Magnesium deficiency and Bing AI; celebrating Imbolc & a nature retreat for summer planning.

A grab bag including an unfinished section of my new undisclosed work-in-progress; also a my-health kind-of update.

In working on my current project, I have been using AI for some of the text generation - and double checking the cited articles. And it has been very revealing regarding the trend about magnesium information that I had already noticed in articles online. If I hadn’t known a lot about the topic already, the search results would have provided me a very limited view of reality. Certain symptoms of magnesium deficiency are repeated over and over again - while consistently leaving out some REALLY BIG symptoms.

You are not going to learn about the link between magnesium deficiency and hypertension or insulin resistance and Type 2 Diabetes unless you specifically enter those search parameters in a search engine. I tend to use google still for my academic research as Bing/Microsoft really seems to focus first on lay reader articles from sites like healthline.

If a summary of several different lay reader articles, and Wikipedia, are all missing critically important information, then to me, that seems really suspicious. How can so many online writers have missed the Pubmed research articles about magnesium and hypertension or insulin resistance? In part, probably because the information is also not readily available in academic sources like the ScienceDirect topic pages. This information truly seems to be suppressed in academic and lay reader circles.

Seriously. I have been watching this disinformation trend online since roughly 2010 or so.

Part of my work in progress - it will get some editing/reorganization:

Symptoms of Magnesium deficiency:

Symptoms of chronic magnesium deficiency may include: Constantly tense muscles, frequent headaches, tinnitus or eyelid twitching, high blood pressure, Type 2 Diabetes, and Metabolic Syndrome may be symptoms of chronic magnesium deficiency. Calcium deposits in blood vessels or elsewhere in the body may involve magnesium deficiency but vitamin K2 or vitamin D may also be low, and an excess of phosphorus in the diet compared to magnesium and calcium can also affect calcification of soft tissue instead of building strong bones like we would hope. Phosphorus can easily become excessive in a diet that includes carbonated beverages. Phosphorus is also common in many protein foods and grains, beans, peas, nuts and seeds. [*What I jotted down from memory.]

*Bing AI with additional text by me for #5 and #6, and I had to add #7 and #8:

Magnesium deficiency can lead to various symptoms, although they might be subtle unless the deficiency becomes severe. Here are some signs to watch out for:

1. Fatigue: Feeling unusually tired or lacking energy.

2. Loss of appetite: A decrease in desire to eat.

3. Nausea: Feeling sick to your stomach.

4. Weakness: Generalized lack of strength.

5. Muscle spasms, twitches or cramps: Involuntary contractions of muscles can lead to chronically stiff neck and shoulder muscles, and range of motion may be limited by the shortening of the contracted muscle. If eyelid twitching is ongoing, magnesium deficiency is a likely cause. Too much caffeine can also cause muscle spasms. Other causes include certain medications or muscular dystrophy, multiple sclerosis, or myasthenia gravis.

6. Stiffness: Reduced flexibility or discomfort. Joints and muscles may be moving less well when magnesium is low and there may be chronic pain. Magnesium helps retain fluid within tissues and lack of fluid may add to pain and reduced flexibility. The tissues may be overly acidic as magnesium is alkaline.

7. High blood pressure: Magnesium deficiency or sodium excess compared to potassium intake can result in high blood pressure. Lack of magnesium leads to low serum calcium levels even though calcium intake might be adequate as a protective mechanism by the body. Elevated calcium would cause too much inflammatory damage to the body. High blood pressure is not typically treated with additional magnesium supplements, but the magnesium rich DASH diet might be recommended for people with hypertension. (Rosanoff, 2005; Laurant, et al., 1999) Magnesium deficiency related hypertension can be even more common among older adults and diet changes are recommended. Supplementation if needed, has been well tolerated. (Dominguez, et al., 2020)

8. Glucose intolerance: Insulin resistance in patients with or without Type 2 diabetes was improved with supplements of magnesium.

“Number of people with diabetes in India is 40.9 million and is expected to rise to 69.9 million by 2025.[2] The two main pathophysiological defects, IR and beta-cell dysfunction which lead to hyperglycemia may precede the development of type 2 diabetes mellitus for many years.[3]” (CC BY © Journal of Laboratory Physicians, Chutia and Lynrah, 2015)

Type 2 diabetes has become common in many nations not just in India. I am including that quote to point out that a higher protein to carbohydrate ratio in the overall diet may be a factor for insulin resistance or Type 2 diabetes, in addition to having low magnesium intake. The diet balance of standard recommendations in India tends to be somewhat high in carbohydrate and lower in total protein – in my professional opinion. Legumes are used in more quantity than meats along with quite a bit of rice and sweet carbohydrate foods, however legumes are also high in carbohydrates. A diet using legumes as a primary protein source needs to use less carbohydrate rich foods, because the beans and lentils provide a lot of starch calories too.

If left untreated, severe magnesium deficiency can result in more serious issues, including:

[*Bing AI with some additional text by me - note the pomegranate tip.]

• Abnormal heart rhythms – magnesium helps slow the heart rate, and relax muscle contractions. Lack of the important mineral may leave a person with a rapid or irregular heart rate.

• Numbness and tingling – vitamin B12 may also be needed if there are symptoms of numbness and tingling in the fingers. Pomegranate peel extract may also help these symptoms.

• Personality changes - anxiety, depression, irritability or anger. Mental health diagnoses may be given instead of screening for low magnesium and providing education about magnesium.

• Seizures – magnesium is needed to relax the brain too. Lack of it may be an unidentified factor in seizure disorders.

It’s essential to consult a healthcare provider if you experience any of these symptoms. They can perform blood tests or check calcium and potassium levels to identify and address magnesium deficiency¹²³. Remember, maintaining adequate magnesium levels contributes to overall health and well-being, helping manage stress, migraines, and muscle discomfort¹. [*Bing AI references]

1. Feeling Fatigued? It may be magnesium deficiency. Signs You May Have Magnesium Deficiency, (clevelandclinic.org).

2. 7 Signs and Symptoms of Magnesium Deficiency, (healthline.com).

3. Magnesium deficiency, (Wikipedia.com)

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You would think that Cleveland Clinic would know about the link between magnesium deficiency and hypertension and glucose intolerance. They did mention that magnesium is involved in blood pressure control and glucose metabolism and later in the article mentioned that people with Type 2 diabetes may be more likely to have magnesium deficiency. (clevelandclinic.org) The AI likely didn’t pick up on either of those points because the article didn’t list either as “symptoms” of magnesium deficiency. While the information was included in the article, it was not clearly labeled as symptoms - which means the Cleveland Clinic article was not clearly stating to readers that there is a causal relationship between magnesium deficiency and hypertension or high blood sugar.

Hypertension and high blood sugar can be symptoms of magnesium deficiency but other factors can also be involved. That doesn’t rule out magnesium as a factor though. Many problems have multiple underlying causal issues and for optimal health, they all need to be identified and improved.

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Lab tests - self pay - more info for me, at a sale price!

In personal news, I am going to have my Uric acid level rechecked this morning along with liver function and thyroid tests. There is a good sale price currently at ultalabtests.com. $608.21, $137.95, Save: 77.32%. The lab panel has some good stuff but the serum magnesium level that will be tested with it is basically useless. Serum magnesium level doesn’t drop very low unless you are super critically ill. So physicians who are used to thinking of serum magnesium as an accurate indicator of chronic magnesium deficiency are mistreating patients.

*Addition - another order-your-own-lab-tests company with low prices which Dr. Jen Brown had recommended in her Fun Times Substack per a comment by CST4U. (ownyourlabs.com/)

Intravenous magnesium may be given if the serum magnesium drops to that critically low level and my prenatal clients informed me that it is a horrible treatment which feels like burning fire was just injected into your veins and is circulating through your body. The blood serum is NEVER supposed to get too high in magnesium either. The prenatal clients were VERY motivated to make diet changes in hopes of preventing the IV magnesium with the delivery of their next baby. The DASH diet was a useful educational tool, but I also really stressed the ben/nut/seed group as being the “magnesium” group and I highlighted pumpkin seeds as a good source. They may have additional health benefits for pregnancy.

An intracellular magnesium level from a Red blood cell is more representative of the body’s level of magnesium.

My doctor is still waiting on MRI results to rule out liver cancer. I would like to know sooner than that whether cutting down on high dose niacin and cutting out high purine foods from my diet has made a difference in my lab tests. (*I am not planning to get an MRI at this time.

I still owe the $120 copay for the >$10,000 CT scan episode which found an imaginary perforated bowel.

Me: <arrrrrrgh!> “I don’t have a perforated bowel.”

The ER doctors “Gee, you don’t present like a typical perforated bowel patient . . . but we could do exploratory surgery just to find out!”

Me: <internally !*&%$#@**!!!^^%%$#@! . . . Are you people idiots?> “I don’t have a perforated bowel and do not plan to agree to an surgery tonight.”

Don’t take nocebo health care to heart - just because other people want to imagine catastrophe as the first option does not mean that you have to imagine it along with those people.

I will take the niacin down another notch - it is made into uric acid during breakdown. I will see how I feel with ~ 100 mg a day, maybe divided into two 50 mg doses. The extra niacin really helps my serotonin level. I can get weepy easily when low in serotonin and then repetitive thinking with paranoid tendencies may also occur, so I really found the high dose niacin helpful. It also seemed to increase my energy level when I started the protocol. As a schizophrenia protocol though, my own research (lots of posts on this Substack) turned up many nutrients as being causal either when deficient or in excess. My weird mental symptoms likely involved excess active retinoids and low zinc and B6 as chronic causal risks for schizophrenia like symptoms. The more I learned about “schizophrenia” the more is seemed like a symptom of many things that is instead being called a “mental health condition”. Talk therapy is useful for a physical problem that is causing irrational thinking.

Psychologist: “Let’s talk more about your irrational thoughts.”

Irrational person: “Uh, what irrational thoughts? I don’t have any irrational thoughts, are you crazy?”

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Stinging Nettle post got significant additions and vacation time!

Change of topic - I made quite a few additions to the Stinging Nettle post (Substack) and added a link (ofthefield.com/links/) from the comments which led me to a nature camp site located in the Leatherstocking region of New York, near Albany (Hawkcircle.com/location) -it looks gorgeous and with good food.

• They are offering a course/ couple day retreat, on connecting with the faerie realm: (hawkcircle.com/thefoursacredhallows).

• For the more prosaic, there is also a course on building wooden cabins - Timber Frame Intensive (hawkcircle.com). Even cooler, your own retreat could be held there for some to be worked out cost.

What is Imbolc? A change of seasons in part. Anticipating spring and new growth.

A blog article there, ‘Embracing the mystery of IMBOLC,’ (hawkcircle.com), led me to learn that February 1-2 is the time to celebrate Imbolc. (mabonhouse.co/imbolc)

“Imbolc means “in the belly” and celebrates the pagan Celtic goddess Brigid, who is the goddess of inspiration and creativity, healing, smith craft and poetry.  In ancient times Imbolc was celebrated as a time to reaffirm life and start thinking about the coming harvest season.” (mabonhouse.co/imbolc)

It sounds nice. I hope it isn’t insider icky.

This Imbolc Printable is Available in the Mabon House Etsy Shop

• “Take some time to go outside and enjoy the lengthening days and increased sunlight. 

• Take a walk outside and enjoy the lengthening days and appreciate this period of rest for the earth and Mother Nature.”

• Essential oils or herbs for celebrating Imbolc - “angelica, basil, bay laurel.” (mabonhouse.co/imbolc)

Happy belated Imbolc to you all.

White and yellow narcissus with yellow tulips. Photo by Clémence Taillez on Unsplash

Gorgeous spring wobble weather today - over 70’F. Just two days ago the ground had refrozen to solid ice again.

Disclaimer: This information is being provided for educational purposes within the guidelines of Fair Use and is not intended to provide individual health care guidance.