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Can Magnesium provide relief from RLS?




Submitted by RickPalmer on Mon, 2006-11-20 04:19.

It's common knowledge that magnesium helps nerve and muscle function, but I've never tried it for RLS relief until today.

I was contacted by a colleague from another forum whose father practices wholistic approaches to medical problems. He recommends using magnesium to relieve RLS symptoms. My symptoms are getting worse each month, and I figure it won't hurt to give it a try.

From the bottle of Nature Made magnesium I bought today: "Magnesium is also essential in formation of bones and teeth and in converting blood suger into energy". Those sound like good things, but the hope of RLS relief was what really motivated the purchase.

I'm going to try to gradually take each dose of my medicine one hour later than normal each day, and see what kind of effect I get from the magnesium.

I'll post my results, and please comment on this post if you've experienced relief from magnesium, if it hasn't done a thing, and lastly if it had some harmful or uncomfortable side affects.

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Some side affects from Magnesium...

Submitted by RickPalmer on Mon, 2006-11-20 13:48.

After taking one 230mg dose of magnesium at noon, and another at 6:00 pm, I was able to take each scheduled dose of Requip one hour later than normal yesterday with no increase in RLS symptoms. I was also able to reduce my nightly dose by 1 mg and did not wake up during the night. Wow, that's a significant improvement after only a SINGLE day of increasing magnesium intake!

However, flatulence increased and bowel movements were very soft, along with very pungent smelling urine (sorry to sound disgusting, but these are the facts, and I wouldn't want you to be surprised by these side affects if you're reading this article and decide to try magnesium yourself Smiling ).

I'd still take these side affects over RLS symptoms in a heart beat, and it may be that my body just needs to get used to the increased magnesium levels and then things will settle back to normal.

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Might have been wishful thinking

Submitted by RickPalmer on Mon, 2006-11-20 19:14.

I'm sorry to report that I am starting to get my RLS jolts this morning at 11:10 a.m. and I'm going to take a Requip dose. Perhaps yesterday was only wishful thinking, or perhaps my 30-mile bike ride first thing in the morning had the positive affect on my symptoms and not the magnesium.

I'll continue with the magnesium for a few more days and will report what happens.

If you're reading this and have tried magnesium to help manage your RLS symptoms, will you please reply with your results as well? Smiling

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Taking it to the next level

Submitted by RickPalmer on Tue, 2006-12-12 20:49.

Rather than give up completely, I decided to educate myself a little more and talk with others about magnesium. I discovered that the cheap pills you buy at the grocery store are hard for one's body to digest and absorb. So I went to an organic store and spent about $15 on a calcium-magnesium blend that's at a higher dose and comes with several other digestion enhancing minerals and herbs.

I also found an article that provides a lot of information about magnesium: http://www.acu-cell.com/acn2.html

I notice that it's taking the edge off my symptoms in the morning, and I am consistently able to take only 2 pills at night now instead of 3. I'd like to see if it works to decrease my Requip intake or postpone it, as I think it's possible that I may need to wean myself of the Requip in order for my body to fully appreciate the magnesium intake.

The easing of symptoms is undeniable at this point, so if these new pills don't work then I'll look at even higher quality pills, or possibly a liquid formulation.

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