Gluten free and Magnesium

[IdasMum]

Pleased to say our whirlwind tour of southern UK is over. It was lovely to see people and join in celebrating news of a new pregnancy (4th grandchild nr Easter).

My pain levels were as they would have been were I here, good days and worse days. Sleeping in different beds over the 8 days, some of them not very comfortable or too hot was a trial, so it's good to be back in our own bed.

Overall I think my illness is no worse than it was a few weeks ago...I continued 3mg for the duration and today is now day 3 without steroids. I ached a lot towards the end of yesterday but then I'd have a couple of busy periods on my feet.

I met my sister and niece who are heavily into Functional Medicine and they persuaded me to try Gluten Free for 30 days to see how that impacts on my pain...yesterday was day one. My sister also used Magnesium Spray on my neck (for the pain) and that had a rather instant pain relieving affect...not sure how long it lasted. Has anyone else tried that? She also gave me some Magnesium tablets, one at night is supposed to aid sleep. I took one last night and slept very well....will see how that goes.

I have an ultrasound booked to look at my left wrist, where this all began 9 months ago. MY current pain is not bi-lateral (wrist pain is back, just the left and I am back to wearing a wrist support over night). I will have a blood test next week too to see what my CRP and ESR are and then go back to the rheumy.

#gluten free #magnesium

[PMRpro Ambassador]

I was gluten-free in the early days of PMR as I have a non-gluten wheat allergy - in the UK the only thing that is reliable is gluten-free - in fact at the time even that wasn't, Juvela made (may still do) gluten-free flour by chemical treatment of wheat starch. So the bit I'm allergic to was still present. Here I don't have to be gluten-free - we have other pure grain breads. But it has never made much difference to me whether I ate gluten or not - wheat? that was a different matter.

I take magnesium tablets every so often - and I think I do feel better when I do, certainly the feelings I have that send me to get a dose improve. They are available in every supermarket here and in other German-speaking countries as well. It is the first thing your gP will ask if you go complaining of muscle cramps.

If you are going to do properly gluten-free - good luck! You will need to read every label to see if there is gluten in it and you will be amazed where you find it! There'll be a LOT of cooking from scratch! It's bad enough doing just wheat-free, gluten-free is worse and I don't think the new labelling is much help - still far too broad based.

[IdasMum in reply to PMRpro]

Thanks PMRpro 95% of cooking here is from scratch and will be looking at labels of anything else. We're lucky we don't eat a lot of bread or grains anyway...I had already exchanged Pasta (which doesn't really float my boat) to Chick Pea spirals. I have Gram Flour in the larder so will start making chapatis to go with the curries I plan on making to get more turmeric into our diet.

Currently waiting for baked pots to be cooked so I can empty them and add cheese and mustard before grilling, add in some bacon slices and we should be satisfied. It's been 16 hours since we last ate and I am hungry.

[PMRpro Ambassador in reply to IdasMum]

Let me know when the chapatis are on - I'll be round! Love curry (he doesn't).

I have to say - it was a great relief to me when a friend was diagnosed in his late 50s as coeliac! Now when we visit I know I won't be told "we're eating out at the pizzeria in the village" (we live in Italy, they are in Germany, talk about coals to Newcastle...) - where they have nothing I can eat. They only go places he'll find something suitable and their home cooking is superb!

[Ronswife]

Magnesium before bed helps the calcium you ate throughout the day do what it needs to do. You need roughly 1/3 to 1/2 magnesium to calcium and many calcium tabs already have it balanced. It's a rough estimate because you are eating foods with both as well

[jayboy05]

I have had PMR for 12 months, I am reducing pred by DSNS method. When first diagnosed I felt dreadful in every way, so strarted to do some research and found this wonderful site which has helped me enormously. I also read up on vitamins and minerals because as well as the PMR I was like an emotional yo yo. so unpredictable and having great difficulty sleeping, this was before taking pred....it got considerably worse afterward.

I had read about magnesium and researched what I thought to be the best one for me, it's a product made in America which can be bought in one UK outlet. It's called ReMag 'The Magnesium Miracle' ....Pico-lonic Mineral Concentrae Liquid......I read the book by Dr Carolyn Dean......The Magnesium Miracle. and decided to try it. Together with a good multivitamin and extra Vit K twice a week my overall well being and sleep pattern has changed dramatically over the last 4 months. I feel more optimistic about everything......I have been a Rotarian for 10 years but when diagnosed was a such a low ebb I considered giving it all up....now I have also joined a ladies choir and our local branch of U3A. My husband and my children (45 & 43) can't believe the change. The greatest blessing is my sleep pattern, when put on pred I was only getting 2 to 3 hours per night, now it's at least 5 or 6 and that is with 2 loo calls!

My outlook now is helping me to cope with PMR.. and all that goes with it, however long the road may be!!

Blessing

Jayboy