassium.
I’ve never really understood how supplementing potassium helps if it’s blocked potassium channels!? However, a lot of people on his programme seem to have great success with extra potassium.