Magnesium

Hi! How are your magnesium levels doing?

This is my story of how I discovered and cured my own magnesium deficiency, and thus was able to cure myself of a very painful, yucky and embarrassing “incurable” chronic disease.

It took me 6 years of research and self-experimentation to discover and cure my own magnesium deficiency.

If magnesium was able to restore my health and relieve years of pain overnight, maybe it could do the same for you, even if we don’t share the same exact symptoms.

Why am I so fanatic about magnesium? Because of how frustrating it was to look “fine” on the outside, but to be bleeding on the inside and how it feels to be cured after bleeding and suffering alone for so many years where not even the best doctors could do anything about it.

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When they ignited a coil of magnesium ribbon back in 8th grade science class, I had no idea that magnesium was not only edible, but also an essential mineral missing in a lot of peoples diets.

Just like how you cannot create gold from other things, your body cannot create magnesium by itself. You have to get your daily RDA of magnesium through foods that contain absorbable magnesium, biologically mined from non-magnesium deficient soil, or take magnesium supplements.

For my specific case, magnesium citrate was and still is an effective natural/alternative solution to my isotretinoin-induced colitis, an iatrogenic “incurable” disease of the colon and rectum with no known cause and few treatment options that almost disemboweled me when I was taking calcium supplements to build strong bones for kickboxing.

After taking generic Accutane (Sotret), also known as isotretinoin, at the age of 17 for mild teenage acne, I found myself constantly depressed, anxious, anti-social and often times suicidal.

If I had known Accutane was originally designed as a chemotherapy drug, I would have never taken it. My doctor, Dr. Robert Gurney of Reston, VA, downplayed the side effects when I asked him about them.

“It’s safe. It’s just vitamin A. You’ll just get some dry skin.”, he said.

Actually, my eyebrows started falling out within the first week of taking Sotret 40mg everyday. I panicked and called my doctor, but ultimately he convinced me that it would only be temporary and to go ahead and continue with the therapy.

I was only 17 at the time and truly believed that American doctors and their medicines were the best in the world, the pinnacle of years of scientific medical innovation, backed by the finest doctors and the protection of the FDA, believing that it would give me perfect flawless skin.

The more I took Accutane, the more and more depressed, socially isolated, and anxiety ridden I became.

I eventually decided to enlist in the USMC after feeling like I wasn’t good enough.

After I stopped smoking and taking Sotret 40mg everyday for more than a year, a few days later, I wouldn’t stop bleeding every time I went to the bathroom.

I couldn’t keep up at boot camp because I urgently kept having to go the the bathroom and wouldn’t stop bleeding.

After getting a colonoscopy, I was diagnosed with indeterminate colitis at the age of 19 while at USMC boot camp after having bloody, urgent, painful bathroom visits about 4 times a day and 2 times at night.

No one in my family history had ever been diagnosed with this disease before.

I became very depressed when the doctors told me that there was no known cure and that I would have to take medication everyday for the rest of my life.

Having no other options, I took the medication, but the stigma of being diagnosed eviscerated my already low self-esteem.

The mesalamine suppositories worked, they stopped the bleeding as long as I took them, but my confidence and happiness never recovered. My intestines and rectum never felt the same and always felt like it was being microscopically scraped by a cheese grater from the inside.

I became reclusive and gradually lost all my friends since I stopped going out to social events, due to chronic depression, anxiety and feeling disgusted with my body.

I smoked a lot of marijuana to drown away the pain and reality, so much that the last 2 years of college were a blur. I barely remember anything.

One day, I remember getting a spam email connecting Accutane usage to inflammatory bowel disease, and called some lawyers and joined the class action lawsuit against Roche, but due to the fact that I took Sotret, the generic version of Accutane made by Ranbaxy, instead of the brand made by Roche, my lawsuit was dropped by the US Supreme Court. (Pliva, Inc., et al. v. Mensing, 2011)

After I graduated college and started my career, I finally found someone I loved. She was my first love and was always there for me during our time together.

I loved holding her hand as we explored San Francisco together, and she was so beautiful I was shocked that she loved me the way she did.

However, our attraction towards each other faded…

Eventually, we broke up. This was the second time and last straw.

Initially, I felt free, but slowly, I missed her more and more.

I had to leave San Francisco because every little thing reminded me of her. The streets, the shops, the food. Even the forks and spoons reminded me of her.

I lost it when I found an old valentines day card she had given me.

”I am glad to have you as my valentine =)”, it said.

My health was deteriorating rapidly as I chain smoked cigarettes to drown away the emotional pain of finding this card and reading those words.

I could only think about killing myself because I felt hopeless as I bled alone in silence.

Eventually, I had to return back to my parents house in Virginia. I was in very poor condition when I arrived.

Thankfully, I was able to get a job as a Java developer and they took me in and took care of me. I still miss that place and all the great people there.

It was difficult to get out of bed and stay awake at work. I was constantly tired, uncomfortable and in all kinds of pain, but I had to go to work for the health insurance so I could buy my medication so I wouldn’t bleed every time I went to the bathroom.

Some time passed, but all I could think about was her and San Francisco and when I saw her new boyfriend on Instagram taking the same pictures at the Exploratorium, where we had our first date, something inside of me snapped. (To this day, almost 6 years later, just thinking about her and the time we spent together still makes me cry and miss her a lot.)

It was a violent feeling that lead me to train kickboxing at a nearby UFC gym.

I wanted to fight someone, so I began taking calcium supplements to build strong bones because that’s what I thought made bones strong.

Taking calcium supplements seemed to have made my isotretinoin-induced colitis much more severe, but I didn’t know calcium was the root cause at that time. Since doctors repeatedly told me that diet/nutrition has no effect on colitis, it is just my immune system that is out of wack, which is clearly not the case as you will see later on.

I was in such severe pain at that time that I was using the pain of kicking the heavy bag at the gym as an alternative source of pain to distract me from the pain I was experiencing in my colon and rectum multiple times a day and at night.

I even had awful nightmares where I would be in a large open room with rows and columns of toilets.

I saw countless gastroenterologists who offered nothing unique. They were all following the same flow chart algorithm. First mesalamines, then steroids, then immunosuppressants, then biologics. If all else fails, surgery. There were so few treatment options available that I was very unhappy with the medical system.

I searched all over the internet for anecdotal success stories of people treating their colitis naturally, using things like slippery elm bark, qing dai, accupuncture, tumeric, glutamate, stool transplants, probiotics, butyrate, colostrum, zinc carnosine, rutin, vitamin E enemas, garlic enemas, oxygen enemas, phosphatidylcholine enemas, Rifaximin, balsalazide, LDN (low-dose naltrexone), eating powered clay, vitamin D, etc.

I basically tried everything posted on Healingwell.com’s Ulcerative Colitis forum: (https://www.healingwell.com/community/default.aspx?f=38) None of the forum posters’ suggestions there worked (except for one post by someone about sunflower seeds and spinach, which I now know why it worked because it contains high levels of magnesium) and it cost me tens of thousands of dollars trying each of their suggestions out. They eventually banned me for posting about magnesium everywhere.

I opted to get a j-pouch surgery instead of taking more pills and injections, since I personally invested in those stocks and knew these treatments would not treat the root cause, and only worked while I was constantly medicated. I feared what other permanent side effects I would get if I had taken their advice, since all of this was due to me taking generic Accutane at the age of 17.

I also saw many YouTube videos showcasing the success stories of j-pouch patients not requiring any medication and being happy.

I booked a flight to Mayo clinic in Phoenix, AZ. My mom accompanied me because someone had to be with me to get the surgery.

They gave me a window of opportunity to go ahead with the surgery, where they would call me on my cell phone to confirm or cancel the appointment. At that time, I was in the bathroom and my mom answered the phone and canceled the appointment.

At that time, I was very very upset that I had missed this window of opportunity because I truly wanted to get the surgery and spent all this time booking a hotel and a flight, taking vacation hours from work as well. I was in so much pain that I couldn’t stand living the rest of my life like this.

Looking back on it now, I am very happy I did not get my colon and rectum cut out.

After I returned home, I had to resume my research and self-experimentation once again since I had no other options.

I decided that I was just going to take laxatives for the rest of my life in order to make my bathroom visits less painful and time-consuming.

After searching for a while, I chose magnesium citrate by Solgar on Amazon.com instead of Miralax or those other laxatives because I wanted something natural, not synthetic.

I took about 8 pills that night, a dose of 1600mg of magnesium citrate.

This was my “eureka” moment.

Overnight, my frequency, urgency and pain reduced from almost 8 times a day to just 2-3 times a day.

I used to have to go to the bathroom 5-8 times a day, and overnight it reduced to just 2-3 times. It also no longer took me 30 minutes each time I went. My legs used to go numb all the time from placing my elbows on my thighs there. The pain also reduced so much I was sure it was the magnesium that did the trick.

Before magnesium, if I went a single day without using tons of mesalamine enemas, pills and suppositories, I would see blood whenever I went to the bathroom. After magnesium, I can go months without using any mesalamine and not worry about seeing blood whenever I went to the bathroom.

Taking 400% of the daily value of magnesium in citrate form reduced my symptoms by about 70% overnight.

I was so happy because I didn’t have to wake up 3 times in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom.

I was finally free to go out and experience life like a normal, healthy 25 year old.

This was when I realized this was the first time I had ever heard of magnesium, and that it was an essential nutrient. Looking back at my diet for the past 25 years of my life, I rarely ate foods containing magnesium.

This was when I searched Google for the search term “magnesium deficiency” at work and at home.

A few days later an article by Dr. George Lundberg coined the term magnesium deficiency on Medscape.com.

“Hey, I found that.” I thought.

I wonder if they stole my Google search term.

This Google search term theft lead me to create eternalminerals.com.

I was severely magnesium deficient all my life, so when I took the calcium supplements it threw my already out of balance magnesium to calcium ratios off the charts.

I became very uppity and happy when I first discovered and cured my own magnesium deficiency, almost too uppity.

I was, and am still convinced that the majority of humans and animals alive today do not even know what magnesium is, let alone get enough magnesium in their diet.

None of the countless gastroenterologists I went and saw ever told me to take a good magnesium supplement. In fact, they all kept recommending that I take calcium and vitamin D supplements for strong bones.

As of today, I no longer find it necessary to take expensive pharmaceutical drugs everyday (it used to cost my insurance companies at least $5000 USD/month retail for my medication) and I only take them on rare occasions. I now take magnesium citrate supplements daily. I like Solgar’s brand because it was the brand I took when I felt the difference overnight. The packaging and design is also much better than the other brands since they use amber glass instead of plastic, and even put a piece of cotton in the bottle to absorb moisture. I also really like the fine detail they put in the design of their labels. No other brand does this and it is only available online through Amazon.com.

There are many forms of magnesium, but the one that worked for me was the citrate form. Malate, lactate or glycinate might also work but I’m not sure. I do not recommend the oxide form since it is said to have very low bioavailability, but again I am not sure. I am only sure of magnesium citrate, because that’s what worked for me.

If magnesium freed me from the chains of the pharmaceutical drugs, maybe it can free you too.