Posted 3/23/2011 4:38 PM (GMT 0)
When my sister's epilepsy became untreatable (she kept upping her dose of AEDs with no effect on her increasingly common seizures), she tried adding magnesium (Mg) and her seizures stopped immediately. She has not been willing to try increasing her dose of Mg to see if she could stop taking her AEDs, but it's obviously her choice to remain comfortable with taking mildly toxic pharmaceuticals for the rest of her life if she likes. However, her experience is what first got me into Mg a few months ago, and eventually I tried it myself. I have never been so happy with a supplement of any sort ever. It's the most wonderfully relaxing--yet ever so mildly stimulating--thing I have ever taken. It's almost like a benzo itself.
But so the more I read about Mg, the more reason I found that others might like it too. Mg treats many, many diseases/conditions. Here is an incomplete list of those diseases/conditions which I've read about being aggravated--if not caused--by low Mg: ADD, aging, anger/aggression, all addiction (especially alcoholism), allergies, ALS, Alzheimer's, anxiety, arthritis, asthma, atherosclerosis, autism, bipolar disorder, bruxism (and all excessive muscle clenching), cancer, carpel tunnel, chemical sensitivity, chronic fatigue, constipation, depression, diabetes, epilepsy, eclampsia, fibromyalgia, hearing loss, heart disease, hypertension, impatience, inflammation (of all sorts), insomnia, kidney stones, metabolic syndrome (and perhaps all obesity), migraine headache, mitral valve prolapse, menopause, multiple sclerosis, muscle pain, nail biting, OCD, osteoporosis, pain (all sorts), peripheral vascular disease, PMS, many psychiatric disorders, PTSD, sexual dysfunction (male and female), SIDS, sickle cell disorder, sleep disturbance, stress, stuttering, tinnitus, TMJ, and toxic shock. That Mg is not one of the first things doctors try is just astounding. Maybe it's emasculating for them to see that a prescription-free supplement is so much more effective than any of their drugs... It really does seem like the triumph of pharmaceutical companies at the expense of the wellbeing of the entire human population.
Magnesium is a particularly safe mineral supplement to try--even in adding to any other drug regimen, the only risk being it may increase your body's response to the other drugs, especially if tolerance has developed. (It reduces tolerance and prevents it from developing!) I've tried many forms of Mg and found that Mg oxide always gives me a headache and others say it's quite laxative (I didn't notice because I never got over the headaches to try more), but I do quite like Mg glycinate ($10-20) and Mg malate ($5-10). I take 1/2 of a 200 mg tablet with every meal and a whole one before bed (for a total of 500 mg / day--the lower end of (MD) Mildred Seelig's recommendation for men of 500-1000 mg). It improves quality of sleep and just quality of life in general. I used to have a lot of anxiety, which Mg arrested immediately. But I've also found it cured my depression, OCD, allergies, stress, and has just made me a more patient person than I ever thought I could be. I can think of it as nothing less than a miracle. It did so much more than I even expected it could. I feel like I have to tell everyone.
Do let me know if you try it and how it helps you and your daughter.