For CarolynJ: Magnesium oxide; Was: Val or anyone? dosage help please

[Guest guest]

> Lynn,

> I hae been taking magnesium oxide, as it is easier to get and cheaper. I

take

> 1200 mg twice a day and am still constipated. I also take 1500 mg Vit C

twice

> a day also. It is such a tremendous problem. I will literally go for days

and

> days without going at all. I had been staying away from the epsom salts

baths

> because of having the mercury fillings. I have been taking calcium for

> several years as I had a complete hysterectomy and was told to take it to

prevent

> bone loss.

> Thank you!

>

> Carolyn J

I have a two part reply, because you mention 2 issues I want to respond to.

This discussion of magnesium oxide was posted recently on the Iodine group,

and why magnesium oxide is not a suitable form of magnesium supplementation.

Magnesium Oxide (MgO) is not really designed to be a source of bio-available

(available for the body to use) dietary magnesium. It is however more

bio-available for the body under the following three conditions:

1. The quantity ingested must be so low, say 25 to 50 mg or so that it has

little or no effect on stomach pH, allowing for a complete conversion into a

magnesium salt of the stomach acids. This is why magnesium citrate is more

readily absorbed. The citrate salt is similar to the type of magnesium salt

that can be formed by small quantities of MgO in the stomach. Since MgO is

basic it will, if taken in quantities of 500 mg or so, have an antacid

effect which will not allow the conversion to the salt to proceed. If the

product has a generous excess of oxygen it is even less likely that there

can be much, if any, conversion to any form of organic salt. This should be

the case even under the most acidic of conditions found in the

gastro-intestinal tract until all of the mono-atomic oxygen has dissipated.

2. Magnesium oxide taken in fairly low quantities, under 300 mg, and taken

with large quantities of niacin in the form of nicotinic acid, and with

amino acids, especially L-Carnitine, can become bio-available. The niacin,

together with the amino acids, through a rather complex enzyme assisted

series, results in a reaction that can enhance the bioavailability of many

minerals, including magnesium. This combination can even help carry the

minerals across the blood-brain barrier. Here again, with the excess oxygen,

it is questionable whether or not such a conversion could actually take

place. This means very little if any magnesium would be absorbed by the

body. Vitamin D may also increase the absorption rate of MgO.

3. Magnesium oxide taken with a large meal can result in hundreds of

reactions with some of them creating magnesium salts, some of which could

possibly be absorbed by the body. Even then, most is not truly

bio-available. It usually ends up in the urine making MgO a potential

treatment for kidney stones. MgO, even when taken with food showed no

meaningful change because the kidneys filter MgO out of the plasma. The true

test for bioavailability is a blood test measuring erythrocyte Mg

concentration not plasma concentration.

Lynn