Magnesium for Energy and Sleep

[arx]

Hi,

After reading a lot of articles about magnesium, and how it should help with chronic fatigue and sleep, I want to know if any of you have had good experiences with magnesium. Please also mention the symptoms, and the magnesium dosage (with which form of mg). Thanks!

 

[justy]

I used Natures own, real food magnesium 100mg (equivalent to 300mg) and after only a few weeks it cured my restless leg syndrome and stopped the horrible cramps I was getting daily in calves and feet. It didn't seem to help with anything else, but this was a great result for me. Have never tried the injections, although they were recommended to me.

 

[Calathea]

I'm finding it hard to tell, but I'm doing a bit better at the moment, including improvements to my menstrual cycle, and the main thing I've changed recently is to increase magnesium and to switch from a general multimineral supplement (the sort where they sneak in calcium carbonate and magnesium oxide to bulk things out) plus magnesium glycinate, to taking a good trace minerals supplement (nice amount of zinc, in particular) plus two types of magnesium (glycinate and malate - the malate is the new one for me), iron (ferrous gluconate), calcium citrate (planning to change to calcium citrate malate when that runs out), extra Vitamin C and magnesium oil spray. The good thing about the spray is that you can use as much as you like, as far as I know, and it doesn't give you diarrhoea. I reckon I'm getting about 400mg elemental magnesium from the supplements and another 400mg from the spray.

Does anyone have opinions on magnesium glycinate vs. magnesium malate? Malic acid is meant to be great for muscle pain, plus I'm on medication that messes up my stomach acid so the acidic component is useful. I'm not sure whether to switch over to magnesium malate alone ro to continue using a combination. I read somewhere here that glycinates are bad, in which case my trace mineral supplement is a problem as that's largely glycinates, but then I've seen other posts praising them.

As for magnesium oil, I've had to build up my tolerance a bit due to the stinging sensation it causes on my skin, and I still have to put a coating of vegetable oil on first, as a sort of protective layer against the skin irritation. By now the irritation is minimal and doesn't last long, whereas the last time I put the magnesium oil straight onto my legs without putting vegetable oil on first, it itched for hours. So the vegetable oil stays. I don't really mind this, as my skin's ending up beautifully moisturised and it gives me a chance to use essential oils which are good for muscle pain.

Is anyone else doing this, and if so, what vegetable oil are you using as the base layer? I was using sunflower oil, which is cheap and easy to get, but it's a bit too greasy and doesn't sink in particularly fast. So I looked up carrier oils, noticed that hemp seed oil is meant to be a dry/thin oil which is quickly absorbed, and found that Tesco sells 500ml of it for £6. Right now my blend is half sunflower oil and half hemp oil, but I'm planning to put some chickweed oil in there (the herb is infused in sunflower, and is good for itchy skin), and perhaps increase the proportion of hemp oil. I wonder if I will get any benefit from the supposedly fabulous EFAs in the hemp oil when it's applied topically, apart from having nice skin?

Also does anyone have advice about making up your own magnesium oil/brine from the flakes? Should I just buy bottled water, and should I warm up the mixture or boil it? How much should I use if I want to refill a 100ml bottle?

 

[happy]

Hey Calathea, few months ago I started having really heavy periods with a lot more cramping than I was used to + some tiny cramps in my thighs. Then about a month ago I crashed badly due to poor diet choices and almost no supplementation. I ordered magnesium, but started taking D3 first, since I have been itching to try it. Big mistake! Apparently one should always supplement with magnesium when taking D3. My problems quickly got worse, so I was forced to figure out what went wrong. When I stopped D3 and started taking magnesium (transdermal because oral gave me loose stools already at 150mg), I slowly started getting better. The best part was that during next period there was no more cramping!

I use magnesium gel directly on skin before I go to bed. It stings for a while, but it's tolerable. I shower in the morning and apply lotion, so my skin still has some sort of film on it in the evening. But I only use about 1 teaspoon of gel (150mg of magnesium) to limit stinging.

I just got magnesium malate and so far a 140mg dose doesn't seem to affect loose stools, but I'm getting a tiny bit of nausea in the AM, something that has happened before when I was on supplements, but I never thought it could be magnesium. I don't mind the feeling as it's very mild and it makes me want to eat less which is not a bad effect But I don't know if I should be concerned... My magnesium supplementation is quite low - 300mg in total, and since I got some results with it I would love to try a higher dosage.