Interesting story about low Magnesium levels
 

Thanks again for a great board.

I'd like to share an interesting experience with everyone, and get your thoughts.

If you check my history you will see I suffer from bilateral peripheral neuropathy of just the feet (check my original posts for more info).

Twice before in my life I have had GI issues of bloating, stomach aches, etc. 6 months ago I got hit by another bout and we discovered by using Amitizia I have problems with constipation.

Since magnesium helps treat constipation, and has nerve benefits, I started supplementing with magnesium citrate in ionic form 450mg/day. Basically 1.5 scoops of Natures Calm 2x/day (Thanks Mrs. D).

It worked so well I am off Amitizia; which I believe is safer. Sadly, I cannot say if it is helping my neuropathy. If it is helping it is going very, very slow. My GI doc liked that idea as well, but just to be sure had my magnesium level checked.

This morning I got the news I am at 2.1 mg/dL; right in dead center of the normal range 1.7 to 2 4. Obviously GI recommends I continue.

Other than I should continue taking magnesium, does this take me in any new diagnostic directions? Your thoughts?

Welcome to NeuroTalk:

The test ranges are not that informative for serum magnesium.

Very low and very high levels, are useful with blood work, but the middle ranges can still be deceptive, and you could still need more.

When you get laxative action, that shows that the mag is not being absorbed, and is acting like a laxative.

You could add in a topical form, lotion, or cream.

Kirkman cream (on the net)

Epsom-It (on the net)

or CVS epsom lotion if your CVS still has it. (They stopped offering this wonder lotion because of poor sales response-- which is sad..and reflective of how poorly educated the US consumer base is about magnesium).

I rub mine on the pain/swelling areas, and also on my arms concentrating on the under portion and wrist where the skin is the thinnest. I find topical works very well for me. A nickel sized dollop on each arm...

You might find additional improvements this way.

I went to Walgreens and CVS. They dont have the product. At Walgreens, the pharmacist does not even know about magnesium lotion!!! At CVS, the sales clerk has not heard about it either.

Amazon carries Epsom-It Body Rub, Epsom-It Salt Body Rub Therapy and Kirkman's Magnesium Sulfate Cream. Prices are all $19.99 each. Epsom-It products are both in 10 oz while Kirkman's is 4 oz. Another site called Healthy.kin is selling the Epsom-It at $11.95 each. I wonder why Healthy.kin's price is so low.

Which kind of Epsom-It do you recommend?

Thank you.

Can you please expand on this? I used to take MOM for heartburn, but had to discontinue due to the laxative type of effect. Are there other types of tests?

Epsom-It:

Both types have the magnesium. It appears that the foot lotion has a fragrance and the body lotion does not.

http://www.epsomit.com/products.html

Myself, I'd go for the body rub... too many other ingredients in the foot lotion.

The form of magnesium in Milk of Magnesia is magnesium hydroxide, and not well absorbed into the blood stream.

Various types of magnesium have different absorption potential.
This is called bioavailability.

There are special tests for intracellular nutrient content. Special labs like Spectracell do these tests.

Typical medical testing only shows serum content, not the content inside cells.

more here:
http://www.easy-immune-health.com/magnesium-level.html

Stop eating gluten and soak your feet in Ancient Minerals Magnesium Bath Flakes (4 tablespoons) for 30 minutes every day.

Concentrated foot baths are much more powerful than just lotion.

I use the same product, but in a spray form. I mix 50% bath flakes with 50% distilled water together. I boil the water and mix in the flakes which dissolve quickly forming what some people call "magnesium oil".

I then follow the original dosage instructions on the ancient minerals spray bottle to get approximately 400 mg of elemental magnesium daily. This method is low cost and very effective from my perspective.

Mrs. D,
 

Because of taking Oxycontin and Oxycodone (percocet) have terrible constipation. For over a year now, I have been taking about 2 tbls. daily of Phillips Milk of Magnesia. I wasn't sure if this was adding to my having additional magnesium in my system. If I understand what you are saying, this is not adding anything extra to my bloodstream. I had wondered if this might be overdoing the magnesium.

Gerry

You may be absorbing a little bit of magnesium from the MOM,
but it won't be much.

The amount absorbed from magnesium oxide is about 4% in studies.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11794633