hi,
I am trying out some different forms of magnesium for my child who has tics.

I have some homeopathic magnesia phosphorica in my cabinet and just wondering if it is okay to use these homeopathic salts 'in conjunciton' with regular magnesium supplements. would they interfere with each other? or is it best to do the homeopathic alone?

I feel like magnesium is vital in our instance, but haven't really found anything noteable when I give it. Also, what would be a top dose for a child of 11 years old, about 65 pounds? and are we talking the dose on the bottle, or amount of 'elemental magnesium'...?

thanks for any info......

Mrs. D., would you know?

If the homeopathic label reads 2x, 3x etc it won't have any appreciable in it. Some homeopathic products are showing up now with more normal dosing...so the term "homeopathic" can be misleading. You need to read your labels carefully.

Typically an adult should start at 1/2 the RDA in elemental, which would be just below 200mg.

An 11 yr old at 65 lbs is smaller than adult. But some 11 yr olds could use an adult dose.

The charts say for this age 240mg/day elemental. Assume about 1/2 is coming from food. So you'd start at 100 or daily.

I don't believe a TRUE homeopathic concentration of magnesium is useful at all. The molecules of the mineral have to insert into enzymes to work, and they are just NOT THERE in homeopathic products.

A person needs normal kidney functions also to supplement magnesium. You can do this with food, as some foods are high in mag. Almonds, beans for example.

Do not use magnesium oxide, as it is not appreciably absorbed.

thank you for your quick reply Mrs. D.

just to clarify, regarding elemental magnesium, if our tablet says 67 mgs. of elemental magnesium (per 500 mg. tablet).....then it is okay to give 3 or 4 of the 500 mg. tablets to add up the elemental mag to about 200 elemental? that part always confuses me. We are currently trying out magnesium orotate. I realize citrate would cause too much loose stools, so not sure I could go that high on citrate.

and about the magnesia phosphorica, so no harm in giving both the homeopathic and supplements in the same day, altho you don't necessarily think it is of great use? (it is 6x btw).....

thanks.

Well, 6x is like diluted 1:100,000! Essentially no molecules present.

This wiki link gives the dilution codes:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homeopathy

At 67 mg elemental/tablet, you'd start at 2 a day, preferably divided up so as not to induce any loosening of the stools.

Some labels put in the elemental, and some do not. If the word elemental does not appear, assume not. A 500mg chelate with 67mg elemental would be a fairly large tablet.
There are magnesium supplements in powder form you measure with a scoop... Natural calm and Ionic Fizz (magnesium carbonate) are two products like that.

I don't understand how the phantom molecules in a homeopathic product could ever work.

I know, I don't really get homeopathic either, and I'm not really a fan, but I thought I'd give it a whirl. Apparently it is tissue salts and the minute dilution is supposed to somehow correct the deficiency by helping the body to heal itself and to somehow help magnesium to be absorbed into the cells better? something like that? it apparently works in a different way from actual supplementation, actually being absorbed first in the mouth thru saliva. really I don't know much, I've just been reading and trying to understand.

If anyone has used homeopathic magnesium, I'd be interested to hear how they felt it worked for them.

Thanks for the recs on forms of magnesium. I've never felt it helped as much as some people have, so wondering if my kid just doesn't absorb certain forms too well or maybe I wasn't giving enough. I actually hadn't given it to him in some time, more than a year, but am reintroducing it and I'm determined to stick with this before giving up.