Getting better (calcium:magnesium)

Symptoms and Treatments Complementary Therapies
1

Dear all,

My name is Marlous, I am a 36 year old woman, born and raised in the Netherlands.

For the last 15 years I have suffered from inflammation on my feet at times of heat and stress. It was not until last year that I was diagnosed with EM. A couple of months ago, I got really sick due to several food allergies. Feeling better with antihistaminic, I continued my search for EM. I was diagnosed again with primary EM in the Amsterdam Medical Center, a couple of months ago.

I knew that I would have to start medication, but I was a little bit scared to do so…

It is very important to share that I did not suffer from any pains, other than some numb feeling in my feet. I have read here that some patients suffer from pain, whilst others do not!

As many of us, I got very interested in the information that Dr Jay Cohen put in the internet. As he claimed to have cured himself with magnesium and some herbs. I started looking into this and I came to the conclusion that many triggers of the EM were caused by products/situations that just pushed the magnesium out of your body. Alcohol, coffee, stress, heat, sweat, just all of it!

The search for the right magnesium was not easy. It took some time before I learned that a lot of forms are just not good for the body. Most people get stomach issues by taking magnesium oxide, whilst it does not do a lot for the body.

I started using magnesium chloride flakes and spay on my skin and I started feeling better immediately!

My focus was really simple, our bodies work as follows. Calcium regulates muscles and blood vessels contraction and magnesium does the opposite: it makes sure that the muscles and blood vessels can relax again. The two are working together. The more calcium in the body, the more magnesium it needs to keep the system up. I read on this forum that some of you got prescription to take calcium and magnesium together. I even read that one suffered from sickness after the calcium, to this might be a clue.

Due to many reasons a lot of us suffer from too much calcium in the body and not enough magnesium. Unfortunately, this is not easy to test, since only 1% of magnesium can be found in the blood.

When I started checking how much calcium I was eating I suddenly realized what was going on. The list of products high on calcium contained all products that I was tested on for allergies!

Reading about magnesium, I have learned that you need some vitamins to make sure it will reach the cells. Vitamins as D3, B6 I have had enough. But I was really interested in malic acid. It seems that patients with CVS and fibromyalgia were getting good results by taking magnesium and malic acid together.

So, for the last 10 days I have changed almost everything. I stopped eating dairy products, nuts and dried fruits. I started taking baths with the magnesium flakes and sprayed the oil on my skin twice a day. And I started taking high doses of malic acid.

The way my body is improving is just incredible. My energy is back, I am just feeling good. Yesterday I took a bath of 40 degrees Celsius and my skin did not change its color!!!!!

Of course, I will have to go back to the hospital to get tested again. And I am for example not sure if the malic acid is helping me or not. Therefor it is too early. But I really felt like sharing this information with you at this early stage to see if someone recognizes this story! In my case I have the feeling that 'my EM' was due to unbalanced calcium:magnesium levels in my body...

Hope to hear from you!

Best regards,

Marlous

1 Like
2

I am so glad you have found something that is helping Marlous. I myself have just tried the over the counter magnesium pills with no noticeable results. I have never given Malic acid any thought before but I will be sure to look it up and ask my doctor about it. Thank you for sharing.

Take care,

Alina

3

Alina, that is exactly what I am trying to say: the pills do not work. I have tried them myself. But the magnesiumchloride on the skin will. I have read in one of the discussions that you can buy the purest form of chloride as well in the States. You can only find it on several places in the world.

1 Like
4

I have to say that no way can anyone say that any product WILL help. The best you can say is that it helped you and MIGHT help others. Magnesium has caused big problems for some people with EM; this magnesium chloride may be different or it may not. I strongly recommend anyone who is interested in this not to take it without speaking to your doctor about it first and approach it with caution.

5

Hi Nel,

I have shared my story just to see if any of you are suffering from the same problems as I do. I am not telling that everybody has to do what I am doing (I do not even want or be able to take that responsibility!) especially not since I did have some of the symptoms of EM but not all of them. The huge difference is that I did not suffer from the severe pains and I believe that most of you do. But for those who do not have the pain and think it might be the same problem: please contact me, since I am very hopeful to find others to share what I am trying because together we will be stronger than by ourselves! I am doing this to help others, I am getting better with the day and I am talking to my doctor to start testing what I am doing. I am not on this website to sell anything or the tell anyone what to do. I am here just to see if I can make a difference. If that won't be the case, I will leave it the way it is. So, for those not relating to my story, I hope you will find other remedies soon!

Regards, Marlous

6

Hi Marlous,
We have to keep in mind that your mild symptoms bear little similarity to the painful symptoms of most people here and your improvement possibly stems from that fact. Asserting that there is a product out there which will effect a cure is giving people who are in real distress a straw to clutch at which may not help and might even make their situation worse.
I am really glad that your condition is improving dramatically and all I want to do is urge people to be careful and check with their doctor first.
Best regards
Nel

7

Hi Marlous,

We have to keep in mind that your mild symptoms bear little similarity to the painful symptoms of most people here and your improvement possibly stems from that fact. Asserting that there is a product out there which will effect a cure is giving people who are in real distress a straw to clutch at which may not help and might even make their situation worse.

I am really glad that your condition is improving dramatically and all I want to do is urge people to be careful and check with their doctor first.

Best regards

Nel

8

Hi Guys,

Treatments, symptoms , coping strategies etc.. are not a one size fits all in EM. In terms of treatments, a polypharmacy approach is advocated. Most important thing is sharing what works for you. Thank you Marlous. You are our first Dutch member

Goedenavond

God bless

mads x

9

Hi Mads,

Thanx for your message! I completely agree with you, it is important to share what we know, since so little is known yet! I have been diagnosed with EM and I have a lot of the symptoms and now it is turning out to (probably) be something else. I think it is very important to be aware of this possibility as well.

As I told you already, I am really interested in trying to understand whats happening in the body. What I really do not understand is why most medication prescribed actually are contracting the blood vessels. In case of EM I would think that you need 'wider' vessels to be able to cool off your body again. I do not understand this for migraine either; medication prescribed also work on contraction, but patients also get good results with magnesium, which does exactly the opposite. I have asked my doctor about this and hopefully he can explain it to me. Or, there might be someone at the forum who understands this!

Regards, Marlous

10



Marlous said:

Hi Dkel,

Thank your for your message!

In my first post I have mentioned where I have bought my magnesium flakes, but it seems to be that we are not allowed to advertise with it, so I have left the name out. It is not difficult though to search for pure magnesiumchloride to find where you can get it. It seems that you have also found yourself good quality. This is what I do: you take 50 / 50 of (cleared) water and the flakes and you cook them together until the flakes are gone. Twice a day I spray it under my feet, on my belly and under my armpits. On these places it seems that your skin is best for taking the magnesium in. What is so great about using it transdermal, is that your skin will take in as much as you need, instead of swallowing it. At night I also take a food bath.

What is really interesting is to see how much calcium you take in, since the magnesium will work better if you do not take too much calcium (and it is so easy to do in my case!). Using magnesium will definitely reduces the cramps in the muscles. This is exactly how calcium and magnesium are working together in the body!

I am also curious to see if the malic acid does something. I will try this for a couple of weeks more and try to take less after that. Trial-and-error! Regards, Marlous

PS: Australia is on our mind these days! Woman hockey won the finals of your team. Yesterday the men lost from them... And Wednesday we are playing against Australia in Brazil!

11

We definitely do! It is one-one by now, let's see what will happen on Wednesday!

12

Hi Marlous,

I’m sorry. You can provide a link to where the magnesium flakes can be purchased but not alongside any claims to be a cure. We have to handle so many cases where people come on to the site as new members with the sole intention of selling/promoting a product and that has turned out not to be the situation here. I still maintain that a chat with the doctor before trying any kind of magnesium therapy is advisable.

Best wishes

Nel

As dkel knows, Australia is forever on my mind with my lovely daughter who married an Australian and 3 grandchildren to miss… :frowning:

13

Hi Nel, thank you for that, it is very clear. I just really would like to make people aware of how calcium and magnesium are working together in the body.

And to make them aware of the the different forms of magnesium that you can take. There are forms simply not working. This is not rocket science, the information can easily be found on the internet. Dr Cohen claims he has cured himself with magnesium and he states that 1/3 of people do respond to it, 1/3 do not and 1/3 are suffering even more. But it seems that no one is thinking about the form of magnesium to take and how to take it.

I do not claim that my information is best, but I really hope that people will start reading about this for themselves!

1 Like
14

Hi Marious!

Very happy to report that I have had the same reaction! My EM has only been evident since this January, but it came on hard after I was treated with very high doses of IV pain medication in the hospital in February for an unrelated issue. I took Gabapentin for two months, which helped some right when I took it, but also made it way worse when it wore off; the side effects were unbearable as well: fogginess, fatigue, forgetfulness, insomnia, constipation. Just last week, my mother, a nurse practitioner, asked me if I’d tried magnesium, so I did, and within two days, my symptoms had abated. My appendages still feel sensitive if hit, or if I stand or walk for too long, but aren’t actively hurting or turning red without cause for the most part. Now, at the same time I started taking turmeric capsules and tart cherry juice as anti inflammatory measures since I cannot take NSAIDs due to warfarin, but I’m pretty confident it was the magnesium. I also asked a pain management specialist with lots of experience with nerve pain, and magnesium was the first thing he said, after advising me to wean off of the gabapentin. I took plain old magnesium oxide, but I took 2-3x what the daily dose is listed on the bottle as per my mom. NOT suggesting that anyone else do the same, especially if you are on lots of meds or have been on meds for a long time, just reporting my situation.

15

Hi Marlous, Im from Amsterdam as well. Can I contact you? How are you now?