Posted by LOOPS on May 6, 2006, at 11:38:17
In reply to Re: Rapid Recovery From Depression Using Magnesium, posted by linkadge on April 14, 2006, at 7:32:53
Hi all -
I'm really glad this topic came up again - I really wish there was a good forum dedicated to magnesium and mood disorders as I'm very interested in people's experiences.
So I think I've now been taking magnesium for around 7 months. I started off taking all kinds of forms - lactate, chloride, citrate, and did take calcium at the same time (about 1:1).
I think taking the calcium constantly made the magnesium not work very well for me - I had initial success with sleep/mood/anxiety but then things seemed to get worse than before I'd started - I became very anxious, couldn't sleep etc and crying fits all day. I also had problems with diarrhea.
I kept re-reading the coldcure site - I couldn't believe I was so different from George and maybe I should go for it and ditch the calcium completely. So I started just taking the magnesium. I think initially I'd added in calcium because the magnesium was making me wake up very early, and initially calcium helped in making me sleep longer. I value my sleep so much and don't believe that everyone needs just 4 hours of sleep.
I also changed brands of magnesium - right now I'm working through 2 different ones -
Dyno-mins magnesium (mixed organic chelates)
Kal magnesium hydroxy-orotates (mixed chelates)These seem to work much better. I still have soft stools, but not diarrhea. My sleep improved once more once off the calcium. I still eat dairy though as I eat high fat low carb and like goats cheese.
I take half a pill morning (125mg Mg), another one at lunch, and at night I take 200mg of the kal brand, then another 1/2 if I wake up too early. This gives me around 550mg magnesium a day, which I think is a lot.
Note though that I still drink wine in the evenings and have a stubborn nicotine habit (trying to quit with the gum) - I also drink caffeine, so my needs are probably quite a bit higher then someone who doesn't do these things. In fact I wonder if it is these habits alone which got me messed up mentally in the first place by depleting magnesium too much.
I also take melatonin every night and it is working for me again. I seem to have to take a break from it every couple of months but other than that it keeps working. The low-carb diet has been very important along with the magnesium - initially it seemed to screw my sleep up more (low serotonin) - but now it seems to be really helping as my day/night rhythms seem much stronger (awake during the day then I conk out a few hours after darkness comes).
So the calcium seemed to build up with me from the pills and was not a good idea. I also tried taking calcium one week when I started to get irregular heart beat - thinking it was too much Mg and not enough Ca. Taking Ca seemed to make things worse so I backed off that again.
I've ordered some Mg malate because it's cheaper - I'll let you know if it works out. My guess is the mixed forms are probably better for the body but who knows?
I also take a multi-vit (low dose Bs - can't tolerate those mega pills), cod liver oil, a VERY LOW dose of fish oil compared to my previous mega-oiling (2-3 caps a day)and some siberian ginseng. Other odd things get thrown in occasionally but not every day.
So overall I think I'm feeling much more balanced and relaxed on the magnesium without calcium - I do feel more relaxed round other people as well as I am naturally a very socially anxious person. I am not feeling depressed, but more importantly not so anxious as this is more of a problem for me. My life problems continue, but I am not crying every day about them.
Loops
poster:LOOPS
thread:630155
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/alter/20060428/msgs/640588.html