Hysterical Woman
Senior Member
- Messages
- 857
- Location
- East Coast
Hi All,
As many of you know from posts on other threads, I have gotten some excellent improvements in symptoms from taking magnesium glycinate. I made a list of improvements to give to my doctor and thought I would post them here in case it might help others.
100% Improvement (as long as I continue to take the magnesium)
Insomnia (I was finally able to drop elavil which I had taken for 18 years with resulting weight gain/hunger)
Heart Palpitations
Muscle Spasms/eye twitching
Pain around heart
Coughing/chocking/gasping for air "attacks"
95% Improvement
Leg Pain
Numbness in hands/arms on waking
75 - 80% Improvement
Sadness/Anger on losing my life to this illness
Light sensitivity
Noise sensitivity
Urinary frequency
5-10% Improvement
Cognitive dysfunction - I will no longer be able to judge if mg is helping because of taking inosine, etc.
PEM "
0% Improvement
Swollen lymph nodes - I recently had improvement in this area, but believe it is due to inosine/artesun.
Other Improvements
Decrease in blood pressure from approx. 150/80 to approx. 129/70.
ETA - I did not get all of the improvements at once, of course. I began to see improvements in insomnia in just a few days but did not see some of the others for 3-4 months.
My dosage: 300 mg Douglas Lab magnesium glycinate at bedtime - started with 100mg and increased
After several months I added Essence of Life magnesium oil - approx. 2 T in bath 3 x week.
Why did magnesium work so well for me?
. True magnesium deficiency for at least a decade before contracting CFS
. Sufficient stomach acid for absorption
. Using the magnesium glycinate formulation (glycine is small molecule amino acid that might help penetrate blood brain barrier)
. Small # of supplements and allopathic meds to allow me to know what was working
. No other supplements/meds to possibly block mg absorption
How to determine if you have magnesium deficiency? Look at lists of symptoms of magnesium deficiency to see if you fit? Take an EXAtest to look for levels of magnesium and other minerals. Medicare will pay for this test as well as some other insurance companies. Serum blood tests are pretty much useless since only 1% of magnesium in your body resides in the blood.
Book Recommendations:
"The Magnesium Miracle" by Carolyn Dean, M.D., N.D. Makes a good case as to why so many people are deficient in magnesium (not just CFS patients). Well written with large number of research references. Stresses that there are more than 300 enzyme functions in the human body which can be impacted by magnesium levels. Has short discussion re CFS/fibro but doesn't go in possible underlying causes (infections).
"The Magnesium Factor" by Mildred Seelig M.D., M.P.H. Also makes good case with large number of research references. Also small discussion on CFS/fibro but doesn't mention underlying infections.
"Transdermal Magnesium" by Mark Sircus, Ac, OMD Focuses on transdermal magnesium (in this case magnesium chloride in the form of magnesium oil). Informative but has undertone of a little doctor bashing since he strongly believes in using magnesium before resorting to allopathic meds for conditions such as high blood pressure.
Contraindications for magnesium supplementation:
Kidney Disease
Myasthenia Gravis
Very low heart rate
Bowel obstruction
ETA: Magnesium can sometimes intereact with other supplements/medications. In some cases magnesium can make a supplement/medication more effective, in some cases the opposite can be true. You might want to check out any interactions before starting or continuing supplementation.
I am not a health care professional by any stretch of the imagination but was lucky enough to have a fellow patient encourage me to take the magnesium. I am posting this here because I hope to help others. And, of course, there are no guarantees as much as I would like to make it so.
Take care,
Maxine
As many of you know from posts on other threads, I have gotten some excellent improvements in symptoms from taking magnesium glycinate. I made a list of improvements to give to my doctor and thought I would post them here in case it might help others.
100% Improvement (as long as I continue to take the magnesium)
Insomnia (I was finally able to drop elavil which I had taken for 18 years with resulting weight gain/hunger)
Heart Palpitations
Muscle Spasms/eye twitching
Pain around heart
Coughing/chocking/gasping for air "attacks"
95% Improvement
Leg Pain
Numbness in hands/arms on waking
75 - 80% Improvement
Sadness/Anger on losing my life to this illness
Light sensitivity
Noise sensitivity
Urinary frequency
5-10% Improvement
Cognitive dysfunction - I will no longer be able to judge if mg is helping because of taking inosine, etc.
PEM "
0% Improvement
Swollen lymph nodes - I recently had improvement in this area, but believe it is due to inosine/artesun.
Other Improvements
Decrease in blood pressure from approx. 150/80 to approx. 129/70.
ETA - I did not get all of the improvements at once, of course. I began to see improvements in insomnia in just a few days but did not see some of the others for 3-4 months.
My dosage: 300 mg Douglas Lab magnesium glycinate at bedtime - started with 100mg and increased
After several months I added Essence of Life magnesium oil - approx. 2 T in bath 3 x week.
Why did magnesium work so well for me?
. True magnesium deficiency for at least a decade before contracting CFS
. Sufficient stomach acid for absorption
. Using the magnesium glycinate formulation (glycine is small molecule amino acid that might help penetrate blood brain barrier)
. Small # of supplements and allopathic meds to allow me to know what was working
. No other supplements/meds to possibly block mg absorption
How to determine if you have magnesium deficiency? Look at lists of symptoms of magnesium deficiency to see if you fit? Take an EXAtest to look for levels of magnesium and other minerals. Medicare will pay for this test as well as some other insurance companies. Serum blood tests are pretty much useless since only 1% of magnesium in your body resides in the blood.
Book Recommendations:
"The Magnesium Miracle" by Carolyn Dean, M.D., N.D. Makes a good case as to why so many people are deficient in magnesium (not just CFS patients). Well written with large number of research references. Stresses that there are more than 300 enzyme functions in the human body which can be impacted by magnesium levels. Has short discussion re CFS/fibro but doesn't go in possible underlying causes (infections).
"The Magnesium Factor" by Mildred Seelig M.D., M.P.H. Also makes good case with large number of research references. Also small discussion on CFS/fibro but doesn't mention underlying infections.
"Transdermal Magnesium" by Mark Sircus, Ac, OMD Focuses on transdermal magnesium (in this case magnesium chloride in the form of magnesium oil). Informative but has undertone of a little doctor bashing since he strongly believes in using magnesium before resorting to allopathic meds for conditions such as high blood pressure.
Contraindications for magnesium supplementation:
Kidney Disease
Myasthenia Gravis
Very low heart rate
Bowel obstruction
ETA: Magnesium can sometimes intereact with other supplements/medications. In some cases magnesium can make a supplement/medication more effective, in some cases the opposite can be true. You might want to check out any interactions before starting or continuing supplementation.
I am not a health care professional by any stretch of the imagination but was lucky enough to have a fellow patient encourage me to take the magnesium. I am posting this here because I hope to help others. And, of course, there are no guarantees as much as I would like to make it so.
Take care,
Maxine