Speaker
Dr. Stasha Gominak
Appearances over time
1 episodes
Episodes
1
Podcasts
Quotes & moments
Dr. Gominak estimates billions of people worldwide have abnormal sleep, with sleep study centers in every electrified country publishing abnormal findings.
Vitamin D is synthesized on the skin like a hormone and acts on DNA receptors — calling it a vitamin was a historical mistake that shaped decades of bad medical guidance.
Many of Dr. Gominak's patients with sleep and neurological disorders had only 1/6 of the normal amount of REM sleep.
Dr. Gominak found that patients whose vitamin D blood levels reached above 60 ng/mL consistently reported improved sleep.
Dr. Gominak's Right Sleep Protocol involves taking B50 (all 8 B vitamins at 50mg each) for only 3 months to jumpstart the gut microbiome, after which the microbiome should self-sustain.
Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease was first medically described in the 1980s — the same decade that sunscreen, air conditioning, and computers became widespread, coinciding with the move indoors.
Patient 'Madeline', severely deficient, required 30,000 IU of vitamin D daily for 4 years — six times the typical dose — to keep her blood level stable at 60 ng/mL.
Researcher Walter Stumpf published articles in 1982 showing vitamin D receptors exist in the brainstem nuclei that control paralysis during REM sleep and set the body's sleep-wake clock.
All eight B vitamins are produced by gut bacteria and absorbed by the body — not primarily from food — making the gut microbiome the body's primary B vitamin production system.
Despite having genetic footprints of all ~200 normal gut bacteria, scientists have only fully characterized 2% of them, meaning most microbiome interactions remain unknown.
Sunscreen, computers, and air conditioning all became widespread in the 1980s, triggering the vitamin D deficiency epidemic by keeping people indoors and blocking UV exposure.
When UVB hits cholesterol in your skin, it makes vitamin D3 and roughly 15 to 20 other anti-inflammatory compounds simultaneously. A supplement only delivers the D3. The rest — the compounds that protect your skin and reduce inflammation — never arrive.
Vitamins are a form of biohacking — and if you take them without understanding the underlying biochemistry, bad things will happen. The same outcome you were trying to fix can get worse.
Vitamin D activates a gene that makes the enzyme that produces acetylcholine — the neurotransmitter the brainstem needs to enter REM sleep. When vitamin D levels drop, the brain loses the chemical instructions for sleep entirely.
Vitamin D is synthesized on the skin exactly like a hormone, acts on DNA receptors inside cells, and should be managed like estrogen or testosterone with blood-level monitoring. Calling it a vitamin was a historical error that sent it to the over-the-counter shelf.
All 8 B vitamins are primarily produced by gut bacteria, not food. When vitamin D is low, gut bacteria die off. When gut bacteria die off, B vitamin production collapses. That's why taking vitamin D alone can trigger a B deficiency cascade.
Get your vitamin D blood level above 60. Take B50 for 3 months to restart the gut microbiome. Drop to a multivitamin. Track your sleep like a journal. When sleep breaks down again, your brain is asking for something specific — interpret it, don't give up.
Patients who took vitamin D alone for 2+ years came back with burning in their hands and feet, joint pain, and autoimmune symptoms. The vitamin D was driving repairs that burned through their B vitamin reserves — and their doctors called it lupus.
A 32-year-old patient on 9 drugs with daily headaches, severe pain, depression, and digestive failure was transformed after the Right Sleep Protocol. Depression gone. Three pain medications stopped. She enrolled in a back-to-work program.
Sunscreen, air conditioning, and computers all went mainstream in the 1980s. At the same time, ADHD, depression, non-alcoholic fatty liver, and rising diabetes rates were first reported. Dr. Gominak says these aren't coincidences — they're the same story.
Nicotine is the only known drug that duplicates acetylcholine — the neurotransmitter that controls both waking focus and REM sleep entry. One patient resolved her narcolepsy using nicotine patches around the clock. Parkinson's patients who smoked have also fared better.
The 8 B vitamins were originally described as bacterial growth factors. Bacteria produce them, share them with neighboring strains, and deliver them to the body. When the wrong bacteria dominate — as happens without enough vitamin D — the production line shuts down.
Every patient Dr. Gominak treated with the vitamin protocol — even lifelong night owls and shift workers — eventually reverted to falling asleep at 10pm and waking at 6am. Chronotype may be less about genetics and more about brainstem chemistry.
For a century, medicine told us bacteria were the enemy. Then patients dying of C. difficile infection were cured by transplanting stool from a healthy donor. That reversal is now reshaping our understanding of the microbiome as a life-sustaining system.
Every neurological patient Dr. Gominak tested showed abnormal sleep — regardless of their diagnosis. If sleep is how the body repairs everything every night, then abnormal sleep isn't a symptom of disease — it's the cause.
The redhead gene evolved in northern latitudes like Scotland to remove skin pigment and maximize vitamin D production from weak sunlight. But transplant that gene to Texas, and the lack of melanin becomes a liability in high-UV environments.
Analysis
What they talk about
- Health & Fitness 84%
- Government 8%
- Technology 8%
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