Friends of mine had a real scare last week — Liz and John are friends of ours back when Hannah was months old. Their son Jack and HB were close baby buds and we were all brand new to the parenting thing so stuck close together. Life gets busy as our kids get older, so we don’t see each other that much but with anything –Facebook keeps us up to date on what’s going on in each other’s lives. Well last week, John went into cardiac arrest during the night while they were sleeping. Totally out of the blue, no prior health problems. Liz had to revive him using CPR and fortunately they were able to get him to the hospital in time. Liz must have some strength because she broke some ribs in the process!!
It was pretty scary for a while there but I am happy to report that John got sprung from ICU yesterday –but not before they ran a bunch of tests and are working to figure out exactly what the cause was. All the tests came back negative with regards to stroke, heart attack, neuro issues. So, what could it be?
Yesterday morning, I was looking through my Facebook feed and saw this status by Jeff Alexander -one of the many CrossFitters I follow:
Anyone who knows me knows that I use minimal supplementation in my diet, so I’m not a fanatic trying to pump pills, powders, or liquids into myself, my friends/family, or clients. With that said, I am freaking out with the number of “deficiency symptoms” that I seem to possess regarding magnesium intake. I’m even more appalled that many of my friends, family and clients seem to have these same symptoms yet none of us have been informed of the potential need to beef up our magnesium intake through diet and/or supplementation.In the past three weeks I have been supplementing with a powdered magnesium citrate that has been nothing short of miraculous for my twitchy muscles (I was told was due to nerve damage some years ago) and the difficulty I had sleeping many night due to these same overly active muscles. Within the same day of beginning magnesium supplementation I noticed about an 80% reduction in the number and intensity of the twitches. I have slept deeper and easier almost every night for three weeks.After 100 pull ups on Monday (we did Murph for Memorial Day) and 100 kettlebell swings tonight, my arms were pretty tight and my forearms were really bugging me. 10-15 minutes after drinking my Natural Calm magnesium, arms are relaxed and I’m barely aware of them. This stuff is AWESOME!
I have never even thought about Magnesium a day in my life. Never knew it was that important but apparently it is:
Virtually, all chemical reactions in the body require an enzyme system to help the biochemical reaction take place. An enzyme system generally consists of three parts. They are a specific protein molecule, another smaller organic compound, which is often a vitamin, such as pyridoxine or vitamin B6, and finally a charged mineral, such as zinc, copper, manganese or magnesium. Magnesium is a critical co-factor in more than 300 enzymatic reactions in the human body. Each mineral when dissolved in fluids has a characteristic electrical charge,
Well, they think that John did not have enough magnesium in his system and it caused a cardiac arrest! It was an odd coincidence that I happen to read about Magnesium in the AM and then read about John that afternoon
Here’s Liz’s post about it:
But we are still trying to determine what caused the electrical problem. Beleive it or not the doctor really thinks this is a magnesium deficiency. They asked if he drank a lot of soda and coffee (soda has been off the table for John for over a year, but he does drink coffee). Because it’s difficult to get enough magnesium, even through organic greens, they HIGHLY recommend a slow absorption supplement twice a day.
So Folks, moral of the story –get your blood checked and start making sure you are getting enough Magnesium!!
Here’s a grocery list from Dr. Oz: Magnesium Grocery List and I just ordered the Natural Calm magnesium drink to see if that helps with some of the symptoms I have been experiencing. I will let you know if I start to notice a difference in the way I feel and perform.
warmup
200m jog
10 squats
4 Sampson stretch
4 Elbow Instep Lunge
10 push ups
10 Squats
5x5
Bench Press
first round did 115# by accident, then rounds 2-5 stayed at 105#
WOD
EMOM 15minutes
3 Thrusters 55#
6 Slam Balls 15#
3 responses to “Magnesium: The Forgotten Mineral”
I just got a chance to read this, HOW INTERESTING!! I have had ringing in my ears for some months as well, so was planning to talk to my doctor at my next physical about treating that with magnesium!
[…] gotta talk about the benefits of Magnesium again. I sometimes forget to take it and then get in the routine of skipping it for days on end. […]
[…] May, I wrote about a scary experience a friend of mine had that almost took his life because he was Magnesium deficient. I had no idea how prevalent low Magnesium levels are and its […]