How long does Magnesium take to see improvement?

[cara615]

I started my son on Mag/calcium supplement today. There is 720mg in a table spoon and I gave him less than a tsp. I am seeing an uptick in the tics this morning. Not sure if this is to be expected. Should I keep at it? Does it take time before it starts lessening the tics? Right now he has a vocal tic that I can't even try to explain with words, its like a rolling of the tongue noise.

 

I do realize the potential that it may not do anything for him but I am trying to he hopeful. Should I add in tic tamer with the Mag/cal? Is that too much for him?

[Chemar]

Hi

what kind of supplement is it? and what are the proportions of calcium and magnesium? are there any "other ingredients"?

 

Some people do better with just the additional magnesium, provided they are getting sufficient calcium in their diet...most people get in lots of dietary calcium but not enough magnesium and it is the magnesium that is important to help reduce tics. They type of magnesium matters too...mag oxide is useless as it is very poorly absorbed

[cara615]

It is Magnesium (as citrate) 720mgs in a serving (115mg as elemental), calcium (as citrate) 1200mg (252mg elemental), Vit D 400IU and Boron (as citrate) 750mcg. its by tropical oasis.

 

I am seeing an upsurge in the frequency of his tics since I gave it to him this morning. Not sure if I should try again tomorrow or just discontinue.

 

As for the GABA, that really seemed to calm him down what are the side effects of long term use?

[Chemar]

well none of those ingredients is bad but that is a very high dose imo and again, not knowing how much calcium he has in his diet....that may be way too much for him

 

Many members here like the Natural Calm ionic mag citrate supplement as well as the Epsom Salts baths

 

Remember too that if your son's tics are not TS related, he may not require the extra magnesium! For example, if his tics are related to allergies (food or environmental), infectious or toxic agents etc...then until the offending substance is removed, the tic trigger remains, nomatter how many good things you may add.

 

here is a simple but important response to long term GABA use http://docwellness.wordpress.com/2011/06/03/the-dangers-of-daily-gaba-use/

 

The biggest problem re long term use is that studies are very scant and so we really don't know enough about supplementing GABA, especially in children.

 

I know our physician did stress that it was a very potent neurological agent and that it needed to be weaned off, and never stopped abruptly. He also suggested titrating up in dose when first taking it as well

[cara615]

Thanks Chemar, we have only given him 1/8th of a tsp for 4 days with good results. i was thinking of keeping him on it until schools out and then let the summer take its course. Not sure how to wean down from 1/8th of a tsp but I will try.

 

As for the Magnesium, maybe he does not need the calcium. Maybe I just need to give him magnesium alone.

 

I have the name of a great holistic pediatrician that I am going to take him to. I need to be under a physicians care with all these supplements and his regular pediatrician can only help so much. At first she said GABA was great! But when I asked her how long can I give it to him for she did not know.

 

That post from Dr wellness is scary because he mentions that after coming off of GABA the body becomes deficient in it! makes me think i could be hurting him by evn giving it to him.

 

i would rather get the whole magnesium supplement correct because that IS something I can give him long term without harmful side effects. Have you heard of cases where just Magnesium alone or magnesium Taurate helped better than the one with calcium?

 

By the way, thank you for consistenly answering all my questions

[tangara18]

I have been following this thread with interest as I have just started my son on magnesium and worry whether it is the right thing or have I got the right dose... the last thing I want to do is make things worse.

 

I have started him on Mag Phos (each tablet contains 500 mg of the mineral tissue salt magnesium phosphate) and it says on the container to give kids 1/2 a tablet 4 x a day. Does anyone thing this would be okay at this dosage. First day we saw an upsurge in his tics but on the 2nd day by the afternoon they were hardly noticeable.

 

I too would appreciate some guidance. Thank you...

[cara615]

We had a lengthy appointment with our new holistic/integrative medicine pediatrician yesterday. She did some chinese medicine testing on my son. It came up as digestive/spleen/bladder which is his immune system. She is suspecting leaky gut caused by a food sensitivity. But more testing still needs to be done. We will be testing for food sensitivities, heavy metals, candida, and everything else under the sun. For now she has recommended that we start on glutamine and a heavy duty probiotic (for gu repair), protein supplement, magnesium + taurine, carnitine (brain), and GLA for metabolism because he came up iodine deficient. In addition an omega 3 supplement (which we already do everyday). I am to introduce 1 supplement every 3 days to make sure there are no adverse effects. Today we started with the glutamine and the probiotic (since we have been doing a probiotic already).

 

We also have to slowly go gluten free. I am also trying to go low dairy as well but its hard as my son is so tiny and needs as many calories as he can get. Today has been day 1 and we had eggs and bacon with a side of organic yogurt and OJ for breakfast. Organic grass fed hotdog and gluten free white bread with apple sauce for lunch. Snacks were gluten free cheddar crackers. I need to get my son to drink a smoothie this way he can get all he supplements at once and not notice them. i have been preparing him about the smoothies, Hopefully he will comply. He is 5 and a terrible eater. I mean TERRIBLE.

 

the doctor says that she is seeing A LOT of this leaky gut and kids with sensory issues, tics and many disorders along the autism spectrum. She thinks there is a huge connection. However, she says each case is very individual and that there is no set cocktail of supplements that will help each child. So we are going to have to "play" around until we get the right recipe. Hopefully all the testing will lead us in the right direction.

 

I am relying on a lot of prayer as well. .

[Chemar]

Hi Cara

if you do a search here for leaky gut you will find a lot of info going back many years.

[pr40]

in place of dairy, if he is sensitive to casein, you can do peanut butter if he is not sensitive to it. there are many ways to get fat. fish oil, olive oil, avocado, nuts of all sorts -- I don't remember if you mantioned your child's age

[Chemar]

Dairy intolerant patients sometimes do ok on goats milk, or almond milk or rice milk and in some cases, soy milk...obviously only if not intolerant to those.

[cara615]

I will tell you that he would complain of a stomach ache after every single meal. Yesterday we had no gluten and there were not any stomach aches. We are still on dairy and so far no tummy issues. Today is day 2 of the glutamine/probiotic/fish oil. 2 more days and I add in Mag/taurine. Cautiously optimistic as I have already seen a lessening of tics. Although it could be unrelated....

[Chemar]

We have a member here whose son's tics resolved after going gluten free. She has a very helpful website http://healthy-family.org/

[cara615]

Wanted to give an update on our journey. We are currently on glutamine, probiotic, cod liver oil and GLA with a gluten free diet. Behavior has improved. Less sensory, more engaged, les frustrated and less anxiety. His teacher even commented on the improvements! The tics, however are still there throughout the day. Mostly vocal right now but I see he tries to suppress his head jerk by sticking his hand up to his neck and rubbing it.

 

We added Magnesium glycinate to the mix and the tics got worse. This mag was prescribed to us by our homeopathic MD. Since I had tried mag/cal with him before and his tics got worse then, I was assuming it would be the same situation. I was right. So we going to stop the mag.

 

But here is where it gets pretty interesting. I met for a consult with a HANDLE practitioner this past weekend. She evaluated my son for about 2 hours. The next day I went back and she taught me about 15 different neurological exercises to perform on my son throughout the day, everyday.

 

I started them after practicing them all on myself for one day. The exercises are so simple it seems as if you aren't really doing much. Its kind of hard to believe that these exercises would ever have any sort of effect on the brain. But oh,,,,,,,

 

Within 3 days my son is now back to playing with his friends on the playground after school (he had stopped and was preferring to play alone) and the tics have decreased dramatically. His teacher came up to me and said, "whatever you are doing, keep it up!".

 

I asked the HANDLE practitioner if its possible to see results this quickly and she said it is possible. Yesterday was a recital in school where they had to get up and sing and I think he was nervous all day because yesterday he was ticcing a lot. But today i can count on one had the number of tics he has had.

 

Is this a fluke? Could HANDLE be the answer?

[Chemar]

Hi

glad to hear things are getting better and that Handle has been helping.

 

Some people seem to benefit from it while others don't. It seems that younger children and those more on the autism spectrum have most benefit?

 

I am not sure if it has changed but years ago when I was checking into it, the cost was prohibitive! and at that time I was already spending a great deal on trying to help my sonm, so to have been shocked by a cost...well...it was very high and one had to make an 8 month committment if I recall. And as we found things were so improved once he started on the holistic nutrition and acupuncture etc....we did not need to try it.

 

If you search Handle Institute on this forum you will come up with a lot of previous posts on it

 

I do think your child reacting negatively to magnesium may suggest perhaps this is not TS?

[cara615]

I have a funny feeling its not TS either. But if we went to a neuro he would give us a diagnosis of TS since my son has had motor and verbal tics for over a year. HANDLE was $400 - definitely not prohibitive. We get a 1 week, 3 week and 6 week follow up. I do the exercises on him everyday. My son is not on the spectrum. He does have SPD to a mild degree though. I just can't believe and hope its not a cooincidence that on the very day I started the HANDLE exercises, his tics diminshed drastically. Very interesting and I will check into the other posts on this site. Thanks.