Ok, thanks Amanda.

I, too, wish to join the Mag-Love Fest.

I started taking this three months ago when I started my LC WOE. I believe the Mag Glycinate has been a big part of my ability to remain cool and focused on my goal despite the myriad frustrations and temptations my family and friends have thrown at my feet.

And yes, it does make you feel GOOD. I keep waiting for it to wear off!

hi-
I'm taking the Bluebonnet chelated mag and am on 400 mg/day. From the posts here it looks like you only absorb 200 mg at a time, so I am taking it 2xday with breakfast and dinner. I'd like to start increasing my dosage to see if I too can feel sparkly- how do you guys recommend I do so? (I also take 55,000 of D3/week and my last level was 61.4).
another question- I see that taking the mag at bedtime is a good thing, but I take my thyroid (T3 and T4) at bedtime. Can I take magnesium with the thyroid?

thanks for this great info-
E

Maybe I should increase my mag? I'm only taking 400mg/day.

Donna

I might have a magnesium success story... we'll see. I've had heart palps which I think is a symptom of menopause for me. I had them very badly for awhile and then they went away. I didn't link them to magnesium, not sure exactly when they went.

Anyway, I discontinued my magnesium for about 10 days recently due to some intestinal issues and the heart palps came back. I'm back on it again and hoping they'll go away again. I think they're better. I need more time to see though.

I know the neurologist from The Brain Trust book recommends it for menopausal women.

I've been making magnesium water with powdered magnesium citrate and soda water. It's a bit messy to make because the carbonation makes it bubble something awful, but I do think one absorbs it better.

Hi Enomarb,

On the bolded bit above:

I know that often you see "Take with meals" on the packaging for magnesium but, I'm afraid to say, that that doesn't seem like a good recommendation to me for the following reason: most forms of magnesium (Mg chloride seems to be the exception) will alkanize your stomach acid, which in turn will mean that you won't digest your food so well and disrupt the entire "digestive cascade", which, according to Jonathon Wright, needs strong stomach acid present at the beginning of the process for everything to move along smoothly.

Strong stomach acid is needed to ensure that protein and fats are well digested, so for low carbers it is especially important not to disturb that process as they might be eating more protein and fats than other people. I have also read - though I have not yet found a proper reference for this claim - in the Dr Carolyn Dean book on magnesium that fats impede absorption of magnesium: if there is too much fat present, then magnesium forms a kind of soapy substance and is not absorbed.

As a result, I always take my magnesium away from meals, apart from Mg chloride, which I take in the mornings - when I remember - before breakfast. This apparently breaks down and helps form hydrochloric acid, so it is OK to take it before eating.

On the thyroid meds front: sorry, I can't say anything about that, but you could try on the thyroid sub-forum or try "realthyroidhelp" and join the forum there. All I can say is that if you are not sure about any contraindications, then take them apart - it takes about half an hour for stuff to go in and out of your stomach, I believe - so if you took them, say an hour apart, then they should be dealt with separately. If you don't get any feedback elsewhere, then you'll just have to experiment for yourself and monitor how you feel.

But nobody can guarantee that you'll get that "sparkly" feeling, I'm afraid... In my own case, I like the feeling of calmness it seems to give me, that I can cope better with stress and other people being stressed over nothing!!!

As for the D3: it looks like your level is OK now, so maybe you should scale back a little on the D now??? I've read about people taking 10K per day getting their levels up as high as around 120, which is no longer good. There are some who argue that 60 is already too high, but who knows what is right, hey?

My information on magnesium and stomach acid came mostly from these sources:

http://www.amazon.com/Why-Stomach-A...08164343&sr=1-4

http://www.amazon.com/Magnesium-Mir...08164384&sr=1-2

And this website, in particular this series, which begins here (it's in four parts and well worth reading: explodes a few more myths!!!)

http://thehealthyskeptic.org/what-e...-heartburn-gerd

Hope this helps,

amanda

I only take 200-400mg per day, but then I get quite a bit of Mg in water (Apollinaris) and in food as I eat brown rice, nuts and legumes.

It really depends how much you are getting in total from all sources. If you are not getting much from other sources, you could try a bit more. The laxative effect of magnesium is usually a simple way to work out when it's too much - if you start to have sloppy BMs, you took too much - probably, unless you ate something funny as well, in case you wouldn't be sure!!!

You just gotta try it for a few days - but gradually increase - and then monitor how you feel.

amanda

Let's hope you're right: that would be great news!!!

I've been meaning to try a similar experiment with some capsules of Mg citrate and Mg oxide I got - just adding them to regular water and fizzing up with a soda maker - do you think I could risk that or will it explode???

amanda

thanks Amanda-
the D thing is that it has taken me about 2 years to get my levels above 50, so I'll test it again in a few months and see if the mag has helped.
I will take the mag without meals-
thanks!

E

My understanding is it needs to be carbonated water so the magnesium will bond with the Co2. Read the link that Hutch publishes for the details. I don't know if fizzing afterwards would make it work better or not.

I let the bottle of soda water sit until it was very still (with the cap on). Then I measured out my powdered mag. and poured it into a funnel into the water, then I recapped it quickly and shook it. It didn't bubble over too much and it didn't explode. I kept it in the sink, just in case.

How much magnesium citrate did you add to the soda water, Nancy? I have been making it with milk of magnesia (as per the original recipe) but I can only get the peppermint version. It's okay but the minty taste does leak through a bit.

I was a bit clueless how much to add so I used 2 Tablespoons. 1 tsp is 138% of the RDA. So it is pretty concentrated. Maybe I shouldn't make it so strong, it's been affecting my gut a bit. It did act pretty much like they described. The water got clear eventually, but the sides of the bottle didn't cave in. I also added some lemon juice and splenda later on because it tasted nasty!

Maybe I should be using magnesium oxide... they didn't have it at Swasonvitamins. Perhaps next time I buy magnesium I'll try the MoM.

I think Hutchinson mentioned some other type of magnesium powder - can't remember what it was now? I'll have to look back and see - I think if the sides of the bottle don't cave in, it hasn't done the 'science' thing to make the magnesium bicarbonate Apologies for the poor description but you know what I mean, I hope.

PS Just see it's magnesium oxide

Just thought I'd mention that I ran out of my magnesium citrate and have been taking the oxide. UUUMM yeah BIG difference.
*Jumps off computer and runs to store for good magnesium that works!!!*

I know that this is probably way TMI, but I started taking a magnesium supplement today and within 3 hours I was running to the bathroom every 20 min.

The supplement that I took is:

Doctor's Best
High Absorbtion
100% Chelated Magnesium
Magnesium (elemental)--200 mg
(from 2000 mg magnesium glycinate/lysinate chelate)

I only took 2 pills, which is 1/2 the recommended daily dose. From what I have read, this is Albion Minerals chelated and is supposed to be absorbed better and cause less diarrhea.

Why would only 200 mg have this affect on me? I have never taken magnesium before, so I don't have anything to compare this to. Should I try taking 100 mg 4 times a day instead of the 200 mg 2 times a day?

Not sure what to do...