13
Magnesium Miracles
As I was getting ready to write this chapter on magnesium, I got an urgent phone call from my mother. My father was dizzy, weak and nauseous. All he wanted to do was sleep, but my mother took his vitals. His blood pressure and pulse were dropping at an alarming rate. I told her to call 911 and luckily the heart attack was diagnosed by the cardiologist at the hospital. You have no idea how I wished that I could have been there, in the dire minutes and hours during and after the heart attack. Why? Because I would have doused my father in as much magnesium oil as he could stand. Magnesium is heart-saving in an acute heart attack. Many magnesium experts feel that it may even prevent heart attacks in certain people.
The Importance of Magnesium
So you might be wondering, what does magnesium have to do with chronic pain? Well, a lot. Magnesium, a mineral, is crucial for over 300 different biochemical reactions in the body. When depleted in the body, the health consequences are devastating. Magnesium is required to make ATP – the main source of energy for cells. If you are low on magnesium, you are low on energy, and all the body’s processes become inefficient. Magnesium is also responsible for muscle relaxation, so if you suffer from stiff muscles, muscle spasms or trigger points, you likely have a magnesium deficiency. Magnesium is also important for proper nerve function.
In an earlier chapter, I mentioned the role of toxins in the development of chronic pain. Interestingly, magnesium is required for our cells to produce glutathione, a master antioxidant that helps us get rid of toxins. Thus magnesium is an important mineral necessary for detoxification and healing chronic pain. In the case of my father, the magnesium would have opened up his heart blood vessels and allowed more blood flow through his heart muscle, possibly preventing a full blown heart attack.
Have you ever had muscle spasms? They can be terribly painful. Most people assume that muscle spasms are “normal” if they’ve overworked their muscles. Muscle spasms are never normal. They are commonly caused by magnesium deficiency. Elite athletes who train very hard actually waste magnesium from their bodies, urinating excessive amounts of it, and thus become magnesium deficient despite a healthy diet. Muscle spasms can also be caused by potassium deficiency, and thanks to a scientific article I just read by magnesium expert Mildred Seelig, I now know that magnesium deficiency can cause potassium deficiency.
A study by Guy D. Abraham, MD showed a reversal of fibromyalgia pain and symptoms using 300-600 mg of magnesium and 1200-2400 mg of malic acid per day. Malic acid, an acid found in apples, is helpful for energy production. People with fibromyalgia not only have pain, they experience severe fatigue. Thus the combination of magnesium with malic acid has been found helpful in this particular chronic pain disorder. In my office, I actually use a combination magnesium-malic acid product made by Metagenics called Fibroplex. You can find it in health food stores under the commercial name, Ethical Nutrients Malic Magnesium.
How do you know if you’re magnesium deficient? If you experience chronic pain, you probably are. If you’d like to see what your risk factors are, you might want to take the quiz at Ancient Minerals: http://www.ancient-minerals.com/magnesium-deficiency/need-more/
Testing for Magnesium Deficiency
Traditional laboratory tests are inadequate to diagnose magnesium deficiency because they only measure the magnesium in the serum of your blood. Your serum magnesium levels will rarely show an abnormality. Why? Because the body will steal magnesium from other parts of your body (even if you are deficient) in order to keep the serum magnesium levels in the normal range. If this didn’t happen and your serum magnesium levels dropped, your heart might stop working! Thus the only people with “low” serum magnesium levels are people who are very sick, for example patients in intensive care. People who take multiple medications that cause magnesium deficiency are also at risk.
There are newer laboratory tests that can more accurately diagnose magnesium deficiency, but few are covered by insurance companies and most doctors don’t know about them. Also, they are not widely available in all locales. You can read about them here. Because laboratory testing is impractical, it is best to assume that you are probably magnesium deficient if you have significant risk factors.
Causes of Magnesium Deficiency
When I tell my patients they may be magnesium deficient, they often give me a blank stare. Reports published by the World Health Organization have estimated that three quarters of Americans do not meet the Recommended Daily Intake (RDI) of magnesium, yet the media hasn’t educated the public about this fact, so it goes unnoticed. Half a century ago, the average daily intake was about 500 mg per day. Today it is about half that amount. Magnesium deficiency is a big problem especially in America. Most people are well aware of calcium deficiency so they often load up on calcium supplements to support their bone health. Doctors, like me, were taught in school that our patients should be taking up to 1500 mg of calcium per day to prevent osteoporosis. Sadly, we were never taught that magnesium, Vitamin D and Vitamin K are also needed to form healthy bone.
If one is consuming milk and other dairy products, calcium supplements can often exacerbate an already-existent magnesium deficiency. Calcification of soft tissues is arguably due to magnesium and/or Vitamin K deficiency; essentially, the body doesn’t know what to do with the calcium it already has without proper magnesium and Vitamin K balance. Without sufficient magnesium, calcium can come out of solution and become solidified. Calcification of joints, arteries and tendons may not be due to just “overuse” or “aging” but the relative excess of calcium in the body. Worse than that for people with pain is the fact that calcium causes muscle contraction and magnesium causes muscle relaxation. Thus a relative excess of calcium may cause stiff, contracted muscles!
Why do you think that our diet is so low in magnesium these days? If you guessed “conventional farming” or the excessive processing of food, you are correct! In conventional farming where they grow monoculture produce, the soil is stripped of minerals and the fertilizers do not include the whole spectrum of minerals and micronutrients naturally found in nature. Conventional fertilizers make the fruits and vegetables grow very large, yet they are less nutritious than their organically grown counterparts. Magnesium is apparently one of the minerals most affected by the processing of food. If the majority of your meals come from boxes, bags, bottles, cans, or fast food restaurants, you’re probably magnesium deficient.
Poor quality food contributes to excess acidity. This acidity then causes leaching of the body’s stored minerals in order to buffer the pH of the blood. In other words, your body will steal magnesium from your bones in order to neutralize excessive acidity in your body caused by poor diet. I bet you didn’t know that drinking soda puts you at a higher risk of developing osteoporosis did you?
There are other reasons besides poor nutrition that contributes to magnesium deficiency and thus pain in many people. One is stress. Magnesium is considered a natural stress reducer. Magnesium is used up during times of stress. The more stress you have, the more magnesium you require. And I’m not just talking about chronic emotional stress. Physical stress is equally important. Some of the elite athletes I work with have no idea that the intensity of their training can cause excessive magnesium losses through their urine. Not only do these athletes need more magnesium, they are depleting it at a faster rate than the average person! Yet, it is rare for me to meet a trainer or coach who tells their athletes that they need to take more magnesium.
One of the most common causes of magnesium deficiency I’ve noticed is pharmaceutical medications. Many medications deplete magnesium, including blood pressure reducers, anti-inflammatory steroids, birth control pills, hormone replacement, and diuretics (“fluid” pills). And just think, the more medications you take, the more you are at risk for magnesium deficiency. In addition to magnesium losses, many medications also promote nutritional deficiencies of other minerals and vitamins, particularly the B vitamins, Coenzyme Q-10, zinc and potassium.
How to Get More Magnesium
Eating whole nutritious foods is always a good strategy when it comes to healing anything, including chronic pain. According to USDA food charts (see a complete chart of magnesium rich foods here: http://www.ancient-minerals.com/magnesium-sources/dietary/#dv-chart), the foods with the highest magnesium per typical serving are:
Halibut
Mackerel
Boiled spinach
Almonds
Foods with the highest magnesium per milligram, regardless of typical intake, are:
Cocoa
Almonds
Cashews
Pumpkin seeds
You may find that bran breakfast cereal is listed as having a lot of magnesium. Unfortunately, bran contains a lot of anti-nutrients that make the magnesium unavailable to the body, so I do not recommend it. Eating magnesium rich foods is a great start, but often it isn’t enough for people in chronic pain. There exist several factors that can impair your ability to get magnesium from the foods you eat, including what we’ve mentioned before such as lowered magnesium availability in conventional food, excess stress and excess calcium. Dietary habits such as drinking sodas and carbonated beverages will also lower magnesium absorption from food.
If you have chronic pain, taking magnesium supplements is going to be crucial. If you have kidney disease, you may need to be more careful, so check with your doctor first. Oral magnesium comes in many forms. The type of magnesium that you’ll find most commonly at the drug store is magnesium oxide. This form of magnesium is the least expensive. Clinical studies have shown, however, that only 4% of magnesium oxide is actually absorbed by the body – a very unimpressive amount. Nevertheless, studies using magnesium oxide have shown benefit. Magnesium oxide, although inexpensive, has a tendency to cause diarrhea more than any other form of oral magnesium, so I do not usually recommend it for my chronic pain patients unless they also suffer from constipation. I recommend magnesium amino acid chelates such as magnesium glycinate or taurate. They are harder to find in drug stores but are available online, at the health food store or at a practitioner’s office.
One day, one of my skating coaches woke up with a terrible crick in her neck. She could barely move or turn her head without excruciating pain. In addition to LifeWave patches, I recommended transdermal magnesium oil, a topical form of magnesium you can put right on the skin. She couldn’t believe the difference in how she felt. Now, she is a big fan of transdermal magnesium and tells everyone to use it. She even uses it on her children’s growing pains and she says it works like a charm. In the past, whenever I would recommend magnesium to my chronic pain patients, approximately half of them could not tolerate the oral form because it would cause diarrhea. Thanks to the research of Norm Shealy, MD on transdermal magnesium, I can now recommend a better-absorbed form of magnesium for chronic pain patients.
Chances are that you probably have never heard of magnesium lotion or magnesium oil. Because magnesium can cause diarrhea in some people, even if they are deficient in it, magnesium that can be absorbed through the skin has distinct advantages. In healing chronic pain, magnesium oil or lotion can be applied directly on the sites of pain, delivering the magnesium right to the painful muscle or joint without having to go through the digestive process. The magnesium oil that I use is magnesium chloride from a pristine seawater source called Zechstein. It is devoid of impurities and toxins, so I feel very comfortable recommending it to patients.
Author Mark Sircus, O.M.D, authored the book, Transdermal Magnesium, which was thoroughly eye-opening for me. In the book, he cites the many advantages of using transdermal magnesium, namely the ability to deliver magnesium ions directly into circulation via the skin. According to Dr. Sircus, oral forms of magnesium are beneficial as well, but require energy and enough chloride in the body for proper digestion and assimilation. Magnesium chloride bath salts used in a warm bath is an extremely relaxing and enjoyable experience. Epsom salts are a form of magnesium called magnesium sulfate. This form of magnesium can also be beneficial but it doesn’t penetrate into the tissues as well as magnesium chloride.
Magnesium Dosing
For people experiencing chronic pain, especially if they have muscular pain or spasms, I’ll recommend both transdermal magnesium as well as oral magnesium (if tolerated). Magnesium oil can feel stingy or itchy when you first use it so you may need to dilute it 50% with distilled water. Since magnesium relaxes the blood vessels, you’ll often notice a warming sensation when you use it in areas of pain. I love this feeling.
Sometimes in the winter, I’ll apply some magnesium oil or lotion to damp skin and then stand in front of the fireplace and use the heat to improve the penetration of the magnesium. Although its texture feels like oil, magnesium oil is just magnesium chloride in water. I usually tell my patients to start applying the oil to areas of pain once a day at first and then slowly work up to spraying it all over the body, sparing sensitive areas such as the nipples and genitals.
Dr. Carolyn Dean, author of Magnesium Miracle, recommends approximately 600 mg of transdermal magnesium. The Ancient Minerals brand of magnesium oil, which I exclusively use, contains 560 mg of elemental magnesium per teaspoon. Eight sprays equal approximately 100 mg of elemental magnesium or approximately 12.5 mg per spray. So if you spray eight sprays on each leg and arm, you’re getting approximately 400 mg of elemental magnesium. If you add another eight sprays to the front and back of your torso, you’d get another 200 mg of elemental magnesium for a total of 600 mg. Transdermal magnesium takes about 30 minutes to penetrate the skin fully, so if it feels too itchy, you can always wash it off after that time.
Magnesium oil can sometimes make the skin feel dry during the winter months. The magnesium chloride is hygroscopic, meaning that it draws water to itself. Instead of using the oil, I will often use Ancient Minerals magnesium lotion instead. It does not contain methylparaben or other toxins that might be absorbed into the skin. The lotion isn’t as potent as the oil, but it is generally well tolerated by most people, even children. One teaspoon contains approximately 185 mg of elemental magnesium which means that approximately 3 ¼ teaspoons per day on the skin should be adequate to give you 600 mg of elemental magnesium. The lotion isn’t greasy at all and unlike the oil, doesn’t feel as stingy or itchy. I will often use the lotion right after a hot shower in the morning and then apply magnesium oil to key areas in the evening before bed. If you’re using a grounding bed sheet, however, you may wish to wash off the lotion before you go to bed. I don’t bother washing off the oil because it isn’t really oil and shouldn’t disturb the conductivity of the grounding sheet. In fact, since it is actually made of sea water, it should be conductive.
The magnesium bath flakes are great for children and adults who love taking baths. Approximately one cup of Ancient Minerals bath flakes contains 15 grams (1500 mg) of elemental magnesium. Depending on the size of your tub, it is recommended to put between 1 to 3 cups (200 to 700 mL) of the bath flakes into warm water at approximately 108 degrees Fahrenheit (42 degrees Celcius). For more intense applications, you can put up to 8 pounds (3.6 kg) of magnesium bath flakes. I’ll often use between 3 and 6 cups (700 to 1400 mL) in my large six foot soaking tub.
Since most people healing chronic pain require much greater amounts of magnesium to recover past losses, I’ll often recommend taking oral magnesium in the form of magnesium glycinate or another magnesium amino acid chelate. I use a simple muscle test in the office to see what their ideal dose should be. Generally it is between 200 to 800 mg of magnesium per day in divided doses. Start with one capsule or tablet and then work your way up. If your bowels get too loose, then reduce the dose. If you have more frequent bowel movements, but they remain formed (log-like), then you don’t have to change your dose.
The ideal number of daily bowel movements is about three to four a day – once in the morning and then after every meal. For many people this many bowel movements is a rarity. Most of my patients with chronic pain have only one daily bowel movement, and many are constipated. By taking magnesium orally, you not only help boost magnesium levels, you can relieve chronic constipation. When my chronic pain patients have healthier bowel function, they not only feel less pain, they often lose unwanted weight as well.
Dr. Dean recommends taking magnesium first thing in the morning and just before bed and somewhere late afternoon if you take a third dose because it is when we are most deficient. Most people feel relaxed when they take magnesium. Have a magnesium bath before bed and it might help you sleep. Rarely, and sometimes this happens to me, it can energize you, so you’ll have to experiment to see what dosing time works best for you.
By using magnesium oil or lotion on painful areas and taking oral magnesium, you may notice an improvement in how your joints and muscles feel as soon as 48 hours. For some people who are severely deficient, it may take longer, but don’t give up. It won’t hurt you and will likely help you in the long run by energizing you, relaxing your muscles, improving sleep, and reducing stress. Here’s an extra bonus. If you’re using LifeWave patches, they will work even better when you have adequate amounts of magnesium in your body.
Chapter Summary
Magnesium can help heal chronic pain by relaxing muscles, decreasing stress, increasing blood flow and improving energy and sleep
Without adequate magnesium, the body cannot detoxify efficiently; toxins contribute to chronic pain
Magnesium deficiency is common and is due to dietary factors, stress and modern food production and processing
Magnesium deficiency is difficult to diagnose using traditional blood tests and should be suspected if risk factors are present
More accurate magnesium tests are now available through specialized labs, but they are not usually covered by insurance. Also they are not widely available
Magnesium lotion or oil can be applied directly to painful areas to increase circulation and relax tense muscles
Magnesium supplementation, oral or transdermal, will help LifeWave patches work better to relieve pain and inflammation