Magnesium Supplements - Multiple Benefits!

Disclaimer: This article is written from my personal experience as a reformed hypochondriac. I am not a doctor nor am I a medical professional, and no one is advised to take this as a substitute for proper medical care by a licensed physician for any of the symptoms or conditions mentioned here.

It started years ago with a simple misdiagnosis in a local emergency room. I was told that I had Pelvic Inflammatory Disease (aka "PID"). I was given two medications and sent home to a husband who instantly assumed I was cheating on him. Apparently, PID can be sexually transmitted most of the time. However, the symptoms of PID and the symptoms of Diverticulitis are remarkably similar. Diverticulitis is a very different condition (caused by lack of proper hydration, constipation and poor diet), but the treatment of choice is normally the same for both conditions. So after each ten day course of the prescribed heavy duty antibiotics, the symptoms would improve temporarily. Then it would come back again with a vengeance, and I would have to get treatment again. This went on for a couple of years. It finally became so bad that I would end up curled up in a ball in severe pain in our bed for a day or two until the antibiotics kicked in.

It wasn't until I started going to a new clinic in town that had a former military Physician's Assistant (aka as a "PA") that I was given a proper diagnosis for my diverticulitis. It may have been this particular PA's correct assessment of my condition that saved my life. The guy who had misdiagnosed me repeatedly to begin with was amazed when it was brought to his attention. He ended up being the doctor finally confirming diverticulosis through a cat scan. I have been told repeatedly that doctors do not normally look for this condition in a patient that is not of advanced age. Apparently, this is much more prevalent in the elderly population, but that is now changing. I subsequently ended up having 18 inches of my colon removed, but not before repeated courses of antibiotics had all but completely depleted the magnesium in my body, causing me to be left with extreme anxiety and ligament damage.

I began having symptoms of anxiety early on. It reached a point where I could not even get a "deep" breath. I ended up yawning about a gazillion times a day. People were making comments to me like, "You need more sleep, don't you?" or "Wow, you must have had a wild night last night!" I was having quite a time explaining it, but then I was again misdiagnosed as having anxiety in that same emergency room. I was put on Xanax by the first doctor, which made me cry all the time. Then, they switched me to Ativan, which was okay, but I would get grumpy when it started wearing off. I was not a happy camper. I opted out of Prozac and other suggested medications that were on offer.

Then I decided to get off of the pills altogether, and I discovered Jason Winters Tea, which is supposed to shrink certain kinds of tumors and relieve anxiety. It made me feel a warm sense of well-being before I even finished half of the cup. Each tea bag was supposed to make three cups, so I had used tea bags in multiple places in my kitchen and office. It helped with anxiety tremendously at first, but then my symptoms returned with a vengeance. I had trouble getting that "deep" breath.

ANOTHER disturbing symptom I experienced as a result of taking this particular unnamed, heavy duty antibiotic used to treat my misdiagnosed and later correctly diagnosed conditions was the damage to my ligaments. I was doing a stretching exercise when I felt a pop in my hip that evolved into an extremely painful deep rotator injury that prevented me from walking properly and without pain for several months. No amount of myofacial release or any other type of massage or physical therapy I tried seemed to help. In fact, it only made things worse to mess with it. The doctor that was over the PA I had gone to finally was the one who told me to rest it for six weeks. That is a tall order for a single mom with three kids. It was about three months of going easy on it before I experienced bearable relief.

This ligament damage was very aggravating. Even though my hip was somewhat better, it was still uncomfortable to stretch too quickly. I finally, through internet research, found that magnesium supplements help to correct the ligament damage.

Magnesium supplements have been so beneficial to me that I felt compelled to write about it. There are so many things that have improved with the addition of this supplement, that I plan to continue taking it indefinitely. A word of caution here: take less than the recommended dosage to avoid overdose. There are permanent repercussions to an overdose of magnesium, but taken lightly and regularly, it can relieve constipation (which helps cause diverticulosis!). It also immediately took away my breathing problem that had plagued me for years. I don't even have to think about my breathing anymore. And last, but certainly not least, I am feeling a definite improvement in the ligament department. I have been doing a workout program for a week now, and I have had no pain yet other than sore muscles.

I am so thankful to have found this inexpensive relief to all of these things I was so distraught over. As with any supplement, make sure that it does not interfere with anything you may already be taking. I definitely recommend that anyone thinking of taking magnesium should read about the pros and cons of magnesium in more than one place before making an educated decision about whether or not to try it. That being said, I normally just jump right in if it sounds like a good idea at the time. That is how I "tried" magnesium, and it seems to be Heaven Sent.