When Magnesium Makes You Worse

When people take a drug or a supplement they take it with the expectation that it will make them feel better. We know that’s not always the case with drugs but what about supplements? By 2017, many people were reading “The Magnesium Miracle” (2017) and hearing about magnesium. As a result, more people are taking magnesium than ever before and a few people are wondering why it sometimes makes them feel worse.

In about 1 out of 100 people there can be a shift in symptoms that you don’t understand. Here’s how one reader put it. “My obvious magnesium deficiency symptoms, cramping, muscle aches, headaches, etc., are worsening slightly rather than getting better. Anxiety is the only thing that has gotten better. Is this normal? I’m using magnesium oil and magnesium citrate but not yet able to tolerate more than 200-300mg without getting diarrhea.”For the side effect of diarrhea,  I recommend switching to my magnesium product, ReMag because it’s fully absorbed at the cellular level and has no laxative effect. I also recommend its companion product, ReMyte (multiple minerals), a 12-mineral formula that is also absorbed fully into the cells and supports the thyroid and adrenals. See below how to use food instead of Re Myte. Heavy metal toxicity is very real.

However, in “sensitive” people, even ReMag can rev people up too much, or trigger an irritable bowel. If you are chronically fatigued and in, what I call, Total Body Meltdown, feeling revved up may make you feel weaker in the beginning. If that’s the case, just cut back and take less ReMag and then work up slowly! Take 1/4 tsp of ReMag in a liter of sea salted water and sip it through the day and slowly build up. Some customers may have to take only a few drops of ReMag in sea salted water and slowly increase. Below are 15 of the most common reasons why you might feel worse, or think you feel worse, after taking magnesium. (I’ve added to this list several times since it was first published.)Actually it’s not magnesium that’s making you worse but just the way you are taking it or other things you are or aren’t taking along with it or the amount of toxicity in your body.

None of this means that magnesium is bad for you. You can think of magnesium – and ReMag – as a food that your body has been deprived of and desperately needs.1. You’re not taking enough: When people feel worse with magnesium, I believe that the 700-800 enzyme systems that require magnesium just get jump-started and They Want More! Like everyone else, I used to write that magnesium was necessary in 325 enzyme systems but now, according to many researchers that number is more than twice what we previously thought.In the above statement, my blog reader said she couldn’t take more that 200-300 mg.

But all 800 enzyme systems want a piece of the action once they’re been woken up! And with each enzyme system pumping away they are using up the little magnesium you gave them and, like I said, They Want More!

This doesn’t mean that you’ll increase your magnesium ad infinitum! You will reach a saturation point of your magnesium stores and actually be able to decrease your magnesium intake. However, my blog reader isn’t going to get anywhere near the amount she needs if she keeps getting the laxative effect on 200-300mg. And getting the laxative effect so early will prevent her from getting the magnesium she needs to treat her magnesium deficiency symptoms.

Some people think they have enough magnesium when they get the laxative effect and try to find other remedies for their symptoms.That’s one of the main reasons I decided to create and promote Pico-Ionic Magnesium, ReMag. It’s absorbed 100% at the cellular level and has no laxative effect. So you can take as much as you require to eliminate all your magnesium deficiency symptoms. BUT, even with ReMag, if your bowels are “sensitive” just go slowly. Instead of the maintenance dose of 1/2 tsp twice a day or the therapeutic dose of 1-2 tsp twice a day, you can begin with 5-10 drops a day and take it with food. Then you increase by 10 drops every 2-3 days. To determine your magnesium saturation point, you can get a Magnesium RBC test through Direct Labs. The range is usually given as 4.2-6.9 mg/dL; the optimum level is between 6.0-6.5mg/dL. It’s not the definitive magnesium test but it’s something that you can use to follow your magnesium saturation.

2. You’re taking too much: You can also feel worse on magnesium if you take too much, too soon. This usually happens if you have adrenal fatigue and weakness from magnesium deficiency. Anyone in this category should start very slowly on any new supplement or drug. If you take a high dose of magnesium right from the start it’s like using muscles that powered a bicycle and expect them to power a jet. Your body might just be so weak that revving up 800 enzyme systems all at once makes you feel jangled and even anxious or depressed because you don’t know what’s going on. Please try to understand that this may actually mean that you really do need more magnesium. Start with one quarter of the recommended dose of magnesium and work up as your body adapts.

3. You have low blood pressure from long-standing magnesium deficiency and adrenal fatigue. You may have heard that magnesium can lower your BP so you worry about that happening when your BP is already low. Here’s what is likely happening: Magnesium deficiency can cause an under-active autonomic nervous system leading to low blood pressure and poor circulatory system performance. This is another instance where you must begin by supplementing at about one quarter the recommended dose of magnesium and slowly build up. The other minerals offered in ReMyte are important in this case as well to support adrenals and thyroid and improve potassium levels.

4. You’re on heart medications and as your health conditions improve, your meds are becoming “toxic.” That’s because you may not require them anymore! Check with your doctor when you are using magnesium to treat health conditions and want to wean off your meds. For example, magnesium helps lower blood pressure. If you continue to take the same amounts of BP meds, your BP might get too low. This is not a “side effect” of magnesium. It’s a side effect of taking drugs when you don’t need them. Magnesium balances blood pressure. If you have low BP to begin with and are not on meds, start magnesium very slowly because, as I describe in #2, you want your body to slowly adapt to a mineral you may have been deficient in for a long time.

5. You’re on fluoridated medications that bind up your magnesium and make you deficient even when you’re taking magnesium. See a list of fluoridated medications at the Fluoride Toxicity Research Collaborative. Many common drugs are fluoridated: Prozac, Paxil, Lipitor, Cipro, Diflucan to name a few.

6. You’ve started taking iodine (in doses above the RDA) that speeds up your metabolism giving you heart palpitations that has nothing to do with magnesium deficiency. Even people who take low dose iodine without taking enough magnesium and selenium can run into iodine toxicity problems detoxified iodine is better absorbed through the skin. Get selenium through your food, food specific for different blood types. Zinc is in food also, and so is manganese. You only need trace quantities of copper and copper is found in almost every food which will support the thyroid.

7. You’re taking too much Vitamin D: Here’s what happens. You feel great on your magnesium and then you begin to have more magnesium deficiency symptoms after adding a high-dose Vitamin D supplement. Magnesium is required to transform Vitamin D from its storage form to its active form and for many other aspects of Vitamin D metabolism. That means if you take the extremely high doses that allopathic doctors are now recommending you can plummet into magnesium deficiency and not know what the heck is happening. In general, I don’t recommend more than 1,000-2,000 IU of Vitamin D daily for this reason. And never take Vitamin D without magnesium, or especially eating magnesium in your almonds and kale salad, or if you are a blood type B that needs more use ReMag. There are several blogs on this topic trying to sort out what’s going on. Read Too Much Vitamin D? and The Vitamin D Debate.

8. You are taking too much calcium and it’s pushing out your magnesium: Read Why I Hate Calcium to understand why the most prescribed mineral is actually dangerous because it’s causing heart disease in women.

9. You’re taking magnesium and becoming dehydrated because you don’t take any other trace minerals and you don’t drink enough water. Read The Solution for Dehydration and take 1/4 tsp of sea salt in every liter of water you drink. How much water per day? Half your body weight (in lbs.) in ounces of water. Eating your minerals is the next step in proper mineral balance and an improvement on just using sea salt for mineral balance.

10. Magnesium is getting into your cells and detoxifying chemicals and heavy metals. Sometimes this can feel like a healing reaction. The symptoms can be an increase in muscle pain, joint pain and even skin rashes. That’s why I recommend that you build up your dosage of magnesium slowly as the cells detoxify and are finally able to work efficiently.

11. You have IBS, which is a sensitivity of the lining of the gut or you are very toxic ((with heavy metals, medications, bad diet, yeast overgrowth (see #15)) and even ReMag gives you symptoms because it’s trying to help you detox. ReMag goes directly into the cells and will cause the muscles to relax and that can cause diarrhea. That’s why I try to “warn” people with “health conditions” to go slowly on ReMag for all the many reasons I’ve cited. IBS is why I wrote a book to help with digestion and pain

12. You’re taking a magnesium glutamate or aspartate. I warn against taking these forms of magnesium in my “Book“, why taking Glutamates in Magnesium Chelates is not a proper way to get either glutamate of magnesium.  According to neurosurgeon, Dr. Russell Blaylock, glutamate and aspartate can break down into individual amino acids and act as renegade neurotransmitters.

13. You are taking high doses of magnesium and not getting enough calcium in your diet. I talk about the need to balance magnesium and calcium by supplementing with about 600mg of magnesium and getting 600mg of calcium in your diet. However many people are on a dairy-free diet and just don’t get enough calcium. If it’s just lactose intolerance, try yogurt or kefir, make bone broth and eat non-lactose raw cheese. If they don’t total 600mg of calcium, take my The liquid calcium supplement. My Medical Technology friend researched, and likes the combination ingredients with D and K2 and magnesium and boron which is important for maintaining bones in this supplement she has researched Designs for Health Osteo Force Supreme

14. You are taking thyroid medication and you suddenly feel you are taking too much (increased pulse, feeling hot, hyperactive). The magnesium in ReMag and the protocol for your 9 thyroid minerals can “wake up” your thyroid so that it begins to make its own thyroid hormone and you don’t require as much (or any) thyroid hormone anymore. (Be sure to check with your doctor and wean off slowly.)

15. Your Immune System kicks in and tried to kick out yeast. If you have yeast overgrowth and your newly activated immune system is trying to get it under control, you can experience some yeast die off. You may develop a rash, itchy skin, itchy ears, a coated tongue, changes in your bowel movements, or vaginitis. Please read Carolyn Dean’s book ReSet The Yeast  Connection to learn about how to implement her Yeast Detox Protocol.

If you need personal help finding your best foods Try reading this book or book an appointment at www.talkwithkristi.com