Magnesium: An important thread for those who have apsorbtion problems with it

I have posted very few threads on ATS, and it is my hope to start posting more, especially in the Medical Issues and Conpsiracies section. I have done a significant amount of research on various aspects of health and wellbeing, as I don't believe that Western Medicine has all of the answers for people who suffer from various ailments. Without further ado...

If you have read any of my threads on ATS you will know that I have been a type 1 diabetic for many years. I believe that diabetics, and people with ADHD, and most people on Westernized diets have a severe magnesium deficiency. Magnesium is a mineral, and the body has no ability to manufacture minerals on its own. The reason I mention people with ADHD is because I have a cousin who has that issue, and he is unable to absorb magnesium similar to how I am unable to absorb it.

What happens when I take magesium supplements is they always give me a severe bout of diharhea. The same is true for my cousin with ADHD. Even as much as a 500 milligram pill of magnesium is enough to throw us into that reaction. With as many years as I have had the disease of diabetes, I came to find out through research how important magnesium is for people who are diabetic.

What does Magnesium do in the body? Quoted from WebMD:

Magnesium is a mineral that's crucial to the body's function. Magnesium helps keep blood pressure normal, bones strong, and the heart rhythm steady.

Why should people take Magnesium?

Experts say that many people in the U.S. aren't eating enough foods with magnesium.

Adults who consume less than the recommended amount of magnesium are more likely to have elevated inflammation markers. Inflammation, in turn, has been associated with major health conditions such as heart disease, diabetes, and certain cancers. Also, low magnesium appears to be a risk factor for osteoporosis.

There's some evidence that eating foods high in magnesium and other minerals can help prevent high blood pressure in people with prehypertension. Intravenous or injected magnesium is used to treat other conditions, such as eclampsia during pregnancy and severe asthma attacks. Magnesium is also the main ingredient in many antacids and laxatives.

Severe magnesium deficiencies are rare. They're more likely in people who:

Have kidney disease
Have Crohn's disease or other conditions that affect digestion
Have parathyroid problems
Take antibiotics or drugs for diabetes and cancer
Are older adults
Abuse alcohol

Health care providers sometimes suggest that people with these conditions take magnesium supplements.

Web MD: Magnesium

The problem started in what I described above. Every time I would try to take a magesium suppement, it would work as a laxative in my system. Not only do diabetics typically have a deficiency in magnesium, but in my experience it is harder for me to absorb it(the same is true for many others, I suspect).

With magnesium being linked to having an anti-inflammatory effect, stabilizing heart function, protecting the kidneys, enhancing thyroid function, and numerous other health benefits that can be listed, I had to find a way to be able to absorb it.

Epsom salt USP is composed of 99.9% magesium choride. I started adding it to my bathtub each time I would take a bath in hopes that it would be a strong enough dose for me to absorb. I found that it did improve my overall health, but I suspected that it wasn't enough. Who has the money to throw half of a bag of epsom salt in the bathtub every single day? It was starting to get very expensive.

The reason that I suspected that I was not getting enough is because I noticed that I was recently starting to have numerous heart-ache (angina) pains, inflammation in the back near the kidneys and above them, irregular heartbeat, and general fatigue. I also suffered from cold hands and cold feet, due to bad circulation almost every day. I had the allopathic doctors run tests on my heart and kidney functions. The doctors told me that everything looks ok, and I must have just pulled a musle, or something to that effect. The doctors had no solution available to any of these problems, and suggested that I take hot baths every day to get the blood flowing and ease the so-called muscle tension. I had to devise a more efficient method to absorb it, to see if this would fix these problems.

I got creative, and decided to try a different approach. I bought some distilled water at a local shop, and mixed as much epsom salt as I could get to dissolve into the distilled water. I started having my roommate spray this solution onto my back and rub it in, and I would spray it onto my front side and rub it into the chest and on my arms and legs. Obviously, the skin is porous, so it has the capability to absorb these minerals this way (logical solution).

The first thing I noticed upon spraying it onto my skin is that the heart palpatations, heart ache, and inflammation around the kidneys started to disappear. There is one downside to this approach. It takes some willpower, but anyone who is suffering enough will "Go the extra mile" to try to fix something like this.

The downside is that when a solution this strong of magnesium is sprayed onto the skin, it does cause quite a severe (temporary)bout of itching, and in my case it almost felt like my skin was being burned. I tolerated it, because I saw the immediate improvement of the other problems I listed, and I could not see any "burning" of the skin. It does feel like a sunburn that itches badly during this stage, but after an hour it goes away. The other thing I noticed is that the magesium solution leaves an oily feeling on the skin. After letting this sit on the skin for a couple of hours, I touched the skin after I had washed my hands and noticed that almost all of it had absorbed right into my skin. When I went to the bathroom, I noticed that I did not have any diharrea.

I decided I finally had found a solution to many of the health problems I was experiencing! Most of it was tied to this magesium deficiency.

A little known fact is that magnesium deficiency is the leading cause (mostly unknown to the masses) of heart attacks in the Western World.

I suspect that the reason that certain people have problems absorbing magnesium is because of something called Leaky Gut Syndrome.

I think that this is important for not just the people with the health problems listed above. Most people that are on Westernized diets do not get enough magnesium. Since it does leave an oily residue on the skin after application, I decided that it was best to apply the solution a couple of hours before a shower or bath, and rinse off whatever doesn't absorb in the shower. I hope that my idea helps others out there who may be struggling with similar problems.

Calcium affects absorbtion of zinc and magnesium, best to take these supplements seperately and timed appart (bodybuilders know this).

I always found it odd seeing Calcium combined with Zinc and Magnesium in supplements.


SUPPLEMENTS THAT YOU SHOULD NOT TAKE AT THE SAME TIME

www.bodybuilding.com...


Also, always try to use SINGLE INGREDIENT supplements/foods, or with very little crap in it (Titanium Dioxide et al.), you may also find some of the filler crap causes unpleasant side effects.

Nice info. I have gut problems, thyroid problems, and chronic migraines. Fun times. I had heard time and again that magnesium could be helpful for me, especially with the headaches, but every time I would supplement, my headaches would get worse. Now you have me wondering if it was an absorption issue... I was overloading myself because my body couldn't do anything with the magnesium. I have a genetic variation that does that with folic acid where it can't absorb it right, so it makes sense there are similar issues out there with other vitamins and minerals. I do use Epsom salts in the bath when I can. Nice alternative idea. Not sure if I could stand the skin burning, but I wonder about mixing it with Aveeno or something to make it feel better.

a reply to: jajaja

I agree with you. It's just that I have noticed that I would take the magesuim pills alone first thing in the morning that I still had absorption problems with it. I think that certain people may have a problem absorbing it. Diabetic medications may have something to do with it, or a myriad of other things. I just noticed that this is one solution that worked for me. It may not work for everyone.

The problem with supplements, is, how much of them survive the gut when taken invivo. (this is why they coat them in Soy Lechithin, Geletin, BeesWax et al.).

A lot of studies use invitro, or with different metabolisms and tissues (rats)

Also, one always has to focus on their 1) method and 2) goals. Usually they raise more questions and anomolies in the study.

Whilst googling magnesium absorbtion I found this..

www.ancient-minerals.com...

Maybe it is useful to read.

An addition to your spraying concentrated Mg in water directly onto your skin, could be a poultice or bandage soaked in the same solution and wrapped around a limb or your body's trunk and then covered with a neoprene compression support.

Like you get those wrist or angle supports for sports training or neoprene lower trunk / back supports?

If this soaked bandage is covered by the neoprene, it should keep it from evaporating off the bandage, with the only route out of the bandage being your porous skin!

Should keep your shirt dry too and should be able to wear the Mg soaked bandage for extended periods for maximum absorption.

Good luck.

a reply to: drunkennoodle

In my case, the burning problem is not nearly as big a deal as walking around feeling like my heart is going to fall out of my chest! When your heart aches so badly and palpitates in uncertain ways, it feels like you are on the verge of a heart attack. It scared the heck out of me. I'm just glad that I researched and found out what the ultimate cause of all of those health problems were.

As far as mixing it into a lotion, I would recommend fractionated or liquid coconut oil, but it does make it much more expensive that way, and coconut oil doesn't spray very well. The other thing is I am not sure if the magesium crystals can be dissolved in oils. Give it a shot, it couldn't hurt to try it the way you would be most comfortable with it.

The one thing I can say for sure is that even though it feels like buring, if you are stubborn enough you will grow used to it over time. I noticed that the more days I did this, the burning and itching feeling became less. I think that reaction may be because of how severe the deficiency was.

a reply to: MysterX

I never thought of that! I have a neoprene back support, I will be trying this. Thank you.

a reply to: InFriNiTee

No problem.

Hope it works out for you.

a reply to: jajaja

That is a helpful article. I learned from reading that article that Mg is excreted through the kidneys, it stands to reason that it would put less stress on the kidneys to absorb it thorugh the skin. Any less tension on the kidneys is always helpful to a diabetic.

a reply to: jajaja

Perhaps if given the same liposomal treatment as ascorbic acid ... ?

(Touted as being more effective than high dose vit.c injections )

ED; Star and a flag OP ...

originally posted by: Timely
a reply to: jajaja

Perhaps if given the same liposomal treatment as ascorbic acid ... ?

(Touted as being more effective than high dose vit.c injections )

Try Matcha Green Tea powder (or White Tea).

Green tea is higher in Vitamin C than other sources, amongst other benefits.

This is big in bodybuilding also.


www.livestrong.com...

Japan is in the blue zone (healthier longer living - considering they were NUKED TWICE by America, this is pretty good going, and ironic since they outlive the people that nuked them ), they only export circa 1.5% of their domestically produced tea, most goes to DOMESTIC consumption. That should be a clue Also why the stuff is so expensive Most tea producing areas are away from Fukushima so you are pretty ok

White tea gets sourced from Keyna a lot also.

a reply to: InFriNiTee

I will be switching my type of supplement form magnesium oxide to magnesium taurate because it has no laxative properties. Check out this article to see which type of magnesium supplement is right for you here and just to throw this article in there, is on diabetes from ats in the past here

Not sure if this would help but there is a product called Mag64 Magnesium chloride. It's a smaller dose and if you take it multiple times a day it actually helps your body absorb more of it. My wife needs mag along with other electrolytes and minerals and her blood work has proven to at least me that the larger dosages don't raise her levels as well as this product does. All the natural products I am curious of and will look into.