Slowmag seems a bit pricey - can't I just get a less expensive magnesium supplement with the same dosage? Thank you, Karen

SlowMag brand is least expensive at WalMart. $9.99 for 60

Generic Mag64 can be ordered from any pharmacy and it is
about $5.00 at Costco behind the counter, you ask for it.
Up to 8.99 at other places specially ordered.

This is the Amazon price:
http://www.amazon.com/MAGNESIUM-CHLO.../dp/B00080CKBO

You are paying for a slow release form that causes less diarrhea/or loose stools.

This is Doctor's Best chelated for 240 tablets:
http://www.amazon.com/Doctors-Best-A...best+magnesium

If you don't need the delayed feature, and oral mag does not upset you, the Doctor's Best is a good price. 2 of these a day provide 120 days' supply.

What did you pay for yours at the WrongAid? RiteAid and GNC have the highest prices out there IMO.

Yes I went to the wrong place LOL!!! I paid almost 17 bucks, 16 and change - then searched on line, but thanks as always for the links, they are most helpful.

BUT - Need to tell you Mrs. D. : I have arthritis in my knees. With my great Vitamin D results, I was still on lyme antibiotic, which meant no inflammation in the knees. Now I'm not on that anymore.

Doc wants me to take Celebrex but I can't get a preapproval from a doc and it's 90 bucks a month.

However, I found (by happy accident) that when I eat the Flax seeds (I just munch them like nuts and have become addicted to them already)... my knees (in just a day or so) were all of a sudden BETTER than when on Celebrex, Better than when I tried same with fishoil...
BUT - the quandry is, my legs start aching a bit again.

Today - I found out, that if I eat the flax seed nuts (and I took a 1200 mg flaxseed oil supplement too) and ALSO take the SlowMag at that time - no effect on legs. Legs are completely quiet. Wow.

(I'm only up to 1 tablespoon of flax seed nuts so far only because of leg ache issue).

So this afternoon, I am going to take the fish oil that I also want to take - with my second Slowmag and see how that goes.

My knees were better on my bike ride yesterday (on flax seeds couple of days in a row) than I can remember in a long time.

So I thought I would mention to you since you suggested the Slow mag and thanks again for the other links.

Also, because I was itching for three days straight and needed it right away - I went to this expensive vitamin store in a fancy part of town just because I knew they would have it - bought Life Extension mega BENFOTIAMINE 250mg 120 capsules for a whopping 30 bucks! : (directions say take 1-4 a day) But I had to have it and it stopped the itch attacks 9 (parathesia/spell?)and haven't had one since. I was told to order the Doctor's Best kind on line next time, which is what I'll do.

Yes, flax seeds provide omega-3 fatty acid called alpha linolenic acid ...which is anti-inflammatory.

Another good natural substance is Bromelain. One has to get the enteric coated form, so it is protected from the stomach acid, for best absorption into the body.

I've been using 500mg a day of LEF (the only one who makes this form), for my lupus/angioedema reaction. And it has helped my arthritis quite a bit. Bromelain is listed as a bradykinin receptor antagonist and that is why I am trying it. This is a specific action for me. But it has the additional benefit of helping
my osteoarthritis. So I am pleased. I just made a refill order at Amazon for it, for 2 bottles, because I am going to try 2 a day now.

Thanks for your updates.

The flax works like the fish oil, and in females is converted to EPA in the body at about 20-25%. Males don't have this ratio however. (it is thought that is difference is because women carry a fetus which needs alot of Omega-3's to
form the brain and nervous system).

We used to make salad dressings from flax oil. Now it appears in many smart foods, and so I don't need it so much separately.

Just curious - when you refer to flax seed "nuts" are you calling them flax seed nuts before they are ground (milled). Just curious. If I buy flax seed that isn't ground I grind them in a coffee grinder. I prefer this rather than buying flax seed that is already ground.

Hi Kitt, yes I was just talking about un-ground flax seeds. The greeks and romans used to eat them like nuts and that's what I've been doing.

Well, as I mentioned, it seems like all omega 3 items = flax seeds eaten like nuts, flax seed oil in capsules, fish oil in capsules, only moments after taking them, my legs start reacting - muscles cramping and then when it gets intense, I realize it's nerve pain, like my feet aren't burning but instead my legs get to burning... I have googled and googled trying to find one other person with pn reporting this problem and can't.

Soooooo.... I went out to get the Bromelain, found 500 mg tablets, hoping amoungst hope that THIS one - might not do anything to me when I take it and I would have something to help me with the knee arthritis... I cut just a third of it off to test (because if I react, I react for hours and have trouble sleeping through it at night too)... and I reacted to it, within five minutes the muscles started to move on thier own. But at least I tried it.

If I just stick with the Vitamin D and the Benfotiamine that stopped the miserable itch problem I had, parathesis (spell?)... things are completely silent, practically. I can take Glucosamine. I suppose I should be thanking my lucky stars for that- My question then, Mrs. D, it seems that it would be logical not to do things to aggrevate this pn condition in an attempt to make arthritis better. What do you think? I appreciate your opinion, Thank you, Karen

Well, your reactions are confusing... Omega-3's are essential...meaning we cannot live without them.

They are really FOOD and not supplements.
So your next best thing is to eat foods that supply them.
Many foods today, have them incorporated. Eggs, peanut butter,
mayo, spreads, some breakfast cereals, even the chicken nuggets we get at Costco have Omega-3s in them.

If you bought the enteric coated bromelain and cut them, the protection is lost. Small doses of bromelain are a peptide for digestion, and it is lost in the stomach when acid breaks it up.
Many people use it this way, but not much will get into the body proper. Estimates are "ideally" with the coating only 40% is absorbed then.

None of the fats are absorbed in moments. Fats slow the stomach emptying, and remain there for a while..and sometimes hours if taken with other foods. So I don't know what is going on with you "in moments". I really don't understand that at all.

When we do eat, insulin is sent out quickly however, and also cortisol rises, with breakfast, and a little less with dinner.
Perhaps some other metabolic thing is causing your leg issues.

I wish it were something else because that flax seed turned out to be a top notch knee helper - plus I also see these are things every one needs... but like clockwork, without exception, only moments - 2-3 , minutes after not even a full capsule of fish or flax seed oil, but just a few drops, maybe half the capsule - poke it with a sharp knife and squeeze it onto a spoon, and just lick it - hardly anything - first the calves starts to squeeze on it's own, then I can feel like strings that go through my rear end muscles which Im sure are just big nerves, start to 'feel like they are there"... then If I continue to try to injest, it all gets stronger and stronger until it works into a calve burn. I've tried spacing it out, by taking the tinyest amounts at a time - waiting, trying another tiny amount a little later - to see if I could over come it, to see if I could get conditioned to it somehow... but in the end, the story always the same, I wind up paying for it with a calf burn and leg muscles that want to move on thier own half the night when I'm trying to sleep. Don't take it, and I have
complete peace. (And I used to take Fish oil for years and years!!!!)

Now when I eat a piece of salmon, it starts to go too.. but just barely - also Im getting very little 'fish oil' out of one serving of salmon too, so ??!

Your advice sounds like the only logical advice - now I just gotta figure out what to eat to get the Omega 3 I'm supposed to and loose ten pounds. This sounds impossible to me.

BUT - I would like to take the time to THANK YOU SO MUCH Mrs. D. for helping me and I have really been helped - most intensely with the Vitamin D info from you - that just turned my misery around.. and I really should be thanking my lucky stars for finding this place because I'm sure there's plenty of people with pn who would like to have had a turn a round as I have since coming here.

I'll figure something out, I'll ask the new doc too - maybe he can tell me why I have this quandry.

Actually there are quite a bit of Omega-3s in salmon:

http://www.ehow.com/facts_5008677_ho...ga-salmon.html