Magnesium

I have been taking my Albion Mag powder. Lately had a blood test. My blood magnesium is 2.1 The doc is saying high end should be 2.0 max. I know cellular and blood are different measurements. He wants me to back off 25% on what I am taking. Is this reasonable advice.
Also since my last ablation (feels like confession), I have been eating almost no fast food and get lunch at a country diner ev day. Well guess what cholesterol out the roof now @275. He automatically sent me a precrip for statin. My brother has been sucessful using cholesteroloff (available at Walmart). It is a Flax seed based treatment.Anjy thoughts about flaxseed interference with Afib??

Terrible advice you got Tsco, for serum Mag most labs show 2.2 to 2.5 as the upper end of most serum Magnesium average reference ranges. Please be aware that reference ranges for long term storage electrolytes like Magnesium, which can take a long time to restore IC deficiencies for, are not at all the same as 'optimal physiological ranges'. A large percentage of the US population that are drawn from to establish these average reference ranges are deficient already in IC magnesium status, often with a very slowly trailing drop in serum mag levels

You doc is just saying "I mostly see people with Mag below 2.0 so you should stay below that because I dont recognize this as a problem in my patients" And I would bet a hundred bucks you could identify some degree of magnesium deficiency, physical signs or symptoms in a huge majority of those folks this doctor treats who have what he deems sufficient serum mag levels under 2.0.

Most docs will not recognize the many deficiency signs and symptoms as they were never taught how to discriminate those details in medical school and typically only recognizing Magnesium deficiency when the horse has fully galloped far away from the barn and turned around to kick them in the stomach before making such a connection as a final end of the chain process of exclusion.

Many such well meaning GPs see large numbers of people with variable degrees of magnesium deficiency symptoms and/or physical signs coming through their door every single day without connecting the dots. In part become so many have become slaves to treatment by the numbers without really digesting what those numbers are derived from, and thus commonly many docs actually assume it is 'optimal to be under 2.0 serum mag' when a huge percentage of under 2.0 serum Mag people will test frankly below the low end of the IC magnesium reference range on EXAtest IC mineral testing as well as on Red Blood cell testing.

This doctor may be perfectly fine for many issues tsco, but I would scratch mineral and likely nutrient repletion advice off your list of things you wish to discuss with him or her.

Take care,
Shannon

Assume you mean <[www.naturemade.com]

Don't know any issues with afib.

Some people are hyper absorbers of phytosterols (that cholestoff has).. You don't know unless you test. Probably more than you want to know, but you can study this link and all the comments. Dr. Dayspring, one of the top lipidologists in the US comments. For really detailed info follow links to his Lecturepad material. <[www.apoe4.info]

Ideally your triglyceride/HDL ratio should be <1. If not, your carb intake is usually too high. Total cholesterol is not a good marker as it is made up of a lot of things. Ideally you'd get a fractionated LDL test like LDL-P or particle count.

If you reduce your carbs and your LDL-P goes up, then you have a genetic issue. You may have an APOE-4 gene.

Peter Atia is an MD, he does a good job going into more detail. He also gets a lot of his material from Dr. Dayspring, but presents it in a bit less technical way. <[eatingacademy.com] I think there are 9 parts, this lists all he's written: <[eatingacademy.com]

Shannon, Tsco said he had a Blood Magnesium test, you are assuming he had a serum test, I don't know which he had, a serum or a Red blood cell test. Dr Brownstein uses a Red blood cell test which he believes is accurate, I had asked him about the exacta test for magnesium and he told me he found it not to be accurate.

Tsco: I used to use Flax seed oil, I had no problem with it, I am using cod Liver oil, but I think I will get some Flax seed oil.

LIz

Thank all of you all yes this is interesting. I just had a typical blood test for everything under the sun iron, calc, mag, thyroid etc. The only comment was my mag level and HDL/LDL high. Overall Cholesterol was 275
He just commented my magnesium was 2.1 with the high end scale being 2.0
I am sorry all I know is they took tubes of blood out of my arm.
I actually found a different heart / cholesterol supplement I am going to try. It has 300% Vit D with CoQ10 and with more sterols than the cholestoff.
Worth a try.
thanks for the feedback
Tim

Tim, for what it's worth, I have had good luck keeping my cholesterol levels down close to 200 with the following..

(1) Almonds about 3 times a day around meal time (a handful of maybe 25 almonds).

(2) Plant Sterols (I use Swanson's Ultra) recommended by my N. P.

One thing that is worth noting though is that some research shows plant sterols may build up over time just as cholesterol. My N.P. says which is worse ? I am still taking them.


...ronH.

Ron,

"research shows plant sterols may build up over time"

It depends whether you are a hyper-absorber of sterols. Here is Dr. Dayspring's comment from the thread I posted above: <[www.apoe4.info] The whole thread & following links is quite informative.


"My point is that high phytosterol concentrations can be potentially atherogenic. The real concern is that hyperabsorbers of cholesterol (who will also hyperabsorb phytosterols) should never use phytosterol supplements as a functionall food to reduce apoB or LDL-C or LDL-P. For thorough tutorials on the complex nuances of sterols and stanols go to our teaching web site www.lecturepad.org and search for sterols. Rather complex topic - understood by few.

Eat all the veggies you want - but all with E4 alleles have the potential to be hyperabsorbers of sterols and thus need to check absorption/synthesis status at baseline and after therapeutic endeavors."

George

Thanks for the links George. After spending a little time there, I am more mixed up than ever

I will follow up with a contact to my NP that recommended sterols to me.

Thanks again, ronH

Thanks Ron for the info. Ill try the almonds. Yes it is confusing ALL of it. Its like you can fix one problem but you def gonna cause another.