My favorite is whatever MD puts before me. I don’t think that I, myself, have ever purchased a salami in my life. In this case, she used Molinari.

They do. See Ethyl’s comment.

Interesting history. Thanks for passing it along. I’ve treated countless patients with magnesium – some with fairly high doses – and I’ve never had one tell me he/she had palpitations. It’s good to know that it affects some people that way. I don’t know the mechanism. I need to think about it a little, I guess.

Yes, it really is too bad that it is hard to get IV magnesium therapy. Interestingly when doing my research I found several references that claimed that supplementation should not exceed more than 1/2 the RDA (1/2 x 420 mg for men) because magnesium becomes toxic over this level. What’s with that? Other sources said that it is best to get all the magnesium we need from food sources and not rely on supplements. I for one believe this is impractical.

I think that you are correct in speculating that the main reason I suddenly saw dramatic improvement was that I was able to get to the levels I needed with mgcl hexahydrate. For the initial 2 weeks I was ingesting 1200 – 1400 mg/day in divided doses spread throughout the day. I have since read that when a single dose approaches 200 mg the body’s absorption rate of magnesium decreases dramatically. So I think divided doses spread throughout the day is also a factor.

I don’t know where the idea that anything more than half the RDA is toxic. I’ve both taken and given much more than that countless times without incident, other than maybe a little diarrhea. In days of old we got much of our magnesium from our drinking water because we all drank well water. Now we all drink bottled water or softened water, which is pretty much devoid of magnesium.

I also wanted to share that I add Instant Expresso to my Chocolate low-carb whey protein drink. Absolutely Delicious!

Here’s the brand of Instant Expresso I use (you have to scroll down a bit to see the jar of it). I can buy it locally at a couple of supermarkets, so I’m very happy and always have several jars on hand.

http://www.totallynawlins.com/medaglia.html

If you have trouble finding the Torani, go through the highlighted link on this post and get it through Amazon. They’ve got all the flavors and ship pretty quickly. That’s where we get ours.

Hmmm. The instant espresso sounds good. May have to try it.

I prefer a combination of the isolate and the concentrate, with more of the latter than the former.

I’m sure that if you’ve got the $$$ to spend, you can find someone to test your GSH.

Whats your opinion on having shakes regularly? Some suggest that since they are liquid food they will digest much faster and increasing insulin.

Also I’d be curious to see your macronutrient and calorie breakdown over a week, have you considered using a site like fitday?

I have shakes once per day, sometimes twice, but usually only once. And some days I skip. But they are so convenient…

With all the projects I’ve got going right now, I don’t have time to run all this stuff through a nutritional calculator. Maybe someone else will do it for me. Should be easy – all the photos are there.

Ever since I found out I have type II diabetes four years ago I have had a gut feeling that I am suffering from a long standing magnesium deficiency. I have most of the classic symptoms including heart palpitations. However although I have tried every form of magnesium supplement I could find the results have been less than dramatic, that is until I read about and started taking magnesium chloride hexahydrate in a concentrated water solution.

The main problem I ran into with other forms of magnesium is that I could not seem to take very much without causing diarrhea and/or abdominal discomfort. Even though magnesium chloride is used by the ton as a deicer it was not easy to obtain in a USP grade powder. I had to get a pharmacy to order it for me. Even this took some doing.

The literature I have read on magnesium, and especially magnesium chloride hexahydrate, is that it can take anywhere from 3 months to a year at fairly high doses to correct a long term magnesium deficiency. The results I have experienced after less than a month with magnesium chloride hexahydrate have been so far been quite remarkable.

Some researcher suggests that high blood sugar and insulin levels interfere with the transport of magnesium. Other research has found that diabetics are deficient in magnesium and that this may explain why hypertension and nerve damage are common complications. To make matters worse, research also suggests that diabetics do not readily retain and store magnesium. For this reason I take it in divided doses during the day.

Another advantage of magnesium chloride hexahydrate in a concentrated liquid solution is that the magnesium is absorbed through the skin when applied topically. A form of magnesium chloride hexahydrate that seems to be growing in popularity for this purpose is a product called magnesium oil. Although it feels oily to the touch it is not really oil based. Magnesium chloride hexahydrate just feels oily in a saturated solution.

Although magnesium deficiency affects the majority of the population, like the low carb diet, it doesn’t get much respect. It would be great if you could start a blog on magnesium.

Another thought is that you may have increased your levels of magnesium with the other supplements, but not to the point of symptomatic relief. Then when you added the mg chloride hexahydrate you were able to get levels up after a few more weeks of supplementation. It’s difficult under the circumstances to be absolutely sure that the mgcl hexahydrate was the key. But I’m glad you are doing well on it.

There is no question that diabetics are mg deficient, as are people with hypertension and a host of other disorders. There is an entire school of thought that posits that a mg deficiency underlies the entire metabolic syndrome.

It might turn out that the expensive-looking steak and out-of-season berry menu wasn’t much more, or even less, than restaurant food. This would be a good incentive for people to follow the plan.

I wonder if a book consisting of just menus, beautiful photos, and perhaps approximate costs would sell. It would have to include some portable meals for those who worked in offices.

Some of MD’s tips for making the plates look nice might also help people who are accustomed to eating out of clamshell containers.

I’ll pass your suggestions along to MD; maybe she’ll blog on how she plates the stuff. I’m so used to it that it never occurs to me that it’s anything other than a plate of food. I guess I’m just an ungrateful swine.