Perhaps it's time I told the story of why I was hospitalized - i've only shared the medication comedy.

Although I have more appts and probably more tests to take; it's my feeling that I had a medication meltdown. I was in the hospital for heart tests - if you've ever had a panic attack, and last week I had my first two, you know that it eventually makes you wonder if you are having a heart attack.

Passed all the heart tests - no problem. Then went to neuro - wrapped in ace bandages and looking like a meltdown lol;......and he reduced my sinemet.

Between the two changes - wrapping, less sinemet. i am feeling better. But I do have lingering paranoia.

Now I thought these kinds of things only happened to other people.....seems it happens to anyone. Our meds are powerful stuff.

Hopefully that explains the other post as well.

paula

dear Paula,
Sinemet takes too much potassium from our bodies!

So if they give you a magnesium drip / and potassium which are a great help to the electrolytes in our bodies ...

Basic Blood tests:

Doctors order basic blood chemistry tests to assess a wide range of conditions and the function of organs. Often, blood tests check electrolytes, the minerals that help keep the body's fluid levels in balance, and are necessary to help the muscles, heart, and other organs work properly. To assess kidney function and blood sugar, blood tests measure other substances.

Tests for Electrolytes
Typically, tests for electrolytes measure levels of sodium, potassium, chloride, and bicarbonate in the body.

Sodium plays a major role in regulating the amount of water in the body. Also, the passage of sodium in and out of cells is necessary for many body functions, like transmitting electrical signals in the brain and in the muscles. The sodium levels are measured to detect whether there's the right balance of sodium and liquid in the blood to carry out those functions.

If a child/adult becomes dehydrated because of vomiting, diarrhea, or inadequate fluid intake, the sodium levels can be abnormally high or low, which can cause a child/adult to feel confused, weak, and lethargic, and even to have seizures.

Potassium is essential to regulate how the heart beats. When potassium levels are too high or too low, it can increase the risk of an abnormal heartbeat. Low potassium levels are also associated with muscle weakness.

Chloride, like sodium, helps maintain a balance of fluids in the body. If there's a large loss of chloride, the blood may become more acidic and prevent certain chemical reactions from occurring in the body that are necessary it to keep working properly.

Bicarbonate prevents the body's tissues from getting too much or too little acid. The kidney and lungs balance the levels of bicarbonate in the body. So if bicarbonate levels are too high or low, it might indicate that there's a problem with those organs.

Other Substances Measured
Other blood substances measured in the basic blood chemistry test include blood urea nitrogen and creatinine, which tell how well the kidneys are functioning, and glucose, which indicates whether there is a normal amount of sugar in the blood.

Blood urea nitrogen (BUN) is a measure of how well the kidneys are working. Urea is a nitrogen-containing waste product that's created when the body breaks down protein. If the kidneys are not working properly, the levels of BUN will build up in the blood. Dehydration and excessive bleeding can also elevate the BUN levels in the blood.

Creatinine levels in the blood that are too high can indicate that the kidneys aren't working properly. The kidneys filter and excrete creatinine. So if they are not functioning properly, creatinine can build up in the bloodstream. Both dehydration and muscle damage also can raise creatinine levels.

Glucose is the main type of sugar in the blood. It comes from the foods we eat and is the major source of energy needed to fuel the body's functions. Glucose levels that are too high or too low can cause problems. The most common cause of high blood glucose levels is diabetes.

Reviewed by: Mary L. Gavin, MD

the magnesium online library -
http://www.mgwater.com/

The Mineral That Could Have Saved 4 Million Women
by Bill Sardi

Modern medicine has made a remarkable admission. Its failure to utilize a simple, inexpensive intravenous mineral drip might have saved the lives millions of women over the past century. Modern medicine knew about the cure since 1906. [New England Journal Medicine 333: 201-05, 1995]

Around 210 million women become pregnant annually around the world and every minute a woman dies in pregnancy or childbirth, with a quarter of these deaths due to a condition called pre-eclampsia which can lead to the more severe and mortal condition called eclampsia. Women may develop high blood pressure during pregnancy (pre-eclampsia) and during or prior to birth may experience life-threatening seizures (eclampsia). About 5-10 percent of women in their first pregnancy develop pre-eclampsia.

Over the past century, drugs rather than minerals have been employed to treat eclampsia, Diazepam (Valium) in 1968 and then phenytoin (Dilantin) in 1987. During the period 1905 to 1987 an estimated 42 million women may have undergone eclamptic convulsion and possibly 4 million died. The modern therapy for eclampsia now includes calcium-blocking drugs and a host of anti-hypertensive agents. Drugs may reduce the risk of severe high blood pressure, but not the overall rate of hypertension nor the risk of eclampsia. [The Cochrane Library, Issue 2, 2002] Yet the anticonvulsant drugs continue to be employed with little reliable evidence that they work.

Finally, a just-released study of 10,141 women in 33 countries has shown beyond a "reasonable doubt" that intravenous magnesium reduces the risks of eclampsia among women with pre-eclampsia. The relative risk of eclampsia was reduced by 58 percent and the mortality rate nearly cut in half among women receiving magnesium compared to those who receive a saline drip. The authors of the study concluded that "magnesium sulfate is remarkably effective at reducing the risk of eclampsia." [The Lancet 359: 1877-90, June 1, 2002]

Not The First Time

This wasn't the first study to conclusively show magnesium sulfate is a remedy for eclampsia. In a 1995, a study heralded as the most important obstetric trial of the 20th century, magnesium sulfate was found to be the most effective approach to controlling convulsions during childbirth. [British Medical Journal 311: 702-03, 1995] By 1998 data from numerous studies had been analyzed and it was known that magnesium was superior to any anticonvulsant drugs. [Cochrane Review 2002] This evidence still didn't convince most obstetrical doctors.

Seven years after the report showing magnesium reduces the risk of mortality from eclampsia, a report endorsed by the World Health Organization (WHO), UNICEF and the WORLD BANK, magnesium sulfate is still not available to millions of women worldwide. British medical researchers are pleading with the World Bank and WHO to fund and disseminate treatment kits. [The Lancet 359: June 1, 2002]

Clues Were There

It wasn't as if physicians had no clues as to the cause of eclampsia. The worldwide mortality rates from eclampsia vary widely from country to country. The mortality rate from eclampsia ranges from 0 to 13.9 percent. [European Society Cardiology 21st Annual Congress, Sept. 1, 1999] So there are obviously some modifiable factors involved in the development of eclampsia among pregnant females. Pre-eclampsia and eclampsia are the most important causes of death during pregnancy in the United Kingdom, USA and Nordic countries, nations that consume the most calcium-rich dairy products. Calcium and magnesium must be maintained in a proper ratio to maintain proper muscle tone and prevent convulsive muscle spasms. Furthermore, estrogen and progesterone levels, which increase as a pregnancy advances, elevate the body's demand for magnesium. [Journal American College of Nutrition 12: 442-58, 1993] Magnesium is a natural calcium blocker. [American Journal Medicine 96: 63-76, 1994]

Magnesium Shunned For Heart Disease Too

This isn't the first time magnesium has been shunned in favor of prescription drugs. In the 1990s a preliminary report showed that intravenous magnesium reduced mortality rates following a heart attack. This was apparently perceived as a threat to the sale of calcium-blocking drugs used for the same purpose. Medical researchers, financially backed by a pharmaceutical company that produces calcium-blocker drugs, deliberately chose to use an excessive dose of intravenous magnesium to prove it was of no value during the post-heart attack period. [Townsend Letter for Doctors, October 1998] The sale of calcium-blockers never faltered. There are more than 64 million annual prescriptions for calcium blocking drugs (Procardia, Cardizem, Norvasc, Verpamil, Adalat, Dilacor, Verelan, Calan), with sales exceeding $2.5 billion. [American Druggist 1997]

Magnesium May Prevent Sudden-Death Heart Attacks

Magnesium is not limited to treating heart disease after a heart attack. A shortage of dietary magnesium has been repeatedly shown to be associated with an increased risk of sudden-death heart attack. Unequivocally, a shortage of magnesium from the American diet, in particular the absence or shortage of magnesium in drinking water, is directly related to sudden-death heart attack. [Epidemiology 10: 31-36, 1999; Heart 82: 455-60, 1999; American Journal Epidemiology 143: 456-62, 1996] Out of 750,000 heart attacks in the USA annually, an estimated 340,000 deaths occur within one hour of a heart attack. [Journal Nutrition Health Aging 5: 173-78, 2001]

One study showed the relative risk of sudden-death heart attack is more than 1.5 times higher among adults who consume on average 105 milligrams of magnesium a day compared to adults who consume 233 milligrams a day. [Magnesium Trace Element Research 9: 143-51, 1990]

Recently researchers reported on the effects of slowly withdrawing magnesium from the diet of postmenopausal women. Women began to exhibit abnormal heart rhythms as circulating magnesium levels declined. [American Journal Clinical Nutrition 75: 550-54, 2002]

Of the minerals removed during water softening, magnesium is the only mineral found to be deficient in the heart muscle of sudden-death heart attack victims. [Science 208: 198-200, 1980] In an animal experiment, no rodents experienced a sudden-death heart attack when magnesium levels were adequate, whereas 4 of 11 rodents with low magnesium levels experienced a sudden lethal heart muscle spasm. [Journal American Collage Cardiology 27: 1771-76, 1996]

For comparison, there are about 50,000 tobacco-related deaths per year in the USA and consequently massive smoking-cessation efforts are undertaken. There are more than 200,000 to 300,000 avoidable sudden-death heart attacks that could be prevented by the provision of an inexpensive mineral, yet public health authorities do nothing to stop the problem. This amounts to over 500 needless deaths per day in the USA.

The current approach to cardiovascular disease is to reduce circulating cholesterol levels which has been shown to reduce the incidence of heart attacks but has not reduced mortality rates. Sudden fatal heart failure may be related to magnesium deficiency rather than high cholesterol levels. [Medical Hypotheses 43: 187-92, 1994]

Widespread Dietary Deficiency

A 1994 Gallup poll found that 72 percent of Americans don't consume sufficient amounts of magnesium. The widespread consumption of processed foods has led to a progressive decline in dietary magnesium. While nuts and green leafy vegetables are good sources of magnesium, the shortage of magnesium in the American diet, about 200-300 milligrams per day, is not likely to be made up through foods alone.

Progressive decline of dietary magnesium consumption
Years Magnesium intake milligrams per day
1900-08 475-500
1909-13 415-435
1925-29 385-398
1935-39 360-375
1947-49 358-370
1957-59 340-360
1965-76 300-340
1978-85 225-318
1990-2002 175-225
[Magnesium Trace Elements 10: 162-28, 1997]

Supplementation Advised

Only universal magnesium supplementation is likely to make up for such a widespread mineral deficiency. Foods cannot easily be fortified with magnesium because it is a bulky mineral that would alter the consistency and taste of flour and foods. Magnesium cannot be added to tap water because it would erode piping. Either magnesium pills or magnesium added to bottled water would make up for this mineral deficiency. Currently, only 5 major brands of bottled water provide a desirable measure of more than 75 milligrams of magnesium per liter and only one brand has a ratio of magnesium that exceeds that of calcium.

Blood tests for magnesium are notoriously inaccurate. Only 1 percent of the total body magnesium pool exists outside of living cells. So blood serum levels are notoriously inaccurate. [Clin Chem Lab Med 37: 1011-33, 1999] Only red-blood cell magnesium levels accurately determine the risk for pre-eclampsia and/or magnesium deficiency, but this test is not commonly performed in laboratories. [American Journal Hypertension 13: 765-69, 2000]

A bias against the use of intravenous magnesium sulfate by modern medicine has taken a terrible toll on humankind. Magnesium sulfate, also known as Epsom salt, is not absorbed orally and attracts water in the colon and would thus act as a laxative. So Epsom salts are not recommended orally. Magnesium pills are recommended (200-400 milligrams per day). Magnesium has been called the "The Forgotten Mineral" and the "5-Cent Miracle Tablet" by medical researchers. Numerous researchers have reported that the provision of this mineral in the population at large would greatly diminish the incidence of kidney stones (1 in 11 Americans), calcified mitral heart valve (1 in 12 Americans), premenstrual tension, constipation, miscarriages, stillbirths, strokes, diabetes, thyroid failure, asthma, chronic eyelid twitch (blepharospasm), brittle bones, chronic migraines, muscle spasms and anxiety reactions. [Pediatric Asthma, Allergy Immunology 5: 273-79; Journal Bone Mineral Research 13: 749-58, 1998; Magnesium 5: 1-8, 1986; Medical Hypotheses 43: 187-92, 1994] That's a lot of health benefits for a nickel. Sufficient provision of magnesium in the American population would likely reduce health care costs by billions of dollars.

June 4, 2002

Bill Sardi [send him mail] is president of Knowledge of Health, Inc., San Dimas, California. His latest book is In Search of the World's Best Water, Here & Now Books.

Copyright © 2002 Bill Sardi Word of Knowledge Agency, San Dimas, California. Not for commercial reproduction without permission of the author.

Bill Sardi Archives

Printed from www.care2.com
13 Wonderful Ways to Use Epsom Salts
by Annie Berthold-Bond, Care2.com Producer, Green Living Channels
Simple Solution
I always knew that soaking in a tub full of hot water with a few cups of Epsom Salts was good for relaxing muscles and drawing toxins from the body, but I could never find out why. And it wasn't until I spent some time at the Epsom Salt Industry Council website that I learned that Epsom Salts -- made of the mineral magnesium sulfate--are also a sedative for the nervous system.

When magnesium sulfate is absorbed through the skin, such as in a bath, it draws toxins from the body, sedates the nervous system, reduces swelling, relaxes muscles, is a natural emollient, exfoliator, and much more.

EPSOM SALT TIPS
Adapted from the Epsom Salt Industry Council
Epsom Salt Council
Note: Check with a doctor before using if you have any health concerns.

* Relaxing and Sedative Bath: Soak in warm water and 2 cups of Epsom Salt.

* Face Cleaner: To clean your face at night, mix a half-teaspoon of Epsom Salt with your regular cleansing cream. Just massage into skin and rinse with cold water.

* Homemade Skin Mask: Apply the mask to damp skin. For normal to oily skin, mix 1 tablespoon of cognac, 1 egg, 1/4 cup of nonfat dry milk, the juice of 1 lemon, and a half-teaspoon of Epsom Salt. For normal to dry skin mix 1/4 cup of grated carrot, 1 1/2 teaspoons of mayonnaise and a half-teaspoon of Epsom Salt.

* Foot Soak: Soothe aches, remove odors, and soften rough skin with a foot soak. Add 1/2 cup of Epsom Salt to a large pan of warm water. Soak feet for as long as it feels right. Rinse and dry.

* Skin Exfoliator: Massage handfuls of Epsom Salt over your wet skin, starting with your feet and continuing up towards the face. Have a bath to rinse.

* Remove Excess Oil from Hair: Epsom Salt soaks up excess oil from hair. Add 9 tablespoons of Epsom Salt to 1/2 cup of oily hair shampoo. Apply one tablespoon of the liquid to your hair when it is dry; rinse with cold water. Pour lemon juice or organic apple cider vinegar through the hair, leave on for 5-10 minutes, and then rinse.

* Hairspray: Combine 1 gallon of water, 1 cup of lemon juice, and 1 cup Epsom Salt. Combine, cover, and let set for 24 hours. The next day, pour the mixture into your dry hair and let it sit for 20 minutes. Then shampoo as normal.

* Hair Volumizer: Combine equal parts of deep conditioner and Epsom Salt. Warm in a pan. Work the warm mixture through your hair and leave on for 20 minutes. Rinse.

* Soak Sprains and Bruises: Epsom Salt will reduce the swelling of sprains and bruises. Add 2 cups Epsom Salt to a warm bath, and soak.

* Splinter Remover: Soak in Epsom Salt, it will draw out the splinter.

Epsom Salt Industry Council

Should you have any health care-related questions or concerns, please call or see your physician or other health care provider.

Thank you Tena, I could do a lot better watching what I eat. It's kind of hard to picture a future with all of those patronizing pats and looks, well intentioned or not.

Forward.......I'm not giving up just had a stumble. Don't like to think that we have cracks in our armor. Appreciate the information.

Paula

if we just took magnesium and potassium and calcium daily
the USA would be much healthier:

evidently PUBMED article says magnesium helps...
Regulation of intracellular free magnesium in central nervous system injury.
Vink R, Cernak I.

Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, James Cook University, Townsville, Queensland, 4811, Australia. Robert.Vink@jcu.edu.au

Traumatic injury to the central nervous system (CNS) initiates an autodestructive cascade of biochemical and pathophysiological changes that ultimately results in irreversible tissue damage. Known as secondary injury, this delayed injury process is multifactorial in nature and it is generally thought that the simultaneous attenuation of a number of the secondary injury factors will be required for interventional therapies to have a significant beneficial effect on outcome. This review summarizes the growing body of evidence that suggests that magnesium plays a pivotal role in the secondary injury process following CNS trauma, affecting a number of secondary injury factors including neurotransmitter release and activity, ion changes, oxidative stress, protein synthesis, and energy metabolism. By having effects on such a range of secondary injury factors following trauma, pharmacological studies have shown that magnesium may be an effective therapy following neurotrauma, improving survival, motor outcome and alleviating cognitive deficits.

Publication Types:
Review

PMID: 10922299 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

Thanks Tena for the information on Potassium. When I had that terrible ordeal in the ER last May, the first nurse who talked to me after I was rescued and sent to ICU said that she needed to change the IV bottle because I was terribly low on Potassium. There is no notation of this in the Hospital Medical Record and none of the MDs that saw me mentioned it to me. I have been wondering what caused it. This sort of answers that question.
Mary

hey paula,
accck i've had a few meltdowns meself. lol
not an easy thing to go through, some of the meds like sinemet cause various problems either in conjunction with other meds (like requip, mirapex, comtan) or solo. ya know, dyskensias, dystonias, clouded thinking, sometimes impaired judgements, ya know consequences don't have the same meaning they may have before. partially side-effects and partially due to the low dopamine levels.

along with with fluctutations, the levels of dopamine aren't at a steady or equalized level, it kind of plays havoc with emotions, happy to sad and everything in between.

at peak dopamine levels, you may get more tremors, dyskenias, (running, kicking, i call it swimming, lol) flapping, flailing, waving, finger and toe curling, when you bottom out the dystonia, bradykenis, rigidity, masking, drooling, hoping you get to the bath room on time, sets in. the longer you deal with the meds, the more you have to learn to listen to your body. trying to remember the meds side-effects without fearing them or allowing them to be a crutch, so to speak, acck you know me, i can be a perfect a-hole all by myself, lol .

for me, learning to tweak to your body's demands is much more difficult than trying to live up to my emotional wants- trying to function at a considerably higher level than i may be physically or realisticly able to. a learning curve, a cycle, if you will. constantly adjusting, fine tuning, no surrender, little to no room to be complacent. i dunno, it's almost of like trying to be vigilent without obsessing, lol

i reckon it's because i'm one of those people who is sensitive to protiens, haven't eaten eggs in like 4 years, poultry and pork white meats effectively cancel out my meds. eggs and egg whites are in just about everything, even candy bars, acccck reading food labels at the grocery store, lol

i dunno if any of this makes sense to anybody besides me,lol
take care
tammy

toadie, you worded it perfectly....that's exactly where I'm at and several others on this board as well. Altho this reduction in simemet is not lasting as long and I am dosing more frequently, the reduction has resulted in less side effects. Looking back already, i spent years like a manic half the time from too strong a dosage at one time - then crashing into dystonia.

It does get to the point where you choose to eat or be 'on'....

paula