Hi Rhonda (and anyone else who wants to try the Cardiovascular Research magnesium solution),
Sorry I didn’t notice the reply and haven’t gotten back to you. I hope it’s not too late to help! I actually talked to a scientist at Cardiovascular Research/Ecological Formulas. I had been premixing several days worth of doses into diluted juice, and one day when I ran out of juice, I noticed the magnesium was way more effective, so I called them and got more info. So here goes:
First of all, since I’m not constipated–quite the opposite–I’m always trying to space the doses well apart and drink them in plenty of water. My dr. had told me to start out with 1/2 teaspoon 3x/day, then work up to 1 teaspoon 3x/day, mixed into 8 oz. or more of water. More water makes it easier on my stomach, so I use a 14-oz. glass of water. And I never made it up to 1 teaspoon–I’m still on a quarter-teaspoon, either 3x or 4x/day. (It’s hard to get 4 doses in, because if I don’t space them far enough apart, like more than 4 hours apart, I get diarrhea.)
It’s important to start out with the lower dose and work your way up, because once the magnesium deficiency is corrected, any extra gives you diarrhea. How this works with constipation, I have no idea. But I have a super-sensitive stomach, so likely most people could take more than the 1/4 teaspoon amount I take. But once you have diarrhea, you’ve not only surpassed the ideal amount you need, but you’re also losing nutrients. But spacing the doses apart and drinking plenty of water with each one helps you take in more.
I found a fantastic way to take this with me on the go–I found these small, brown, glass eyedropper bottles at a local health food store. Two full squirts is just about 1/4 teaspoon, so now I can bring this to a restaurant or on a trip, and I don’t have to lug around premixed bottles, or deal with measuring spoons and sticky spills. And here’s why this matters: The scientist at Cardiovascular Research told me that if you put the magnesium into anything acidic–including tap water and bottled drinking water (they’re too acidic)–the magnesium crystallizes within about 5 minutes and you don’t get the full effect. So when I was premixing several days worth in bottles of diluted juice, I wasn’t getting that much benefit from this. The timing is important, also. She told me that it should be mixed into water that you drink right away, within 5 minutes. Otherwise, for premixing it in water, she said to use only distilled water–not bottled drinking water or “spring water.” So I was carting around distilled water with me on trips for years, but now that I’ve discovered the eye dropper bottle, I only need to bring the tiny eyedropper bottle and an empty water bottle. If I’m at a restaurant, I can ask for a glass of water with no ice (ice=bad). If their glasses are too small handle a full dose, it’s easy to break up the dose–one squirt for the first glass, and another when they refill my glass second (or two squirts if you can tolerate more than me).
The eyedropper also makes it easy to drink the dose immediately if you’re someone who’s not used to chugging a glass of water. (I’ve gotten used to doing this, so I just drink fast and move on with my day.)
I keep it in the fridge, but that’s not required. You should never freeze it or put it in ice water. The magnesium tastes better if you keep it cold, but I can barely taste it anyway if the drinking water is fresh and clean. If you don’t like how the magnesium tastes, try cold, filtered water. If your tap water isn’t very good (or maybe if it’s pretty hard where you live?), it might not taste very good. I suspect that perhaps the magnesium reacts with something in the tap water of some cities–maybe it’s how they treat the water or because their water is hard. Our tap water where I live is super-clean–they don’t have to treat it chemically as much as in most cities–and it’s really soft, so maybe that’s the difference.
Okay, that’s about all I can think of for now! Let me know how it works, and I’ll move these posts back into my primary inbox so I don’t miss them!
Lori
