Rapid Recovery from Stress related Depression using Mega Amounts of MAGNESIUM

[Guest guest]

Rapid Recovery From Depression Using Mega Amounts of Magnesium

 

http://coldcure.com/html/dep.html

George Eby

Revised: February 28, 2003

Welcome! This is the first (and best) of over 100,000 web pages listed in

Google.com for " magnesium and depression " .

--

 

DEPRESSION REALLY SUCKS! It needlessly sucks happiness and joy out of a person

and may even suck the life out too if it can't be brought under control. I

believe that curing stress- and/or diet-induced depression is extremely simple

and quick using magnesium rather than drugs for many people - fortunately!

 

Read my story and check out the facts in the links. Many links are directly to

medical articles in the National Library of Medicine (PubMed) and other

authoritative sources.

 

You may find my story to be important to you. Remember my point of view that

depression, and particularly stress- and/or diet-induced depression, and many

other " diseases " discussed below are often symptoms of magnesium deficiency

(either directly or indirectly through excess stress) and not diseases.

 

 

The National Institute of Health (NIH) reports that a sign of magnesium

deficiency is depression. NIH defined magnesium deficiency symptoms have three

categories:

 

Early symptoms include (one or more) irritability, anxiety (including Obsessive

Compulsion Disorder (OCD) and Tourette syndrome), anorexia, fatigue, insomnia,

and muscle twitching. Other symptoms include apathy, confusion, poor memory,

poor attention and the reduced ability to learn.

 

(NOTE: If this essay appears difficult to understand, consider your magnesium

status.)

 

 

Moderate deficiency symptoms can consist of the above and possibly rapid

heartbeat, irregular heartbeat and other cardiovascular changes (some being

lethal).

 

 

Severe deficiency symptoms can include the one or more of the above symptoms and

one or more severe symptom including full body tingling, numbness, and a

sustained contraction of the muscles, along with hallucinations and delirium

(including depression) and finally dementia (Alzheimer's Disease).

 

If the NIH knows this, why don't doctors use magnesium to treat depression and

other mental (and physical) disorders???

 

In 1989, C. Norman Shealy M.D., Ph.D. demonstrated that 99% of depressed

patients have one or more neurochemical abnormalities; and that depression is a

chemical disease as is diabetes, not a psychiatric disease. It seems to me that

not using magnesium to treat depression is pure malpractice! We could rebuild

and save lives! Magnesium ions are shown involved at the very heart of neural

synaptic activity in this figure. Are you magnesium depleted or deficient?

 

See this wonderful quick quiz by Dr. Pricilla Slagle, M.D., a magnesium expert

very interested in helping people with magnesium problems. Also, visit Dr.

Hertert C.Mansmann, Jr., MD at THE MAGNESIUM RESEARCH LABORATORY, another very

interested magnesium expert.

 

Magnesium deficiency is a major risk factor for heart problems and diabetes and

many other heatlh issues, including sudden death.

 

" The Magnesium Factor " by Mildred S. Seelig, MD, MPH and Andrea Rosanoff, PhD is

an outstanding new book by the world's leading magnesium researcher and is

highly recommended reading for learning how to prevent high blood pressure,

heart disease, diabetes, and other chronic conditions.

 

Many of today's " diseases " are actually " symptoms " of magnesium deficiency, and

are not diseases. For another eye opener, see this amazing list and thorough

documentation of hundreds of " diseases " that are often nothing more than

magnesium deficiencies.

 

What would happen to " medicine " , pharmaceutical company income, and public

health if these " diseases " were treated with magnesium before trying side-effect

laden drugs?

 

Wouldn't this approach to improving public health be more ethical?

Unfortunately, for space reasons, this essay is restricted to mental health

issues reasonably related to depression, but the health risks resulting from

magnesium deficiency are very broad and need much exploration.

 

Depression Defined

Depression is an extremely common condition that affects more than 1 in 20

people in any one year in Western society. It is one of several hyperemotional

states. A sudden loss of interest in life combined with a feeling of

worthlessness may be associated with depression. Normally joy, sadness and grief

are parts of everyday life.

 

While a short period of depression in our response to daily problems is normal,

a long period of depression and sadness is abnormal and is called " clinical

depression " . Depression can run in families, partly because families tend to eat

the same foods and pass from one generation to the next similar eating patterns,

and partly through genetics.

 

Concerning genetics, I have found no evidence in the medical literature of a

" depression " gene, but much evidence for a search for one. I suspect that the

strong genetic component will be found to involve improper or inadequate

magnesium metabolism.

 

Depression may be associated with a variety of symptoms, including but not

limited to:

 

Persistent sadness and pessimism

Feelings of loneliness, guilt, worthlessness, helplessness, or hopelessness

Loss of interest or enjoyment in nearly every aspect of life

Diminished ability to think or lack of concentration

Insomnia or oversleeping

Poor appetite associated with either weight gain or loss

Fatigue, lack of energy

Physical hyperactivity or inactivity

Loss of interest in sex

Physical symptoms such as headache, backaches, stomach troubles, constipation

and blurred vision

Anxiety, agitation, irritability

Thoughts of suicide or death (90% of suicides result from depression)

Slow speech; slow movements

Drug or alcohol abuse

A drop in school performance

 

 

Most depressive episodes are triggered by stressful personal event such as loss

of a loved one or change of circumstances, and depression over a short period is

a normal coping mechanism.

 

Long-term stress-induced depression often, if not always, results when

magnesium levels fall to dangerously low levels in the body by biochemical

stress reactions discussed below. Magnesium deficiency related depression is a

fixable biochemical problem and not necessarily a physiological problem.

 

Depression can also be due to many other factors such as underlying disease

(particularly hepatitis C), brain chemical imbalances requiring antidepressant

drugs of one type or another, hormonal imbalance (particularly hypothyroidism

and low testosterone), low cholesterol, Wilson's Disease, food allergy

(particularly gluten intolerance), and adverse reaction to medications, each of

which requires professional care.

 

Magnesium deficiency is not necessarily the only cause of depression, but it can

be very useful in recovering from depression because the blood and body often

become depleted of magnesium in depression, particularly stress-induced or

diet-induced depression.

 

Often, depression that does not respond to SSRI's (classical antidepressants)

will respond best to treatment with magnesium.

 

Symptoms listed for paying for magnesium serum level tests to detect

hypomagnesemia (low blood levels of magnesium) by a major United States

insurance carrier include depression.

 

However, magnesium is an intracellular cation, and its only valid measurement

is through Intracellular spectroscopy testing, or red blood cell (not whole

blood or serum) testing. A huge list of diseases and health conditions meriting

magnesium status testing is here.

 

Not too certain what your problem is? If you are interested in knowing generally

about mental health issues generally, look through the Mental health Net site.

If you are interested in what life as a manic depressive (bi-polar) is like,

You can test your own level of mania on the Goldberg Depression

Inventory here, and depression here.

 

 

 

 

MY STORY

From early 2000 to summer of 2003, this essay focused upon magnesium glycinate

as the preferred source of magnesium. Now, in late summer of 2003, I have

shifted emphasis from magnesium glycinate to magnesium taurate, which appears

superior to all other forms of magnesium in treating treatment resistant

depression.

 

Other effective magnesium compounds mentioned throughout this essay are ranked

well behind magnesium taurate and are not recommended unless magnesium taurate

can not be obtained. Also, I have major PRECAUTIONS at this link concerning

ineffective and harmful compounds of magnesium for treating depression.

 

After years of study, I remain truly amazed at the tremendous benefits of

magnesium and other nutrients in treating and preventing depression. In

particular, I see magnesium as an important research topic for survival

considering its limited availability from our Western diets and its ability to

inexpensively cure and prevent many expensive diseases, life threatening or not.

 

As you will see from this essay, our dietary choices and our overconsumption of

certain foods are contributing to massive illness, including depression.

 

I know how bad depression can be, because I spent September of 1999 through

April of 2000, in a clinical depression that worsened from the beginning. By

Christmas the depression suddenly became much worse, nearly suicidal in

intensity, and remained that way for four more months.

 

I had always thought that I was a mild hypo manic-depressive, not a suicidal

idiot. In my highs I was capable of deep, insightful thought and amplified

abilities in general which I considered to be an advantage.

 

Never did I think that things could go so wrong with my biochemistry that it

would cause me to have suicidal thoughts and tendencies. How wrong I was. I had

been taking Zoloft (an antidepressant) since 1987 which seemed to take care of

my depression. I lived on Zoloft, but by September of 1999, it stopped working,

- and I knew that something was really wrong.

 

My depression was preceded by many years and accompanied by major stress from

over-work, treatment responsive depression, anxiety, hypomania, fibromyalgia,

infrequent panic attacks, anger, stress, poor diet, overwhelming emotional

feelings, night time muscle spasms, paranoia, asthma, prickly sensations in

hands, arms, chest and lips. I wanted to sleep all day and had trouble getting

up in mornings.

 

Occasionally my lips felt that they were going to vibrate or tingle off my face.

I even saw a spider disappear into my arm once. About 10 years ago, I had a very

painful bout with calcium oxalate kidney stones, a recognized sign of magnesium

deficiency. A few weeks before I was hospitalized in January of 2000, I had very

low energy, mental fogginess, depression with strange suicidal thoughts and I

was under enormous stress.

 

Now, I can recognize these " mental " symptoms as symptoms of magnesium deficiency

and/or calcium toxicity.

 

I won't bother you with the details of my hospitalized depressive episode,

except to say that I was put on nearly every antidepressant drug known and had

severe side effects to all of them and felt sicker and sicker. None worked. I

lost a lot of weight, and I was extremely constipated. I also had a cardiac

arrhythmia. Being disgusted with the treatment provided, I went home.

 

I couldn't work and about all I did was sleep, eat cheese, hard candy, fatty

foods, bread, ice cream, tapioca pudding, drink a lot of milk, consume other

bad-for-you high-calcium delicacies, watch TV and read. Maybe I secretly figured

that if I didn't die slowly and agonizingly from depression, maybe I would die

quickly with a heart killing diet.

 

My reading preferences are in the biomedical field. At home, I researched

medical journals, books and everything medical that I could find on depression

and manic depression. I learned nothing of usefulness, at least nothing that my

doctor had not already told me. I did find that certain foods like refined wheat

and high carbohydrate diets can trigger dysphoric rage and depression, so it

seemed to me that correcting nutritional problems should be beneficial, and that

nutritional research would be worthwhile.

 

On April 12, 2000, I looked like I was dying to several people important in my

life. My psychiatrist agreed and took me off all antidepressant medications and

put me on a tiny amount of lithium carbonate (150 mg twice a day).

 

NOTE: At the end of each following section of this essay, I have placed a link

concerning my rules for success, and the affirmation that " Depression is not a

psychosis. " . I apologize ahead of time for being terribly redundant. My rules

and my understanding of mood disorders as a magnesium deficiency are so commonly

ignored, that I decided they were too important not to heavily emphasize.

 

Cured with Lithium or Magnesium?

Shortly later, I picked up a 1975 copy of Nutrition Almanac, McGraw-Hill Book

Company, New York, and happened to open it to the magnesium section. I was

interested to find that magnesium was low in the serum of people who were

suicidally depressed and others who were seriously depressed.

 

The article indicated that magnesium dietary supplements had been effective in

treating depression. Also, a person with a magnesium deficiency is apt to be

uncooperative, withdrawn, apathetic, nervous, have tremors... essentially lots

of neurological symptoms associated with depression.

 

I was fascinated to notice that cardiac arrhythmias, heart attacks and kidney

stones were also mentioned as magnesium deficiency related. Ah-ha! These looked

like good clues, but definitely not convincing.

 

That same day, I found the next clue in my library. It was in a 1995 textbook in

which I had a published article about zinc lozenges and the common cold. In

Handbook of Metal-Ligand Interactions in Biological Fluids - Bioinorganic

Medicine, volume 2, Marcel Dekker, Inc., New York, there is a chapter by Durlach

et al, entitled " Diverse Applications of Magnesium Therapy " .

 

Its authors assert that in their clinical and open trials they found symptoms

of chronic magnesium deficiency in neuroses to include anxiety,

hyper-emotionality (could this be crying, grieving or other forms of

depression?), fatigue, headaches, insomnia, light-headedness, dizziness, nervous

fits, lump in throat, blocked breathing and respiration, cramps, strong

tingling, pricking, creeping feeling on the skin having no real cause, chest

pain (either of a cardiac nature or not), palpitations, dysrhysthmias, Raynaud's

syndrome, and more including latent tetany, constipation, and myocardial

infarction.

 

Some of these symptoms were stated as occurring as part of panic attacks,

sometimes with the feeling of imminent death. In a paper by the same group,

Durlach showed that aging was a risk factor for magnesium deficiency.

 

In another Durlach article, magnesium deficiency and dementia were equated as

being one and the same. In another paper, Singh et al. showed that magnesium

status was inversely associated with prevalence of coronary artery disease

 

.. I had a calcium oxalate kidney stone a few years ago and was told that I

needed to increase my dietary intake of magnesium. I didn't but now wish that I

had because it is established that magnesium prevents calcium oxalate kidney

stones.

 

Of significant interest was Durlach's statement that chronic primary magnesium

deficit affects about 15 to 20 percent of the Western population, while other

sources more recently place the deficit much higher at nearly 70 percent.

 

One reason given for the deficit is that magnesium-rich foods are rich in energy

(fattening), and they are being avoided in an effort to maintain weight, and

because we are eating more junk food void of magnesium.

 

Wow! This magnesium/depression hypothesis is coming together! Just a few months

previous to the onset of my depression, I had been hospitalized for chest pain,

cardiac dysrhysthmia and an inability to take in more than about 1/5 my normal

breath.

 

The hospital found no cardiac problems, and the internist gave me an IV drip of

magnesium sulfate solution. A few hours later all of those symptoms vanished as

rapidly as they had come. What I was beginning to see was that nearly all

illnesses in my adult life were magnesium deficit related.

 

From which foods do we get magnesium? According to my Nutrition Almanac, a cup

of peanuts or almonds would satisfy the RDA for magnesium, while only 1/4 cup of

kelp (Warning! very high in glutamate) would be needed. Soy flour, bran flakes,

whole wheat, raw brown rice, avocado, wheat bran, shrimp, tuna, Brazil nuts,

cashew nuts, sesame seeds, walnuts and collard greens also supply significant

dietary magnesium. In the audio Bible, Genesis 1:29 - " God said, Behold, I have

given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and

every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall

be for meat. " I marvel at the similarity of Biblical teaching to the above list

of foods containing large amounts of magnesium. Succeed! Depression is not a

psychosis!

 

NIH Table of Food Sources of Magnesium

The National Institute of Health has prepared the following food table showing

the best sources of magnesium in the U.S. diet. Look at it! They are nearly all

highly fattening foods. I would rather not get fat and just take my magnesium

supplements to handle my depression problems.

 

The very idea of loading up on these fattening foods should make anyone

depressed. The government is a robot saying over and over " cut down on fattening

foods " for your health! BS! For us manic depressives and depressives, following

the NIH dietary guidelines suggested in the NIH link on keeping magnesium intake

low is suicidal, not just because they limit our intake of magnesium, but of

other extremely critical nutrients including taurine, boron and Essential Fatty

Acids (EFA) such as the Omega-3 EFAs.

 

Even so, the NIH admits that a sign of magnesium deficiency is depression. Even

though the NIH list appears accurate, it may be misleading for us because many

of these foods have much more calcium than magnesium. Excess calcium over

magnesium inhibits absorption of magnesium from the diet. A list of foods in

this web page having more magnesium than calcium is here.

 

Food Milligrams %DV

Kelp 100 grams 760 190

Alfalfa 100 grams 230 58

Avocado, Florida, 1/2 med 103 26

Wheat germ, toasted, 1 oz 90 22

Almonds, dry roasted, 1 oz 86 21

Seeds, pumpkin, 1/2 oz 75 19

Cashews, dry roasted, 1 oz 73 18

Nuts, mixed, dry roasted, 1 oz 66 17

Spinach, cooked, 1/2 c 65 16

Bran flakes, 1/2 c 60 15

Cereal, oats, instant/fortified, cooked w/ water, 1 c 56 14

Potato, baked w/ skin, 1 med 55 14

Soybeans, cooked, 1/2 c 54 14

Peanuts, dry roasted, 1 oz 50 13

Peanut butter, 2 Tbs. 50 13

Chocolate bar, 1.45 oz 45 11

Bran (pure), 2 Tbs 44 11

Vegetarian baked beans, 1/2 c 40 10

Potato, baked w/out skin, 1 med 40 10

Avocado, California, 1/2 med 35 9

Lentils, cooked, 1/2 c 35 9

Banana, raw, 1 medium 34 9

Shrimp, mixed species, raw, 3 oz (12 large) 29 7

Tahini (from sesame seed), 2 Tbs 28 7

Raisins, golden seedless, 1/2 c packed 28 7

Cocoa powder, unsweetened, 1 Tbs 27 7

Bread, whole wheat, 1 slice 24 6

Spinach, raw, 1 c 24 6

Kiwi fruit, raw, 1 med 23 6

Hummus, 2 Tbs 20 5

Broccoli, chopped, boiled, 1/2 c 19 5

 

 

*DV = Daily Value. DVs are reference numbers based on the Recommended Dietary

Allowance (RDA). They were developed to help consumers determine if a food

contains very much of a specific nutrient. The DV for magnesium is 400

milligrams (mg). The percent DV (%DV) listed on the nutrition facts panel of

food labels tells adults what percentage of the DV is provided by one serving.

Even foods that provide lower percentages of the DV will contribute to a

healthful diet.

 

 

 

Wow! I am lucky to be alive! My diet had excluded all magnesium rich foods for

months. I wonder if people who go on diets delete these critical foods from

their diet, start to feel a bit low, and rightfully decide to forget dieting. It

is well known that some people must eat fattening foods simply to feel well. Is

magnesium demand from fattening foods the link between fat people and depression

avoidance?

 

I know that I am not as hungry using magnesium supplements. Actually, I think

the cure for hunger is magnesium, because the foods (mainly wheat) that used to

be our main source of magnesium and other nutrients are no longer good sources

for them.

 

A few days after digesting what I had learned, I checked MedLine for some

backup. I looked up " magnesium " AND " depression " . Sure enough it was there.

Calcium/magnesium imbalances with magnesium being low were found in depressed

patients that had attempted suicide.

 

Other articles supported the concept too. For example, high serum and

cerebrospinal fluid calcium / magnesium ratios were found in recently

hospitalized acutely depressed patients. The further I looked on the web, the

more exciting and proliferate the became - which, hopefully, is reflected in

this page. Another book in my library, The Dictionary of Minerals, Thorsons

Publishing Group, New York, point-blank read, " Therapy with magnesium has been

used to treat ...mental depression... " .

 

Magnesium has recently been medically demonstrated to reduce severe therapy

resistant mania. That was enough evidence for me.

 

That same day I purchased magnesium glycinate, a non-toxic dietary supplement

found in a local health food store. How much should I take each day? Was it

safe? I really didn't know and didn't much care. I made a decision to start out

with about 3 times the 400 mg/day RDA for magnesium, with 400 mg in the morning,

400 mg mid afternoon and 400 mg at bedtime. I used Carlson's chelated magnesium

glycinate (200 mg magnesium elemental) product. I was an optimist by this time

so I bought 3 bottles.

 

What did it taste like? To me the first few times I used magnesium glycinate it

tasted strangely metallic. But taking it with milk it didn't taste metallic at

all. This is an important observation that merits explanation.

 

There are chemicals in milk fats and other food fats that bind magnesium and

other bioactive minerals to biologically inactive state.

 

That may be a reason why fatty foods are bad for the heart. One might consume

enough magnesium to fulfill the RDA, but if the magnesium is bound so tightly to

a stearate or oleate that it is non soluble and is excreted through the feces

without being absorbed into the blood, what good is it? What happens to the

heart? Heart attack!

 

I think this is why some in the FDA think the RDA for magnesium should be raised

to about 900 mg per day. Other people using magnesium glycinate have not noticed

any strange metallic taste.

 

Within a few days to a short week, I felt remarkably better, my depression

lifted noticeably, but I was getting a bit of diarrhea. Yeah! I didn't need that

damned lithium corkscrew anymore!! (just kidding). Oh, the taste of those

tablets! I needed some coated magnesium glycinate tablets. Actually, the taste

was bad during the first few weeks only, after that the taste was not

noticeable. Who knows what that means.

 

Within a week to 10 days of starting magnesium, I felt close to being well. I

looked so well, that my psychiatrist thought I looked better than he had ever

seen me. One interesting fact from The Dictionary of Minerals is that lithium

intake is associated with an increase in magnesium, calcium and phosphate blood

serum concentrations.

 

A possible explanation for these findings is that Li+ displaces Mg2+ from

intracellular binding sites. As I improved, I lowered my dosage of magnesium to

find the best dosage for me. I lowered it too much and symptoms rapidly came

back. Eventually, I stabilized the dosage at four 200-mg elemental magnesium (as

magnesium glycinate) tablets a day. Four hundred mg is the RDA for magnesium for

men. Succeed! Depression is not a psychosis!

 

June 7, 2000

My depression is completely, totally, absolutely gone, gone, gone! I am active

and can function mentally, emotionally, and physically at my best again. No more

cardiac arrhythmia! Not only that, my vision and bowels have also returned to

normal - finally. I consider myself to be back to my good old normal self -

although my critics will never admit that I am normal and have never been

normal. Whatever normal is. Yet, a strange anxiety that the depression would

return remained unabated.

 

What caused my rapid recovery after being a treatment resistant, non-responder

for many months? Did going off those antidepressant meds cause it? Was it my

imagination? Would I have gotten well anyway? Was it just the lithium? I

seriously doubt it.

 

My bet is on repletion of magnesium, both by dietary supplementation and action

by lithium in increasing blood serum levels of magnesium. I can now see that my

diet has been deficient in magnesium for years. My diet did not include

high-in-magnesium foods listed above.

 

Worse, I had been on a magnesium depleting diet from eating fatty foods and

ingesting too much calcium. If I hadn't realized my magnesium problem, I

probably would have died of a heart attack, like these guys warn. I repleted my

body with magnesium, but did not use a great excess of magnesium as such might

be toxic.

 

If you have time, search the above link's depression links, and do a search or

two for " depression " , " suicide " and " serotonin " . When I conducted a mini search,

I was overwhelmed with relating magnesium deficiency with mental illness.

Succeed! Depression is not a psychosis!

 

Stress as Ultimate Cause of Depression

If you are a medical or science type you might like to read Mechanisms of Action

on the Nervous System in Magnesium Deficiency and Dementia. One paragraph in

this link is so important that I quoted it here:

 

" Although a neurosis pattern due to magnesium deficiency is frequently observed

and simply cured through oral physiological supplementation, neuroses are

preeminently conditioning factors for stress (thus increasing demand for

magnesium).

 

Neuroses may therefore very frequently produce secondary magnesium depletion.

They require their own specific anti neurotic treatment and not mere oral

magnesium physiological supplementation, but both genuine forms of neurosis due

to primary neural magnesium deficiency and magnesium depletion secondary to a

neurosis may exist.

 

These two conditions may be concomitant and reinforce each other. In these

stressful patients it may be difficult to establish the primacy of one or the

other. In practice, physiological oral magnesium supplements may be added to

psychiatric treatments, at least at the start. " I interpret this to mean that

magnesium alone can prevent stress from resulting in neuroses.

 

 

Stress intensifies release of two major classes of " stress hormones " , the

catecholamines and corticosteroids, which normally greatly increase survival of

well animals when their lives are threatened.

 

 

Catecholamines are chemically similar small molecules derived from the amino

acid tyrosine. The major catecholamines are dopamine, norepinephrine, and

epinephrine (old name: adrenalin). Dopamine is a neurotransmitter (a chemical

used to transmit impulses between nerve cells) found mainly in the brain.

 

Norepinephrine is the primary neurotransmitter in the sympathetic nervous

system (controls the " fight or flight " reaction) and is also found in the brain.

Epinephrine is not only a brain neurotransmitter, but also a major hormone in

the body. Epinephrine is secreted from the adrenal medulla in response to low

blood glucose, exercise, and various forms of acute stress (in the latter case,

the brain stimulates release of the hormone). Epinephrine causes a breakdown of

glycogen to glucose in liver and muscle, the release of fatty acids from adipose

tissue, vasodilation of small arteries within muscle tissue, and increases the

rate and strength of the heartbeat.

 

All of the catecholamines are metabolized by their target tissues or by the

liver to become inactive substances that appear in the urine: For example,

dopamine becomes HVA, norepinephrine becomes normetanephrine and VMA, and

epinephrine becomes metanephrine and VMA. Consequently, a urine test for

elevated catecholamines is both simple and available.

 

 

Corticosteroids are group of natural and synthetic analogues of the hormones

secreted by the hypothalamic-anterior pituitary-adrenocortical (HPA) axis, more

commonly referred to as the pituitary gland. These include glucocorticoids,

which are anti-inflammatory agents with a large number of other functions;

mineralocorticoids, which control salt and water balance primarily through

action on the kidneys; and corticotropins, which control secretion of hormones

by the pituitary gland.

 

They have been thorougly researched and developed as drugs in the treatment of

many diseases. Corticosteroids are used to provide relief for inflamed areas of

the body. They are extremely strong drugs. They lessen swelling, redness,

itching, and allergic reactions. They are often used as part of the treatment

for a number of different diseases, such as severe allergies or skin problems,

asthma, arthritis and certain cancers and leukemias. They have many well-known

side effects.

 

 

When magnesium deficiency exists, stress paradoxically increases risk of

cardiovascular damage including hypertension, cerebrovascular and coronary

constriction and occlusion, arrhythmias, sudden cardiac death (SCD), asthma,

anxiety and depression.

 

Dietary imbalances such as high intakes of fat and/or calcium (Ca) can intensify

inadequacy of magnesium, especially under conditions of stress.

 

Thus, stress, whether physical (i.e. exertion, heat, cold, trauma - accidental

or surgical, burns), or emotional (i.e. pain, anxiety, excitement or depression)

and dyspnea (difficulty in breathing) as in asthma increases need for magnesium.

Magnesium deficiency intensifies adverse reactions to stress that can be life

threatening. Such reactions are mediated by excess release of the stress

hormones, catecholamines and corticosteroids, which are increased by low

magnesium and high calcium levels, and which further lower tissue magnesium in a

feed back fashion, and suppress testosterone production.

 

 

 

More on the consequences of magnesium deficiency on the enhancement of stress

reactions; preventive and therapeutic implications is here and in the following

figure.

 

Genetic differences in magnesium utilization may account for differences in

vulnerability to magnesium deficiency and differences in body responses to

stress. There are so many stressors in our active lives that adversely affect

magnesium reserves; it is a miracle that we can live on our puny magnesium

deficient diets without vastly more cardiac and psychiatric problems.

 

Magnesium is a required nutrient for people to handle stress in general and

stress in neuropsychiatric disorders. Not getting sufficient dietary or

supplemental magnesium during medical treatment for stress related disorders

such as anxiety and depression is bound to fail. A short and easy to read

summary of magnesium and its stress relief action is presented here by Dr. Leo

Galland. He points out that stress depletion of magnesium is often so intense

that dietary sources are insufficient, and supplementation is required.

 

Measure your level of stress here. These effects and aggressive behavior are

easily observed in the mouse model. Magnesium is now marketed as an anti stress

mineral.

 

Stress, diuretics, fluoride, refined flour, chemotherapy, too much sugar,

antibiotics, large amounts of protein, and high fat foods decrease absorption of

magnesium, as do foods high in oxalic acid (mainly fresh spinach and possibly

tea in excess) which deplete magnesium in the body, which in turns lowers one's

resistance to stress and depression (a feedback loop).

 

Overweight and obese people are usually low in magnesium, a mineral necessary to

metabolize (burn) fat. People working outside in high temperatures and high

humidity often become magnesium deficient and have stress related problems.

 

What blows my mind is that there has already been an extraordinary amount of

work collecting data that shows magnesium to be a profoundly important nutrient

in preventing and treating hundreds of illnesses and conditions, particularly

those illnesses related to stress.

 

It seems that magnesium deficiency in our diet is responsible for many forms of

bad health and early death. Don't take my word for it, rather visit Paul Mason's

site and see his huge list of magnesium treatable disorders.

 

Also, the Health-World web site has a growing but still incomplete list of

magnesium deficiency symptoms, which include (alphabetically) acute heart

attacks, agoraphobia, anxiety, angina pectoris, asthma, back aches, breast

tenderness, cardiac arrhythmias, chronic fatigue syndrome, can't take a deep

breath, carbohydrate craving (especially of chocolate) and carbohydrate

intolerance, chest tightness, chronic cardiovascular disease, chronic fatigue

syndrome, coronary artery disease, cramps, depression, diabetes, difficulty

swallowing, eclampsia of pregnancy, feeling uptight, frequent sighing, epilepsy,

headaches, high blood pressure, hyperactivity, insomnia, jaw joint (TMJ)

dysfunction, lump in the throat-especially provoked by eating sugar, menstrual

cramps, muscle soreness, muscle tension, mitral valve prolapse, musculoskeletal

disorders, neck pain, numbness, palpitations, panic disorder, pre-eclampsia,

premenstrual irritability, photophobia, panic attacks, restlessness with

constant

movement, salt craving, tingling, twitches, urinary spasms, zips, zaps and

vibratory sensations.

 

I remain amazed and perplexed that magnesium deficiency remains, for the most

part, ignored, neglected, and forgotten. There is one medical journal Magnesium

Research that reports the subject very well, but it is a very difficult journal

to find in nearly all medical libraries. It is the official organ of the

International Society for the Development of Research on Magnesium. Their first

publication date was July, 1988, which makes it a johnny-come-lately among

medical journals. The publisher is John Libbey and Company in London.

 

Typically, magnesium researchers find that their work finds no interest by other

journal editors, and they end up submitting their work to Magnesium Research

simply to get it published, where it is totally ignored by establishment medical

doctors and, until recently, remained the subject of academic curiosity.

 

Fortunately, independent-minded physicians and citizens can research the

National Library of Medicine's PubMed index and find these precious

life-sustaining journal articles. Paul mason is trying to bring much original

research on magnesium and health to the Internet. The full text of many vital

magnesium and health articles can be directly viewed at this vital link.

 

It seems to me that by ignoring these magnesium deficiency disorders, that

medicine has a guaranteed retirement fund. What do I mean? Look at the above

list, and other similar lists carefully and you will see that much of medicine

is dedicated to developing medications for, and treating these specific symptoms

and not treating the underling cause (magnesium deficiency). Consequently,

patients remain ill and return to doctors' offices for more expensive drugs.

Folks, billions of dollars of pharmaceutical drug company income and physician

income is at stake! Be warned!

 

Can I be so obtuse as to say that magnesium supplementation had nothing to do

with my recovery? Can I be so callous as to not recommend magnesium to others

who are suffering from depression, bi-polar disorder, or any of the anxiety

related symptoms listed above? Or any of the symptoms of magnesium deficiency

listed here? Duh!!!

 

I am positive that all suffering from clinical depression want relief - NOW! No

waiting for a med to kick in 4 to 8 weeks! You want it now!!! However, without

sufficient magnesium, recovery will most likely be very difficult and prolonged.

Succeed! Depression is not a psychosis!

_________________

JoAnn Guest

mrsjoguest

DietaryTipsForHBP

http://www.geocities.com/mrsjoguest

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The complete " Whole Body " Health line consists of the " AIM GARDEN TRIO "

Ask About Health Professional Support Series: AIM Barleygreen

 

" Wisdom of the Past, Food of the Future "

 

http://www.geocities.com/mrsjoguest/AIM.html

 

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