Hi Amanda,
Thanks for the reply. I'm feeling so spacey today, I hope I can make sense.
Wasn't sure what to make of the Ray Peat article. Most of it went over my head. The human body is amazingly complex isn't it? I read a book on cortisol some years back that persuaded me to go to bed earlier. Forgot the details, but the gist was that sleep we get earlier in the night, like before midnight, is more helpful in reducing cortisol than later in the night. Stress is a big part of my past overeating carbs behavior. I have to come up with another alternative now.
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You sound like me: I went through umpteen different forms of magnesium before I found one which worked for me. I now use Mg chloride (because you can take that before meals) and Mg glycinate. The Mg malate I tried didn't seem to work for me; the Mg taurate tablets were ENORMOUS and barely swallowable; Mg orotate I've never tried. What I have noticed, though, is that the Mg glycinate tablets with the "Albion" patent (such as those made by Dr's Best) do seem to work better than ones simply called Mg glycinate.
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Mg chloride is one I haven't tried. Supposed to be the most absorbable I believe, but when I went looking for it in the past I mostly found links for road salt! I get mg taurate from Vitamin Shoppe usually but Amazon has it too:
http://www.amazon.com/Cardiovascula...11034856&sr=8-1 It's a normal sized capsule. I started taking that when George Eby recommended it over mg glycinate, but now I take Doctor's Best mg glycinate too. I agree it seems to be good stuff. Mg orotate is somewhat hard to find. I get it from
Beyond A Century in bulk and put it into capsules myself.
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Have you ever considered whether you have some kind of intolerance, too? What you call "food cramps" does sound as if there might be some problem in that direction.
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Ack! Typo.
I meant "foot cramps". That's usually my first clue that something's out of whack with calcium or magnesium.
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Also, I have never taken calcium supplements (they are dangerous, it seems, for women in particular!!!).
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I fell for the party line back in the day and had a calcium kidney stone to show for it. I quit calcium supplements, which I was rather hit or miss with actually, and realized later that I felt somewhat better mentally. Those were the dark years and I didn't research it. Not sure I would have found anything anyway. I stumbled across George Eby's site as a link following a British psychiatry journal, where the doctor commented it was an "interesting site".
It's unfortunate that so many women don't realize the dangers of calcium and need for magnesium.
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But, as far as I know, vitamin D3 also enhances uptake of magnesium from the stoamch, which is why many people end up with symptoms of magnesium deficiency when they start supplementing with D3, so, like you say, I don't know what was going on with you either!!!
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If I hadn't felt so experienced with magnesium/calcium I wouldn't have felt so nonplussed to be stumped. I think I will up my Vit D a bit though. I've been erring on the side of caution. I usually walk my dog in the early morning when it's cool and don't get much sun later unless I mow the lawn or something.
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I don't know what other health issues you might have, but, as far as I know, thyroid problems can cause palpitations. Have you looked into that possibility?
I got very bad arrhythmias after "over-dosing" on zinc sulphate, for example. This caused me to get low in copper. I happened to read about copper in connection with heart issues on the Stephan Guyenet blog:
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In the lab work I had recently, I was told my thyroid tests were normal, but when I saw the endo he thought my thyroid was a little enlarged. (My doc checked it too and didn't say anything.) He said he would order a different test "next time." I had some issues with my thyroid some years back: low body temp, cold, fatigue, losing hair. My lab tests were normal, but I think that was just before they adjusted those standards that so many people were complaining about. Anyway, it was after that that I started supplementing with magnesium which, along with some thyroid formulas I took for a short time, did the trick. Mg also cleared up the dry skin I was buying buckets of bath oil for. Overnight!
I never considered copper/zinc re my heart palpitations. Thanks for the link. I'll read it when I'm feeling better. My blood sugar has been dropping steadily which Dr. Bernstein's book said may result in feelings of hypoglycemia if your body was used to high sugars. That's how I'm feeling.
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You write that you have "post-menopausal bleeding", which sounds kind of scary
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I'm 56 and was several years without a period. At first I hoped that's all it was when I started bleeding because it had happened before after a couple years when I thought periods were behind me, but it has persisted usually very lightly for months. (I had to negotiate health insurance with my boss and then there was a waiting period.) My Pap smear and most labs (except for cholesterol, no surprise there) were normal apparently, so I'm hoping for the best. From what I've read, I will probably only need a hysterectomy if it's cancer.
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However, it seems that oestrogen dominance (which women in perimenopause and thereafter often have) can promote magnesium deficiency via boosting adrenal stress hormones, which then causes a lot of magnesium to be used up. I have been trying to get my magnesium levels up for YEARS now and have always found it a struggle, despite doing everything I can to increase them. I now wonder if having oestrogen dominance has been the one factor that has been preventing me from getting my levels up that I wasn't aware of.
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I know I felt pretty awful during the perimenopause years, which seemed to go on way too long. Actual menopause brought much relief in so far as feeling, well, smoothed out, instead of all those jags and ridges.
I tried Ray Peat's progesterone back then, also tried some pregnenolone without relief. The progesterone was tantalizing in that for ONE day I felt amazing, energetic like I hadn't felt in years. I thought I had a whole new lease on life. Then the very next day I crashed. Really crashed. I susequently got a book by Elizabeth Vliet from the library, and recall her saying, "when do you feel worse during your cycle? When progesterone is peaking." It was all too confusing. I got frustrated and gave up. I read an article where it sounded like Suzanne Sommers calls her doctor constantly to adjust her bio-identical hormones. That would be the way to go. My own doctor, when I asked her about testing hormones, said she thought it wasn't worthwhile because they were fluctuating all the time. Exactly the problem. I hope you find a doctor to work with you!