Re: Transient Muscle Spasms

[Guest guest]

Dear Giant Sweaty Sweat Monster,

The magnesium supplements I get make you swallow 4 huge horse pills a

day for the 100% RDA, which in other things is only enough to stave

off deficiency symptoms in most. So do you think you're getting

enough magnesium, and is it good quality? I've heard many people say

that magnesium deficiency causes spasms and cramps (ask any pregnant

woman, that's when they tell you!)

That said, and you're probably wondering when I'll get around to

asking this, have you been checked for lyme disease? One of the more

common symptoms as it starts to damage the cranial nerves is stiff

neck problems that last for a week or longer. I wound up getting

muscle spasms and a stiff neck for two months toward the end of my

lyme (when I finally figured out what it was and started taking care

of it!)

There's also a muscle that runs from behind the ear to the front of

the neck - can't remember the name of it, and when that gets upset

with us (for whatever reason) it can cause weird symptoms from stuffy

nose to shoulder/back pain. So to soothe that and the weird

twitches, maybe a nice epsom salt soak would cover both.

Also, how's your salt intake? When you sweat like a sweaty sweat

monster you lose a considerable amount of salt. I was trying to find

information on salt deficiency symptoms once and what I came up with

is that sweating without replacing the salt is what really leads to

heat exhaustion and other heat-related problems. So I guess the old

people dying on the hot summer days are the ones on the low sodium

diets the doctors love pushing.

Hope you feel better soon, that sounds awful!

--- In , Idol <paul.idol@...>

wrote:

>

> Over the last week, I've developed a bizarre new problem: attacks

> (sometimes whole fusillades) of extremely brief muscle spasms in

my

> left shoulder. Sometimes it's like a chain of fire crackers going

off

> in rapid succession. Pretty much all my life I've been prone to

> torticollis, which is an enduring muscle spasm in the neck or

shoulder

> that forms a knot and can last for days, but I've never had

anything

> like this machine-gun spasm problem. I'm not even 100% sure it's

a

> muscle spasm, though that seems like the best explanation. It

doesn't

> necessarily happen when I'm doing anything strenuous, though that

can

> be a trigger. Sometimes I'll just turn or move my arm and blammo --

a

> string of sometimes excruciating pains will shoot off as though

> something were grabbing nerves or muscle fibers and just magically

> wrenching them apart. Today, two of the many seemingly random

> triggers were taking a t-shirt off and carrying 55# of laundry up

> several flights of stairs.

>

> Has anyone ever experienced anything like this? Is there anything

I

> can try? My working guess is that it has something to do with

> electrolyte deficiencies, as it's getting hot and humid and I

sweat

> like, well, a giant sweaty sweat monster in weather like this, but

> I've been supplementing with potassium and magnesium and I must

get

> plenty of calcium from dairy and other foods, so I'm kind of at a

loss.

>

> TIA,

>

>

>

[Guest guest]

How much potassium are you supplementing with? If you are a

salt-aholic like you mentioned in your reply, then it may help to try

higher doses of potassium. What kind are you taking?

I know this isn't what you want to hear but sometimes our minds just

want to do more than our bodies can handle, and our bodies need more

time to build up stores and less extreme extended periods of exercise.

Some exercise that doesn't make you sweat buckets may be helpful. I

just really don't think pushing your body to the point of where you

get strange reactions like you explained can be good for you.

This reminded me of these horrendous muscle spasms from like 8 years

ago. I was like 16 and would skateboard non-stop for at least 8 hours

and really push it...then wake up in the middle of the night and my

calf would cramp up and stay cramped for minutes and I would be

absolutely paralyzed with pain. It was the most physically painful

experience of my life, and it happened at least a dozen or more times.

-

>

> Over the last week, I've developed a bizarre new problem: attacks

> (sometimes whole fusillades) of extremely brief muscle spasms in my

> left shoulder. Sometimes it's like a chain of fire crackers going off

> in rapid succession. Pretty much all my life I've been prone to

> torticollis, which is an enduring muscle spasm in the neck or shoulder

> that forms a knot and can last for days, but I've never had anything

> like this machine-gun spasm problem. I'm not even 100% sure it's a

> muscle spasm, though that seems like the best explanation. It doesn't

> necessarily happen when I'm doing anything strenuous, though that can

> be a trigger. Sometimes I'll just turn or move my arm and blammo -- a

> string of sometimes excruciating pains will shoot off as though

> something were grabbing nerves or muscle fibers and just magically

> wrenching them apart. Today, two of the many seemingly random

> triggers were taking a t-shirt off and carrying 55# of laundry up

> several flights of stairs.

>

> Has anyone ever experienced anything like this? Is there anything I

> can try? My working guess is that it has something to do with

> electrolyte deficiencies, as it's getting hot and humid and I sweat

> like, well, a giant sweaty sweat monster in weather like this, but

> I've been supplementing with potassium and magnesium and I must get

> plenty of calcium from dairy and other foods, so I'm kind of at a loss.

>

> TIA,

>

>

>

[Guest guest]

--- Idol <paul.idol@...> wrote:

> I'm a saltaholic under normal conditions, and now that the weather's

> turned awful, I'm gobbling down more than ever. I just indulged in

> a rare treat for dinner -- scallops in cream sauce

> (and I even took a photo, !) -- and I'm sure most people

> would've found it unpalatably salty, but to me it was just right.

, I like salty clam chowder and I like scallops, so salty scallops

in cream sauce sounds good to me. A nice salty oyster stew might be

good too. If you can afford it, getting more scallops, clams, and

oysters should help with most of the minerals. Add some caviar to get

more calcium and magnesium. Coriander, basil, and parsley are also

high in calcium, magnesium, and potassium, if you tolerate all the

natural plant toxins that come with them.

Please do post that scallops in cream sauce photo

http://www.flickr.com/groups/ /

I don't think there's any scallop photos there yet, though there is a

photo of oysters on the half shell in the Flickr NN pool:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/bootsintheoven/2417934806/in/pool-

[Guest guest]

Hmmmm. If you know you have chronic lyme and it's suddenly becoming

more symptomatic it could be a herxheimer reaction to the increase in

salt. Have you seen the Townsend Letter about how susceptible lyme

is to slight changes in blood salinity?

When you take a lot of salt the body pretty much regulates how much

of an increase it allows in the blood but there is a slight

fluctuation, which is enough to kill lyme and cause it to release

accumulated toxins that can cause symptom flares. I once got an

annoying twitch in my eye for about a week, off and on as part of a

herx. If that is the case for you, maybe some detox type thing would

help like eating dirt (LOL - French green clay absorbs a lot of

toxins). Others report favorably about chlorella and a couple more

that I can't think of right now.

You certainly wouldn't want to overshoot your bowel tolerance for

magnesium in a tennis match!

--- In , Idol <paul.idol@...>

wrote:

>

> Renate-

>

> > The magnesium supplements I get make you swallow 4 huge horse

pills a

> > day for the 100% RDA, which in other things is only enough to

stave

> > off deficiency symptoms in most. So do you think you're getting

> > enough magnesium, and is it good quality? I've heard many people

say

> > that magnesium deficiency causes spasms and cramps (ask any

pregnant

> > woman, that's when they tell you!)

>

> I don't know. Lately I've been taking some magnesium malate along

> with magnesium taurate, but I'm sure it would be helpful to take

> more... if I didn't have gastric problems as a result.

>

> > That said, and you're probably wondering when I'll get around to

> > asking this, have you been checked for lyme disease?

>

> I've had Lyme since I was 11. Sadly, nobody gave me antibiotics

> immediately. (Nobody even realized it was Lyme until years later

when

> the characteristic rash became more widely known.) Thankfully,

nobody

> put me on extended antibiotic treatments later on.

>

> > One of the more

> > common symptoms as it starts to damage the cranial nerves is stiff

> > neck problems that last for a week or longer. I wound up getting

> > muscle spasms and a stiff neck for two months toward the end of my

> > lyme (when I finally figured out what it was and started taking

care

> > of it!)

>

> I've long figured that the torticollis might be due to the Lyme

(it

> started soon afterwards) but this is new. Torticollis seems to

> involve a large region of muscle and winds up dramatically

affecting

> my posture. This doesn't affect my posture at all, except, I

suppose,

> during an attack, though while I was making dinner just now I

started

> to feel a more persistent torticollis-like spasm in the affected

area.

>

> Not a happy thing.

>

> > There's also a muscle that runs from behind the ear to the front

of

> > the neck - can't remember the name of it, and when that gets upset

> > with us (for whatever reason) it can cause weird symptoms from

stuffy

> > nose to shoulder/back pain. So to soothe that and the weird

> > twitches, maybe a nice epsom salt soak would cover both.

>

> Hmm, that muscle definitely isn't involved, but while I imagine an

> epsom salt bath might prove helpful, I don't have epsom salts, my

> bathroom isn't really bath-friendly, and I think the heat would

> probably kill me.

>

> > Also, how's your salt intake?

>

> Pretty massive. I'm a saltaholic under normal conditions, and now

> that the weather's turned awful, I'm gobbling down more than ever.

I

> just indulged in a rare treat for dinner -- scallops in cream

sauce

> (and I even took a photo, !) -- and I'm sure most people

would've

> found it unpalatably salty, but to me it was just right.

>

> > So I guess the old

> > people dying on the hot summer days are the ones on the low sodium

> > diets the doctors love pushing.

>

> Yeah, that's bound to be a good part of it.

>

> > Hope you feel better soon, that sounds awful!

>

> It's not fun. I have a tennis match tomorrow, and I'm dreading

> flurries of spasms in the middle of important points. I'm taking

some

> extra magnesium tonight just for in case it helps, but I have to

be

> cautious with my dosing, unfortunately.

>

> -

>

>

[Guest guest]

,

>

> -

>

> > How much potassium are you supplementing with? If you are a

> > salt-aholic like you mentioned in your reply, then it may help to try

> > higher doses of potassium. What kind are you taking?

>

> A few hundred mg, I guess. I capped some NOW potassium gluconate

> powder -- the stuff you told me about -- and I've taken 2-4 caps per

> day.

>

Well, during a milk fast, when I was working in the heat sweating

heavily, I was getting roughly 12g of potassium from the milk (~1.5

gallon @ about 500mg of potassium per cup) and I still noticed an

improvement when I took ~3 teaspoons over the day of potassium from

potassium gluconate (so like 1.5 g of supplemental potassium).

Looking at those numbers it doesn't seem like supplementing would be

significant compared to dietary potassium but I did some research on

gluconic acid and it does stimulate good bacteria to produce butyrate

and it feeds good bacteria in the large intestine. But regardless,

I was getting very high amounts of potassium and I felt stronger and

more resilient than I have in years, but there are always plenty of

factors at hand. When not fasting on the milk I still felt better

with like 3 teaspoons of potassium gluconate throughout the day (w/

food, my bowels didn't like it on an empty stomach for whatever reason).

I was eating what most would consider very high amounts of salt as

well...so I would give more potassium a try to see what happens.

I also supplement with pretty high doses of now foods magnesium

citrate powder. It varies daily, I've learned to tell when my body

needs more magnesium through trial and error and various symptoms.

There is a nerve pain in between my adrenals that I can feel slightly

if I need magnesium, and it will disappear upon supplementing. I also

crave sour foods when I need magnesium.

I used to have trouble with loose stools and good doses of magnesium

but it stopped once I stopped eating coconut oil. My hypothesis is

that coconut oil kills yeast which absorb the mercury that I excrete

in my bile, and I actually feel much better and don't have any yeast

symptoms without the coconut oil. More importantly I can supplement

with more reasonable doses of magnesium without worrying about getting

the runs, and that also means I retain more electrolytes. Does anyone

know if the short chain fatty acids kill good and bad yeasts? I know

they don't kill good bacteria?

Have you ever thought of living somewhere colder in the future? Its

not solving the source of the problem but it may help...In any case,

I wish you the best in your struggles.

-

[Guest guest]

> > and I actually feel much better and don't have any yeast

> > symptoms without the coconut oil.

>

> Do you mean with the coconut oil?

>

> -

>

>