Muscle spasms

[Asil737]

Do your muscles “vibrate” or spasm throughout your body? I’ll have a series of them and then not again for a few hours.

Edit- I take 400 mg magnesium glycinate daily in addition to a multivitamin and thyroid meds

[humanbean]

Could be low magnesium. It's very common. The blood test for magnesium levels is a very poor one - it can show good levels in the blood stream while the rest of the body is deficient. As long as your kidneys are reasonably okay you could try supplementing and see if it helps. See this link for supplements that are available and their different properties :

naturalnews.com/046401_magn...

Other causes of spasm, twitching, cramp etc are low iron/ferritin, and low potassium.

Note that supplementing iron without testing levels first is not a good idea at all - too much iron is poisonous. And if potassium levels are low the best way of improving levels is to eat foods containing good levels of potassium rather than supplementing.

General muscle and joint pain could be low vitamin D.

High levels of vitamin B6 can causes peripheral neuropathy.

A feeling that you are "vibrating" may be caused by levels of cortisol which are too high or too low for good heath. The best way of testing this is by doing an adrenal saliva test privately. The ones offered by companies in the UK vary in quality, so do ask for advice if this is of interest to you.

Another alternative is to ask your doctor to do a serum (blood) cortisol test at 9am in the morning. That is roughly when your cortisol level should be at its highest. You will get more info from an adrenal saliva test but most doctors don't "believe" in them, so you would be doing one for your own benefit if you did one at all.

[MissFG]

I have this and found it’s how my body reacts to pain or when it’s struggling.

When I went gluten free it eased a lot as obviously my body was struggling with gluten especially my stomach. But I’ve found gabapentin helps my trembling / spasms as it’s a pain relief and muscle relaxant

[Asil737 in reply to MissFG]

Maybe it spasms more if I do light activity. I will have to monitor and track when it happens the most. But how do you build up strength so it doesn’t react that way if you can’t do much without it acting up??

[MissFG in reply to Asil737]

When I have good days I do more but even then it’s light activity. I have a 3 storey house so the stairs are good exercise. Otherwise I just have to trust my body.

[Phoenix369 in reply to MissFG]

Do you mind sharing what dose of Gaba you are taking. I was recently prescribed this to help with some pretty horrible peripheral neuropathy symptoms. It does help but the effects seem pretty short-lived.

[MissFG in reply to Phoenix369]

I increased as the effects didn’t last as long as I found it did help. I’m on 3 x 600 a day but I do tend to have less on some days and make sure I take all 3 when I need it. 1800 a day seems a good dose for me. I also don’t find I have any side effects

[greygoose]

I can't answer your question, but I can tell you that taking a multi-vit is a waste of time and money for several reasons:

* If your multi contains iron, it will block the absorption of all the vitamins - you won't absorb a single one! Iron should be taken at least two hours away from any other supplement except vit C, which is necessary to aid absorption of iron, and protect the stomach.

* If your multi also contains calcium, the iron and calcium will bind together and you won't be able to absorb either of them.

* Multi's often contain things you shouldn't take or don't need : calcium, iodine, copper. These things should be tested before supplementing.

* Multi's often contain the cheapest, least absorbable form of the supplement : magnesium oxide, instead of magnesium citrate or one of the other good forms; cyanocobalamin instead of methylcobalamin; folic acid instead of methylfolate; etc. etc. etc.

* Multi's do not contain enough of anything to help a true deficiency, even if you could absorb them.

With a multivitamin, you are just throwing your money down the drain, at best, and doing actual harm at worst. Far better to get tested for vit D, vit B12, folate and ferritin, and build up your supplementation program based on the results.

I see that you've added that you take magnesium in response to humanbean 's comments. That's good. But, whilst testing for magnesium is not worth-while, testing for vit d, vit B12, folate and ferritin is essential. If these are deficient, nothing will work properly.

[Asil737 in reply to greygoose]

I’m curious as to why you think testing serum blood magnesium is not worth testing? I agree with some of the other comments however. Is it because it is water soluble?

[Asil737 in reply to Asil737]

I have been taking Life Extension Multivitamin (however I do take mag glycinate in addition)

Serving Size 2 tablets

Servings Per Container 60

Amount Per Serving

Vitamin A (as beta-carotene, acetate) (5,000 IU)

1500 mcg

Vitamin C (as ascorbic acid, calcium and niacinamide ascorbates)

470 mg

Vitamin D3 (as cholecalciferol) (2,000 IU)

50 mcg

Vitamin E (as D-alpha tocopheryl succinate, D-alpha tocopherol)

67 mg

Thiamine (vitamin B1) (as thiamine HCI)

75 mg

Riboflavin (vitamin B2) (as riboflavin, riboflavin 5’-phosphate)

50 mg

Niacin (as niacinamide, niacinamide ascorbate)

50 mg

Vitamin B6 (as pyridoxine HCI, pyridoxal 5’-phosphate)

75 mg

Folate (as L-5-methyltetrahydrofolate calcium salt)

400 mcg

Vitamin B12 (as methylcobalamin)

300 mcg

Biotin

300 mcg

Pantothenic acid (as D-calcium pantothenate)

50 mg

Iodine (as potassium iodide)

150 mcg

Magnesium (as magnesium oxide)

100 mg

Zinc (as zinc citrate, L-OptiZinc® zinc mono-L-methionine sulfate)

25 mg

Selenium [as sodium selenite, SelenoExcell® high selenium yeast, Se-methyl L-selenocysteine]

200 mcg

Manganese (as manganese citrate, gluconate)

2 mg

Chromium [as Crominex® 3+ chromium stabilized with Capros® amla extract (fruit), PrimaVie® Shilajit]

200 mcg

Molybdenum (as molybdenum amino acid chelate)

100 mcg

Inositol

50 mg

Alpha lipoic acid

25 mg

Natural mixed tocopherols (providing gamma, delta, alpha, beta)

20 mg

Bio-Quercetin phytosome (providing 5 mg quercetin [from Japanese sophora concentrate (flower bud)], phosphatidylcholine complex [from sunflower])15 mg

Marigold extract (flower) [std. to 5 mg trans-lutein, 155 mcg trans-zeaxanthin]

11.12 mg

Apigenin

5 mg

Boron (as boron amino acid chelate)

3 mg

Lycopene [from LycoBeads® natural tomato extract (fruit)]

1 mg

Other ingredients: microcrystalline cellulose, stearic acid, croscarmellose sodium, starch, maltodextrin, dicalcium phosphate, vegetable stearate, silica, aqueous film coating (purified water, hydroxypropyl methylcellulose, glycerin).

Lycored Lycopene™ is a registered trademark of Lycored; Orange, New Jersey.

SelenoExcell® is a registered trademark of Cypress Systems Inc.

L-OptiZinc ® and logo are trademarks of Lonza or its affiliates.

Crominex® 3+, Capros® and PrimaVie® are registered trademarks of Natreon, Inc.

[greygoose in reply to Asil737]

Vitamin A (as beta-carotene, acetate) (5,000 IU)

1500 mcg

Beta-carotene has go be converted to 'real vit A', retinyl palmitate. Hypos aren't very good at doing that, so you won't get much vit A from these tablets.

Vitamin B12 (as methylcobalamin)

300 mcg

Hardly worth taking, not nearly enough. Certainly wouldn't address a deficiency.

Iodine (as potassium iodide)

150 mcg

Never take iodine without getting tested first. If you don't need it, it can make your hypo worse - excess iodine is anti-thyroid.

Magnesium (as magnesium oxide)

100 mg

The cheapest form of magnesium, you can't absorb it in that form.

Zinc (as zinc citrate, L-OptiZinc® zinc mono-L-methionine sulfate)

25 mg

As far as I know, zinc citrate is not the best form of zinc. Zinc picolinate is best absorbed. And zinc sulfate is one of the worst and least bioavailable. So, although the dose is rather high, you won't get much out of it.

So, there's no iron in it, but you still won't get much benefit from it, so it's still a waste of money.

[greygoose in reply to Asil737]

It's because of the way the body handles magnesium. it will always make sure there is enough in the blood, no matter what is in the cells. I can't tell you any more than that. It's just that even if a blood test says you have adequate magnesium, it doesn't mean you can't be deficient.