Magnesium – Important but Forgotten Mineral

My goal in this blog is to provide information for good health both mental and physical. One cannot talk about great health without talking about Magnesium.

Let me explain that although my professional background is in psychology, physical health has been an important field of independent study since junior high school.  Our bodies are the most critical piece of equipment that we have. It is important that we know how to maintain them. The topics that I address are ones that I have learned through study and/or personal experience. The topic of Magnesium is very personal to me because of my family history.

In the last post, we discussed the importance of Alkaline water. Alkalinity is important because the blood pH must be alkaline! Thus, the importance of the Alkaline minerals for our health.

There are four major Alkaline minerals that we all need for good health and to keep our blood pH Alkaline: Calcium, Magnesium, Potassium and Sodium. We need so much of these minerals they are called “bulk” minerals. Yet, you have probably only heard about Calcium and many people take Calcium supplements.

What most people don’t realize is that taking one Alkaline mineral without the others isn’t very helpful!

Before I talk about the specific importance of Magnesium, I want to give you a brief overview of how the Alkaline minerals work together. You see, it is really a biochemical equation.

  • Calcium needs Magnesium to work properly
  • Magnesium needs Potassium to work properly
  • Potassium needs Sodium to work properly

The volume of the Alkaline minerals that we need in descending order (Most to least) has the following list:

  • Calcium
  • Magnesium
  • Potassium
  • Sodium

If there is a shortage, the Alkaline mineral that depends on it can’t do its job properly. That’s why it’s important to get plenty of the Alkaline minerals and let the body balance the equation!

So the question is, what happens when you don’t have enough Magnesium to balance the equation?

There is a great book you can read that tells you all about it and I’ll post it at the end of this article. However, let me tell you about my personal experience with magnesium deficiency.

As I mentioned in the post about Alkaline water, by the end of 2005, I had become seriously acidic. This means that my Alkaline mineral reserve was depleted. In other words, I was in deficiency mode for Magnesium.

Here’s what I noticed: cramps in my feet and calves, cramps in my hands if I did simple things like turning a screwdriver, aching kidneys and many other issues right off the list from the book I’m going to recommend. However, the most disturbing was heart arrhythmia.

I can tell you there is no worse feeling than to feel your heart not working properly. I can remember being in bed at night and wondering if I was going to die. Very unpleasant.

When I was clued in by my medical clinic that I was too acid, I started researching how to resolve it. This led me to Alkaline water and a study of the Alkaline minerals. When I read the books, The Magnesium Miracle and the Magnesium Factor, I discovered the root cause of my symptoms.

The main thing I discovered was that I have a problem processing magnesium. This explains why as an infant, I had convulsions. I need a great deal more magnesium than most people. It also explained why my father and his father died early (61 & 64). They had been smokers which depletes magnesium.

Following the recommendations in the books, I began to recover. Now, my heart is fine and no more cramps.

I hope you read at least one of the books I recommend. The Magnesium Miracle is much less technical than The Magnesium Factor so you will probably enjoy it more.

To your great health!

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Water – What you Need to Know

Water is the basic building block of life. Most of our body consists of water, yet, most people do not drink enough water. My opinion as to the reason is that most water today, whether from the tap or a bottle, is not healthy.

How do I know this? Personal experience.

Back in 1995, I was really working on improving my health. I went to the gym, took supplements and started drinking a gallon of water per day. I thought I was safe because I had a carbon filter. Let me tell you, that was WRONG!

What I began to notice was a slow deterioration in my health. By the summer of 2005, a mere 10 years, I had high blood pressure, heart arrhythmia, a chronic skin fungus infection that kept coming back, cramping in my hands, feet and legs, low thyroid and failing vision. In addition, my kidneys had started aching.

When the kidneys started acting up, I went to my clinic and they did a urine test. I was told that I was too acid. However, they didn’t know what to do about it.  So, as near as I could tell, my kidneys were hurting because I was too acid but they couldn’t tell me now to fix it.

So, I started doing research. What I found out saved my life.

I will be forever grateful to Kevin Trudeau, the alternative health journalist because his information on acidity directed me to a site called, Never an Outbreak.  This site introduced me to the concept of alkalinity and had products that promoted alkalinity. This in turn led me to Sang Whang, the engineer who developed the Alkalife product. I also discovered the research of Dr. Young and Dr. Baroody. Their books are interesting although I don’t agree with the vegetarian lifestyle they advocate.  Mr. Whang has a much more practical lifestyle based on alkaline water.

With this information, I discovered that what I had done to improve my and my family’s health was actually harming us. You see, when I discovered that the water authority had started putting fluoride in the tap water in 1995. They didn’t put it to a vote, they simply held one public meeting that few people knew about. My chiropractor said he went down there and pleaded with them not to put this toxic substance in the water but they did anyway.

Notice the date? That’s exactly when I started increasing my water consumption. Consequently, I had hypothyroidism. A carbon filter doesn’t do much to cleanse the water. So I found out that Reverse Osmosis, RO, would take out the fluoride and other things as well. Thus, in October of 2004, I installed a system and the family and pets started on the “clean” water.

I had noticed on the directions that the RO company stated that the water was acid and that some people thought that was not a good thing but others said it didn’t matter. Let me tell you, IT DOES MATTER!

In about a years time, my health, my wife’s health and my pet’s health deteriorated. I had a sweet cat that died of throat swelling. The vet had never seen this before. But it was the RO water. How do I know? A friend with cats also installed an RO system and had a cat die of the same throat constriction. Even the Vet school at the University of Georgia could not identify the cause. But, it was ACIDITY.  That thing that most health authorities say doesn’t matter.

Every day, me, my family and pets were less healthy. One died. I still feel incredible sadness about that because I know it was the water.

Thank goodness for the clinic identifying the acid problem, even if they didn’t know how to fix it, and Kevin Trudeau for pointing me in the right direction.

The city where I live has the worst water in the entire United States. For safe consumption, it has to be treated with Reverse Osmosis. However, I discovered you can put the minerals back in as well as put drops to bring up the alkalinity.

Today, we all drink strong alkaline water balanced with calcium, magnesium, potassium and sodium. I not longer have high blood pressure, heart arrhythmia, skin fungus, brittle finger nails, low body temp, etc. My wife no longer has gout which she suffered for many years.

I cannot imagine a health care professional claiming that alkaline water doesn’t make a difference. Me, my family and pets were the classic, double blind experiment. We were drinking acid water thinking it was healthy and our health deteriorated. We thought it was healthy because that is what we had been told. But, the results, sad results with the pets and the one cat in particular, told a different story.

When I started the alkaline water program, I didn’t know if it would help or not. All I knew is that I had to try something our I was going to die. It worked. Was it a placebo effect? No. You see, the pets health improved as well and now, they REFUSE to drink other types of water. They will actually go thirsty until they can get to the clean, remineralized, strong alkaline water. They instinctively know it is healthy for them.

I still drink a gallon of water per day. My special, strong alkaline water. No more hypothyroidism, high blood pressure, heart arrhythmia, cramps, etc. Even my eyes have improved that my glasses are too strong for me!

Will you have the same results? I can’t say. All I can say is that me, my family and the pets are healthier than we were in 2005. I hope you look into your water.

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Mind Affects the Body

We tend to think that our thoughts have no effect. How often have you heard the phrase, “It’s just a thought”?

The truth is, our thoughts are much more powerful than we know and it’s been demonstrated by research.

In her book The Intention Experiment, Lynn McTaggart presents several research examples.

In one example from the Cleveland Clinic Foundation, one group went to the gym to work out and one group imagined going to the gym to work out. What was the effect? The group that went to the gym had a 30% increase in muscle strength which was to be expected. However, the group who did NOT go to the gym, who only exercised in their mind had a 14% increase in muscle strength.

Think about that for a moment, the people who only imagined working out had strength increases without actually working out. You might think that 14% improvement is not much but since they didn’t actually work out, it should have been ZERO!

This is not the only example. Another group between 20 and 35 years old imagined flexing on bicep muscle as hard as they could five times a week.  All they did was imagine and yet, they had a 13.5% increase in strength AND muscle size!

It’s clear that thoughts do have a powerful effect on the body. Are you thinking negative thoughts about your body or health? You’d better look into it today!

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Zinc – A Very Necessary Micro-Nutrient

Ever think about zinc?  I know I never thought much about it until I started having white spots appear on my fingernails. When I researched it, I was really surprised at all the important things that zinc does in the body.

It does so much that in 1978, Dr. Carl C. Pfeiffer wrote an entire book, Zinc and Other Micro-Nutrients! The book is very technically oriented and is mainly about zinc although it has valuable information on other micro-nutrients such as selenium.

One thing I discovered is that zinc plays a critical role in male fertility! It also helps that pesky prostate function properly.

Basically, zinc is required for synthesis of DNA, regulates muscle contractions, is essential for the synthesis of protein and helps in the formation of insulin. There are just too many functions of zinc to list in this post. That’s how important it is.

If you have wounds that heal slowly, you are likely low on zinc. White spots on your finger nails? Ditto! Unfortunately, most of the effects of low zinc are internal and can’t be seen but you sure feel them. You have these health issues, such as frequent infections, reduced sense of taste or smell, or mental dullness and difficulty in concentrating but probably don’t know that low zinc is the problem.

One very fascinating effect of low zinc mentioned by Dr. Pfeiffer was that a severe zinc deficiency produced symptoms of schizophrenia in some people! Needless to say, adequate zinc is VERY important.

One other point made by Dr. Pfeiffer: Always take B6 with your zinc. Otherwise, the zinc is not utilized properly.

A hair test is an easy way to see the status of your micro-nutrients.

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