I have been feeling, as a general rule, more achy and grizzly these past few weeks. I’d put it all down to the stress – both mental, emotional, and physical – of moving and getting set up in a new place, unpacking, and the terror of finding out my exam is this week, not next week as I had thought.
I asked my flatmate if I could borrow some of his epsom salts for a bath on one particularly painful day, and we got to discussing how the primary benefit of the epsom salts is the high magnesium content, and the absorption of it across the skin. Well I hopped out of that bath feeling a million bucks! The lovely non-achy feeling continued until the next day, but by the one after that I was a little bundle of aches again.
I finally got my hands back on some magnesium supplements. Magnesium was something I was taking, along with numerous other supplements, a few months ago, but stopped due to the expense of maintaining the high level of supplementation and the need to spend that money on other things. Stopping magnesium turned out to be a stupid move.
I’ve started back up with my relatively high dose of magnesium (I think it was 1000mg or something like that) and I think I’m feeling a difference already. I may do another epsom salt bath in celebration after this exam just to really kick things off.
It just reiterated the importance of appropriate supplementation, especially of magnesium, when you have chronic pain. So magnesium is a pretty awesome mineral. It has an essential role in regulating muscle contraction, blood pressure, and insulin metabolism, among other things. It helps with nerve transmission and neuromuscular coordination. It also plays a protective role in preventing over excitation of the nerves, thus preventing neuronal death.
There was a study testing the administration of magnesium (300mg) and amitriptyline (10mg) or just magnesium across a small number of women with fibromyalgia, and all noted a reduction in tender points and reduction in pain.
Because of its wide ranging positive influences on the nervous system, magnesium is really something I should have kept on with, and it’s probably something you should try, as well. It’s a good thing to have at night, as it also helps with sleep. I always notice a reduced time between head hitting pillow and unconsciousness when I’m on magnesium.
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