Today I’m sharing how waking in the night may be caused by oxalate issues that are made more severe because of home cleaning products, environmental toxins and fragrances/phthalates. It can happen because of the additional detoxification work required and adverse impacts on your liver and gallbladder. This can impact bile production so fat digestion is impaired. And when you have impaired fat digestion this can contribute to more severe oxalate issues because more oxalates are absorbed in the gut. This can lead to increased pain, worsening sleep and/or waking in the night, increased anxiety, fatigue, depression, more severe bladder symptoms, eye problems etc.
Using extra calcium citrate in the night can help in the short term. But improving fat digestion (with lipase, ox bile, taurine, a lipotropic formula, digestive bitters etc.) and supporting the liver/gallbladder is key because it gets to the root of the problem. And of course, avoid the chemical exposure. Sometimes this can’t be done – which is the case when you are traveling – so you have to do your best to reduce exposure.
This is actually my story. I’m traveling in South Africa at the moment and had a flare of my old oxalate issues, with increased foot pain at night, so much so that it was waking me at 3am in the morning. I’d be awake from 3-5am feeling agitated and restless and waiting for the extra calcium citrate to work. I’m a hot mess when I don’t get a solid 8-9 hours sleep so I had to figure out what the issue was and fix it quickly. It was a somewhat convoluted journey (more on that below) but eventually I landed on taurine as the solution and it’s been wonderful to get my solid sleep with no waking in the night!
I do eat a fair amount of fat – plenty of butter on my steamed veggies, olive oil, coconut oil, avocados, the fat from grass-fed meat, chicken skin, full fat cheese and eggs – and didn’t want to cut back.
So when taurine came to the rescue I was thrilled and still am!
I took 500mg before bed the first day and woke briefly twice but went right back to sleep. The second day I took 500mg taurine mid-morning, 500mg taurine mid-afternoon and 500mg before bed (all away from food). That night I woke briefly once and went right back to sleep. The third day I did the same and slept solidly through the night. My goal had been to increase to 3000mg per day but I’ll stick with 1500mg as long as this continues.
There were a few clues that indicated a need for liver-gallbladder support: the 3am waking is classic for liver issues; and my stool had become pale despite nothing else changing.
Impaired fat digestion leads to an increase in oxalate absorption
As mentioned above, when you have impaired fat digestion this can contribute to more severe oxalate issues because more oxalates are absorbed in the gut. This paper, Fat malabsorption induced by gastrointestinal lipase inhibitor leads to an increase in urinary oxalate excretion, summarizes the mechanism well:
Unabsorbed bile acids and fatty acids may react with calcium in the intestinal lumen, forming “soaps” that limit the amount of free calcium binding with oxalate, with a consequent increase in intestinal oxalate absorption leading to hyperoxaluria
In the above study, it’s orlistat (Xenical®), a gastrointestinal lipase inhibitor rather than environmental toxins and bile issues, that causes the increase in oxalates. I share it because it has a helpful explanation of the mechanism.
I share more about my issues with dietary oxalates here – Oxalate crystal disease, dietary oxalates and pain: the research & questions. My main issues in the past have been foot pain and eye pain, with downstream impacts on sleep. This blog has links to a number of other dietary oxalate blogs if this topic is new to you.
Bile production and detoxification
You may recall my wonderful interview with Ann Louise Gittleman on The Anxiety Summit 5: Gut-Brain Axis. The topic was: Why Bile is the Key to Anxiety & Hormone Havoc. I’ll add sleep to that too.
She covered the role of bile in PMS, estrogen imbalance and thyroid health; and importantly, how it’s involved in the removal of toxins from the body:
Bile is the dumping ground for hormones like estrogen. It’s the dumping ground for heavy metals that create anxiety like mercury, as well as too much aluminum and lead. And it’s the dumping ground, also, for a bunch of chemicals. So you got to keep the bile flowing. You have to keep it decongested. You have to thin it out.
She mentions simple tools to improve bile production: bitters (already part of my routine), lemon and water in the morning (also part of my daily routine), coffee (I can’t drink coffee as it makes me anxious), grapefruit and watercress. She also discusses key nutrients for bile production and quality: choline, inositol, methionine and taurine.
I could not find any lipotropic formula with choline, inositol, methionine (they all had rice flour). And I could not find any products that contained only lipase or ox bile.
While I was looking for something to improve my bile production, I did try a milk thistle extract (for overall liver support) and a liver-gallbladder herbal tincture but both made things worse. So I did some reading on taurine, found a nice taurine only 500mg product and haven’t looked back. Read on for some of the mechanisms.
Taurine and bile acid conjugation and detoxification
Metabolic actions of the amino acid taurine include: “bile acid conjugation, detoxification, membrane stabilization, osmoregulation, and modulation of cellular calcium levels.”
This paper, The Continuing Importance of Bile Acids in Liver and Intestinal Disease, explains the significance of bile acid conjugation with taurine:
After biosynthesis from cholesterol and before excretion from the hepatocyte, bile acid molecules are conjugated with glycine or taurine, which converts a weak acid to a strong acid. As a result, conjugated bile acids are fully ionized at the range of pH values present in the small intestine.
Taurine works on GABA receptors and is a GABA alternative
What is really interesting is that taurine works on GABA receptors and has a synergistic effect with GABA. I suspect this played a role for me too.
In this editorial, Taurine and GABA neurotransmitter receptors, a relationship with therapeutic potential?, the authors share the following::
- “Taurine exerts its neuronal inhibitory effect through the activation of GABAA receptors (GABAAR) but with less affinity than the specific agonists of each receptor.
- GABA and taurine act synergistically in extra-synaptic GABA receptors.
- Some experiments suggest that taurine activates GABAB receptors with high affinity”
In countries where over-the-counter GABA is not available (like the UK, Australia and New Zealand), I will recommend taurine as an option. I don’t find it to be as effective as GABA but it is slightly calming.
You may need to course-correct from time to time
I share this story to illustrate that things can be going well in terms of sleep, pain, anxiety, depression and so on, and then something can happen and you have to course-correct.
I also often hear from folks in my community saying: “GABA and/or tryptophan was working perfectly to help me sleep and all of a sudden it’s no longer working. What is going on?” A situation like this shows how something else can change and it has nothing to do with the amino acids no longer working.
I do already use GABA, tryptophan (more on these below), melatonin and magnesium at bedtime and continued taking these supplements but I had to fix the root cause – the fat digestion issue.
I will add this: even if you don’t have dietary oxalate issues, this approach may be worth considering if you have no gallbladder, have fat digestion issues, are exposed to environmental toxins, have liver issues and wake in the night.
Resources if you are new to using amino acids as supplements
If you are new to using any of the amino acids as supplements, here is the Amino Acids Mood Questionnaire from The Antianxiety Food Solution (you can see all the symptoms of neurotransmitter imbalances, including low serotonin and low GABA).
If you suspect low levels of any of the neurotransmitters and do not yet have my book, The Antianxiety Food Solution – How the Foods You Eat Can Help You Calm Your Anxious Mind, Improve Your Mood, and End Cravings, I highly recommend getting it and reading it before jumping in and using amino acids on your own so you are knowledgeable. And be sure to share it with the practitioner/health team you or your loved one is working with.
There is an entire chapter on the amino acids and they are discussed throughout the book in the sections on gut health, gluten, blood sugar control, sugar cravings, self-medicating with alcohol and more.
The book doesn’t include product names (per the publisher’s request) so this blog, The Antianxiety Food Solution Amino Acid and Pyroluria Supplements, lists the amino acids that I use with my individual clients and those in my group programs. You can find them all in my online store.
If, after reading this blog and my book, you don’t feel comfortable figuring things out on your own (i.e. doing the symptoms questionnaire and respective amino acids trials), a good place to get help is the GABA QuickStart Program (if you have low GABA symptoms). This is a paid online/virtual group program where you get my guidance and community support.
If you are a practitioner, join us in The Balancing Neurotransmitters: the Fundamentals program. This is also a paid online/virtual program with an opportunity to interact with me and other practitioners who are also using the amino acids.
Have you experienced any adverse symptoms when exposed to environmental toxins? And has this made your oxalate issues worse or affected your fat digestion?
Have you used taurine with success? How much helps you?
Have other liver or gallbladder approaches also helped?
If you have questions please share them here too.
Read all posts in this series:
- Coronavirus and vitamin C for immune support: new pain or more severe pain due to oxalate issues? (part 1)
- Oxalate crystal disease, dietary oxalates and pain: the research & questions (part 2)
- Vitamin C causes oxalate formation resulting in pain, anxiety, and insomnia (when there is a defect in ascorbic acid or oxalate metabolism)? (part 3)
- Willow’s survival story: Easter Lilies cause acute renal failure in cats and Peace Lilies cause oxalate issues (part 4)
- Waking in the night due to environmental toxins: impacts on the liver, gallbladder and fat digestion (making oxalate issues worse) (part 5)
