Comment by petilon | Hacker News Reader

Comment by petilon | Hacker News Reader

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I have seen multiple doctors, including sleep specialists, about my insomnia, and all they wanted to do is put me on prescription sleep meds for life. Those meds are addictive. I didn't want sleep meds. As a software engineer I was more interested in finding and fixing the underling problem -- there has to be one -- as opposed to the quick fixes the doctors were offering me. But that's not how doctors think, at least the ones I saw.

After much research I believe I have succeeded in finding the root cause. Cells in your body need calcium to go into ON state, and to turn OFF magnesium needs to go in and displace the calcium. Stress depletes magnesium. When your body runs out of magnesium your cells can't turn off. Then your muscles become stiff and when your brain cells can't go into OFF state you can't sleep. The solution that works well for me: magnesium supplements, especially magnesium l-threonate, which can pass through what is known as the blood brain barrier. This solved my insomnia as well as muscle stiffness.

Below is from nih.gov [1]

- Adults age > 30 usually need 420mg of Mg however more than 350mg from supplements is discouraged

- Going little bit over for Mg seems ok because kidneys just exerts it to urine. However very high dosage like 5000mg would cause magnesium toxicity.

- Multivitamins like New Chapter Calcium tabs have 770mg Ca and 58mg Mg. This means these should be taken in morning.

- Nuts like Almonds and cashews have tremendous amount of Mg. Just 4-5 ounces of these nuts will make up for daily dose.

- Diets with higher amounts of magnesium are associated with a significantly lower risk of diabetes.

- Magnesium is involved in bone formation and influences the activities of osteoblasts and osteoclasts

- People who experience migraine headaches have lower levels of serum and tissue magnesium than those who do not.

[1] https://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/Magnesium-HealthProfession...

About three months ago, I started taking Magnesium Amino Acid Chelate 500mg, equivalent to elemental magnesium 100mg, at a dose of twelve capsules a day for three weeks, then dropping back to six capsules a day as a maintenance dose. Changed my life. I'm calmer, more emotionally resilient, I sleep better and longer and when I want. My interactions are others go much more how I'd like most of the time: that is, I feel I'm being a reasonable person.

I recently started taking 8000IU of Vitamin D per day, as I realise I hardly ever spend any time in the sun. This, along with the magnesium, seems to have made my emotional roller coaster and suicidal ideation completely evaporate.

I also regularly take zinc, C, lipoic acid.

My SO and I both read about the study that suggested an RDA of 8,000IU of vitamin D. I've started on 10,000IU every other day and haven't noticed much of an effect yet.

I too am a vampire and very pale skinned so I spend practically no time in the sun. I think I'm going to have to make a concerted effort to change that once winter is done here.

Regarding the other supplements you are taking: Do you have any links to literature/studies that support taking more Magnesium, Zinc, vitamin C, and lipoic acid? I have terrible time sleeping because I take Suboxone which disrupts my sleep something awful, so if there's anything else I could take to mitigate that effect, I definitely want to try it.

Thanks for reminding me that I need to get my blood tested for D and Iron, on the recommendation of my pain doc.

I hope you continue to get beneficial results from those supplements, I'm very glad to hear the ideation being beaten down. You rock!

Peace and Joy for the New Year

With regard to magnesium, I'd recommend you start at the Wikipedia entry for Magnesium Deficiency,[1] and read about all the common forms of magnesium supplements: Magnesium chloride, oxide, gluconate, malate, orotate, glycinate, ascorbate and citrate are all used as oral magnesium supplements.

Same with the others.

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnesium#Deficiency

Good if it works for you but i found over the years, countless theories about all kind of stuff.

If you do this, it gets better because your body needs that. Your On/Off theory sounds nice and is easy to implement and works for you. But i think that will only work for you.

I am getting somewhere with this as well. My stomach doesn't like magnesium supplements so I rub a gel on my feet. It definitely does something (quite pleasant -- I almost get a slight high from it) and sometimes it knocks me right out but other times it seems to be counter productive. For me at least, there are more unknowns.

Have you tried magnesium amino acid chelate or magnesium citrate. I find I can take huge doses of these with no problems, but magnesium oxide ain't so great.

Mg is one of the best supplements out there. For sleep and general stress. You can literally feel more chill the next day.

Calcium supplements got rid of my insomnia.

I recently got difficulty to sleep. Gonna try and see if magnesium helps. Thanks

What is your intake schedule for Magnesium?

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