Rapid Recovery from Depression Using Magnesium Treatment

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Rapid Recovery from Depression Using Magnesium Treatment

JoAnn Guest

Sep 23, 2004 16:25 PDT

 

 

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

 

George Eby -NOTE: To avoid my spam filters read this page

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 " .

 

Naturopathic Medicine

VITAL! Collected Thoughts on Dosage

Sum It Up In a Nutshell George Eby!

---

DEPRESSION: 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

epression 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 health 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 acually " 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 mgnesium 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 a 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 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 butnow 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 would be needed. Organic 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 (Warning! very high in glutamate) 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

Cereal, shredded wheat, 2 rectangular biscuits 80 20

Seeds, pumpkin, 1/2 oz 75 19

Cashews, dry roasted, 1 oz 73 18

Raw nuts, 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

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 magnesiumdemand from fattening foods the link between fat people

anddepression avoidance? I know that I am not as hungry using

magnesiumsupplements.

 

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!

 

January 19, 2001 Update and Miscellaneous Musings

Looking back over the last year, I now realize that the increases in

lithium that I was prescribed (a gradual increase from 300 to 1050

mg lithium carbonate per day) was associated with progressive

reductions in feeling of well being (sort of a placid zombie-like

feeling) and pending damage to thyroid function (excess lithium

causes hypothyroidism).

 

On December 5, 2000, I decided that it was

imperative for me to stop lithium because I did not want to have to

be dependent upon thyroid extract for the rest of my life due to the

toxicity of lithium. Even though lithium is a mineral element, it is

not found in the human diet except in trace amounts (which are

related to even temperament).

 

However, magnesium is a vital to life

essential human nutrient. I.E. there is no RDA for lithium (or any

drug), but there is for magnesium! Actually, lithium is a drug that

is being used to sustitute for a nutrient, magnesium! How tricky of

those docs! What a way to drum up business!

 

Surprisingly, I began to feel better, even better than I felt in

June when I first started taking low-dose lithium and high-dose

magnesium. After several months off of lithium, people say I look

ten years younger. I feel much sharper and my mental capabilities

have returned to what is normal for me. I hope that I will never

again take lithium.

 

I now strongly suspect that the main biochemical

function of lithium is to raise magnesium levels in the blood as

mentioned above, with the mental benefit coming not from lithium but

from lithium induced increased magnesium blood levels. This idea

could account for the 40 percent failure rate of lithium in

preventing future depressive episodes. That is to say, if dietary

magnesium intake is so low that not even lithium can return it to

normal levels, then one succumbs to depression or other magnesium

deficiency disorders.

 

I remember meeting people (in group therapy classes and elsewhere)

that looking backward seem likely to have been magnesium deficient.

I remember a bright young lady that was terribly suicidal. She was

totally resistant to all known antidepressants. She was so thin that

she was nearly skin and bones and obviously was malnourished. She

wanted to commit suicide so badly that she was under constant

supervision.

 

I can't help but wonder if she was misdiagnosed,

meaning that she was severely, gravely magnesium depleted. I

remember meeting many other people who were depressed; one was a

single female registered nurse, who was overwhelmed by her stressful

hospital duties and her desperate family child care situation. I

remember a lovely young suicidal woman whose favorite tune was the

theme from M*A*S*H. Apparently, she had no idea of the lyrics to the

song " Suicide is Painless " . She had been pounding out that song on

piano for years. I wonder if she would have been there had her

favorite song been something else. A 40ish man who could no longer

accept that he was, in his opinion, a failure in his business. A

lawyer who couldn't handle further domestic abuse.

An

internationally acclaimed scientist and editor who was overwhelmed

by his time-line oriented job. Young children who were sad all of

the time for no apparent reason, even if they were given all the

toys they wanted. There was a young gay who desperately didn't want

to be gay. Each of these people, and I suspect most depressives,

share one thing common in their lives. STRESS! Magnesium deficiency

can be brought on by diet too.

 

I know a wonderful young lady who

felt that she was too fat for her husband and went on a 1-month

starvation diet. She lost enough weight, but became extremely

magnesium deficient; and developed very difficult to treat multiple

cardiac and depression symptoms causing enormous stress in her life.

The strange part about stress is that magnesium deficiency and

stress reinforce and build upon each other, resulting in a difficult

to manage, unstable downward spiral.

 

Succeed! Depression is not a pychosis!

 

 

FURTHER RESEARCH

When I purchased my first bottle of magnesium glycinate, it was not

from intelligence that I chose that particular compound of

magnesium. It was just what was available on the shelf at the store

I visited. After considerable research, I found that the store

provided the second best form of magnesium that I could have chosen

to treat depression.

Only magnesium taurate (a form of magnesium

that decreases chances of diarrhea) is superior to all other forms

of magnesium. Both glycine and taurine have been used to effectively

treat depression. Also taurine (the ligand in magnesium taurate) has

been shown to be low or absent in 100 percent of people with

depression and chronic pain according to Shealy.

 

I quit taking and quit recommending magnesium glycinate because

glycine, in the doses taken and while taken for a protracted period

of time, will damage its delicate balance with another amino acid,

taurine. Taurine is vital to mental and cardiac health and must not

be disturbed, while glycine is ubiquitous and appears highly

unlikely to be bothered by too much taurine.

 

For example, diets with

up to 1% as taurine had no adverse effect on these animals. Long

term high doses of glycinate will eventually cause ever worsening

cardiac arrhythmias and will never allow total recovery from

depression or other mood disorders, although most people will find

that it works miracles for them in the short-term. Also, both

magnesium and taurine have been proven to be low in depression in

about 80% and 100% of cases respectively. Read Shealy's article

starting here. See sentence immediately before the Discussion

section.

 

This does not mean magnesium glycinate is harmful in the

short- or near-term, it just means one shouldn't use it year in and

year out, and it must be IMMEDIATELY stopped if side effects,

particularly cardiac arrhytmias (PVS and/or PACs) occur.

 

Glycine (the second component of magnesium glycinate) chelates

(removes) mercury from the body, and may be supeior to even

magnesium taurate for people with heavy metal posioning in the short-

or near-term. Citric acid and cysteine also remove mercury and

appear safer for long term use than glycine.

 

The first stability

constants for glycine, cysteine and citric acid are in the log 10 to

log 14 range, which are vastly stronger bindings than can be broken

by any natural biology or chemistry event occuring in the body.

Glycine is a non-essential amino acid, but for people with mercury

poisoning, it, cysteine and citric acid may be highly important.

Because of these amazing chelating, sequestering or binding powers,

if they reacted with mercury in any form in the body, they should be

able to bind them much more tightly, making mercury biologically

unavailable in the body.

Perhaps, consumption of large amounts of

these amino acids from high quality protein sources, and consumption

of citrus help protect from the toxic effects of mercury.

Mercury is

extremely toxic and can cause depression and many symptoms

associated with depression. These symptoms include, insomnia,

nervousness, memory loss, dizziness, anxiety, loss of self-

confidence, irritability, drowsiness, weight loss, tremors,

paraesthesia (numbness and tingling), hallucinations, headaches,

fatigue, muscle weakness, hearing difficulties, emotional

instability, skin inflammation, incoordination and kidney damage.

The common areas where mercury is found are: auto exhaust emissions,

used motor oils, pesticides, fertilizers, dental amalgams (silver

fillings), drinking water (tap and well), leather tanning chemicals,

felt, bleached flour,

processed foods, fabric softeners, fish (tuna,

swordfish, shark, king mackerel and tile fish), calomel (mercury

chloride contaminant in talc, body powder), paint pigments and

solvents, cinnabar (mercury sulfide - used in red jewelry items),

inorganic mercury laxatives, mercurochrome/methiolate anti-

infectives, cosmetics (mascara), floor waxes and polishes, wood

preservatives, water plumbing & piping, adhesives, batteries, used

air conditioner filters (better here than in the air), broken

thermometers, and some electronic equipment.

Consequently,

supplementing several grams of these chelating agents daily is a

good idea regardless of current mental health. Succeed! Depression

is not a psychosis!

 

Collected Thoughts on Dosage

Now, more than 3 years after my very rapid recovery, I still ponder

the correct dosage for magnesium, perhaps because this is the number

one question asked by readers. What are the facts? There are some in

the FDA who believe the U.S. RDA of 400 mg for men and 350 for women

is too low, and that many persons need as much as 900 a day in their

diet for a normal life. Canada, who pays for its citizen's health

care, has a RDA of 600 mg magnesium for adults.

 

Dosage depends on the ligand, the thing to which the magnesum is

attached. In the case of magnesium taurate, the ligand is " taurate " .

Absorption is largely a property of contact of the magnesium ion

with the lining of the stomach and intestines.

If magnesium is

lightly bound to the ligand, then the acidity of the stomach

can " ionize " the magnesium from its ligand and convert it to

magnesium chloride (from the stomach acid hydrochloric acid) and

finally into a positively charged ionic form for transfer into the

blood where it is then picked up by various other ligands for

transport to cells. Stomach acid can reduce the magnesium compound

to the ionic form for metal complexes that have low to modest

chemical stability, releasing both the magniesum ion and the ligand.

 

The following magnesium compounds have sufficiently low stability

that they offer very high absorption and are well tolerated.

Magnesium acetate, chloride, citrate, gluconate, glycinate, lactate,

malate, succinate, sulfate, tartrate and taurate are all very good,

ionizable sources of magnesium. Intravenously, hospitals give

magnesium sulfate. Magnesium chloride would be best, but it is very

hygroscopic and difficult to properly package.

On the other hand,

magnesium oxide, magnesium hydroxide and magnesium carbonate are

totally useless because they are too tightly bound together for the

stomach acid to dissociate into ionic form. They will not work

except in much larger doses, which greatly increase risk of

diarrhea. In fact magnesium hydroxide is used to treat constipation

(Milk of Magnesia).

All of the useful, ionizable compounds of

magnesium taste bad. On the other hand magnesium carbonate, oxide

and hydroxide have no taste. These compounds are so tightly bound

not even the taste buds are affected by them. Always taste-test each

bottle of magnesium to detect improperly labeled products.

Improperly labeled magnesium products do exist in the United States

and they do cause many people to complain that " magnesium didn't

work " . Obviously, neurotoxic-to-us ligands (glutamate and aspartate)

must be avoided.

 

Much of this essay relates to and asks why one needs so much

supplemental magnesium to maintain mood? Normally, people don't

consider magnesium as a part of their nutrition, even though

magnesium is the second most prevalent mineral inside their cells

(potassium is first).

 

Have you ever seen magnesium on a food

ingredient label? Not likely. I know I haven't, except for Planters®

nuts. Clearly people with mood disorders leak or do not properly

absorb magnesium. Consequently, without supplements of magnesium we

are in desperate condition.

 

There is an important section in this

essay that explores in depth the question of why we leak magnesium

and can't properly absorb it. Please read that section to see which

factors might be involved in your personal situation. You will

probably need to discuss these factors with your physician. Briefly,

there are two main reasons, kidney (urinary) and gastrointestinal

(fecal) losses.

 

Some losses are caused by damage to these two organs

by common drugs, usually prescription drugs like steroids, birth

control pills, antifungals, laxatives and antibiotics. Other causes

of damage include poor diet, endocrine disorders, parasites,

infection and many other shown in this link.

 

In my case, I know

medicines damaged my gut by treating a yeast infection first with

prescription antibiotics (improperly prescribed) and then with

steroids (a potentially dangerous medicine). Did that further

predispose me to depression? I think so.

 

There are four very important dietary causes of low magnesium, which

are: (1) " Leaky gut Syndrome " - inadequate intestinal bacteria, (2)

insulin / sugar problems and (3) improper calcium / magnesium ratio,

and (4) low bile production.

 

During our youth, we are usually immune

to each of these problems, but as we age (either in years or from

toxins such as drugs or abuse of sugars and calcium), our ability to

defend ourselves from these factors declines, sometimes to the point

of illness. We will now discuss the main underling non-medical

reasons for low intracellular magnesium, which cause depression (and

many other common illnesses).

 

" Leaky Gut Syndrome "

The answer to the question, " How much should I take to cure my

depression? " , closely relates to what caused the magnesium

malabsorption or leakage. In nearly all cases severe stress

(metabolic, psychological, environmental, physical) is involved as a

predisposing factor.

 

However, " Leaky Gut Syndrome " may be the most

frequent cause of our inability to absorb magnesium. In nearly all

cases, improving digestion by any means possible, such as use of

stomach acidifiers (AC Vinegar), enzymes, CoQ10, soluble fiber, and

correcting " Leaky Gut Syndrome " are easy and should be our highest

priorities for rapid recovery. How?

 

First, we must realize that

insufficient stomach acid prevents absorption of minerals including

magnesium, and that anything that irritates or damages our

intestines impairs our ability to absorb magnesium. If magnesium is

not absorbed through the walls of the stomach, in the large

intestines magnesium ions attract vast numbers of molecules of water

and promote retention of water - the usually accepted cause of its

laxative effects. However, inadequate production of bile and the

resultant diarrhea may be far more important in our inability to

absorb sufficient magnesium.

 

We must also realize that magnesium

when present in the gut in sufficient concentration acts on our

intestinal flora in the same way as an antibiotic - a definite gut

irritant! This action may be because magnesium ions (especially as

magnesium chloride - the form of magnesium present in our bodies as

result of hydrochloric stomach acid) have strong, wide-spectrum

antibiotic action. The antibiotic action of magnesium ion, using

Epsom Salt, is well appreciated in veterinary medicine, and is used

daily in treating topical wounds in animals, particularly abscesses

in hoofs of horses. Also, Walter Last recounts its early use in

humans as an antibiotic here.

 

Why magnesium ion is not used as a

broad spectrum antibiotic in people today is unclear, but probably

has little to do with efficacy and much to do with economics.

Regardless, if sufficient magnesium gets into the large intestines,

it can and often does disrupt the normal flora of the gut causing a

form of " Leaky Gut Syndrome " in the absence of adequate bile. This

effect results in inadequate absorption of magnesium, calcium and

many other nutrients which can cause many disorders including

depression. Treating " Leaky Gut Syndrome " therefore becomes a novel

way to treat depression.

 

How is " Leaky Gut Syndrome " treated? First, identify and avoid

things that irritate the gut such as food allergens, alcohol,

caffeine, sugar (excesses cause intestinal yeast overgrowth) and

drugs. Second, probiotics (life-sustaining bacteria normal and

required in the intestines) such as acidophilus lactobacillus

(available at pharmacies, health food and grocery stores) are needed

to maintain and replace intestinal flora killed by excess magnesium

ion. Only the strongest, fresh (refrigerated) available should be

used, in a sufficient amount (6+ billion viable microorganisms per

dose) and at a frequency (3 to 5 doses a day) to terminate diarrhea

nearly overnight.

 

Taking probiotics at times of the day different

from magnesium only makes sense. Just like we would never take

antibiotics at the same time of taking probiotics, we must not take

magnesium with probiotics. There seems to be zero risk of overdosage

using quality products, but mixed probiotic cultures may not be

useful particularly if un refrigerated, because they have the habit

of killing each other in warm environments when stored for a long

time.

 

If you want to get really serious about GI health, do what I

do, use refrigerated 450 billion bacteria VSL#3 packets several

times a day. Gas may be a side effect until the body adjusts. Ask

the store clerk which probiotics have been shipped and maintained in

a refrigerated state and which are the strongest. Third, psyllium

husk fibers or bars without added sugar are very helpful in

providing intestinal bulk and harborage for the intestinal flora.

Some researchers say that damage to the gut repairable using

probiotics takes from 3 to 6 months, even though diarrhea can

usually be terminated within a few days.

Consequently, we must avoid

the temptation of early withdrawal from these life- and health-

sustaining agents. We need to remember that diarrhea is not

necessary for there to be " Leaky Gut Syndrome " . Diarrhea is only one

symptom of this disorder. Also, learn more about how and why

treating " Leaky Gut Syndrome " is vital to general health recovery

and other related treatments of value.

 

The amount of magnesium that we ingest is not as important as the

amount we absorb. Many times magnesium tablets do not quickly

dissolve in the stomach, resulting in entire tablets getting into

the intestines where they always cause diarrhea. Allowing a tablet

to dissolve in a glass of water or in the mouth will reveal problems

with tablet dissolution rates. In cases of slow dissolution, tablets

can be crushed and dissolved in a small glass of water with soluble

fiber. I have an indelicate pallet, and I chew the tablets to a

powder. I don't know if others can do the same. If you find a

magnesium product and it does not taste bad, it probably will not

work!!!

 

What is the result of curing " Leaky Gut Syndrome " in the treatment

of depression with magnesium? Perhaps most importantly, the total

daily amount of magnesium required to improve mood is lowered. On

occasion, repair is so complete that supplemental magnesium may be

discontinued after a few months without recurrence of depression.

 

Importantly, if we can cure " Leaky Gut Syndrome " and our mood

improves to normal, we can be assured that we have fixed a serious

problem using a very simple and harmless technique that allows us to

rule out more complicated causes for our problems with mood. Who

could say that treating depression with probiotics is not better

than treating depression with Prozac®?

 

Taurine - The Perfect-Poop Maker!

Inadequate production of bile, which is made in the liver and aids

in proper digestion of fats, probably is ten times more responsible

for diarrhea and malabsorption of magnesium than any other single

factor while taking therapeutic doses of magnesium. How can we get

our bile production high enough to improve our absorption of

magnesium? Cottage cheese, low in calcium and very high in taurine

(1700 mg per cup), is a good food source. Taking taurine supplements

along with various ionizable magnesium compounds (such as magnesium

acetate, chloride, citrate, gluconate, glycinate, lactate, malate,

succinate, sulfate, tartrate), or magnesium taurate (1:10

stoichiometric ratio), seems to do the trick, because both result in

perfect poop. Loose stools normally attendant with daily 1200 mg

magnesium dosage (split into 200 to 300 mg doses), appeared

completely preventable by taking ten times the dosage of taurine

with the magnesium doses (for example: for each 200 mg magnesium

dosage, 2000 mg of taurine is ingested). Taurine is a conditional

essential amino acid for humans, well known to be essential in human

infants, but not in adults. Its other main function is in preventing

cardiac arrhythmias (palpitations) and regulating cardiac rhythm

generally, by supporting potassium metabolism too. Since I have had

an increasingly severe problem with cardiac arrhythmias (PACs and

PVCs), such is the reason I experimented with taurine. Although the

arrhythmias were slowly benefited over a one month period and

finally disappeared, the poop issue became immediately evident the

first morning after my initial taurine dosage. I searched the

Internet and PubMed for and found only that " excess taurine acts as

a diuretic and laxative " . I disagree. Perhaps such is true for

people not taking large amounts of magnesium, but not true for those

that are taking large amounts of magnesium taurate with CoQ10.

 

Taurine is supposed to be one of the most abundant amino acids in

the body. It is found in human and animal central nervous systems,

skeletal muscles and is very concentrated in brain, heart and eye

tissues. It is synthesized from the amino acids methionine and

cysteine, in conjunction with vitamin B6. Animal protein

(particularly seafoods) is a good source of taurine, but it is not

found in vegetable protein. Vegetarians with an unbalanced protein

intake, and therefore deficient in methionine or cysteine will have

great difficulty manufacturing taurine. Dietary intake is thought to

be more important in women as the female hormone estradiol depresses

the formation of taurine in the liver.

 

Taurine functions in electrically active tissues such as the brain

and heart to help stabilize cell membranes. Taurine seems to inhibit

and modulate neurotransmitters (like glycine and GABA) in the brain

and helps to stabilize cell membranes. It also has functions in the

gallbladder, eyes, and blood vessels and appears to have some

antioxidant and detoxifying activity. Taurine aids the movement of

potassium, sodium, calcium, and magnesium in and out of cells and

thus helps generate nerve impulses. Zinc seems to support this

effect of taurine. There have been reports on the benefits of

taurine supplementation for epileptics. It has also been found to

control motor tics, such as uncontrollable facial twitches. In

Japan, taurine therapy is used in the treatment of ischemic heart

disease.

 

Low taurine and magnesium levels have been found in patients after

heart attacks. Like magnesium, taurine affects cell membrane

electrical excitability by normalizing potassium flow in and out of

heart muscle cells. Supplements decrease the tendency to develop

potentially lethal abnormal heart arrhythmias after heart attacks.

People with congestive heart failure have also responded to

supplementation with improved cardiac and respiratory function.

Taurine is necessary for the chemical reactions that produce normal

vision, and deficiencies are associated with retinal degeneration.

 

Besides protecting the retina, taurine may help prevent and possibly

reverse age-related cataracts. Low levels of taurine and other

sulphur containing amino acids are associated with high blood

pressure, and taurine supplements have been shown to lower blood

pressure in some studies. Other possible uses for taurine

supplementation include eye disease (including scleritis and retinal

disease), cirrhosis, depression and male infertility (due to low

sperm motility) and hypertension, and as a supplement for newborns

and new mothers. It is vital in maintaining the correct composition

of bile and the solubility of cholesterol. It has been found to have

an effect on blood sugar levels similar to insulin.

 

Very interestingly, taurine and glycine exist in the presence of a

time- and dose-dependent exchange mechanism. After administering

glycine to rats, researchers discovered that it produced a notable

suppression of hepatic taurine content in the liver. Yet, this

taurine decrease was not found in other taurine-rich organs such as

the brain, heart or kidney. The mechanism for hepatic concentration

of these two amino acids serves to alter liver concentrations of

these amino acids without adversely affecting the rest of the body.

The significance of this is very high, because as glycine goes up

and taurine goes down in the liver, bile production is impaired and

intestinal absorption of magnesium becomes greatly impaired, helping

to explain why diarrhea resulting from magnesium taurate is

essentially non-existant. In some people sensitive to this reaction,

magnesium glycinate would be contraindicated, while magnesium

taurate would be very helpful. Further, I believe that my PAC and

PVC cardiac arrhythmias were caused by too much glycine, and that by

changing from magnesium glycinate to magnesium taurate they are

prevented.

 

Like all nutrients, taurine enhances or decreases the action of

other nutrients. Monosodium glutamate (MSG) is the sodium salt of

the amino acid glutamic acid. If glutamic acid supplementation is

given, as is sometimes done with alcoholics, it tends to reduce

taurine. MSG itself can also reduce taurine levels. The amino acids

beta-alanine and beta-hypotaurine, as well as the B-vitamin

pantothenic acid, may also interfere with taurine's functions. Zinc,

on the other hand, enhances taurine's effects. Zinc deficiency and

combined vitamin A and zinc deficiency are associated with an

increased excretion of taurine in the urine and with depleted

taurine levels in the tissues where it is normally found. Cysteine

(found in meat) and vitamin B6 are the most critical nutrients to

support the manufacture of taurine in the body of human beings or

those species that are able to synthesize enough.

 

Taurine is an important regulator of cellular ion transport and

osmotic balance, aspects that are pivotal to renal function. The

kidney not only regulates body taurine status, but emerging

information also suggests that body taurine status is of consequence

for renal function. While reduction in endogenous taurine stores can

attenuate renal excretory function, exogenous taurine

supplementation is kidney-protective and augments kidney function in

several conditions that are associated with reduction in diuresis

and natriuresis. Thus taurine treatment may be of potential benefit

in conditions that are associated with impaired kidney function and

the accompanying dysregulation of body fluid and electrolyte

homeostasis. I say that anything that improves kidney function is

vital to us.

 

Taurine supplementation is now recommended for the prevention and

treatment of diabetes. In order to determine the effects of taurine

supplementation or depletion on the morphological changes of

pancreatic beta-cells in streptozotocin-induced diabetic rats, rats

were fed diets supplemented with 1, 2 or 3% taurine or 5% beta-

alanine in their drinking water for 7 weeks. After 3 weeks, diabetes

was induced by streptozotocin injection (50 mg/kg body-weight).

 

Pancreatic morphology was observed by transmission electron

microscopy. The pancreatic beta-cell of the non-diabetic (CO) group

had the many secretory granules, rough endoplasmic reticulum and rod

shaped mitochondria. However, the beta-cells of non taurine-

supplemented diabetic (EO) group were severely damaged, showing

depleted secretory granules. In the 1% taurine-supplemented diabetic

group, the beta-cells were less damaged compared to the EO group and

had some apparently normal secretory granules, but most of rough

endoplasmic reticulum and mitochondria was destroyed. The beta-cell

of 2% taurine-supplemented diabetic group had swollen rough

endoplasmic reticulum, round-shaped mitochondria and some apparently

normal secretory granules. The beta-cell of 3% taurine-supplemented

diabetic group was little different from that of non-diabetic group.

The pancreatic beta-cell of taurine-depleted diabetic group was not

destroyed but had many small secretory granules which appeared

immature. This was reflected in the blood glucose concentrations of

this group. Therefore, taurine may prevent insulin-dependent

diabetes by protection of the pancreatic beta-cell and may also

preserve normal secretory granules.

 

_________________

 

 

JoAnn Guest

mrsjo-

DietaryTi-

www.geocities.com/mrsjoguest/Genes