Magnesium Tips?

[Hopeful]

Hi,

I am struggling with falling serum magnesium levels as a result of my long-term cyclosporine use. I currently supplement with 750 mg/day of Magnesium oxide, spread out in the morning and evening. Despite this level of supplementation and a current low dosage of cyclosporine, my magnesium is down to 1.3 mg/dl.

Does anyone have advice on foods that may increase (or decrease) magnesium absorption? Also, I would be interested in brands/types of magnesium that may have better absorption.

Thanks in advance for any tips!

[DanL]

Hopeful,

I am on 4 grams per day to fight off the effects of Tacrolimus, and maintain a concentration of about 1.9. The items that were recommended to me were nuts and fish.

There are also a couple of decent articles here that covers magnesium absorption and diet:

http://www.ancient-minerals.com/magnesium-sources/absorption/

http://www.ancient-minerals.com/magnesium-sources/

Vitamin D deficiency is mentioned as a possible cause of poor absorption, which is interesting as well.

Hope these help.

[Bhutt]

I'm on 2520 Mg a day 840 morning noon & evening they recommend Swiss 420.
Don't know if this helps or not.

Blair

[Marlene]

Look into more absorbable forms like magnesium glycinate, citrate, taurate or aspartate.

Kirkman labs has a good mag glycinate. There's a good product called Calm that is mag citrate.

Also consider epsom salt baths. Either whole body or just foot baths.

Like Dan stated, nuts are a good source too.

I've used the topical Ancient Minerals but found it irritating to my skin. Some have formulated a topical creams that feel better. I think Kirkman labs has one.

[Rasmusbja]

Hi hopeful

I have had a huge struggle keeping my magnesium levels up due to my tacrolimus intake. I had to go to the hospital every week to get IV magnesium.

The hospital recomended some magnesiumtablets containing magnesium oxide, which I ate for a couple of months. However, they didn't help me at all, and I started a more scientific approach to my problems.

After searching pubmed.org for a couple of hours, I found out that magnesium oxide has a bioavailability of only 4%!!

A much better complex is magnesium citrate. I don't recall the bioavailability, but it was many times better than oxide.

So I found some magnesium citrate on the internet (couldn't find antydning in my country), and ordered it home for testing. And amazingly it works very well! I now have a magnesium level in my blood that is within normal range, even though i take the same amount of tacrolimus as usual.

So I would recomend to try and get some magnesium citrate. And if you do, please let us know if it works for you.

Best of luck
/Rasmus

(Sorry for spelling errors... Autocorrect is set to Danish :D)

[Hopeful]

Thank you everyone for your suggestions!

I also have read about the low bioavailability of magnesium oxide, but that is the only form that my doctor recommends. I went to my local health food store and picked up some Mg oxide combined with Mg citrate. I am hoping that will help with the absorption. I also have cut out black tea and increased my water intake to combat the negative effects of cyclosporine on my kidneys. I already take Vitamin D supplements, but should probably recheck that level.

I will continue to eat a lot of nuts, greens, and chocolate :) and will give the epsom foot baths a try.

I don't think I am ready to cut out the coffee, but am questioning whether I should be washing down my medications with a latte!

I'll let you know how it goes!

[tom30]

I noticed a while ago that the itchy foot problem I get from time to time was relieved almost magically by epsom salts foot soaks. I now take this product which comes with instructions on intake on the package. I've asked my doctor about it and he said as long as I did not exceed the RDA he had no issues with the supplementation, i had mag levels checked at my last visit but that was after I had been on supplementation for 6 months and I do not have the results nor a baseline to compare to. Here is the product I use. Natural Vitality Natural Magnesium Calm http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000GJOZWE/ref=wms_ohs_product?ie=UTF8&psc=1

[Hopeful]

Less than 2 weeks ago, my Mg was down to 1.3 mg/dl.
I just had it retested and am up to 1.9 mg/dl!

I only increased my supplementation from 750 mg to 900 mg. So, I don't think this was the reason. I am now using different brands of magnesium, one which includes magnesium citrate and oxide. I think the biggest effect may be from cutting out black tea and drinking LOTs of water. Previoiusly, I was drinking water like-a-normal-person because my dosage of cyclosporine is so low. However, I have read (and now seen) that the *duration* of cyclosporine use at any dosage also plays a part in impared Mg reabsorption in the kidney.

The moral of the story: Drink lots of water!