Hi again to anyone
that sees these posts.
I have been absent.
Other things take precedence, at times. One thing I have talked about in the
past is that magnesium has helped me, at least during and right after the
attacks. It, for me anyway, helped to tone down the twitches and leg jerks that
I had. I am going to suggest now that you watch out about taking it long term.
Do breaks from it from time to time, to see if it is still helping or like I
think happened to me, started to cause me more harm than good.
I have talked about
my ongoing weakness. Some HNA sufferers report ongoing weakness and breathing difficulties.
I had all of that. I never even thought about it at a certain point. It had
become part of who I was. The weak guy over there who sits around while
everyone else moves on with their lives. That was me. Maybe you are that person
too. Or maybe you know someone like that.
Since my attack, I
have taken magnesium religiously. I have taken my own advice from time to time,
and have stopped it for a week or two, until I would start to feel those
familiar twitches start up again. Or I might feel tightness in general as my muscles
tensed up. Magnesium is good to ease those things. It made them go away for me. And I could never stop taking it for long. It did seem to help. But, I had no idea that it also could be adding to my weakness even at the dose I
was taking. I had no clue until the most recent time that I stopped.
It has been about a
week now since I stopped my morning magnesium pill. And I feel so much better
now. I fell less shaky in just doing everyday tasks. My breathing has improved.
A couple of days ago, I tried to do some pushups. And I was amazed that on the first
try, I could do 10.
Those 10 pushups were
a bit shaky, but I was amazed that it was 7 more than I had been able to do for
the longest time. So a half hour later, I tried again and did 20 with no shakiness. A half hour
later I tried again and did 20 more. The next morning I did 15 and a bit later
did 25 more. And now, for the first time in a very long time, the muscles in my
arms are actually sore from that exertion. It feels amazing. I have to admit, I
thought my doing any sort of exercise ever again, was a pipe dream. I felt like
I was aging in an accelerated way with this disease to blame. And now I feel
like I have part of my life back. Maybe because that magnesium is getting out
of my system.
I know it has its
place. I may use it again if I am in an attack. But, I feel like I will never
just blindly take it just because I think it has helped in the past. After a while, at least in my experience,
that help goes sideways and becomes more of a hindrance.
So, take it but watch
out for possible problems of long term use. It might make you feel better at
first, but it also can have opposite impacts in the longer run.
And maybe, it is all
a coincidence and at some point my return of strength will go away, magnesium
or not. I will let you know. .
