I started taking 400mg of magnesium glycinate a day to lower my cholesterol and it had two wonderful “side effects.”
One, I am super full of energy throughout the day. I suffered from chronic fatigue for almost three years now due to PsA and inability to exercise. Now I have more energy than I know what to do with. Cleaning and organizing are fun now!
Two, I am sleeping like a rock. No more waking up a million times a night due to pain or bad dreams. I don’t really remember my dreams which is highly unusual for me. I wake up feeling rested and refreshed for the first time since PsA onset.
One caveat, when you first start taking it, it may give you loose stools. This cleared up for me after about a week. Well worth the benefits.
This is interesting, but I have a couple questions…
Are you on a biologic or any heart meds?
What brand of magnesium glycinate do you take?
I’ve been grasping at straws trying to figure out how to fix some of my health problems. I’ve had trouble with insomnia for years, although it has gotten somewhat better recently since I’m on Sertraline. I don’t have much energy–definitely no staying power and I sure could use some! My achy legs when I walk could maybe benefit from the magnesium.
I googled it and I would probably need to ask my cardiologist and rheumy if it’s safe for me to take.
Thanks for posting this!
I am on stelara and prednisone. I heard about the health benefits, the lowering cholesterol, from a cardiologist. I found the magnesium on amazon. Not sure the brand, I’m in the car. I’ll reply when I get home.
Thanks!
Last night wasn’t good…i woke up at 1:15 and fell back asleep about 3:45. My husband started talking to me at 5:45 and I couldn’t fall back asleep…so, it was another night with only about 5 hours’ sleep. Not quite enough! No wonder I have no energy.
Just woke up myself after falling asleep around 2 am. I have been sleeping around 6 hours a night instead of sleeping about 9 broken hours. Solid, quality sleep really makes a difference. I hope it helps you, too.
I think it helped the fatigue which allowed me to be way more active during the day, which in turn led to better sleep.
The first night I took it I was up late and couldn’t get to sleep. I took it at lunch and was too wired to sleep. Second night was a little easier. Third night I felt tired around midnight, a little early for me. Fell right to sleep. Woke up feeling pretty good.
Since then, im finding it easier to be active, get tired and fall asleep at bedtime and stay asleep waking feeling pretty good -considering how bad I’ve felt for so long now.
My onset of PsA was in November of 15. I’ve been on 7 medicines including 3 biologics. Hoping this latest one works. No side effects yet.
I suffered from fatigue a lot for a long time. I’m thrilled to be off the couch and out of bed more often. It helps both physically and mentally.
Hey there, great news. Well done you! I have Ionic Magnesium Citrate and wonder if this would do? Since I went back on methotrexate my sleep is bad again and fatigue is back too.
Any form of highly absorbable magnesium should help with both sleep and fatigue, as well as helping to lower cholesterol. I started out on magnesium glycinate and switched to magnesium citrate. I eventually lowered my dose from 400 mg to 150 per day.
Another thing I have found that has made a huge difference is vitamin d. Especially in the winter, most people are deficient in vitamin d. Without it, your body has difficulty manufacturing melatonin at night, especially as we age. Vitamin d at levels between 50 and 80 ng/mL begins to act as a hormone regulating proper absorption of calcium. The “normal” range of vitamin d in your blood is between 30 and 100 ng/mL, with “optimal” being over 30 ng/mL. Get your level checked at your next blood draw. If you are not at least at 50, try a supplement. I use a liquid based supplement that I put on my face in the morning before my facial oil. It absorbs very well this way and my skin has never looked better. The weird thing about vitamin d is that the last place it benefits is the skin which may seem contradictory to the fact that it is the chemical reaction between the skin and sunlight that creates it. Educate yourself about circadian rhythms, especially as they pertain to your medications and diet.
I hope this helps. I wish you better sleep and a lifetime of energetic days
Glycinate was big hard pills, hard to swallow (by that token harder to digest as well) and expensive. I read a long time ago about calcium citrate being more absorable than calcium carbonate which can actually end up stuck in our arteries when not fully absorbed. So I switched to magnesium citrate inferring the that the same may be true. The ones I take now are capsules filled with powder. Easy to swallow and I only take 150 a day instead of the 400 because once I got my energy level where I wanted, I felt it was best to source as much magnesium, and calcium, as I could from my diet. Going vegetarian has really helped me meet my dietary nutrional goals and I don’t take multivitamins anymore. I take half of the calcium my ob/gyn told me take take after my total hysterectomy (he told me to take 1200 mg per day). By the way, your body can only use about 600 mg of calcium at a time, so if you are supplementing with anything, aim for dosing twice a day rather than one big dose when possible.
There is another form called magnesium malate which contains malic acid and is thought to increase energy levels as well. Perhaps try these different forms and see which works best for you.
This was very interesting, thanks for sharing! I am going to talk to my rheumatologist about the magnesium. The fatigue is never ending and the biologics tend to make it worse for me. The day after my last infusion of remicade I slept for 14 hours without even realizing it. I already take 2,000 units of vitamin D in a pill form and I’ve had it suggested to take it in liquid form before, but I didn’t know about putting it on your skin!!
Not trying to sell you anything, I don’t make commission, lol. Here is a link to the supplement I take. I use 3 drops every morning before and let is sink in for a while before I brush my teeth and apply my morning facial oil. Also, some will inevitably leak out around the top of the vial, so I wipe that up and put it on my hands. The amount you will need depends on a variety of things, particularly the amount of sunlight you get, so winter/summer will be different needs. Good idea to have your levels checked twice a year until you establish the level you are looking for. As far as topical application, anything you swallow needs to be digested and go through your liver. This is part of the reason women on estrogen (including me) opt to use patches rather than pills. Bypass the digestive system altogether. My PsA has caused severely elevated liver enzymes to the point where I was forbidden all nsaids and was taken off lipitor. Happy to report that all the lifestyle changes I’ve made have reduced the levels to almost normal.
I take magnesium to help with migraines, there’s no official dose of it, though. What you do is start with one tab a day for about a week then up it by one tab every week until you get soft stool (or worse) as this is a sign that your body is flushing out extra magnesium. You can hang in there for a few days and see if you adjust like kmwestmo did, or, you can back it down one tab.
I also slept about 14 hours after my remicade infusions - when I have a flare up, I sleep even longer - I know it’s unbelievable but I sleep up to 20 hours which I did this past weekend.
So, magnesium has helped your fatigue? How much has it helped? I started taking magnesium 400mg a week ago and haven’t seen any improvement in my fatigue??
