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Magnesium Deficiency
To move alum out of the body one can use silicon (ex Volvic water)
apart from superficial pharma fueled "research" on magnesium i found only negatives, here is another one:
https://phys.org/news/2016-04-bacteria-magnesium.html
Quote from tim on May 22, 2021, 7:20 pmI think it's likely that insulin resistance and not lack of enough magnesium in the diet is the main reason for magnesium deficiency symptoms. Many with magnesium deficiency symptoms report having to take large amounts each day to ease symptoms. This indicates lack of absorption and taking large amounts daily will create imbalances in the body.
Best way to improve insulin sensitivity is to do some intense exercise daily. Most of us don't exercise enough. I don't recommend jogging or cycling though. I personally like boxing, sprints and calisthenics.
@tim-2 This is not my experience of the reasons for magnesium deficiency. I have had low hair magnesium since having my amalgams removed in 2004, despite chugging down magnesium supplements over the years. I know you regard HTMA as 'pseudoscience', but I have been doing it 2-3 times a year for over 17 years now, and find it an indispensable tool for improving health. It was via HTMA that I discovered I suffer from chronic lead poisoning. I don't think it was the act of having my amalgams removed that caused my low magnesium levels, rather the diet that I went on after that caused it. After reading Hal Huggins' book 'Its all in your head', I started consuming lots of eggs and butter, as he recommends for detoxifying mercury. This, and some other factors, I think pushed me into vit A toxicity at the time (without me knowing it). Garrett Smith has a video out now about how some of his customers have low magnesium, and he thinks it is caused by vit A toxicity because when he detox's them of vit A then their magnesium levels normalise. I don't think either of us are fans of Garrett, but I think he is right on this one. I have been doing low vit A for 13 months now, so I have yet to prove it.
I am going to propose a mechanism here, based on my experience, as to how vit A toxicity causes magnesium deficiency. About 3 1/2 years ago I did some pH testing experiments on my supplements with a soil pH test kit, and on my urine with pH test strips. I still test my urine pH first thing in the morning every morning. From the tests on my mineral supplements I found that most are alkaline, but the most alkaline is magnesium and it is VERY alkaline. Different forms of magnesium supplement have different alkalinities, magnesium citrate is less alkaline than magnesium chelate, so I use citrate now and buffer it with apple cider vinegar to stop it 'killing' my stomach acid. Urine pH should be slightly acidic, and when mine is I feel good, but sometimes it runs alkaline and I feel like crap. I took some measures to reduce my alkalinity, such as removing an alkalising cartridge on my water filter and buffering supplements as above, and this helped a bit but didn't fully restore my health. Some time ago I was reading an article on candida that cited a study that gave me a lightbulb moment. Not sure exactly what study it was, but I'll quote a similar one here: The Fungal Pathogen Candida albicans Autoinduces Hyphal Morphogenesis by Raising Extracellular pH | mBio (asm.org) . So basically candida morphs into its pathogenic form in an alkaline environment, but also, critically, it has the ability to alkalise the environment around it by excreting ammonia. Ammonia is a highly alkaline gas, so when this happens the body becomes too alkaline and has to compensate somehow. How does it compensate? - by dumping the most alkaline mineral (magnesium) into the urine first, and dumping the second most alkaline mineral (calcium) in the urine second. This I think is the cause of magnesium deficiency, at least for me, rather than malabsorption.
I have suffered with candida tripping into my bloodstream most of my adult life, with it's myriad of symptoms, including huge blood sugar drops which keep you continuously hungry.
So what causes candida to morph into its pathogenic form? I know from past experience that any attempt to 'treat' candida just makes it worse- either by starving it (low carb diet), or poisoning it (antifungals). Heavy metal toxicity makes candida worse, because candida is part of the body's mechanism for excreting heavy metals. Over alkalising, as shown by the above study, will cause candida to become pathogenic. Someone here was suggesting using sodium bicarbonate, I think it was @jiri, which I would strongly advise against from my experience. Overall though, at least for me, I think that vit A toxicity is a major factor in causing candida to morph into its pathogenic form. I have no proof of this, only my own experience that on a low vit A, low PUFA diet I am slowly getting better. Perhaps the body's immune system (and therefore its ability to contain candida) becomes overwhelmed by aldehydes caused by candida, excess vit A and PUFA's. Perhaps toxic, vit A laden bile causes candida to morph. Any other suggestions out there?
Side note for @wavygravygadzooks - The above study shows that candida morphs into its pathogenic form in conditions of alkalinisation. 'Alkalinization is linked to carbon deprivation, as it occurs in glucose-poor media and requires exogenous amino acids. These conditions are similar to those predicted to exist inside phagocytic cells, and we find a strong correlation between the use of amino acids as a cellular carbon source and the degree of alkalinization.' Isn't this what the carnivore diet is doing? Lack of carbs is starving the candida, causing it to morph to survive, and the protein is providing it with the nitrogen atoms necessary to create ammonia to alkalise. Something for you to think about...
Hmm, I'll have to think about what you've proposed some more, but my first thought would be: if Candida albicans is a normal component of the gut flora, such that most or all people have it in their intestines and elsewhere in their body, then anybody that does carnivore should wind up with Candida problems, and that does not appear to be the case. But it's an interesting series of connections you've proposed.
My first question is what evidence do you have that you have an imbalance of candida albicans and what evidence that it's causing the symptoms you're experiencing? Leaky gut, allergies, dysbiosis, insulin resistance and more are other possibilities no?
It's been a while since I looked at hair mineral analysis but my criticism of it is more towards its use for identifying supposed mineral imbalances not so much for detecting toxicity.
"This is not my experience of the reasons for magnesium deficiency. I have had low hair magnesium since having my amalgams removed in 2004, despite chugging down magnesium supplements over the years."
I'm not sure how that contradicts or refutes what I said? I'm saying the same thing, often people find they need to take large amounts of magnesium and still have deficiency symptoms because it's not getting absorbed intracellularly. Insulin resistance makes you magnesium deficient regardless of how much magnesium you take and there are probably other causes too. The solution is not to take magnesium, it's to do things that reduce insulin resistance like normalizing vitamin A levels, heavy exercise, a healthy diet and probably reducing heavy metal exposure.
The only visual symptoms I have of a candida problem are chronic athlete's foot (as we call it in the UK, I think the Americans call it 'toe fungus') & constant thrush on my tongue. I can only ever remember not having athletes foot for a period of about 2 months after a naturopathic doctor took me off dairy and wheat. However, it came back and I've never been able to replicate that. Athlete's foot in my case is not a skin infection, it's a symptom of candida in the blood because if I try to treat it with something powerful such as oregano oil, then it just breaks out as thrush elsewhere on my body.
We are getting a bit off topic here with candida, so I'll just say that I don't believe that candida is a cause of problems in itself, but candida problems are a symptom of some other cause. In my case the problems are chronic lead poisoning, previous mercury poisoning from 13 amalgams from primary school age, vitamin A toxicity (still detoxing at 15 months now) and too high a PUFA to saturated fat ratio (after following the teachings of Udo Erasmus).
You can tell a lot from the nutrient mineral levels on HTMA, maybe I will write about it sometime here. I can even tell if I am taking the right amount of vit B12 from my HTMA.
I am sorry, I misinterpreted your description of 'lack of absorption of magnesium'. I thought you meant absorption from the gut into the bloodstream, not from the bloodstream into the cells. We all know that if you take way too much magnesium, then it runs right through you... but at lower levels than this, if I take too much I pee it straight out again. How do I know this?- my urine becomes alkaline, believe it or not, sometimes I pee white (not continuously, but a bit towards the end of the flow), and if I leave it long enough it forms a white crust on the toilet bend. Sorry if that's TMI anyone... Meanwhile my HTMA magnesium level is still low. The reasons for this I have tried to explain above.
Not sure about insulin resistance causing magnesium deficiency, that's a new one to me, but I agree with your solutions... a healthy diet in this community though I think is quite different to a healthy diet recommended by conventional nutritional science. 🙂
Quote from Alastair on May 23, 2021, 2:44 pmQuote from tim on May 22, 2021, 7:20 pmI think it's likely that insulin resistance and not lack of enough magnesium in the diet is the main reason for magnesium deficiency symptoms. Many with magnesium deficiency symptoms report having to take large amounts each day to ease symptoms. This indicates lack of absorption and taking large amounts daily will create imbalances in the body.
Best way to improve insulin sensitivity is to do some intense exercise daily. Most of us don't exercise enough. I don't recommend jogging or cycling though. I personally like boxing, sprints and calisthenics.
@tim-2 This is not my experience of the reasons for magnesium deficiency. I have had low hair magnesium since having my amalgams removed in 2004, despite chugging down magnesium supplements over the years. I know you regard HTMA as 'pseudoscience', but I have been doing it 2-3 times a year for over 17 years now, and find it an indispensable tool for improving health. It was via HTMA that I discovered I suffer from chronic lead poisoning. I don't think it was the act of having my amalgams removed that caused my low magnesium levels, rather the diet that I went on after that caused it. After reading Hal Huggins' book 'Its all in your head', I started consuming lots of eggs and butter, as he recommends for detoxifying mercury. This, and some other factors, I think pushed me into vit A toxicity at the time (without me knowing it). Garrett Smith has a video out now about how some of his customers have low magnesium, and he thinks it is caused by vit A toxicity because when he detox's them of vit A then their magnesium levels normalise. I don't think either of us are fans of Garrett, but I think he is right on this one. I have been doing low vit A for 13 months now, so I have yet to prove it.
I am going to propose a mechanism here, based on my experience, as to how vit A toxicity causes magnesium deficiency. About 3 1/2 years ago I did some pH testing experiments on my supplements with a soil pH test kit, and on my urine with pH test strips. I still test my urine pH first thing in the morning every morning. From the tests on my mineral supplements I found that most are alkaline, but the most alkaline is magnesium and it is VERY alkaline. Different forms of magnesium supplement have different alkalinities, magnesium citrate is less alkaline than magnesium chelate, so I use citrate now and buffer it with apple cider vinegar to stop it 'killing' my stomach acid. Urine pH should be slightly acidic, and when mine is I feel good, but sometimes it runs alkaline and I feel like crap. I took some measures to reduce my alkalinity, such as removing an alkalising cartridge on my water filter and buffering supplements as above, and this helped a bit but didn't fully restore my health. Some time ago I was reading an article on candida that cited a study that gave me a lightbulb moment. Not sure exactly what study it was, but I'll quote a similar one here: The Fungal Pathogen Candida albicans Autoinduces Hyphal Morphogenesis by Raising Extracellular pH | mBio (asm.org) . So basically candida morphs into its pathogenic form in an alkaline environment, but also, critically, it has the ability to alkalise the environment around it by excreting ammonia. Ammonia is a highly alkaline gas, so when this happens the body becomes too alkaline and has to compensate somehow. How does it compensate? - by dumping the most alkaline mineral (magnesium) into the urine first, and dumping the second most alkaline mineral (calcium) in the urine second. This I think is the cause of magnesium deficiency, at least for me, rather than malabsorption.
I have suffered with candida tripping into my bloodstream most of my adult life, with it's myriad of symptoms, including huge blood sugar drops which keep you continuously hungry.
So what causes candida to morph into its pathogenic form? I know from past experience that any attempt to 'treat' candida just makes it worse- either by starving it (low carb diet), or poisoning it (antifungals). Heavy metal toxicity makes candida worse, because candida is part of the body's mechanism for excreting heavy metals. Over alkalising, as shown by the above study, will cause candida to become pathogenic. Someone here was suggesting using sodium bicarbonate, I think it was @jiri, which I would strongly advise against from my experience. Overall though, at least for me, I think that vit A toxicity is a major factor in causing candida to morph into its pathogenic form. I have no proof of this, only my own experience that on a low vit A, low PUFA diet I am slowly getting better. Perhaps the body's immune system (and therefore its ability to contain candida) becomes overwhelmed by aldehydes caused by candida, excess vit A and PUFA's. Perhaps toxic, vit A laden bile causes candida to morph. Any other suggestions out there?
Side note for @wavygravygadzooks - The above study shows that candida morphs into its pathogenic form in conditions of alkalinisation. 'Alkalinization is linked to carbon deprivation, as it occurs in glucose-poor media and requires exogenous amino acids. These conditions are similar to those predicted to exist inside phagocytic cells, and we find a strong correlation between the use of amino acids as a cellular carbon source and the degree of alkalinization.' Isn't this what the carnivore diet is doing? Lack of carbs is starving the candida, causing it to morph to survive, and the protein is providing it with the nitrogen atoms necessary to create ammonia to alkalise. Something for you to think about...
Thank you. I also have these problems. I noticed that I supposedly have aspirin as a trigger for candida. Maybe because has something to do with the fact that aspirin chelates copper?
By the way, the urine may be alkaline due to the fact that magnesium provokes the growth of yeast, especially if you take it with food. It depends on the form of magnesium, magnesium chloride is acidic.
By the way, Ray said that "Candida loves estrogen and PUFA.". Since my childhood, almost all of my tongue has had a white coating, and now only half of it is. And this plaque decreased after I took Lugol's solution. Iodine is anti-estrogenic. And vitamin A isis pro-estrog. So maybe the root of all the problems is estrogen?
I recently took a lot of aromatase inhibiting supplements and got cholestasis. All my symptoms have decreased and I would even become whiter with my skin, lol. I think when estrogen decreases, the body sheds excess copper and it settles in the liver, causing cholestasis. Aspirin (a copper chelator) cured my cholestasis.
I have come to decide that lots of what I thought was yeast or fungus was actually VA detox. (not all itching is yeast!) However, topical apple cider vinegar (ACV) cured my toe NAIL fungus.
Regarding the feet, how about borax? Borax kills fungus so well in my house. I see there is an article about using borax here:
https://www.goodzing.com/remedies/ruth-clarke/borax-soak-for-athlete-s-foot
Boron is in apples, and so it might be interesting to try a course of the ACV drink for a while.
I never got much of anywhere with herbal yeast "cleanse" mixes (which are high in plant poisons--VA isn't the only plant poison!) or going low carb (where I'd just loose too much weight).
When it comes to the tongue, I might wonder if it's vulnerable, could that be a sign of low B12 (battling VA does a job on the B's!)
Self reported magnesium supplementation/ b6 toxicity
https://www1.racgp.org.au/newsgp/clinical/i-couldn-t-walk-gp-s-personal-story-of-vitamin-b6
