Magnesium

[Rock_chick1]

Is it advisable to supplement with magnesium even if you aren't deficient in it. Just wondered if like some test levels it's best optimal. I had mine tested and it was normal, in range and about half way on the scale.

[MissOphelia]

I might be completely wrong but from what I understand the magnesium blood tests are pretty unreliable. I had one done which said I was in range but reading up afterwards if you’ve been under stress (my stress levels were super high at the time) your body leeches magnesium from that stored in your bones to use, so it doesn’t give a very good figure of what’s actually in your body.

All a bit confusing! Magnesium is a water soluble vitamin so you will excrete what you don’t need, I think you need to be cautious if you have kidney problems but other than that as long at you take the rda I think you’re ok hope that helps a little. Xx

[Rock_chick1 in reply to MissOphelia]

Thank you, that's very helpful, I'm only holding off supplementing for now as I suspect even the glycinate is upsetting my tum but it could be something else causing the upset. I will keep looking at taking some form of it to help with the electrical rythms of my heart and other good benefits

[MissOphelia in reply to Rock_chick1]

No worries :). I found it upset my tummy at first, I reduced the dose down for a bit and my tummy seemed to get more used to them & I made sure i ate a meal with them and drank a big glass of water & that seems to have helped too xx

[jimh111]

Magnesium blood tests are no use, they don't measure intracellular levels. The only way to find out is a trial of magnesium supplements.

[LAHs in reply to jimh111]

And then what?

[jimh111 in reply to LAHs]

See how you respond. What matters is intracellular magnesium levels and these are only measured in research settings. There is no correlation between serum magnesium and intracellular magnesium, nor is RBC magnesium much use as it does not reflect intracellular levels. The 'gold standard' is the magnesium loading test which essentially involves giving the patient magnesium and measuring their clinical response.

Magnesium is relevant to thyroid disorders as hyperthyroidism leads to loss of magnesium and hypothyroidism produces a shift from the intracellular to the extracellular space. Thus, both hyper and hypo are bad for magnesium status.

[Rock_chick1 in reply to jimh111]

Thank you for this information

[LAHs in reply to jimh111]

My response was simply logic, no offense intended. You dismissed the only test we have easy access to yet provided no alternative.

But anyway, we need magnesium and it has to get into our bodies either through our mouths, our pores or intravenously. Wherever it ends up those receptors will be empty if the reservoir is empty. The first line of defense is to eat magnesium rich foods, take magnesium supplements or to soak in an epsom salts bath. After we have done that for a while we should measure the level we have in our blood since that has to be the reservoir. Perhaps no-one has yet discovered the link between the level of magnesium in the blood and the level in the receptors but I can guarantee if you do not ingest any magnesium in one way or another the receptors will be empty and you will feel ill. The alternative to the "clinical response" after the magnesium loading procedure and test is to ask the patient how they feel. That is a procedure we all have access to and which we employ frequently as hypo and hyper people. This seems to be a far more accurate measure of effectiveness than screaming at one's doctor that, "OK, my blood tests look normal to you but I still feel il!".

But OK let's say you load up with magnesium one way or another and you measure magnesium in the receptors as zero. This means that the chemical needed for absorption is not present or the channels are blocked. May be magnesium needs a catalyst to move into the receptors, check for other deficiencies of other chemicals and load up on those. Measure the chemicals present in a person who has no problems absorbing magnesium and compare it to the patient who does. Are the channels to the receptors blocked? I dunno but they can't be blocked to every single cubic centimeter of the body so this is an unlikely scenario.

First line of defense in my humble opinion is to make sure your reservoir is full before you wonder why you have no water down stream.

[jimh111 in reply to LAHs]

Yes, the best way is to supplement and see how you do. I studied magnesium in detail about 20 years ago, my comments will be from memory as I don't have time to revise. Only one or two percent of magnesium is in the blood, about 80% is in bones and this can be released rather like calcium can. The other 20% ish is in tissues, within the cells. If magnesium deficiency is caused by loss or very low intake it will show in a blood test but this represents a very small proportion of the patients who are deficient. So, if you have low blood levels they should check for things like kidney problems. The vast majority of magnesium deficient individuals will have normal blood levels, so a normal blood test result doesn't help. In the case of hypothyroidism there is a shift from the intracellular to the extracellular space and so hypos can have a blood magnesium level that looks good (just above average) but be very deficient. I had a twitch and my teeth would gently clench overnight, when I was treated for hypothyroidism these disappeared.

Magnesium deficiency causes many conditions such as fibromyalgia, osteomalacia, athersclerosis and enhances stress, so it's important to find the cause and treat it. It is also very difficult to find the cause of magnesium deficiency.

A minor correction. We don't have receptors for magnesium for example like we do for thyroid hormone. Magnesium is used by hundreds of processes in the body and has been around since the beginning of evolution. The issue is to determine whether we have enough intracellular magnesium, enough in the cells, this is difficult to assess.

[LAHs in reply to jimh111]

Wow, that's really interesting, thanks.

[Hibs1]

Due to lack of magnesium in food now due to mainly bad soil we are generally all magnesium deficient. Your serum magnesium should there be at the top of the range.

As has been said this test is not truely accurate but gives you a rough idea. What you need to know is the magnesium in your cells. You need the RBC magnesium blood test, not available on nhs, to show your true level and for it to be as high as possible but very few reach top of range. I'm in the top quarter myself. Here is the Medicheck link for test which also says a bit about it.

medichecks.com/magnesium-te...

[Rock_chick1 in reply to Hibs1]

Thank you for that. I'm a bit confused as it was the medichecks one I did. It was the serum one. Is the the same as RBC?

[helvella Administrator in reply to Rock_chick1]

A Serum test is not the same as Red Blood Cell test.

Serum is the one that is almost useless.

The RBC test does give some idea.

[Hibs1 in reply to Rock_chick1]

The link I gave it for the RBC magnesium blood test and as I said medics describe it.

[Rock_chick1 in reply to Hibs1]

Thanks for clarifying that, it wouldn't allow me to click on the link but I have now seen it.

[Hibs1 in reply to Rock_chick1]

That's good. I opened the link but maybe it came from my account rather than just the website

[humanbean]

As long as you have reasonably healthy kidneys taking supplemental magnesium isn't likely to be a problem. The kidneys will dispose of excess magnesium in urine. And don't forget that kidneys themselves need sufficient magnesium to be healthy.

[LAHs]

I would say measure your levels first and only supplement if you are deficient. After supplementing, measure again, if your levels have gone up, great, keep going, if your level hasn't moved, increase your dose then measure again and repeat. Keep an eye on the symptom you are trying to fix, that way it doesn't really matter where it is being absorbed, it's doing it's job.