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.

Parsonage Turner Syndrome Revealing Lyme disease

http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/thread72131.html

Maybe my friend who suggested I should be tested for Lyme disease knows more than I thought she did about this topic.

The above link is one of many links to a paper (Wendling D, Sevrin P, Bouchaud-Chabot A, Chabroux A, Toussirot E, Bardin T, Michel F. -Service de Rhumatologie, CHU Jean Minjoz, et EA 3186 -Agents Pathogènes et Inflammation- Université de Franche-Comté, Boulevard Fleming, 25030 Besançon, France) suggesting that NA, AKA, Parsonage Turner Syndrome, has been linked to Lyme disease. The abstract suggests that four patients, who were reported to have NA, were later found to have contracted Lyme disease. One had said they knew they had been bitten by a tick, and all four showed positive for Lyme disease. It concludes that tests for Lyme disease should be performed in all patients who have Parsonage Turner Syndrome.

Back to five

Now, all of a sudden I am at around 5 push-ups again. I don’t get it. Evidently. . .

So, what is this now? I have to wonder if there is something else going on other than NA. This fluctuation of strength is just too odd to fit NA.

Anyone have any ideas? Do any of you with NA or HNA have similar fluctuation of overall strength in areas not impacted directly by NA? I mean, I would not expect my scapula or hand to be strong now. But other areas I think should stay about what they are considering I have been trying to keep up on other strength.

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.