 After I first started taking 1200 mgs of
magnesium a day to cure vertigo, I learned that magnesium
oxide isn't good for oral consumption. I looked at my bottles and, sure enough,
it was magnesium oxide. That is what
you get if it doesn't say what kind of magnesium it is and/or is cheap.
I dutifully
put all the warnings
about magnesium oxide on my pages, but at the same time, I thought to
myself, really, how bad could this stuff be? I was taking 1200 mgs a
day and all it was doing to me was giving me back my life. How could it
be bad for you? After taking it for 6 months, however, I began to find out.
 Since I no longer had
vertigo anymore by then, I
wanted to stop taking mega doses of magnesium and switch to a more
natural form of minerals for long-term maintenance, as I recommend on
the magnesium and vertigo pages. However, I found that when I didn't
take my regular dose of magnesium oxide, my legs and ankles would swell
up like water balloons, I had an unquenchable thirst and was slightly
constipated. Taking more magnesium oxide cured it, but not smoothly and
gently. Magnesium oxide is a harsh mistress.
I
reduced the daily dose to 200 mgs
mag oxide with 400 mgs. calcium to use up what I had left, and
slathered myself with milk of magnesia, which is also magnesium oxide,
but doesn't have the digestion issues when used transdermally (on the
skin). I put some on the inside of each wrist, saturated in a piece of
cotton cloth and held on by a wristband I made out of an old cut-up
sock.
I decided I I
would like to make my own chelated magnesium, but found that there is no source
for information on how to go about making your own mineral supplements from raw materials.
I tried several times to order some
different kinds of magnesium online, but each time the cost prevented
me. Magnesium makes up a significant part of the rock that covers 2% of
the earth's surface. I just couldn't bring myself to pay so much for
something so abundant.
So I decided to continue
taking 200 mgs of magnesium oxide a day while I continued my
experiments to make my own chelated magnesium from some form of that
abundant rock. The 200 mgs magnesium oxide comes with its own 400 mgs
calcium, so that takes care of the calcium imbalance issues. I
take a betaine hydrochloride (Betaine Hcl) capsule each time I take the
calcium & mag oxide. The chloride in the betaine HCl is supposed to
combine with the
magnesium to form magnesium chloride, a much gentler and more
bioavailable form of magnesium. Additionally, I increased my
supplements of co-enzyme Q10 and Vitamin E to help out my heart while
it's running on less than its usual 1200 mgs of magnesium it was
getting per day.
On this regime, my ankles lost their swollenness -- I lost 3
pounds in 2 days, all of it water weight, I am sure -- and didn't feel
any
great thirst any more. I was regular and I had energy. Unfortunately,
the
one thing I lost by reducing the magnesium oxide dose is the
ability to sleep through the night without having to get up to go to
the bathroom. <sigh>
My first attempt to make my own chelated magnesium supplement involved mixing French green clay with malt
vinegar. This proved to have too great a laxative effect (but would
have been great if I'd intended it for a colon cleanse), and it didn't
smell good while I was making it, which would deter me from making
another batch.
My next experiment was with chalk and whey, to make magnesium lactate.
This batch proved successful and I began taking it and stopped taking
the magnesium oxide altogether. There were a few days of slightly
swollen ankles again but I just toughed it out while gradually
increasing the dose of my home-made pills. (I had learned from the clay
chelation experiment to start with a small dose to determine dosage). I
worked my way up to approximately 6 500-mg sized pills (they are not
easy to
swallow) a day, and then added 1 300-mg sized pill of clay malate per
day. (I
figured I had made it and didn't want to waste it and if it had that
strong a laxative effect it must have something in it that was good for
you in a smaller dose.) See Making your own chelated magnesium with chalk and whey.
Finally,
I tried using garden fertilizer grade Epsom salts (magnesium sulfate).
I had not used this earlier because I could only find pharmaceutical
grade Epsom salts, unacceptable because it has been artificially
synthesized. I believe the garden
grade Epsom salts may only be sold in the Autumn, which is when gardens
should be fertilized with magnesium. This has worked out the best so
far. I only take 2 500-mg. sized pills a day along with a 1 bone meal
tablet to balance the excess sulfur and 1 cod liver oil capsule to
create better absorption and I have returned to being able
to sleep through the night (yay) See Chelating
fertilizer-grade magnesium sulfate. But,
ultimately, the effort of making and then swallowing all those rough
pills was too much effort for me, so now I put bath or fertilizer grade
epsom salts into gelatin capsules, fill them by hand and swallow a
couple of them every day. I believe that as I continued to take extra
magnesium I paid my body back all the magnesium it was missing and I
didn't have to take such large doses as I did at first. (If you get a
capsule-filling machine to fill capsules, make sure you get the machine
that matches the size of the capsules you will be using. I have found
the "00" sized capsules to be the most cost-effective.) .
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