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What does high red cell magnesium mean

Messages
46
Hi,

My wife and 2 of my girls have ME/CFS. We are working our way through Dr Nathan's book and have just got some test results back. We could not get the intracellular magnesium test in NZ but got a red cell magnesium test. People with ME/CFS tend to be low but all three in my family were above the normal level. Does anybody know what this means?

Thanks for your thoughts

Don
 

hixxy

Senior Member
Messages
1,229
Location
Australia
I'm interested in this as well. Last time I had my RBC magnesium done, it was high normal. I was going through a lot of muscle wasting at the time, so my theory was that because of protein deficiency, my body was catabolising my muscles and this released magnesium into the blood stream, raising the levels there.

I find it hard to believe I'm truely magnesium sufficient.
 

rlc

Senior Member
Messages
822
Hi don, I dont think Ive ever read anything that says that people with me/cfs have high magnesium levels, Im a Kiwi to, and I know how crap the medical services can be over here, so Im wondering if your family members have been given the right diagnosis!!

On this link it tells you quite a bit about what the magnesium tests can mean and what other tests should be done as well to help find the cause of your family members high magnesium http://labtestsonline.org/understanding/analytes/magnesium/tab/test

This site is a diagnostic software site, for high magnesium it lists these conditions as possible causes of high magnesium http://en.diagnosispro.com/differential_diagnosis-for/magnesium-lab-increased/10420-154.html making the assumption that your family members have chronic fatigue if you add that to high magnesium you get these 13 illnesses as possibilities http://en.diagnosispro.com/differen...ased-chronic-fatigue/10420_25271-154_154.html If you click on the names of the diseases it will give you more information on the kinds of symptoms they have which may help you narrow it down.

This site is free if you want to learn how to use it and enter your family members symptoms and any other failed lab tests they may have, it explains how to use it here http://en.diagnosispro.com/diagnosispro_help/generate_a_differential_diagnosis_list/

A lot of these conditions like Diabetes, Addison and hypothyroidism are often mistaken for me/cfs, so if the doctor has not ruled all these out they need to!!! your doctor should also be thinking along the lines of genetic illnesses as well, and maybe something that is more common in females.

Dont trust that your doctor has given the right diagnosis until every possibility has been ruled out, a lot of people get misdiagnosed with me/cfs and suffer needlessly for years because of it, Hope this helps in some way, must be really hard having so many in your family sick all at once.

All the best
 
Messages
46
Hi rlc,

Thanks for your reply. Sorry I have not to this sooner but I've been away on a training.

I will look at that website, it looks interesting.

The NZ health system has its strengths (free, the view of ME is not driven by psychiatrists) and weakness (many tests aren't available). Our GP, while he does not know a lot about ME he is willing to explore the different theories we come in with.

I'm pretty sure that they have ME. I have used the Jason's questionaire that he developed to measure the symptoms of the Canadian definition and they fulfill those criteria.

Thanks again

Don