ugh, had some low key spasm in my ankle at work last nc...not to the point of actual pain.....will see how the horizontal time goes , today....

Hi pabb,

You might want to try Carlson's chelated magnesium:
http://www.amazon.com/Carlson-Labora.../dp/B00014D2DW

My mom was taking huge amounts of magnesium oxide per doctors orders, and was still always low. I had her switch to this, and she was never low again. The type made a huge difference for her, although she hated these pills as they are BIG.

They also make a Cal-Mag combo~
http://www.vitacost.com/Carlson-Chel...F-088395054723

The functional medicine doc that helped us with my daughter said the chelated forms of magnesium, such as magnesium glycinate, are the most absorbable. He wanted her to have a total (including whatever was in multivitamin) of 500-600mg daily.

well, i do hate to be wrong, usually, but NOT THIS TIME!...no spasms, other than the arch of the foot, which i think is reasonable considering i have high normal arch, am carrying way too much weight and am on my feet for my job. ...and only once when i first got into bed....NOTHING for the rest of the sleep period....feeling oddly weak in that distribution.....but not falling...so presume that it is a dysesthesia, my new word, lol....and i will check out the carlsons ma+ supp thanks....
ps. of course, this now begs the question of what the issue is with that leg...and what they missed when it was being treated two years ago.....argh..when the EMG's were NORMAL, by the way.....

that spasms in the foot remain
 

so far suggest a circulation issue. Perhaps with time as the larger muscle groups soak up what they need, the balance of the mag will move down into the feet as well.

Keep the feet warm, and soak them in epsom salts if you can.
This will fix that problem faster.

Your heart, blood pressure, biochemical metabolism of fats,
sleep/anxiety, and bones will all benefit from the proper availability of magnesium now. 7 out of 10 people in this country are estimated to be consuming less than the RDA for this mineral. And stress, drugs and disease states deplete it further.

I am glad you are on your way. Choose whatever supplement you want, except for magnesium oxide.

when i get a new PCP on board, i will be working on this issue....i do remember that my mom was low in ma+ and i had an uncle who died in his sleep, i suspect a cardiac dysrythmia......both drank....but my mother very little in the last 15 years or so and that is when the ma+ level i saw was done. So this makes a mystery....does low Ma+ come from Etoh abuse, or possible a part of the drive to it?....what ever it would seem it may be familial, since i take no meds...routinely.

serum magnesium tests are
 

not a good indicator until drastically low amounts are present.

They do not test intracelluar mag levels at all.

The studies on magnesium and migraine on PubMed explain this to some extent...that even with "normal" serum levels, high dose mag worked to reduce migraine in children.

By the time it is so low, to show up the heart may be severely impacted. A colleague at work had his sister in law have a crisis of this type, hers was induced by high dose diuretics.

Diabetics lose magnesium in the urine. Stress also does it.
And any diuretic, including caffeine and alcohol also contribute.
http://healthlink.mcw.edu/article/965927519.html

In fact Dr. Jay Cohen MD has a book about it:
http://jaycohenmd.com/books.html

I often visit Dr. Cohen's website...he is very very good IMO.