Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

This is the first magnesium supplement I've ever tried. I read in the book "Eat Fat, Get Thin" that magnesium glycinate is an excellent supplement for people who suffer anxiety with cramping. Why that's me! I used to suffer from cramps day and night. In fact, I was drinking alcohol every day because it was the only way I could loosen up the knots. My therapists would all recommend massage and masseuses would work on my knots with horror in their eyes. They would recommend hot stone massages because they couldn't loosen the knot with their hands. The one time we tried it whacking the knot with a hot stone was very helpful. Too bad the cramps came back three days later. For this I pay $200? I do eat lotsa bananas and salt. I do not live on supplements alone. In addition, magnesium will relieve anxiety that comes along with the cramping. Hmm... Note: the glycinate is also excellent because glutathione (the master enzyme that regenerates all your other antioxidant enzymes) requires glycine. How does it taste? Doesn't seem to ruin the taste of mocha smoothies at all. Also, tried it in warm water. Didn't taste too bad but didn't dissolve easily. I tend to take a highly variable amount when I'm starting something. I started off high - about 3-4 gms per day - split into 3 doses. After about 3 days, i noticed my cramping was starting much later in the day. At that point, I raised the amount because it was working and I wanted to check my response. I noticed the magnesium seemed to work quickly once my levels started to pick up. At first, the cramping would ease up, then a few hours later worsen. I used this to adjust my dosage and timing. Finally, on the fourth or fifth day, the cramping seemed to go away almost entirely and my mood shifted just as the cramps went away. I became almost giggly as I thought of a joke. The mood lasted for about 1/2 a day with me gigging at random intervals. The next day, my muscles relaxed fully and stayed that way all day long! My morning back stiffness from sleeping first eased up, then reduced to small patches of stiffness in my back. Why the odd mood shift? Well, I am bipolar and for my particular genetics, magnesium will make me manic - thus the giggles. Or maybe it was watching that fun pirate movie the night before. I did talk to my therapist and we agreed that was a perfectly normal reaction but monitoring the magnesium is a good precaution. Isn't this dangerous? Somewhat. The danger from mania comes from running 24/7 relentlessly with no time for rest. I've done this for months at a time without any assistance from magnesium. Cramping 24/7 isn't good either, I almost became alcoholic. It doesn't pay for me to stay on the low side either, the cramps come back quickly. Finally, magnesium is required for production of stress enzymes and with bipolar I need those enzymes in tip-top shape. But the magnesium did snap me out of a low energy funk at the cost of getting the giggles for 1/2 a day. Or maybe the pirates did it. For me, it's a question of walking the tightrope. Carefully. And for everybody else? Eat salty bananas and pace yourself with magnesium until the cramps go away. Waiting 3-4 hours between doses is just about right when zooming in on the correct level. Beats waiting two full weeks for cramp relief. Update: Mysteriously, my thyroid function has improved. My internist is giving me the look of one who has gone crazy because thyroids don't normally do that. I took a look at the long list of supplements that support the thyroid. The one that changed the most was the magnesium. For those of you interested in improving hypothyroidism the list of supplements is: natural iodine sources, selenium, zinc, B6, B12, iron, copper, magnesium, carnitine, CoQ10, B2, B3, A, C, E, thiamine, high quality protein, potassium, chromium, manganese, omega 3, choline, barley grass or spirulina, B6, B12, folate. Almost every item on the list comes from a multivitamin except magnesium (about 3-5 gms per day when I'm cramping), CoQ10 (200 mg), C (6 gms per day), protein, chromium (1000 mg), omega 3 (12 capsules of the bulksupplements fish oil per day), choline from alpha GPC 50%, and spirulina. Update 7/23/2017 Thyroid condition - still in progress but my endocrinologist has cut my thyroid medication. We'll get results in fix weeks time and see how much my thyroid can produce. I spoke with my doctor about the results from the magnesium. As far as I can pin it down, excess magnesium does give me the giggles reliably. In addition to the thyroid improvement (? hard to pin down - too many other supplements), my emotions became much more complex. Seven months ago I was supplementing only with Hardy's Essential Nutrients (a multivitamin formulated for people with brain conditions) and inositol and I was calm. I was calm even in the face of the most outrageous provocation. It was a marvel to everyone that I didn't react negatively and after a lifetime of overly passionate responses a huge relief to me. Now with the magnesium, I feel a range of emotions again including mixed emotions. It's a burden and a relief. I'm irritable again but I've regained my sense of humor. My doctor's level of concern over my nutritional depletion is higher than ever. But we both agree the risk was well worth it. I was almost inhuman before. I'm also on lithium and side effects include random muscular twitching and restless legs syndrome all over my body. So I would drop things all the time, lose my balance or suddenly accelerate the car. The twitching and restless legs is greatly reduced or gone away. This is consistent with medical recommendations to supplement with magnesium to treat tics. I could practically see the gears spinning in my doctor's head when I reported this. Doctors routinely recommend using Ativan (an addictive anxiety medication) to control the restless legs. Magnesium is a laxative. The more bioavailable the gentler. It is hard to OD on magnesium because you'll, errrr..., just lose it. It happened when I went over 5 gm. (The amount you can tolerate will depend on your gut health.) And as the magnesium cleared the system, my giggles went away in minutes. Once again, it's got to be the gut that is busy using the magnesium to produce the giggles. Now, with bipolar sometimes you get mixed states. These are difficult to treat and last much longer than mania or depression. They also inflict the greatest damage both biologically and socially. I plan to ambush my next mixed state with the magnesium to see if I can break it. My doctor's eyes gleamed when I mentioned this. How we both love a good experiment. So far I've used up about 90 gms of my 100 gm supply getting to this point. Clearly, I was severely depleted (daily muscle cramps that resist massage and other treatment). When I went into this, I was terrified that I would self-induce mania, no idea what I would gain; I had no idea what the therapeutic dose is for bipolar. I wondered if the risk was worth the gain? YES, WELL WORTH THE RISK. When you are depleted, the therapeutic dose is for the birds. Just use your symptoms as a guide. And using my cramping as a guide, no matter how much I OD, two or three days later the cramping starts again. I've never heard of a less scary mania. Finally, my deathbed wish: I want to be hooked up to a magnesium IV. I plan to die laughing. Update: August 13th, 2017 It's been at least 3 weeks since I took my last dose of magnesium. The cramping has gone away and stayed away. I seem to experience some rare twitching but it's so mild I'm not really sure. I tucked the magnesium into the freezer, just in case. But so far, my daily multivitamin seems to be able to keep up. I should also report that I experienced brief periods of rapid heartbeat and heart palpitations usually after I ate food while on the magnesium. About two weeks after I stopped the magnesium this went away. This is a known side effect of magnesium. You can either stop or lower the dose. I decided to just keep going until the magnesium deficit went away, then stop. Update Sept 26th, 2017 Yes, it is true. My thyroid is producing more thyroid hormone. I've got the blood tests back and the doctors reduced my Synthroid from 75 mcg to 50 mcg. It looks like the magnesium is the last in a long line of helpful supplements. But the good news is - you can supplement your thyroid and improve function. Of course, the trick is... which supplement is the one you need most? Update Nov. 5, 2017 I've been manic for almost two months now and it's definitely been the longest period of cheerful mania I've ever experienced. Every time I slip into that nasty brooding irritation where I can't let go of my problems, I take some magnesium glycinate. It's not even that much about 400 mg for 3-5 days is enough to restore the balance. Normally, I skip the magnesium because my multivite is enough but not when I'm stressed. Tip: If you are experiencing cramping, you may want to consider BulkSupplements Pure Taurine Powder (250 grams) in addition to adding electrolytes. Taurine is a sleep aid, balances your electrolytes, prevents cramping, helps lower blood glucose. It also inhibits excitatory neural pathways in your brain which is why it's a sleep aid AND it will help prevent mania (if you're bipolar). However, if you're depressed, it will depress you even more - DO NOT TAKE TAURINE if you are depressed. Taurine works quickly (wears off in one day), Take it in the evening after dinner or before bed.. Update Nov. 27, 2017 I had not mentioned it because the status was so uncertain but the magnesium deficit helped my doctor diagnose a gut infection. Gut infections are invasive microbes that enter your gut and then somehow manage to destroy the balance of your gut microbiome. Most of the time they are already in your gut but your healthy probiotics keep them in check. Things that can definitely upset the microbiome include antibiotics, proton pump inhibitors (PPI's), illness, massive allergies that inflame the gut leading to leaky gut, environmental poisons (mercury) and alot more. Bad gut infections (and mine was not good) will strip you of essential nutrients - vitamins, minerals. Finding two or more nutritional deficiencies is the most reliable way to detect a gut infection. However, conventional doctors don't receive training in diagnosing nutrient deficiencies. How did my doctor diagnose the gut infection? She read about it - realized I had multiple serious nutritional deficiencies because I kept finding and fixing them AND I was taking Hardy's Essential Nutrients - one of THE most bioavailable multivitamins you can buy. And I was still deficient. She sent me to talk to Hardy's because they specialize in overcoming obstacles to absorbing nutrients. The Hardy's product specialist did a great job diagnosing me (it was not easy) and put me on an antibiotic to kill the gut infection. I'm still tapering off the antibiotic but I'm still hunting down vitamin deficiencies but this time - I find symptoms that I used to have. Gone now. The most visible change? My skin tone has changed from an ashy-yellow to more of a peachy-yellow. People I haven't seen in a while just bust out "You look healthy!" Is it over? Alas, no. Once your gut probiotics go down, every opportunistic microbe thinks they can take over. It's safer to take probiotics forever than to assume what's left of my gut biome can fight them off. Am I still taking magnesium? Occasionally and only when needed. Since I'm bipolar, the manic episodes generate quite a bit of stress. I find taking about 250 mg about an hour before bed is extremely restful and I seem to sleep more peacefully. This works out to a week every 2-3 months. This is on top of the magnesium in the Hardy's Essential Nutrients which has the "optimal" amount. But I'm hoping it will continue to drop as the gut recovers.