not usually. Magnesium will complex certain drugs because it is divalent ++. Gabapentin and most antibiotics are cautioned with magnesium intake.

Not all water filters remove fluoride, only special ones.

I personally believe that fluoridated toothpastes are more problematic than the water.

Choose a toothpaste that has no fluoride or TriClosan in it.

Triclosan has been shown to be neurotoxic:
http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/sh...ight=triclosan

wow i had no idea that magnesium and gabapentin have to be taken 2 hours apart. now i know for future reference. hopefully i should be getting a skin biopsy soon to confirm my small fiber neuropathy and then continue to look for causes :-/

Thanks -I did not know that, I will look out for that, too. As of now, I'm just drinking purified water bottles -they are certainly cheap enough and the types I drink both PurAqua and "Just the Basics" don't have fluoride in them.

As for the magnesium - I guess I'm doing the right thing by taking it later in the day rather than the morning when I take the rest of my vitamins.

Here's a thought of mine though: I've been taking B12 500 MCG for over 4 months, every single day. But when I had my screening it was "Vitamin B12 926.00 h pg/mL" I thought it would be -or should be higher, considering I've been taking B12 (and still do) at 500 MCG per day. I don't take the Methylcolbamine version -it's too dang hard to find and I can't get it from the net either - since I don't buy anything on-line.

So I've been taking the Cyanocobalamin type. The sublingual type with a bit of magnesium stearate.

Also, does anyone on this thread have PN (Peripheral Neuropathy) from From Cipro or any other drugs? Just curious.

nerve support formula has the methocobalymin type. and as far as b6 it only has a small amount of b6 so theres no way u can get too much b6.

There have been people here in the past but they may not be reading now.

This link from a doctor who actually measured absorption shows that 500mcg may give as much as 9.7 mcg absorbed. (ideally)
So that is about 2x RDA from food (animal sourced food).

Many of us keep our levels at 1000 or more.
So you must be absorbing something from that 500mcg.

Thanks guys. As always, that helps a lot. Now I'm trying to decide if I should add a potassium pill to my vitamin regiment, but don't know what kind, or even if I should.

Ever since I got a bit of a cold 7 days ago, I have been having very frequent cramps, especially in the soles of my feet. Today was the first day ever where I felt I had trouble walking because of it. That, on top of some intermittent prostate pains I had, has been driving me crazy the last few days. My stress levels are way up over this - feeling bad since just a week ago I had a 9-day in a row streak of feeling quite well & almost normal.

I was wondering if potassium would help ease my cramps, as they seem to be a major part of the remaining PN pains I suffer from.

Does anyone here know about potassium? As in if it's appropriate to take for PN or how much as a vitamin supplement I should take?

Sounds like we are at about the same stage. Mine began in mid-July. I'm a dog walker and can't work. I had my first nerve conduction test Oct 4th. I just took my first anticonvulsant tonight--100mg of Neurontin. Kind of like a sugar pill as far as I can tell. It hasn't done much for me.

People who suspect low potassium should get tested and not self medicate. Supplements are useless. They are too small a dose.
Eating foods high in potassium is the way to go.
One can of V8 has over 800mg of potassium.

http://www.algaecal.com/potassium-foods-list.html
The new RDA goal is 4,700mg a day.
The FDA limits OTC supplements to 99mg a tablet.
Gatorade is a poor source too at 30mg a serving.

Kidney problems will waste potassium in the urine.
Diarrhea, also lowers it.
Taking too much potassium can affect the heart and poison it so one has to be very careful with it. Excess caffeine and alcohol may cause a lowering of potassium.
http://www.emedicinehealth.com/low_p...article_em.htm

Try soaking those feet in epsom salts. This will push magnesium into them. If your circulation is poor, taking oral magnesium may not reach your feet properly. So doing a soak will allow the magnesium to get to places that it cannot normally do if the circulation is poor.

If you suspect low potassium please see your doctor for tests.

mrs d. when my symptoms first started they started with a little bit of tingling in the arm and leg. a week later i was getting an MRI done. could it be that this was too soon to be sent for an MRI and thats why lesions didnt show on the scan? im honestly thinking i should ask my doctors to send me for another one because its been 3 months and i still have no clear diagnosis as to what i have. my symptoms since they first started have involved tingling, weakness in the arms, muscle stiffness, pain inside my arms and legs, and paresthesias all over my body. some of the paresthesias are annoying and some are actually painful. i dont know what other disease that all these symptoms together can be other than multiple sclerosis so thats why i cant get it out of my mind. what do you think?

Sorry for the long post here - I just have a lot of concerns.

To mrsD: Well, you yourself pointed out my potassium was a little low when I posted my screenings. My potassium taken from my results on Nov. 1st are "Potassium 3.8 mmo 3.5-5.1". So I suppose I got it tested already. I think I've always been low on potassium for some reason.

I can't really drink a V8 much since, I'm trying to avoid B6 and that is in all V8 drinks as well as choke full in bananas, too. V8s are also pretty expensive where I live also. I tried some Bengay on my feet yesterday and that seemed to help a bit though it did feel kind of weird.

I don't know why taking a potassium supplement would be useless - wouldn't even a low dose each day be better than none?

The only thing I drink with potassium in it is SILK milk the non-dairy soy-milk product.

I'm trying to decide if I should take potassium supplements. At GNC I saw the "Potassium 99" for like 5 bucks. I did some research and it says for the most part you would have to exceed 1000mgs OVER the daily recommendation to start getting bad potassium effects. (I got this from the LIVESTRONG website)

If anything, I might take two 99mg tablets every other day - or more likely just the 99mg tablet per day. I don't think that would cause me any harm, would it?

I need help with this - I'm having a long painful relapse - now over 7 days; so I'm getting kind of desperate. ...For all I know the bad cramping could be from the humid and cold weather change where I live, or that sore throat I caught a week ago.

Either way, I should be grateful, as nasty as it is, it's not as bad as the flare-up relapses I had in the last months - just very frequent.

I have some additional B12 tablets 250mcg that I've been thinking of adding to my already 500mcg tablets, but don't know if that's a good idea either. I've been taking the 500mcg B12 everyday for over 4 months - I'm even confused about that -as in if I should be taking them for so long.

Let me know what you think -I'm pretty confused and I'd really appreciate the help.