Magnesium reaction

[Jst455]

I visited A&E yesterday with fast-AF. I've had two previous fast-AF events during the past 10-years and, like the latest, they have coincided with viral infections. This time the doctor initiated intravenous magnesium. The treatment was scheduled to last 30-minutes, but after 5-minutes my blood pressure crashed and I fainted from severe hypotension.

When I regained consciousness (by being turned upside down!) I experienced a massive adrenaline surge which caused muscles throughout my body to go into spasm for about 10-minutes.

The good news is that the shock placed my heart back into NSR, but it was a pretty traumatic method, and I was then admitted to hospital for 16-hours for observation.

The doctor was really surprised and said she'd never seen such a reaction to such a low dose of MgSo4; she was an experienced Registrar, and I'd only been given 2g. After this she cancelled the administration of digoxin.

I had warned her that I'm very sensitive to all medications and only require low doses; I take only 1.25mg of bisoprolol per day, and the same of ramipril.

Has anyone else had a similar experience? It has discouraged me from considering magnesium supplements.

[OzJames]

i had a similar dose when i went into hospital 8 years ago but no reaction, you may have natural high Mg levels so maybe get a test done?

Also supplements are generally in the order of 200-300mg a day you had 2g which is 2,000mg Maybe a consult with a specialist maybe in order to see what might have caused it.

[Vonnegut]

I think the multivitamin and mineral supplement suitable for over 70s that my husband and I have been taking since we reached our 70s contains magnesium and we have no problems with that - guess it must have been the quantity you received. I couldn’t take the lowest dose of Bisoprolol and had to stop that after three days. We are all very different.

[CDreamer]

First a question - was a serum magnesium level taken prior to the magnesium infusion?

I have had such reactions but as magnesium is contraindicated, along with Bisoprolol, I have a red alert on my medical file. I suggest you also ask for this to happen.

I have a complex medical history which I won’t bore you with but I had such a reaction when I had a local anaesthetic injection at my dentist - again awoke upside down - thankfully I had a very bright dentist! Local anaesthetic contains adrenaline which in my case caused the reaction and which then led me down the rabbit hole with many twists and turns.

I now avoid adrenaline in local anaesthesia - which complicates surgery and dentistry, also a red alert for my medical file, all heart meds and magnesium.

Turned out I had several underlying conditions - Autoimmune disease Myathenia gravis (magnesium weakens if you are a Myasthnic), POTS & weak vagal tone. Once the underlying conditions were treated, I’ve been a LOT more stable.

[Jst455 in reply to CDreamer]

Thank you for your interesting reply. I'm glad you got to the bottom of things. My history is also complicated, but I think we are all individually complicated! Unfortunately, in the A&E situation the blood results were nowhere close to being returned from the lab, so the magnesium option was an emergency treatment. It worked, but wow! What concerns me is that although I was in what is now my nearest hospital, it is in a different county to my GP and to the three other hospitals in which I've previously been treated, so they had no access to my notes or medical history.

I had not realised that hospitals and doctors in different English counties cannot swap information - the computer networks are not connected. I don't know if this is the case in other parts of the UK.

This meant the staff had to rely on immediate observation and anything that I was able to tell them while I was in trauma. This is not a good way to work - the doctor was, in effect, blindfolded!

On discharge they had to print out my notes because they were not able to send any data across the county border to my GP. I was astounded.

[CDreamer in reply to Jst455]

Rather horrifying scenario and dreadful experience to endure.

Re Notes:- this is the case throughout the UK, notes cannot be shared between different hospitals and CCGs or sometimes even patients because of how UK law says who owns the notes. The US have a better protocol which is the patient owns their health notes, UK it is the organisation that makes the notes, however, there is a workaround if you have the NHS APP which puts you the patient in more control as there is access to to your summary medical history and notes through the NHS app.

Since the 1980’s computer boffs have struggles with ‘joining up’ the NHS notes systems to no avail. BILLIONS has been squandered down this rabbit hole and I have known personally about 10 people who at one time and another were involved and to a man (or woman) all agreed it would never happen.

The PM’s announcement today on abolishing NHS England and bringing NHS management under direct control of the Dept for Health will be interesting to follow because how on earth with so many QUANGO’s, private providers and individual hospital Trusts the government think they can bring them all together under one managing roof is mind boggling. There HAS to be reform, just not sure that’s the way to do it but not sure anyone has any better ideas either.

[Teresa156]

wow, you’ve been through a lot, but glad you got back into NSR. 2g of magnesium is quite a large dose, especially for someone who isn’t used to it and especially intravenously. It’s a shock too, to see that your notes aren’t accessible throughout all hospitals in the UK. I never knew that. I’m regularly am under two different NHS trusts, but within the same county and know that all my records are available, it never occurred to me outside of my county they’re not. That’s worrying.

I still can’t imagine that you had high magnesium levels to begin with though, it would be unusual. You are obviously very sensitive to magnesium.

[Jst455 in reply to Teresa156]

Thanks for your reply Teresa. I seem to be sensitive to all substances, so I usually only require half the therapeutic dose to normal people. I did warn the doctor, and after all the drama she said "wow, I see what you mean!", but it was bit late by then!

At least I now know that magnesium is highly effective at getting me back into NSR. I try keep my medical record in my head, so fortunately I can usually give sufficient information to doctors without reference to notes - the problem is that not all doctors listen to or trust their patient, (understandable in some cases).

[needlestone]

never had magnesium administered at hospital, but if I take oral magnesium of any type I get heart rhythm disturbance. I can only use it topically and have a sublingual homeopathic version that doesn’t bother that I take.

[Jst455 in reply to needlestone]

That's interesting because I often read references to magnesium on here suggesting it is beneficial to heart health.

[CDreamer in reply to Jst455]

It can be for some people but like needlestone, I only use topical magnesium with no issues.

[needlestone]

Pill form I cannot take and would have to say no way to intravenous magnesium. It is necessary for cell functions but I have to get it other ways like thru skin and mild homeopathic way. Some of us are sensitive to certain forms I guess. But thankfully I found what works for me.

[Hugheart]

Mg is a vasodilator so it can lower blood pressure and heart rate. Hence if either or both of those exist then Mg shoukd be avoided. I have read extensively about Mg and have never read that it could cause abnormal heart rhythms. The other concern is if one has chronic kidney disease that coukd elevate Mg in the blood which coukd cause fainting and dizziness. You might discuss having blood tests for kidney fictions

Hugheart ( M.D.)

[Jst455 in reply to Hugheart]

Thank you Hug. I've asked my GP to test my blood for Mg levels.

[Hugheart]

Mg blood tests can be misleading if they are normal because if you have AF you likely have Mg deficiency in your heart cells. If Mg is low or above normal then they may be helpful .