magnesium
 

(disclaimer i dont have traditional tos)

i went to the doctors office and found out my mag levels were .5 (1.5-2.5)


i highly encourage anyone with severe neck pain to get your electrolytes checked out!! my scm muscle feels so much better. i really found like i found a missing link in a puzzle

one major downside is that i think i supplemented too fast. now i am experiencing insomnia.

Magnesium typically calms people down and they sleep better.
Taken at night or using the lotion at night can improve sleep.

So I would wonder about the insomnia.

i didnt have it for the first few days...

there's probably something more complicated going on :mad:

an update for anyone who cares

still having palps, at night my rate is 50ish and normal bp but i still feel my heartbeat.

sitting down during the day its gone from 80s-100s and then to standing i need to check..i think its going up and down a lot bc im afraid to walk around.. like im gonna faint. i went to a clinic and they were like oh that's not that high. FOR ME it is really high. normally im 60s-70s

im convinced this is all nerve related. going to a cardio. then to get kidneys/hormones checked i hope. in the meantime im trying not to faint, lol. my dad has a lot of nervy heart related problems too so i think i just inherited this from him

another update

palps stopped late sundayish. my potassium when they retested on friday was down to a 3.7... the clinic didnt mention going to a cardio and i believe they think im a hypochondriac. my bloodwork looks normal..

i found a DO. my first DO ever and i am going on tuesday. im going to try taking 100mg of mag tomorrow in the morning and see if i die, if i feel funny again, going to ask DO for referral to cardio.

i am banning tofu type products from my diet for the time being bc i believe they have a lot of potassium... trying to cook. but having tos and a good diet impossible unless you have someone else to cook for you.

my left "tos" side is acting up again, coincidence? the last i took mag was almost a week ago. im not going to pt (can't afford it) until i get electrolytes in harmony.

My main dr is a DO now & they have a good PT place along with the office , but it is expensive... even when they try to do the best Ins wise,, still a good sized chunk of $$ after they pay what they allow.
Somehow my chiro is able to keep services under the limit so no cash out of my pocket.:cool:

Ugg I remember how sick I got of easy/frozen/ fast food :( I enjoy cooking and couldn't do much at all for awhile.

Good luck w/ the DO.

thanks jomar

i know!! god i didnt even realize i was eating THAT bad until the mag test bc im so thin. i dont see how anyone with chronic arm/hand pain deals with this.

another weird thing i noticed, on saturday i was checking bp on and off all day. later in the day, swear to god, suddenly i couldn't wear the stupid thing. it felt like it was squeezing too tight and cutting off the blood flow to my hands. they didnt change colors or anything but i could feel it..very intense. i tried it several times in different positions. i do not have vascular tos, at least according to my duplex ultrasound (i think that's what it was)

well my magnesium levels are normal and i am back to normal again aka pain :rolleyes: god is cruel

NEW theory-- when my heart was beating so fasting for 4 days it was flushing out the buildup of metabolic waste in my muscles and soft tissues before it could really settle in..

so the osteopath i went to was a big *** phoney and didnt know anything and wouldn't refer me to anyone but a rheum (and ive already been to a rheum)

according to this site

http://barttersite.org/

very low magnesium levels take 6 mos to a year to heal
they said "I know that docs have to be careful as the cannot flood a body. With meds
other than antibiotics. Too much is a bad thing. The panic attach was actually
overdose symptoms. As respiratory shut down is a hugh sign of mag overdose.
Panic attacks mimic it as ones muscles are too relaxed. Diaphragms do not work
well when this happens"
so i think that's what i was experiencing, a mild version of it.

now i take 400 mg glycinate and 2 tspns of magonate

i still have neck major pain and tightness (obv) but my spine isn't on fire anymore. i get spasms on the left side of my body for some reason, in the morning sometimes foot cramps and a spasm inside of my mouth.

i am going to try dumping mag oil on my neck before doing pilates exercises and see if that helps

i think everyone here, unless they live on a farm and eat their own crops, should take 400 mg of glycinate (or whatever is easiest on your stomach) a day.

"The Magnesium Miracle" by Dean certainly made a case for deficiency in the general population and therefore supplementation.

yup that's a good book

altho she says that people heal within weeks. that bugs me. if half magnesium is in your bones i dont think youd heal in 2-3 weeks.

the back of my neck still hates me. if i press it with my fingers it hurts like hell

i'm trying to eat more anti-inflammatory foods now.

on good authority when body is under stress

*Magnesium and Calcium
*Vit D usually runs waaay low & helps with depression
*Melatonin levels drop considerably - needed for sleep http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2001/melatonin-1017.html

It is my impression that the Bartter's site deals with a specific kidney problem that is genetic.

Some of the advice about the electrolytes relate to that condition specifically and others do not. It is very difficult to separate those facts from each other for the general public IMO.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bartter_syndrome
and:
http://emedicine.medscape.com/article/238670-overview
Gittleman's"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gitelman_syndrome

If you decide to use topical magnesium, I'd lower your oral intake, accordingly.

my vit d is 66 now!! i bet when my pain was at its worse it was a zero. ive been supplementing that since june (before i even realized my mag was low, lol). i'm still sleeping crappy, i think it's due to cortisol. i might start taking melatonin, at least on weekends. it does work.

yeah i realize that those are people with severe electrolyte disorders but i was sick of weeding through information for people whose levels were above 1.0. .5 to me is a different ballpark. i AM absorbing the mag tho and that makes me happy. yesterday i put on a lot of mag oil and i actually didn't take my 400 mg this morning..i will later. i think ive gotten a lot better at being able to feel when i have enough. my bp will get too low.

latest strange labwork i've had is my iron.

TIBC 228 (250-450) total iron binding capacity
UIBC 180 (150-375) unsat. iron binding capactiy
IRON SERUM 48 (35-155)
IRON SAT 21 (15-55)

FERRITIN 23 (13-150)

ive had it done twice and my tibc is always too low. im going to show it to a doc and then if he doesn't know im gong to find a nutritionist since doctors don't take any of this stuff seriously.

There are alot of women with low ferritin.

Ferritin is a protein, which holds the iron, for future use.

Some people don't make this protein well, or it can reflect bleeding internally, or heavy periods, which deplete the iron faster than ferritin can store it.

Some people are relatively low in ferritin. It is HIGH ferritin that is problematic, indicating possible iron overload which is toxic to the body.

If you are not anemic, then I wouldn't worry. But ask your doctor before taking iron. This is one thing that should be supervised by a doctor. Dosing and length of time used decided upon the doctor, and not self administered.

do you know anything about low TIBC? is that common?

i tried lookign it up in a chart and it just says chronic illness

i am grateful i have low ferritin tho, i agree, that would mean i have inflammation or some weird blood disease


actually im going to stop taking any magonate for a few weeks and see if it helps, maybe it's too potent and interfering with my ability to bind to iron. wild guess tho, i really have no clue

i just got my labs back again, trying to understand them

mag was a 2.0 :)

potassium is still too high, out of range high! and im not eating high potassium foods, my mchc was at the top of the range which i think points to some kind of anemia.

co2 at the bottom of range, almost out of range. b ut that's from breathing terribly i think

High potassium readings can be factitious. This is when the sample is mishandled at the lab or the tourniquet is too tight on the arm, and the blood cells burst and the potassium in them goes into the serum and gives a false positive high. Normally red blood cells hold alot of potassium.

Doctors know this and make allowances for it most of the time.
Other factors for high potassium are mostly kidney issues. Some types of renal tubular acidosis have high potassium and in others, it can be low. There are 4 types in all.

It is not common to have high potassium when no potassium supplements are being taken. Some drugs will raise it... Dyazide and spironolactone, and ACE inhibitors. But rarely in people not using those drugs to a level that is high. We see high potassium mostly in nursing home patients or hospitalized patients who are receiving potassium supplements, due to high dose diuretic treatments. Often the supplements are overprescribed and potassium has to be adjusted.

i think that's what it is..

both times i tested really high on K i had the rubber band on and i was squeezing my fist AND they had trouble finding a vein

so next time im going to drink a ton of water and not squeeze my fist.

my bili(sp) total was high too but back in july it was completely normal so i'm not going to obsess over that either. everything else looks good :)

something i noticed when going back through my labwork was that when i took too much mg my tsh was a 1.7. it's never been that low, when i was "healthy" it was a 2.1. sick it's the 3-4 range. although im sure some tsh fluctuations occur i'm wondering if the mg flooded my hormonal balance somehow and that's what made my muscles feel better.