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Antibiotics and Magnesium

skwag

Senior Member
Messages
222
A short story then some questions.

I took a spill about a month ago. I wound up with a good sized laceration that required stitches. The wound was dirty so it got cleaned, I got a tetanus shot, and I was put on oral antibiotics ( keflex ). About halfway through the week long course of antibiotics, my gut decided it was not happy. I finished the prescription anyway. I haven't been feeling great since. I still have some stomach issues, but my main concern is the muscle tension and muscle pain.

A week ago, I had a little episode where I felt light headed and had an elevated pulse. Over a couple hours I took 800mg of potassium with no relief. The next day I tried some extra calcium without effect. That night I tried some Magnesium malate. Within a half hour I felt my back beginning to relax. I continued taking about 400mg extra a day and I felt great for two days. Now the muscle tension is back. The following article says antibiotics can deplete magnesium

http://www.jigsawhealth.com/resources/drug-muggers-suzy-cohen-magnesium

but I can't find any other information on the issue.

The questions:
1) Does anyone know anything about this "antibiotics deplete magnesium" claim?

2) How much magnesium can I take? I'm at about 650 mg now.

Cheers
 
Last edited:

Ema

Senior Member
Messages
4,729
Location
Midwest USA
It is true that some antibiotics can cause low magnesium by blocking resorption of magnesium in the kidneys at the loop of Henle. However, I've only seen mention of the aminoglycosides doing this (which doesn't mean for sure that others don't) and Keflex is a cephalosporin.

If your kidneys are in good working order, typically one can take magnesium to bowel tolerance without issue. The rest is simply excreted.
 

Gingergrrl

Senior Member
Messages
16,171
The fluoroquinolone antibiotics also deplete your body of magnesium. I don't know about keflex though.