Magnesium page 8

[Saoirse]

enter your daily intake into paleotrack.com
Iirc, it's around 6 cups of raw chard (they cook down quite a bit) to get enough magnesium. of course you can have it in smoothies, soups, sauteed in butter, or whatever, but i choose to eat it in one or two meals as a side.

So whether or not a particular magnesium supplement works for you, it's pretty much decided by if it gives you the runs?

I think so. I was getting leg cramps, headaches, and was constipated. and yet a half dose of MagCalm (magnesium citrate) would give me the runs the next day (though i'd sleep well then night i took it). some people prefer other forms of magnesium because it doesn't cause this problem so easily.

Did you notice or diagnose a magnesium deficiency for yourself and thus implemented the diet changes accordingly, and noticed improvements?

no lab tests or anything, just guess and try things out. i do feel like i retain water better when I eat enough greens every day for a few days; then i have no cramps, muscle soreness after small efforts, regular bowel function, i sleep better, and I can drink more water without having to pee every 5 minutes.

however, with this insane heat and humidity, i'm getting leg cramps again, and the headaches have come back, but are different (instead of coming and just staying, they're sort of randomly occurring). so now i'm keeping my greens intake at its high level, but also taking a pinch of Celtic gray sea salt several times a day. Today is the first day, and i'm tolerating the heat much better and also sweating more (which is really good as i usually just get red and overheat but little to no sweat). so for me, the solution to my symptoms seems to be salt+greens (sodium, potassium, and magnesium are the key nutrients).

[Saoirse]

For me, ditching gluten helped with my migraines, but I was still getting them. Tho Boyfriend and I did a bunch of research and found out about magnesium tried it and it helped.

Yeah, it can make you a little "loose" if you take a higher dose. But if I take less than my current 800 mg, the migraines get more frequent and my legs get twitchy at night. I fix the poop issue by taking 400 mg in the morning and 400 mg at night. Seems to work pretty well that way.

For me, efficacy and dose are based on the minimum level that makes any issues go away.

for me, i was taking around 150 mg once a day, still experiencing some of my symptoms (only constipation and insomnia improved; muscle cramps and headaches were still present), and getting the runs. i'm not sure why it's different for different people, but for me it didn't work even at a low dose. i still keep it around because once in a while i just NEED it to sleep, but it seems to wash more minerals out so i have to do damage control the next day.

[noodletoy]

enter your daily intake into paleotrack.com
Iirc, it's around 6 cups of raw chard (they cook down quite a bit) to get enough magnesium.

this is fine for getting your rda, but doesn't speak to building back up from a deficiency.

[Saoirse]

this is fine for getting your rda, but doesn't speak to building back up from a deficiency.

i'm not sure how that works; where magnesium is stored. Is it stored in bones? how much can a body take in at a time? i suppose you might need to consume a diet high in magnesium and take some supplements if that's what concerns you. i'm fine with just the cessation of my symptoms. my assumption is that if i'm getting an adequate amount of magnesium and other minerals from my diet, my bones will recover over time simply because bones are being continuously destroyed and replenished as a normal body function.

[zizou]

I will give diet a shot, then introduce supplements as required. I'm really not a fan of supplemeneting but like it's been said perhaps it might be required to restore some balance. It's a shame jsut when i feel good in most symptoms new ones crop up and require attention. I will probably go with that oil i posted on the previous page, seems expensive for continued use though so i hope i can figure this thing out.

[The_Undead_Pixie]

I didn't see this in any of the replies but how effective is magnesium ascorbate? Mineralsinc.com states that it is more bioavailable and has a better gastrointestinal tolerance due to it being more natural.

Link: Magnesium Ascorbate....WRITE UP

[desertmama]

I think i am finally magnesium deficient. To the point i think i need to take action and quickly. I have only my symptoms to go off, no formal diagnosis has been done but worryingly i posses a funny/annoying heart rythm, interrupted sleep, slight cramp/stiffness in my calves and don't know if slow nail growth is another factor.

So obviously i'm most worried about the heart thing. I need some advice regarding on how should i approach my situation.

I have never posted here, just lurked this last year or so, but saw this post and had to reply because I have this exact issue as well.

The heart thing is so disconcerting isn't it? If I feel my pulse I can feel it skipping beats and beating erratically. For me it is at its worst in the summer and tapers away in the fall when the weather cools off.

If I take 750mg of magnesium all at once my heart rhythm will usually fall back to normal within the hour. If it's been especially wonky the magnesium will make me very relaxed and sleepy once my heart has calmed down.

I'm currently trying to take smaller amounts of magnesium throughout the day to see if I can just maintain. Nothing works to get my heart rate back to normal like a large dose though. I can tell when I'm really deficient when it doesn't affect my intestines at all.

My sleep is very interrupted as well. I try to take 500mg at night to help with that, but I'm inconsistent about it and don't always notice a difference. I think my sleep issues are more due to stress or a combination of the two.

Also, FWIW, my brother suffers from the heart thing too and what works for him is to sprinkle salt in his hand several times a day and lick it off. I joke that I am going to buy him a salt lick.

[Saoirse]

the heart issue could just as easily be a sodium or potassium deficiency. I've started eating taking Celtic gray sea salt throughout the day with my water, and i think it's helping. there's really no way of knowing without lab tests. A relative of mine eats out frequently, and consumes a lot of salted nuts and other processed foods; yet he was sodium deficient.

[iniQuity]

Iirc, it's around 6 cups of raw chard (they cook down quite a bit) to get enough magnesium.

Isn't this entirely dependent on the type of soil it was grown in though? thereby making the estimations just guesses at best? I mean, if you're seeing benefits from the whole foods and the supps don't agree with you then by all means, that's the better alternative. I just don't know if you can confidently say how much mag would be in chard/etc and always trust that. Especially if it's always coming from a different source and what not.

Personally, I take about 400mg/day on average. I have just begun bringing mg citrate to work to take 200mg while I'm sitting here doing very little else. Then I take a larger dose post-workout, 400mg, and this time it's mg chelate (glycinate) per the suggestion of somebody I had a few training sessions with, who got his info from another reliable source (Ido Portal, who got it from Charles Poliquin - yeah he sells supps, I get it, but he presents studies and I don't buy from him so I don't care) then sometimes another 200mg before bed, but this is rare. I have certainly noticed improvements in muscle soreness and recovery. I can train more frequently which is great.

As far as the loose stool goes, not a lot of that really. Spreading it out is the trick for me, if I had 800mg at night (never have, scared to!) it would be horrible the next morning.

[KimInGA]

Has anyone found that after a month or two of taking magnesium, your tolerance decreases? When I first started taking magnesium glycinate, I could tolerate 700mg (800mg = loose stools, ew). Then I had to back it down to 600mg, and now even 500mg is giving me side effects. What gives?? Is this indicative of having had a deficiency before, but now that I'm no longer deficient I can tolerate less supplemental magnesium?