Friday, February 19, 2010
Capsules vs. Tablets for magnesium. . . It does make a difference
It seems that the type of magnesium supplement is important as far as how effective it will be. At least this is true for me. I had started out and had been successful using capsules. That is the ones that are a clear material that are packed with powdered form of the ingredients. A couple of days ago, I tried a tablet (hard packed) that also included calcium and vitamin D. After a day of that, I was starting to slide a bit back into tremor and shakiness. I was also getting a bit tense and feeling a bit over taxed again. I switched back to the original capsule form and I have improved again. My guess is that the capsule format is quicker to load into your system because the capsule material dissolves quicker than the tablet. I suspect the tablet was not dissolving until it had passed beyond. . .
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Hello,
ReplyDeleteMy name is Marc and I was searching the Internet for info on Parsonage Turner Syndrome and saw this blog. Do you have "winging scapula" as part of this? I do. I went to an Orthopaedic doctor first, he sent me to a neurologist, had the MRI, EMG, etc and he says best guess is Parsonage Turner Syndrome is what I have. I had terrible pain for 2-3 days, followed slowly by loss of strength and motion of my shoulder. There was no trauma that started this (at least not a kind I noticed). My doctor is not high on surgery, which I guess is good, but just wanting to hear from someone else who also has this PTS diagnosis. For me, this all started about 3 months ago and improvment is verrrryy slow, but I do exercise the shoulder area: some strength and also range of motion.
Hi Marc
ReplyDeleteYes, it sounds like PTS to me. There is a type of Muscular Dystrophy that also causes winging, but the Neurologist should have been able to rule that out to get to PTS.
Yes, I have winging of both scapulas actually, although the right one is worse- and it takes a trained eye to see it on my left. I can tell that my left side is not normal, although it feels normal compared to my right. Early on entries in the blog tell how it started for me and the progression over the years. My focus in the later entries has gotten more into the weakness I still have and how I am fighting that to regain some stability in my shoulders.
This started for me in 2000 with a loss to my right hand- suddenly I could not pick up small items. I had pain in my shoulder and eventually my forearm, followed by loss of hand dexterity and partial paralysis of my index finger and thumb. That had started to improve in 2006 but I still had right arm weakness. In 2006, I had a return of right shoulder pain, leaving my right arm fairly useless for a few days. Strength did return for a few months, and I was able to regain range of motion on the right arm. But, then my strength dropped away within a two week or so period. Initially after my arm got a bit better, I started with pushups and could do 20 or so. Two weeks later, I could not do any at all.
The weakness persisted for the next couple of years. I would try every day or two, and if I could do any, it was with severe shaking- and the most I could ever do was 10-15 at a 45 degree angle against my desk for example, so this was not even real on the ground pushups. Then out of the blue, my strength returned for a week or two- And then it went away again. I am not 100% sure my weakness at this point is related to PTS entirely. It may be, but I have not seen any mention of weakness of this duration or muscle tremor on any PTS related sites or studies. I have found that magnesium really helps the muscle weakness though, and the tremors and shakes are gone as long as I use it.
My doctors have no clues as far as the continued weakness for my case. At first they said I was not exercising enough and when I said how much I was trying to exercise they said I was exercising too much. Bottom line is that with the daily magnesium supplements, I have been able to go from a low of 5-7 pushups last Christmas (just two months ago) to a personal high for me of 35 a day. And also around Christmas I was barely doing 10 sit-ups. The first time I tried recently to do them again, I did 20. Now I am doing 35 of them also.
I have four years of feeling weak to gain back. Not to imply you will also have this long a period- but I feel now like I have lost time- I need to get stronger and get my shoulders as stable as I can in case the PTS returns again.
Thanks for your comments
Richard
Hi Richard,
ReplyDeleteI hope you're able to continue improvement. One of the difficult aspects is not having clear answers to what's going on. I'll continue reading your blog from time to time. Good luck to you.
Marc