Avoid long term magnesium use- Push-ups now up to 40?

For those interested in my magnesium use, it would probably be best to warn you to keep it at a minimum, ongoing, or stop it all together as soon as you can do so.

In fact, I had stopped my magnesium supplements from time to time, only to restart when I felt suddenly worse overall. Now, I have no plans to ever use it again.

My primary doctor agrees that anyone with a neuromuscular disorder should limit use of magnesium or any other long term muscle relaxer. There is, as it turns out, a possible long term use detriment.

My own update as far as strength is this: Last night, and again earlier today, I did 40 pushups.

Yep. That is still a bit hard for me to believe, since at the height of my magnesium use, I almost never did more than 5 at any one time, and 5 was a hard stretch.  
 
Now, the 40th one is a hard stretch. But it is 40!!!! When did I ever do 40 push-ups in my life? Never, that I can remember. So much for my friends suggesting that I was unable to do push-ups because “We are just getting too old. Face it”.

Four months in, and still going strong- minus the magnesium

I still have been doing better- now four months after stopping the magnesium supplements. It is true they helped in the initial time after my attacks, but ongoing, they only made me worse.

Push-ups have remained in the 15-20 range, so my overall strength is still limited to what is available with this disease. But, I feel much healthier without that supplement.

Two months in- still going stronger

Two months in- still going stronger

I am still doing better after just short of two months since stopping the magnesium.

My breathing is much improved, especially at night. My general strength is improved.

Pushups are generally averaging around 15-20, with 25 to 30 on rare occasions. I am not sure why this discrepancy in amounts exists. It could be due to the time if day I attempt the pushups. I still take a multiple vitamin daily that has a highly absorbable type of magnesium. And I have noticed that if I take a day or two of my old magnesium supplement, my pushup total and breathing suffer.

This link to magnesium impacting my strength and breathing is troubling. It must mean something, but I am not the one to guess what. 

Pushups return, and did magnesium cause weakness?

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.    .  

Good magnesium supplement article on Costco Magazine (of all places)

Here is a good article on magnesium supplements and benefits to the body of magnesium (many of which I have mentioned elsewhere). Costco Connection for Sept. 2013 is on-line, or you may have been mailed one by snail mail if you are a Costco member.

Of all sources listed for magnesium supplements, the one I used most recently is magnesium Glycinate. Another good one they say particularly for neurological issues would be magnesium L-threonate.  The Glycinate form can be had at health food or natural food stores that have supplements.  I have not seen the L-threonate form to my knowledge. I will have to explore a bit more.  For sure, I doubt Costco has anything but the most common form (magnesium oxide) which as I have said earlier on in this blog, can cause laxative effect which is the last thing you want if you are already deficient in minerals of any kind.

Edited and updated. . .  Costco, as I thought, only has magnesium oxide.  My favorite health food store in town where I had purchased magnesium glycinate in the past, has never heard of magnesium L-threonate. And even on-line, there is not a lot of information except from sellers of supplements.  With that in mind, since I am low on my supply anyway, I have ordered the L-threonate version from Amazon.  I will let you know how it goes.

Updated- Magnesium L-threonate may be good, but it is not cheap.  And it takes tree pills to reach a single serving size so it goes much faster than the single serving pills I can get of the Glycinate formula. I vote for Glycinate if you need a magnesium supplement.

Magnesium supplements or real food?

I have talked about using a magnesium supplement in prior posts. Every once in a while I will stop taking it to get a reality check of a sort. There is no sense in spending tons of money for a supplement if real world eating is working to supply the missing magnesium.   So, I was surprised recently when after stopping the supplemental magnesium, I felt fine after a week or so.  What is different?  Getting back to basics, I started eating more peanut butter almost daily.  This is not a lot as it turns out.  Usually it amounts to a couple of tablespoons of pretty good quality (not Jiff for example) peanut butter- the kind that is just ground peanuts a bit of salt, etc that you have to mix to get the oil blended back in.  It turns out; peanuts have a high amount of magnesium.  Cashews also work, and have more magnesium, and a bit better than that would be almonds.  If you prefer real food to supplements, it is an easy add and probably cheaper in the long run.  

Timolol and strength update

Well, it has been a bit more than a week since I have stopped the beta blocker eye drops, aka Timolol. The theory is that they may have either caused or exacerbated my tremor and muscle weakness. The timing suggests at least a probable cause enough to be suspicious.

Initially, I felt that my fine motor control was much improved, and the few twitches I have had ongoing appeared to have stopped.

But then I had to go and spoil it all by attempting to do a bit of yard work today.

Trying to lift things is still a problem. But, overall my lower back and upper legs felt much stronger than they have in previous similar outside work. My hands, particularly on the left, still tremor after any exertion. At one point I had my left hand resting on a board trying to hold it steady, and it was shaking quite a lot. I just tried to work through it.

During the work period, I had a few instances of just not knowing how to proceed. I am not good at building things anyway, but this was a fairly simple thing to attempt. I am not sure why things like this seem to happen. I guess there was a symptom for confusion listed in the Timolol. And I also know that can happen for magnesium deficiency. It has got to be the Timolol unless there is still something else at work here other than NA and its associated weirdness.

I got to a point, I just had to quit though. It was not quite done, but I was at a point that going on would have been prone to my making mistakes, and some of those could be dangerous when weakness takes over while using power tools. My shoulders were done. I could feel my scapulas trying to hold my shoulders stable- and it hurt a bit. Now I have trouble reaching my arms out away from my body. I may have over done things.

But I also just did 30 push-ups with only minor shaking towards the end.

Updated Magnesium withdrawal update

First, I had noticed a bit of tension in my arms and shoulders, which seemed to add to my jittery nature a bit. Then I realized my temper had shorthand down a bit. I should warn those around me prior to experimentation with changing magnesium dosage or stopping it completely. Then it was shortness of breath.

Breathing is important after all, and if you already suffer from NA, you are sensitive (or I am anyway) to any breathing changes. Why? If you do not already know, NA can impact the cervical plexus in some instances. The cervical plexus is the place where the phrenic nerves originate and then travel down to the diaphragm. If your phrenic nerves are involved in a NA attack, you can have loss of some diaphragm function. Now, it could be that I already have some losses, and taking the magnesium away just made my function worse than normal. Or it could be a coincidence that for the few days I was off magnesium, I had shortness of breath to the point it disrupted my sleep. The more this goes on, the less I believe in coincidences.

So, I started the magnesium again, and my breathing was back to normal. Well, I still had to take a pronounced deep breath once in a while, but with the magnesium, I could do this. Without it, I was gasping at times.

Magnesium deprivation experiment

Since my strength has dropped off again to similar levels as a few years ago when I could only do a few pushups at a time, I decided to stop the magnesium supplements just to see what impact if any, it is really having on my overall condition.

This is the start of the second day without the supplements. I really do feel a difference at least as far as tremor goes. I notice it in both arms and both hands, although the left side seems to manifest this a bit more than in the right side. I feel as if the base level of static tension has increased in both arms. Movement in general is impacted. Although I am not sure anyone else can see this yet, I feel a bit more wobbly even walking. I have not noticed any increase in the random twitches I had earlier on. The muscle shaking of before has also returned, but that had started when my strength dropped off- I had noticed this when trying to do pushups recently.

Conclusions so far- My strength return of before must not really have had anything to do with magnesium since it dropped off prior to my stopping the magnesium. It must have just been a coincidence that my strength returned at a time I had started taking the supplement. Tremor definitely is related to magnesium intake for me since this has increased noticeably. It is too soon to say how the twitches will be impacted.

Neuralgic Amyotrophy - Where I am now

Just a short update- I am about as stable as I guess I am going to get for now.

Whether the weakness I on occasion experience is related to PTS/NA or not, magnesium (chelated) does help.

Whether the twitches and tremor I feel is related to PTS or not, magnesium helps keep that bearable also with no further drugs (i.e. Propranolol).

My weakness is stable at this point. I dropped in my pushups count from the 30’s to around 20 at this point. More magnesium may help get more strength, but I have to limit it at some point. I am not made of money and if I up it too much, I am sure the chelated effect will be overcome and I will cause more digestive problems than it is worth. My shoulders are too weak to pick up anything heavy. Of course, my lower back being as it is now does not help. Oh, and my upper thighs- it is all related to being able to bend and lift. . .

Doctors I know do not want to pursue my case. Hell, Doctors I do not know do not want to pursue it. I recently contacted a doctor here who I had been told was the only doctor in my area to test for and treat Lyme disease. I tried to get on with him as a new patient, and was told he was not interested in taking any patients for Lyme disease. I never told them I had it- just mentioned I had some similar symptoms but did not know what I had. I may have said this before, but I think there are too many doctors who just want to keep it all simple. Insurance companies do not want to take on “unknowns”, and doctors are really no different. I think that is one reason my most recent doctor visits ended as they did. Whoops- I did not find anything concrete that I can either throw pills at or operate on and cut out of you. That being the case, insurance will not pay for a series of tests that cannot be justified. Therefore, I will give you a medication to control the obvious physical symptom without worrying it is caused by anything more severe- nice and neat. It looks good in your chart to be neat. And your insurance will pay me for it.

I guess in order to find out more about the causes of these other possibly unrelated symptoms (unrelated to PTS?) I will have to be in worse shape. I guess in the TV show House, you have to be almost killed by incorrect treatments to find the correct diagnosis. In most real life situations, you just have to keep records of how symptoms progressed over time so when you are near death’s door you can tell the doctors who try to treat you how this all started. And they will no doubt say, “oh, if we had only caught that sooner. . . “

Lyme disease and magnesium deficiency

Long ago, a friend suggested that I may have been exposed to Lyme disease, and maybe that was why I had the symptoms I have. Well, I went to a specialist and filled out their screening tests information, and they did not find any suggestion of Lyme disease in my responses. But, there is a bit of evidence to support a link between Lyme disease and magnesium deficiency. I Googled “Lyme disease magnesium” and came up with this site among many others.

http://www.lymebook.com/lyme-disease-diet-and-supplements-vitamin-a-b-c-magnesium

From the site related to magnesium and Lyme disease:

” Magnesium: Both Lyme and Bartonella significantly deplete the body’s supply of magnesium. Magnesium is one of the most important mineral nutrients necessary for good health, and also one of the minerals that Americans in general are most commonly deficient in. The recommended daily intake of magnesium for healthy people is 400 mg per day, but the sad reality is that the average American gets about half that amount per day. The best nutritional sources include green foods, especially collards and chard (magnesium is to chlorophyll what iron is to hemoglobin), orange-colored foods, nuts, chocolate, figs, apricots, coconut, bran, oats, beans, and legumes.

Most widely known for its ability to support the health of the bones, heart, skeletal muscles, and teeth, magnesium also plays essential roles in the maintenance and repair of all body cells, energy production, hormone regulation, nerve transmission, and the metabolism of proteins and nucleic acids. It also helps to reverse muscular tension and is involved in the functioning of literally hundreds of the body’s enzymatic reactions. A lack of magnesium can also contribute to immune system dysfunction, depression, fatigue, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, gastrointestinal problems, irregular heartbeat, memory problems, mood swings, muscle spasms and twitching, and motor skill problems.

Many chronic symptoms of Lyme/TBDs are related to magnesium deficiency, and the correction of that deficiency can be very effective in relieving those symptoms. For that reason, I routinely test nearly all patients with chronic Lyme symptoms for magnesium deficiency. The problem with blood testing is that the magnesium blood test should be done on the red bloods cells and not the serum. This is because magnesium exists primarily inside of cells (intracellular, as in red blood cells), and deficiency will not be detected in fluid outside of the cells (extracellular, as in serum or plasma) until a very profound deficiency exists. If you can afford it, the best, and also most expensive, test is the blood “ionized” magnesium (performed by most large commercial labs). “

When does a little magnesium lead to more?

I had been trying to use less magnesium, thinking maybe I had been taking too much of the chelated form. And I had been slowly getting worse. My pushup count was dropping to around 10 or fewer. My back was very shaky again.

Today, I doubled the dosage of the chelated magnesium, and started to feel a bit better fairly quickly. So, maybe my assumptions about increased absorption of chelated magnesium should not have lead to a conclusion that a lesser dose was needed. If I take two, I feel better and my pushup count is back up to 20.

When is a little magnesium too much magnesium?

Well, I am confused about this myself.

I had started off with regular magnesium and it had helped me keep the tremor and shaking under control quite a bit initially. Then it seemed like I hit a time where it was not helping. I switched to chelated magnesium and that seemed to help again. It may be that I did not really need to go to the chelated form after all. Maybe my body was just trying to tell me it needed a rest from the magnesium. I say this because a few days ago, I again started to shake and have tremors even while taking the magnesium. What the? This time I did the one thing I had not tried the first time. I stopped taking magnesium.

The first day without the magnesium supplement, the shakes diminished. And the bit of tremor I had begun to feel also went away. And the twitching (mainly felt in my fingers this time) also diminished. It has now been three days and the initial lack of symptoms has been maintained. And my strength is about the same- meaning good for this weird period of my life, but not what it was when I was way younger. Why is this? Why is the addition of magnesium a good thing and then it becomes a bad thing? This is when it would be nice to be my own doctor so I could explain the intricacies of magnesium absorption and what needs to happen to keep it balanced.

Maybe it all was a coincidence and magnesium never did help me at all. Maybe I got better on my own and it just happened that I had started taking magnesium at that time. And maybe it was coincidental that low magnesium could have accounted for a majority of the symptoms I had been having. That does seem like a bit of a stretch.

Maybe the level of magnesium in my normal daily food has increased, and the supplemental magnesium just pushed me over the edge to the point it was becoming a detriment. Too much magnesium can also cause weakness and other symptoms that I was trying to get rid of. It is complicated and I guess that is why doctors get the big bucks. Not that my doctors ever suggested magnesium could help or hurt. At the dosage I was taking, it should not have been a problem.

I go back to Myasthenia Gravis (MG). One thing that comes up on websites dealing with MG is that if you have Myasthenia Gravis you should not take magnesium supplements because the extra magnesium can make you weaker than you are already. I know that MG tends to cycle as other immune diseases can, so it may be that when MG is in its full swing, you may be more sensitive to the impact of magnesium. And when the MG has abated a bit, magnesium could help in the lessening of other symptoms.

What do I know?

Added 05/17/2010

I had been trying to use less magnesium, thinking maybe I had been taking too much of the chelated form. And I had been slowly getting worse. My pushup count was dropping to around 10 or fewer. My back was very shaky again.

Today, I doubled the dosage of the chelated magnesium, and started to feel a bit better fairly quickly. So, maybe my assumptions about increased absorption of chelated magnesium should not have lead to a conclusion that a lesser dose was needed. If I take two, I feel better and my pushup count is back up to 20.

More on Chelated Magnesium

Here is just a bit more about magnesium and the differences between chelated and regular.

For the regular non-chelated form, I was taking two capsules a day to get to the 600 mg total dosage they recommend. If I take that amount and get a typical absorption rate of 10% for the non-chelated magnesium, I end up with a total absorption of 60 mg and a wasted amount of 540 mg left to cause havoc with my lower digestive tract.

For the chelated form I now have, it has a total of 150 mg of elemental magnesium per capsule. Right off you might think it is a bad idea since you would have to take four to get to 600 mg. But wait. If your typical absorption rate is 40% for the chelated form, you can get by with taking only one capsule to get to that 60 mg dosage. That leaves you with only 90 mg of wasted magnesium in your digestive system. It is still wasted, but it is so much less than the amount wasted with the non-chelated forms.

And there is another difference. With the non-chelated form I always had just a slight residual of symptoms at times. The tremor initially was gone completely, but the twitches were always there just in the background. If I could have done so, I would have tried just a bit more magnesium. But I was already at the recommended dosage and I did not want to push it any higher for obvious reasons. With the chelated form, I am just taking the one capsule a day and it is totally controlling the twitches. And that slide backwards I had mentioned just previous to this entry is reversed. So maybe the absorption is a bit better than 40% or the absorption of my non-chelated form was a bit less than the 10% rate I was assuming.

Chelated is better. Don’t waste your time on anything less than that.

Regular vs. chelated Magnesium

Recently as mentioned it seems I had hit a plateau as far as how magnesium was helping me long term and that maybe I had actually started a slow decline off of that previous level. And as ever I have done in the past, I started wondering why. It occurred to me that maybe it was the type of magnesium I was taking. I was taking just a run of the mill magnesium at around 600 mg daily.

This is beneficial in the short term since I really was down on the magnesium input to my system. But, the type of magnesium at that dosage was also making my digestive system have problems that may in fact have been stopping absorption of other foods, and the magnesium I needed. Enter chelated magnesium.

It turns out that no matter how much my natural food store employees were trying to tell me I had already had chelated magnesium, they were wrong. I just had regular unadulterated elemental magnesium which has an absorption rate of no better than 4% while a chelated form can be absorbed at close to 40%. After the switch, it already seems that I feel better again. In order to be chelated, it has to have it on the label. And even though chelated forms appear to be lower in total dosage, you get more of it.

From http://www.restlesslegsyndromecure.com/cause.html which talks about restless leg syndrome. . .

“Magnesium causes relaxation of the muscles in the entire body including the legs. A lack of Magnesium causes the muscles of the legs to tense up. So the solution is to take Magnesium. Make sure to take a Magnesium that is easily absorbed. Take Magnesium Glycinate or Magnesium that is chelated (the absorption rate is 40%). Do NOT take Magnesium Oxide (the absorption rate is only 4%). Take 400 mg/day - 1000 mg/day of Magnesium being careful to spread it out over the entire day. The Magnesium may cause loose stools since it relaxes the muscles of the intestine. So if you get loose stools just cut back on the dose of Magnesium. The Magnesium will relax the muscles of the leg and reduces the urge to move your legs. Typically, health food stores have a high quality Magnesium. The common run of the mill department store magnesium is magnesium oxide and will NOT be absorbed.”

Yard work and no shaking

I have run our weed whacker for the first time this season, and I have to say that I experienced no tremor or muscle shaking at any time during or after the usual circuit of the yard. I even kept going and wound up a 100 foot extension cord wrapping it over and around my left arm, then mowed the lawns front and back- and then cut up some branches to get rid of.

Of course, I did manage to whack my left ankle. this is not a nylon line weed whacker. No. I had to go and replace that with two plastic blades. I always wondered what would happen if I miscalculated how close my leg was to the working end of this contraption. Now I know. Nothing major damage-wise, but I do not recommend it.

So- what tremor? Just add a bit of magnesium, and it seems to be gone- for me at least.

Magnesium Deficiency and H1N1 shots related to Parsonage Turner Syndrome?

I notice in reports that some have searched to find my blog with these queries. Do not worry, that is all I can see about the site. I do not see any information about any specific users. . .

Anyway, about the queries-

Flu shots a cause for PTS?

I have never seen any evidence specifically linking any particular injection to Parsonage Turner Syndrome. But, I have seen that Brachial Plexus Neuritis (one name PTS can go by) has at least been linked to certain injections, among them influenza injections. Sites I have seen do not say injections are a direct cause, but only that in certain cases, the only thing that had happened recently to a sufferer is that they listed having had a flu shot. See this site for examples of causes- if you have not already found it. http://emedicine.medscape.com/article/315811-overview

Magnesium Deficiency linked to PTS?

Magnesium Deficiency is a possible culprit in many diseases as I have alluded to in the blog previously. It does cause overall weakness, tremors and twitching and a general feeling of malaise- like you are just winding down to minimal function. In my opinion, if you also have PTS or NA, or even HNA, the weakness associated with PTS can be additive if you have magnesium deficiency on top of it. It was for me at least. But, as a cause, I do not think magnesium deficiency would be a direct cause for PTS in any of its other names. PTS causes winging scapula and other distinct muscular losses, and may cause a general weakness of the impacted limbs. But, low magnesium would produce weakness all over the body by comparison. Also, once you correct the magnesium deficiency, overall strength improves quickly, along with a cessation of other related symptoms like twitches and tremors. Even at that though, my scapula is still winged, and my right thumb is still partially paralyzed.

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. . .

Parsonage Turner Weakness-Strength update

Just a quick update about exercises I have been doing-

The last few days of pushups, I have felt almost like I could go beyond 25. Today, I acted on that and pushed it to 30. I have got to think that I have never done 30 at one time before in my life. I know I had only rarely done 25 even in my earlier years(upper body strength has never been easy for me). And, if anyone is concerned I am only doing pushups I am back to 20 sit-ups and walking or doing stationary bike stuff and other daily exercises for other areas.

Prior to magnesium being added to my daily vitamins I had stamina issues walking around the block or biking, and I could do only 8 sit-ups (shaky ones at that). And 20 minutes or so after trying those 8 sit-ups, I could not do even one more. The first time I tried to do sit-ups after adding magnesium, I did 20 and could do 10 more after resting a few minutes. I tell you, this stuff is helping me get back into the shape I need to be in to get my NA ravaged shoulders stabilized.

We know that NA/HNA does cause some weakness, and that this can linger for a couple of years at least. In my case it lingered for around 4 years before I realized I was losing too much muscle mass. There may be things going on here that I do not know about, but I have become a fan of this one supplement. I take a few daily supplements, but magnesium is the only one that I can tell a difference in how I feel if I miss a dose. I would suggest if anyone has more weakness than they think can be attributed to NA/HNA, to try a good magnesium supplement.

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.