Tuesday, December 4, 2018

The Magic of Magnesium

I couldn't believe that it didn't hit me before.

I had been taking Magnesium L-Threonate (Swanson brand, 670mg) for the past year or so. My doctor "prescribed" it to me back in September 2017, shortly after I finished with my four weeks of Doxycycline. I took as much as I could tolerate, or as much as my GI tract could tolerate hee hee, which was actually just half the dose: three. I took three capsules for almost nine months.


I was not concerned about taking half the dose. For some reason, I never really took magnesium seriously as a vitamin or mineral or whatever the heck it is. I thought it was less important than most of my other vitamins. In fact, I thought it was the least important of all my supplements.


It turns out I was wrong. Very wrong.


I did not come to this realization until very recently. See, about a month ago, I posted a question about Levaquin in Facebook's Lyme Support Group. Somebody made it known to me that there was a "floxie" Facebook group where I could possibly find better answers to the question. I had no idea what "floxie" even meant but it turns out it's an actual term for a person who has suffered from fluoroquinolone toxicity, whether it be from Levaquin, Cipro or Avelox (read about my experience taking Levaquin HERE). There are currently thousands of "floxies" in the Facebook group. That's a big problem. Why these fluroquinolone drugs are still on the market is way beyond anybody's comprehension. I think it's criminal. Many other people out there agree with me.


I've recently come to the conclusion that, as much as I don't want to admit it, I think I've been dealing with a Double- Whopper here this whole time. What I mean is, if Lyme is a Whopper, being a "Floxed Lymey" is a Double-Whopper with extra cheese. Maybe with a large fries and large Coke, too. Mmm. I'm getting hungry.


Anyway, somebody in the floxed group mentioned that Levaquin and other fluoroquinolones are notorious for leaving you with a fierce magnesium deficiency. I had never really heard this before; well, maybe I had, but I don't think it ever registered in my Lymey brain that it was something important to take note of. Again, I didn't take magnesium seriously. "I have a magnesium problem? Well, that may be so but I've got bigger problems than that, babay! Are you kidding me? Magnesium?! Next time, tell me something that matters one ounce of a darn!"


However, this time around, something 'clicked' inside me and I figured it was time to maybe, just maybe, look up the symptoms of a magnesium deficiency. 


What I found was EXTREMELY interesting.

First of all, much to my ignorance, magnesium is incredibly important. It's responsible for cell growth and reproduction, anti-oxidant and anti-inflammatory processes and also hundreds of metabolic processes in our body (source). The problem is that magnesium is becoming increasingly depleted in the earth's soil due to intensive farming and is therefore increasingly unavailable in our daily foods (source). Modern medicines like painkillers and anti-depressants, along with modern vices like caffeine and alcohol, further deplete magnesium. So whether you're sick or perfectly healthy, it's very difficult to possess sufficient magnesium in today's modern world. This means a magnesium deficiency is much more common than you might think.


Now, according to an article by University Health News Daily, the following symptoms are signs of a magnesium deficiency:


Fatigue
Decreased tolerance for exercise
Muscle weakness
Muscle tension, pain, cramps, spasms, or twitches
Headaches and migraines
Irritability
Nervousness
Dizziness
Depression
High blood pressure
High C-reactive protein levels (a marker of chronic inflammation) 
Chronic bacterial or fungal infections
Chest pain

Note: more magnesium deficiency symptoms are listed at the end of this article.


To sum it up briefly, pretty much every symptom listed above is what I have experienced (for about the past year and a half), especially after physical activity and exercise. Remember that drunk, foggy feeling I felt in Trader Joe's after that long walk (read my WINK blog)? That's a sign of a magnesium deficiency. Or the dizziness and confusion? Magnesium deficiency. Or how about the extreme depression or the agitation I experience after exercise? Magnesium deficiency. Most of my problems can literally be explained by one thing and one thing only: magnesium deficiency.


Not helping matters, a magnesium deficiency can also be linked with Lyme itself. The Lyme spirochetes depend on magnesium to complete its life cycle (source) so Lyme eats away at magnesium like that Wimpy cartoon guy eats away at hamburgers.  


Furthermore, the antibiotics used to treat Lyme (Doxycycline) deplete magnesium to a greater degree (source). This means that, by the time you're done treating Lyme, your magnesium deficiency could be very significant. Add floxing from a fluoroquinolone on top of this and your magnesium deficiency could be on the level of severe.


The moral of this story? Magnesium is no fregging joke and a lack of this magical mineral may, in fact, be what-many-people mistake for chronic Lyme disease. Imagine if all this time we thought we still had Lyme but it was really just a fierce magnesium deficiency?! 


It's possible but, as I've written in previous blogs, there are a slew of other factors that could contribute to a false sense of chronic Lyme (parasites, heavy metals, coinfections, reactivated viruses, etc.) or...you also could, in fact, have chronic Lyme. It's so hard for us to know but what's important is that we are aware of these other potential problems that manifest post-Lyme.


As for me, I now take my full dose of magnesium and I can tolerate it, too. What I didn't realize (for a while) is that I was taking the wrong kind of Magnesium L-Threonate. I was taking the Swanson brand (670mg), which is good stuff, but, for some reason, I could only handle so much before I had to run to the bathroom every few minutes. I eventually came to the realization that I should have been taking SOURCE NATURAL "Magtein" (Magnesium L-Threonate 667mg). I tolerate this stuff so much better and I'm currently able to take six capsules a day, though, every once in a while, my GI tract gets borderline overactive. My tolerance level is probably right at the five or six area but, so far, I've been able to handle six pretty well.


It's only been a week since I officially started taking my proper magnesium dose but I have, indeed, noticed a change in my mood. Less depression. Less agitation. I'm more "chill", for lack of a better word. It will be interesting to see if I will continue to see positive changes as time progresses.


As I write this, my interest has also been peaked in magnesium oil, which I had never even heard of before until just a couple days ago. See, over the weekend, I tried to "jog" a bit during my daily walk. My plan (as mentioned in my previous Thanksgiving blog) was to jog from one telephone pole to the next and do this twice during the walk. The first jog went ok, though I felt a bit dizzy and disorientated afterwards, almost like my brain had a tough time balancing itself or coordinating (typical signs of a magnesium deficiency, by the way). After the second jog, however, the back of my knee felt sore, like a muscle was pulled or a tendon.


I'm paranoid about tendon issues because Levaquin is notorious for causing tendon damage. However, Lyme can also cause the inflammation. In fact, I asked the people in my Lyme support group whether they experienced anything like this and somebody said, yes, and they had never taken a fluoroquinolone. Oddly, I would prefer (and be somewhat relieved) if this was all Lyme (and not Levaquin) related.


Anyway, my current concern is that I made so much progress with the walking but now, with this injury, I may go backwards and eventually be right back where I started, having to walk shorter distances, and then increase the distance little by little, etc. It's kind of like that Sisyphus guy who rolls a boulder up a hill but then the boulder decides to be an asshole, rolls backwards down the hill and Sisyphus has to start at the bottom again. I'm sure everybody fighting Lyme and/or fluoroquinolone toxicity feels like Sisyphus. I'm sure we all feel like Syphilis, too.


But perhaps this knee injury is "meant to be" so that I can look into magnesium oil and further discover the magic of the underrated mineral. See, magnesium oil is supposed to be a more direct and efficient way to supply magnesium to weak muscles. Muscle weakness is a hallmark sign of a magnesium deficiency; this is because the magnesium in your body gets so depleted that your body resorts to breaking down muscle tissue to supply the demand (source). So, if your muscles have sufficient magnesium, the tissue can rebuild itself and, over time, everything feels stronger!


O the magic of Magnesium!


I guess it turns out that this month, December, is the month of magnesium. I'll tells ya: if you had heard me this past week, all that came out of my mouth was the word "magnesium". It's like I was preaching the good news of magnesium. Maybe I'll end up on a street corner someday freaking people out as I try to spread "magnesium awareness". "Pardon me, ma'am, do you have a moment today to hear about the wonders of magnesium? No? Ok." And then I would mutter "chicken" under my breath as she walked away; you know, like the scientologists do when they harass you in the streets.

...

Other symptoms of a magnesium deficiency (according to an article on the HEALTH MATRIX website entitled "Magnesium: The Spark of Life"):

Panic attacks

Asthma
Blood clots
Detoxification (of toxic substances, especially heavy metals like aluminum and lead)
Diabetes
Chronic fatigue
Heart Disease
Chest pain
Insomnia
Kidney disease
Migraine
Musculoskeletal conditions (from fibromyalgia to eye twitches to chronic neck/eye pain)
Nerve problems (including muscle spasms and cramps, along with central nervous issues like vertigo and confusion)
Osteoporosis (magnesium helps with calcium absorption)
Tooth decay


Sources: 


https://universityhealthnews.com/daily/pain/low-magnesium-symptoms-are-these-a-clue-to-the-cause-of-your-health-problem/?fbclid=IwAR1igk3Ut9XRpK_-neWels5vEdUuRHTtWf6B4ZoGgCj71mWFmd4YUeb8QeM


https://www.newsmax.com/FastFeatures/magnesium-deficiency-lyme-disease/2016/07/11/id/738173/


http://lymeinfo.net/magnesium.html


http://health-matrix.net/2011/01/04/magnesium-the-spark-of-life/?fbclid=IwAR3q8cF_WTxTShTovKJsx-BIGMlCl1gKR1OFAnUZzlG8YShTDf0QMjPaglU


https://www.thecandidadiet.com/candida-magnesium-deficiency/?fbclid=IwAR2qfZguINnM3-lWFRDvVQ9et9v3dlEn_hXYxoZDQKEhCLT_oWLKgcze7CQ