How much is too much exercise?

Hey, that is not the real question at all. The question is what happened to the magnesium that I used to get in my diet without the supplements? I have been doing at least 25 pushups daily, and usually with other upper body exercises to try to regain the arm strength I had a few years ago and had lost. I would almost bet money that if I stopped the magnesium supplements, I would go back to being a shaking mess. I am not going to do it. First, no one would pay me anything when I won the bet. And I feel so much better I do not want to stop it just to prove what I already know.

How does this relate to NA? Well, while I had the severe weakness, I could not effectively exercise. Thinking weakness was related to NA made me think the NA is more involved than any website suggests- or more involved than any doctors I had seen who knew NA at all- which is rare. I was convinced the NA was worse than anyone knew, or that I had some other disease that could be life threatening. Maybe that later thing is still true- but that could happen at any time. Wasting away getting weaker was just the start of what could have been the start down the proverbial slippery slope. The weaker I got, the sicker I thought I must be. The sicker I thought I was, the less I tried to do, and the weaker I became. This is all why I jumped into a round of new doctor visits towards the end of last year. Someone had to see what was happening, or I doubted I would be around much longer. Or if I was here, my quality of life would be close to zero.

That sounds pretty extreme, but it was feeling like I was in a pretty rapid slide towards the end of last year. My tremor was worsening. My shakes were worse. I felt weaker doing everyday things. When I felt good exercising one day, I would feel like crap the next day and not be able to do anything. I am convinced that if I had not found that page suggesting magnesium supplements could increase muscle response, I would be in pretty bad shape at this point.

And I owe it all to my doctors. No, actually they did not cure me of anything. But, they were steadfast in suggesting that there really was nothing wrong with me. They proved it. It would have been nice if they could have been better equipped to be able to suggest other things that may have helped, but they are pretty busy with other people who may be sicker than I am. I just needed to slide a bit deeper and maybe they would have taken me more seriously. It is like on House. . . You may want to have a doctor who would take all that time with you and finally cure you in 60 minutes on Mondays at 9 PM. But, I have also noticed that he rarely is right the first few times, and he pretty much has to kill a patient at times to discover what really is wrong with them.

My advice to anyone who is up against a wall with doctors is to not give up. And if the doctors have given up on you, keep looking on your own. There is a wealth of information out here. It might take you what feels like forever to wade through some of it- but the answer you need may be on that next page you look at. But use caution too. There is also a lot of crap out there that is useless. And if you find an answer, your doctor may feel threatened if you suggest it was found on the internet. Get better at using search engines. Refine your searches and look at as many links as you can. If you find something promising, refine your search to include that. You might find your own key that will unlock your answer- or give you something else to mention to your doctor the next time he can spare ten minutes of an hour appointment to talk to you. I now have two things to ask about next time. First, why does magnesium make me better? And is it possible the lack of magnesium in my diet could explain why I got glaucoma? It is funny that the last time I saw my regular doctor; he even suggested to me that it all might have to do with something in my diet. It is funny because if I am right, it turned out to be a lack of something in my diet.

Link to Glaucoma found?

Well, this is not a direct link from HNA/NA to glaucoma, but there does seem to be at least an indirect link between low magnesium and glaucoma. If one aspect of low magnesium leads to blocking of glutamate receptors, which are excitatory neurotransmitters of the central nervous system. It appears that this can be linked to many diseases. The list includes ALS, Huntington’s, MS, Parkinson’s and others. (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glutamate_receptor)

On the list is glaucoma, a disease I know I now have, and those others I could have but would rather think I do not. I used to think it was a coincidence that I was diagnosed with glaucoma at around the same time my muscles got so weak. I thought it was from HNA/NA- but now I think this is also from low magnesium- or whatever caused that.

It has to be the Magnesium- but why?

I continue to take magnesium supplements at 600 mg a day, and I am improving as far as my strength goes. And I have had no return of the tremor that had impacted me for the last few years. I have not had any anti-tremor medication. Just now I finished 25 pushups. I did 25 yesterday, and 20 the day before that. All in all my muscle function feels about normal. I have no shakes doing exertion and no lasting muscle fatigue when finished. I have to wonder why this happened. No doctor is interested in pursuing it, and I am about out of insurance to pay anyone. Is this related to NA or HNA?

I know that NA/HNA causes weakness, but is this the type of weakness it causes? If so, why does magnesium help? Maybe something I regularly eat is lacking magnesium it used to have, or something else I eat causes that magnesium to go away somehow? It can’t just be an absorption issue, or the pill supplement would not help either. It has to be a lack of magnesium in my diet.

Magnesium Deficiency re-visited

So- I have been thinking about my tremors and twitches and weakness, etc. especially since my tremors and twitches had gone away. I had failed to mention that during the time they went away, I had increased my intake of Magnesium. A few days ago, my magnesium supplement ran out. This morning I noticed a return of the twitches, and I felt wrong inside. Now I see that it may be that the magnesium was helping. Here is a bit from the web.

Magnesium deficiency from Wikipedia See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypomagnesemia Miss-spellings are from Wikipedia.
Clinical features

“Deficiency of magnesium causes weakness, muscle cramps, cardiac arrhythmia, increased irritability of the nervous system with tremors, athetosis, jerking, nystagmus and an extensorplantar reflex. In addition, there may be confusion, disorientation, hallucinations, depression, epileptic fits, hypertension, tachycardia and tetany.”

From that list, I have my share of nystigmus, weakness, tremors, jerking- which I am taking to mean twitches, but who knows for sure? Depression also fits if sleep is disrupted as in my case- I had thought the twitches disrupted my sleep, but maybe it is just a coincidence that I did not sleep well last night, and noticed a return of the twitches. This page it also talks about magnesium deficiency blocking release of acetylcholine, which is the neurotransmitter that is also associated with Myasthenia Gravis.

“The neurological effects are:
 reducing electrical excitation
 blocking release of acetylcholine
 blocking N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) glutamate receptors, an excitatory neurotransmitter of the central nervous system.


Well, I went right down to the store and got more Magnesium supplements. I feel calmer already.

And about those tremors- What tremors? ? ? ?

Man, I sound bitter in my last post. .. .

Well,if any of you have gone through having something that is a bit out of the ordinary as far as a diagnosis goes, you can no doubt understand why. I do not want to be that bitter. If I go back to my doctor again, it will be to do only the simple things any doctor has experience with. He is not an ‘out of the box’ type thinker, and that is what is required here. Or, maybe he would be a better doctor if he had more time. Well, I gotta scoot.

Remember I was recently diagnosed with essential tremors? Of course, I had known I had them but no one would ever take the time to ask me to show them what I did that made me notice them. At least my regular doctor was good for that much. The thing is, they seem to be gone.

Essential tremors do not just go away, or do they? I can’t find any site that suggests they go away without any reason anyway, and most just say it is something you have to live with. I know, I see the ads pop up on this site too, and some of them are about essential tremor cure. I do not want to dissuade anyone from clicking on an ad here but also do not want to seem that I endorse any that show here. I have the ads to pop in for key words in my blog- so they are what they are. My tremors went away totally, with no changes to anything I was doing, or not doing.

I woke up a few days ago without the normal felling of twitches and tremors that still had been there in the mornings when the medication was its weakest. I decided to try a day without the medication- and then another, and another. My hands are steady. I am not twitching. I do not get it. Maybe this was not really essential tremor, but something else that just mimics the symptoms? Who knows? I will ask the next doctor I see whenever that happens.

I am done

At least, as far as my personal Doctor goes, I have had it. He has shown before that he is not quite up on NA, and evidently he is not able to get into it enough to deal with a patient who has it. My problems are all due to lack of exercise. . .

But of course it is never as simple as that. My lack of exercise, even though I have exercised consistently all through this time, is the reason I am weak. And my exercising is the reason I am weak. There is no residual weakness from the NA because of course as we all know, everyone recovers from it within a few years, and I am no exception. The EMG tests I just had prove that. I have had a complete recovery. These guys have been doing these tests for a long time, and they know how to read the results. OK then. But, as I pointed out, I had my last EMG test right after the winging started in my scapula, and that guy also concluded that I had no nerve related trouble. What? No answer for that one Dr know-it-all?

And what about the other symptoms I have brought up to you recently that may not be related to NA? They were conveniently forgotten since the Neurologist found no reason for them. So, I guess I made all of that up. And if I made that up, I must have made the rest of it up too, so we will just not talk about that. Oh, and by the way, I have to scoot.

No. Not me, the Doctor. HE had to scoot. My appointment was for 11:30 am. I was in the exam room by 12:20. I had my vitals taken by 12:35. I think he came in at 12:40 or maybe a few minutes later. I was in my car and pulling out of the lot by 1:00. HE had to scoot. Where was my appointment? Oh, I guess I was waiting all through it, and beyond. No wonder he had no time to talk to me.

Sure, he was running behind. I am happy that by cutting my visit so short, I helped get him back on schedule. I do know one thing. The person he had to scoot to wasn’t in the waiting room yet when I got the call to go back to my exam room. It is nice to be taken so seriously by the person you have entrusted your life to.

So, as I said. . . I am done. No one will take me seriously. No one gets NA, or HNA. And I guess aside from the essential tremor that he actually did see, I must only think I have the rest of it. There is no reason for the rest of it though. So, I must be making it up about my eyes and the other weakness being anything to be concerned about. You see, it just does not feel right for me to be this way. Maybe it is just not far enough evolved yet to be on their radar. They did not see the essential tremor when I first felt it. Maybe this is like that, and eventually it will be enough that any idiot doctor can tell something is not right. Or maybe I am lazy.

All I know is that I am done doing this blog for now. I have nothing new to share on anything that is pertinent to anyone with NA. And my complaining about doctors is not productive for you or for me either.

Say hello once in a while. I am still here, just taking a break from writing for a while.

From pushups to tingles. . .

Well, if you are following this in any way, I had worked my pushup count back up to 20 very slowly, sort of taking my neurologist’s suggestion to exercise but do not overdo it. It still kills me that they think I am weak from not trying to exercise. Anyway, I had gotten to 20 about the time I had seen him last time- whey he told me I should be trying to exercise. A day or so later, I tried and could only do 15. I think those who have been here may already know where I am going. A few days later I tried, and could do 8 or so. Today, I could barely do 5. There you have my attempt at exercising slowly to build up my muscle mass. Yep. Right.

So, the tingles of last week are gone too. They only lasted that one day, and however active that was it turned out to be just a fluke in the overall scheme of things. Or at least, if it did mean anything, what it meant has not become clear yet. I have no improvement of movement or strength. And, I have no decrease of movement.

It goes on. If I can get my last couple of months of insurance straightened out by tomorrow, I have another appointment with my regular doctor to discuss the findings of the Neurologist. The end of next month, this insurance goes away, and I will have to figure out a new way to pay.