Fight Fatigue by Harnessing the Power of Your Internal Clock

Fatigue 

 

Sluggish? Tired? Seven tips for getting your body into better alignment.

By Arianne Cohen

Illustration by Yann Bastard

I’m typing these words at 1 a.m., which is suboptimal for a morning person like me, according to Christopher Barnes. “If you slam some caffeine and keep the body awake long enough, you can probably do an after-hours task,” says Barnes, a professor of management at the University of Washington who studies performance and fatigue. “But when you’re consuming caffeine to fight your own sleep-regulation processes, ultimately you’re going to pay for that with your health.”

You’re likely attempting to be active when the circadian rhythm that regulates your sleep-wake cycle is calling for rest, says Kevin Koronowski, a post-doctoral fellow at the University of California at Irvine who studies metabolism and the circadian clocks that govern everything from hormone levels and cellular processes to body temperature and brain waves.

Chronically misaligned rhythms are associated with cancer and metabolic syndrome (conditions including high blood pressure and cholesterol and excess waistline fat that can spike the risk for heart disease and stroke). There’s also the brain fog that comes with fighting against what the body wants.

Here’s how you can harness the power of your internal clock to help you be more productive.

Identify when you’re most alert. What time do you wake up naturally (without an alarm)? Many people are most alert shortly after that time. Do your most important work then, and don’t waste peak-focus hours on exercise or commuting. Office dwellers are typically most productive around 11 a.m., but you might fire on all cylinders earlier or later.

Set work hours accordingly. If possible, early birds and night owls should shift their schedules to accommodate when they’re most focused. Barnes recommends core office hours from, say, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., but otherwise schedules should be flexible.

Eat to trigger your clock. “When you eat can have a big impact on your rhythm,” Koronowski says. Shift your calories toward breakfast and lunch, with a lighter dinner three to five hours before bedtime. This ramps up your metabolism earlier in the day and dials it down at night when bursts of energy typically aren’t needed.

Ditch the bad diet. “It’s thought that the clock itself responds differently to different dietary nutrients,” Koronowski says. One late-night doughnut won’t reschedule your cellular processes, but chronic munching could.

Talk to your boss. Explain that you’re more effective at certain times. Night owls, beware: Barnes co-authored a paper showing that managers perceive them to be less effective and less conscientious. “It’s unfortunate that this stereotype is so pervasive,” he says.

Think about timing. “A boss giving a rah-rah speech to a night owl at 7:30 a.m. will kind of fall on deaf ears, and not be nearly effective as the same speech later in the day,” Barnes says. Managers should keep an eye on how perceptions can shift throughout the day.  

Sleep when you’re tired. Temperature, noise, light—all of this can affect our ability to doze off. Know what your needs are to fall asleep, and make sure they’re met. Koronowski, for instance, says he likes to remain cool while he sleeps while his wife looks for warmth, so they started using separate blankets.

 

If Your Brain Feels Foggy And You're Tired All The Time, You're Not Alone

Brain Fog 

 

In recent weeks, Dr. Kali Cyrus has struggled with periods of exhaustion.

"I am taking a nap in between patients," says Cyrus, a psychiatrist at Johns Hopkins University. "I'm going to bed earlier. It's hard to even just get out of bed. I don't feel like being active again."

Exhaustion is also one of the top complaints she hears from her patients these days. They say things like, "It's just so hard to get out of bed" or "I've been misplacing things more often," she says.

Some patients tell Cyrus they've been making mistakes at work. Some tell her they can "barely turn on the TV. 'All I want to do is stare at the ceiling.' " Others say they are more irritable.

While some people who have had COVID-19 report brain fog and fatigue as lingering symptoms of their infection — what's known as long COVID — mental health care providers around the U.S. are hearing similar complaints from people who weren't infected by the virus. And many providers, like Cyrus, are feeling it themselves.

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Pandemic's Emotional Hammer Hits Hard

This kind of mental fog is real and can have a few different causes. But at the root of it are the stress and trauma of the past year, say Cyrus and other mental health experts. It's a normal reaction to a very abnormal year.

And while many people will likely continue to struggle with mental health symptoms in the long run, research on past mass traumas suggests that most people will recover once the coronavirus pandemic ends.

"We know that the majority of people tend to be resilient," says Lynn Bufka, a psychologist with the American Psychological Association. "They may have struggled during the time of the challenges but generally come out OK on the other end."

In the meantime, Bufka and other experts say that there are things we can do now to fight the mental fog and exhaustion.

How stress and sleep are linked

"Exhaustion can be a symptom of many things," says Cyrus.

For one, it can be a symptom of stress.

"We know from other research that people will talk about fatigue as something that they experience when they're feeling overstressed," says Bufka.

Life Kit

Burnout Isn't Just Exhaustion. Here's How To Deal With It

A recent survey by the American Psychological Association found that 3 in 4 Americans said that the pandemic is a significant source of stress.

Millions of people have lost loved ones, have become ill themselves and/or have lost income as a result of the pandemic. The threat of COVID-19 alone has been stressful for most people, as has all of the upheaval that the pandemic has brought, says Bufka.

Stress "keeps our mind vigilant and our nervous system vigilant, and that uses more energy," says Elissa Epel, a psychologist at the University of California, San Francisco. That's one reason that prolonged stress can leave us feeling drained.

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Another way that chronic stress makes us feel exhausted is by interfering with sleep, says Bufka. "When we're feeling stressed, our sleep can get disrupted, which naturally leads to feelings of tiredness and exhaustion," she says.

"We really rely on sleep to recover each day," explains Epel. "And so for many of us, even though we might think we're sleeping the same number of hours, it's not the same quality. It doesn't have the same restorative ability, because we're getting less deep sleep, and we think that is tied to this chronic, subtle uncertainty, stress."

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How To Get Sleep In Uneasy Times

Chronic stress also triggers low-grade inflammation, she adds.

"We have this inflammatory response when we're feeling severe states of stress that can last. It's subtle, it's low grade and it can absolutely cause fatigue and a worse mood."

A year of anxiety, grief and trauma

The fatigue and fog so many are feeling now also could be symptoms of other mental health issues that flared over the last year, says Dr. Jessica Gold, a psychiatrist at Washington University in St. Louis. "After this long, most people have had some degree of anxiety, depression, trauma, something," she says.

As studies have shown, rates of anxiety and depression in the population have gone up during the course of the pandemic.

I think that because so many people are struggling with this and because it is so normal, everybody has something to say. If we could just get to the point where we could be talking about the stuff more openly, we'd feel a lot less alone.

Dr. Jessica Gold, psychiatrist

Long-term anxiety can also exhaust the body, says Gold.

"We evolved as creatures, people that run from predators in the animal kingdom, right? To have anxiety as a way to predict and run from threat," she says.

When we're anxious, our hearts race and our muscles tense up as we prepare to fight a predator or run from it. But "you can only run a 100-yard dash for a short amount of time. Not a year, and not a year where they keep moving the finish line," says Gold. "We can't do that. Eventually our muscles and our body say, 'No, I'm tired.' "

njoy.

The New Science of “Fatigue Resistance”

Fatigue Resistance 

Photo by Kyle Broad on Unsplash

What separates the best endurance athletes from everyone else isn’t their amazing lab test data or power values—it’s how well they maintain those values after a few hours of exhausting exercise

 

When the lab data from Nike’s Breaking2 marathon project was finally published last fall, the most interesting insights were of the “dog that didn’t bark in the night” variety. Among a group of some of the greatest distance runners in history, none of the standard physiological measurements—VO2 max, lactate threshold, running economy—produced any seriously eye-popping values. To understand why these runners were so good, the researchers suggested, we might need another variable: fatigue resistance, which they defined as “the extent of the deterioration of the three [other variables] over time.”

Interestingly, that same new variable pops up in a new analysis of power data from pro cyclists. An international research team led by Peter Leo, a doctoral student at the University of Innsbruck, and James Spragg, a British cycling coach, crunched the numbers from a group of elite and near-elite professional cyclists in a five-day race called the Tour of the Alps. The best predictor of race performance, competitive level, and event specialty wasn’t the raw power or heart-rate data—it was, once again, fatigue resistance.

The subjects in the new study, which was published in the International Journal of Sports Physiology and Performance, came from three European cycling teams: Tirol KTM, Bora Hansgrohe, and Androni Giocattoli-Sidermec. The 14 participants from Tirol KTM were all under-23 riders competing in the developmental Continental tier of cycling competition; the ten participants from the other two teams were pros. There are lots of ways of comparing the two groups of riders, from simple observations (the pros were shorter and lighter than the U23 riders) to complex analyses of their “power profile” (the highest power sustained for various durations ranging from five seconds to 30 minutes over the course of the five-day race).

The power profile can tell you lots of useful things about your strengths and weaknesses as a rider. If you’re really good at sustaining sky-high power output for five-second bursts, that bodes well for your ability to win sprint finishes and cover sudden mid-race moves. If your 30-minute power is unusually good, that suggests you might be a climber or a time trialist. Overall, the power profiles turned out to predict almost perfectly what order the riders finished in and how far behind the leaders they were.

There was a surprise in the power profile data, though, somewhat reminiscent of the VO2 max data from Breaking2. When they compared the U23 riders to pros, there were no significant differences in the power profiles of the two groups—with the minor exception of the five-second power, which was actually higher in the U23s. Similarly, when they compared different types of cyclists like climbers and all-rounders, there weren’t major differences in the power profiles.

The default power profile was constructed by searching through each rider’s data for the entire five-day race to find, say, the five-second window with the highest average power. Same thing for ten seconds, 15 seconds, and so on up to 1,800 seconds (i.e. 30 minutes). But you can do a similar analysis while limiting your search to the highest five-second power produced after you’ve already done, say, 1,000 kilojoules of cycling during that day’s stage. According to Leo, a typical pro cyclist might accumulate 800 to 900 kilojoules of work during an hour of training, and up to 1,500 kilojoules per hour during a race.

So the researchers repeated that process to construct separate power profiles for the riders after 1,000, 1,500, 2,000, 2,500, and 3,000 kilojoules of work. Here’s how the resulting power profiles looked for the professionals versus the under-23 riders:

(Illustrations: International Journal of Sports Physiology and Performance)

As you’d expect, the max powers are highest for the short bursts (on the left side of each graph) and lowest for the longer durations (on the right side). For the pros, the lines are mostly bunched together on top of each other. That means that even if they’ve been riding fairly hard for a few hours, they can still surge for a minute or two almost as quickly as they could when fresh. It’s only at the highest level of fatigue, after 3,000 kilojoules of work, that their sprint performance starts to drop off noticeably.

In contrast, the power profiles for the U23 riders are much more spread out. Even after just 1,500 kilojoules of work, their ability to sustain high-intensity efforts is noticeably impaired. In other words, it’s fatigue resistance that differentiates pros from U23s.

You see something similar when you compare different styles of rider. The way they divided the riders up is a bit complicated. First they used height, weight, and body surface area to divide them into climbers (small, light cyclists ideally suited to pedaling up Alps) and all-rounders (bigger, more versatile cyclists who can sprint and time trial well in addition to climbing). Then they divided the climbers into GC (general classification) riders, who placed in the top ten of the overall race standings, and domestiques, who placed outside the top ten. Here’s what their power profiles looked like:

(Illustrations: International Journal of Sports Physiology and Performance)

The difference here is even starker. The GC riders—the ones who hope to actually win multi-stage races—have virtually no difference in their power profile even after 3,000 kilojoules. The less accomplished domestiques show a much greater effect of fatigue. And the all-rounders have the most pronounced drop in performance, which is presumably why they’re not given the assignment of trying to win the overall race. You can’t win a multi-stage tour unless your fatigue resistance is exceptional.

There are a number of nuances to consider. One is that this data was collected during a real-world race, which means that the power data reflects the particular tactics used by each team and how each stage played out. In a stage with an early breakaway, maybe no one really needed to max out their five-second power. And each rider’s role affects the resulting power profiles: the differences between GC rider and all-rounder profiles may be partly a result of the jobs they’re assigned.

Also, quantifying fatigue by the number of kilojoules expended is a very blunt measure. Cruising along at a steady 250 watts for an hour burns up 900 kilojoules; but so does cruising along at 230 watts with a couple of one-minute surges at 600 watts. The latter is likely to trash your legs far more than the former, and professional stage racing is full of sudden shifts between low and high intensities.

That complexity makes it hard to zero in on why some riders have better fatigue resistance than others. Fatigue, after all, has many different components: metabolic disturbances in your muscles, altered signals from your brain and through your spinal cord, depleted motivation and cognitive resources. The precise mix of these components at any given point during a five-day race will vary widely, so it’s not clear exactly what superpower the GC riders possess that enables them to shrug off a few hours of hard riding.

Still, when I asked Leo how to develop fatigue resistance, he did have a few practical suggestions. One is that running low on carbohydrates seems to make fatigue resistance worse—an observation that dovetails with other data from the Breaking2 project, which found that taking in 60 grams of carbohydrate per hour improved fatigue resistance. In training, Leo and his colleagues hypothesize that the volume of training you do is more important than the intensity for developing fatigue resistance. And you might try including intervals or sprints toward the end of a longer ride, he suggested: four x 8:00 hard with 4:00 recovery after three to four hours of lower-intensity riding, for example.

For now, there are more questions than answers about fatigue resistance. But I suspect we’ll see a lot more research about it in the years to come. “In longer endurance events,” Leo points out, “it’s all about how you can perform in a fatigued state, rather than a fresh state.”

---

By: Alex Hutchinson

Why You're Tired All the Time

Constant Tiredness 

 

Fatigue, writes our columnist, comes in two very different flavors, and fixing each requires a completely different approach

Brad Stulberg

Brad Stulberg

---

Nov 5, 2020

 

One of my coaching clients, who I’ll call Jenny, is a 39-year-old entrepreneur. Lately, she’s been struggling with fatigue, nothing too severe but a general sense of exhaustion, or, in her words, “not feeling as sharp and energetic as I’d like.” The first solution that comes to mind is simple: rest. But what if she tries resting and still feels sluggish?

Jenny’s situation is not uncommon. It illustrates what I’ve come to think of as the difference between two types of fatigue:

1. When your mind-body system is truly tired, or what I’ll call real fatigue.
2. When your mind-body system is tricking you into feeling tired because you’re in a rut, or what I’ll call fake fatigue. 

It’s important to differentiate between these two sensations, because the response each requires couldn’t be more different. The former calls for shutting things down and resting. The latter calls for nudging yourself in the direction of action, not taking the sensation of exhaustion too seriously but, rather, working your way out.

When it comes to physical fatigue, it may be easier of the two to discern. This is because feedback tends to be more objective—your muscles become sore, your heart rate increases, or the speed at which you run (or the weight you lift) declines. For more generalized and predominantly psychological fatigue, however, such clear metrics are lacking. This means that you’ve got to feel your way into the right response.

Generally speaking, the cost of pushing through real fatigue is greater than the cost of acquiescing to fake fatigue. Going too hard for too long, and pushing over the edge, can result in burnout, which research shows can take many months—and in severe cases, years—to reverse. The safest bet, then, is to treat the onset of exhaustion as if it were real fatigue. Take a day off, or a few. Sleep a little extra. Disconnect from digital devices. If you can, spend time in nature. Reexamine your regular routine, and if something seems haywire, make adjustments. If you do all this and yet still feel malaise, then it’s worth seeing what happens if you firmly nudge yourself into action.

An extreme example of “fake” fatigue is the exhaustion that accompanies depression. Your brain is doing everything it can to trick you into staying in bed all day, when the best thing to break out of the cycle would be to get up and go, or what psychologists call “behavioral activation,” which is a gold-standard treatment for depression. This isn’t to say the sensations of lethargy, dullness, and torpor are not real—they are, and they can be quite paralzying. But those sensations, as far as we know, are not organic, not caused by a lack of sleep, an expenditure of physiological resources, or something wrong in the body, for example. If they were, taking action would make the situation worse. But, as research shows, with depression, taking action—particularly when supported by therapy—tends to make the situation better.

This kind of fake fatigue happens on a smaller scale all the time. For instance, about eight months ago, I kept putting off starting my next big writing project. I felt tired! So I rested. And rested some more. After about three weeks of this, with the help of my own coach, I decided to force myself to just get started. Three days later, I was in a great writing groove that lasted for over a month. More rest would have only deepened the rut. I needed to work my way out of it. 

There is one more layer of nuance here, and it’s an important one. Sometimes breaking the cycle of fatigue requires combining both of the above strategies. You may be experiencing real fatigue and thus need rest. But after a week of rest, your mind-body system may be recovered yet still latched onto the inertia of doing nothing. At this point, the strategy shifts. In sports, this is why so many tapers end with a few short, intense efforts. Studies show that these efforts wake the body up and snap it back into action.

Your best bet is to think of managing exhaustion as an ongoing practice. Over time, if you pay close attention to how you feel, what you do in response, and what you get out of it, you’ll become better at differentiating between real and fake fatigue. The first step is learning that not all sensations of fatigue mean the same thing. For those accustomed to always pushing through exhaustion, perhaps you need a bit more rest. For those accustomed to always resting, perhaps you’d benefit from more of a just get-going, “mood follows action” mentality. Think of these approaches as two tools in the kit. There’s a time and place for each.

Brad Stulberg (@Bstulberg) is a performance coach and writes Outside’s Do It Better column. He is also bestselling author of the books The Passion Paradox and Peak Performance. Subscribe to his newsletter here. 

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The Medical Minute: Overcoming pandemic fatigue

The Medical Minute: Overcoming pandemic fatigue: 

After nine months of social distancing, masking and quarantining, many people are experiencing pandemic fatigue. 

 

Newswise — The sharp rise in COVID-19 cases throughout Pennsylvania and across the United States makes continued vigilance with established safety efforts essential to helping slow the virus’s spread. Yet after nine months of social distancing, masking and quarantining, many are experiencing pandemic fatigue. Whether it manifests as anxiety, exhaustion or defiance, it’s important to recognize and address it for the sake of our physical and emotional health.

A long and uncertain pandemic

Health care providers on the frontlines of the COVID battle have seen how approaches to treatment and prevention have evolved, sometimes seemingly overnight, often resulting in a sense of uncertainty, anxiety or even doubt with the public.

“It’s been like drinking out of a firehose,” said Dr. Jonathan Nunez, an internal medicine physician at Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, reflecting on the last several months of the pandemic. “Every day we’ve learned something new.”

One of the most significant evolutions he has witnessed — one that may have played a role in some people’s continued unwillingness to mask properly — is guidance on face coverings for the general public.

“At first, we were told that only health care workers needed to wear a mask,” Nunez said. “But since those early days, there's been a lot of evidence overall that wearing masks may definitely slow the spread of the virus and help people from transmitting it to others, especially if they’re asymptomatic.”

Another theory from early in the pandemic was that the warmer weather over the summer would potentially halt the virus, as it does with other seasonal respiratory diseases. “Super spreader events in the form of outdoor gatherings showed that this unfortunately wasn’t the case for COVID,” Nunez said.

Nunez advises that anyone considering in-person activities like dining out or shopping make sure that everyone in the establishment is abiding by the rules. “Are they wearing masks, covering the whole face, sitting six feet apart?” he asked, adding that even with these measures, “there is no absolute decreased risk.” He prefers creative solutions to social gatherings. “Most of my inspiration has come from the internal medicine residents. They've been able to continue their game nights — virtually.”

Minding your mental health

The relentless pace of the pandemic and the resulting social distancing restrictions have been exhausting and stressful, explains Dr. Julie Graziane, a psychiatrist at the Milton S. Hershey Medical Center. “But there are things that we can do to help mitigate a lot of those stressful emotions,” she said.

Graziane suggests an emotional reframing of quarantines and social distancing restrictions. “Don’t think of them as things we’re being forced to follow, but rather as actions we're freely choosing to do to help others,” she said. “We shift it into an altruistic action as we do these things to help our loved one, our neighbor, even the stranger in the community that we care about.”

The colder weather and fewer hours of daylight can add to the emotional burden of that COVID causes.

“We’ve been watchful with mental health as individuals experience significant emotional stress during the pandemic,” Graziane said. “And we’re especially concerned as we head into the winter months that play a role in some people’s depression.”

One significant stressor from COVID that Graziane points to is the disruption to routines, such as getting the kids on the bus in the mornings or driving to work. She recommends establishing new routines.

“Have a regular awake time or regular sleep time, and regular meal times,” Graziane said. “Then take some time during the day to check in with yourself, how you're feeling about the day, the situation. Incorporating healthy activities like exercise and mindfulness, and then pleasurable activities.”

Reflecting on what was important to them and provided meaning to their lives prior to the pandemic can help people find strength and purpose as quarantines continue, Graziane said. “And don’t be afraid to reach out for help. If you feel like you're struggling with getting through this, talk to someone such as a loved one, a physician, a counselor or a friend.”

Nunez stresses that we take the time to check in with others. “Maybe someone you know is struggling and just because you don’t ask, they don’t mention it,” he said. “We’re all going through this. We are not alone.”

Hopeful while remaining vigilant

While recent news that an effective vaccine is expected to come to market soon points to an eventual end to the pandemic and its social restrictions, both Graziane and Nunez stress that the general population is still perhaps months away from being able to receive the two-part vaccination.

“For now, we must remain ever vigilant,” Graziane said.

That includes celebrating the holidays very differently this year.

“I think what’s important this holiday season is remembering that we’re trying to stay healthy and we’re also really trying to keep others healthy,” said Nunez, “especially our patients who are vulnerable and at risk for severe complications of the disease.”

Related content:

• Ask Us Anything About…COVID 19 Fatigue
• The Medical Minute: Virtual gatherings may be best way to celebrate holidays together
• The Medical Minute: The three types of COVID-19 tests

 

The Medical Minute is a weekly health news feature produced by Penn State Health. Articles feature the expertise of faculty, physicians and staff, and are designed to offer timely, relevant health information of interest to a broad audience.

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Why 80% of Us Are Deficient In Magnesium

Why 80% of Us Are Deficient In Magnesium:

 Magnesium deficiency is often misdiagnosed because it does not show up in blood tests - only 1% of the body's magnesium is stored in the blood

Posted on:

Thursday, October 17th 2019 at 6:45 am

Written By:

Dr. Mark Sircus

This article is copyrighted by GreenMedInfo LLC, 2019
Visit our Re-post guidelines

Originally published on www.drsircus.com

Magnesium deficiency is often misdiagnosed because it does not show up in blood tests - only 1% of the body's magnesium is stored in the blood
Most doctors and laboratories don't even include magnesium status in routine blood tests. Thus, most doctors don't know when their patients are deficient in magnesium, even though studies show that the majority of Americans are deficient in magnesium.

Consider Dr. Norman Shealy's statements, "Every known illness is associated with a magnesium deficiency" and that, "magnesium is the most critical mineral required for electrical stability of every cell in the body. A magnesium deficiency may be responsible for more diseases than any other nutrient." The truth he states exposes a gapping hole in modern medicine that explains a good deal about iatrogenic death and disease. Because magnesium deficiency is largely overlooked, millions of Americans suffer needlessly or are having their symptoms treated with expensive drugs when they could be cured with magnesium supplementation.

One has to recognize the signs of magnesium thirst or hunger on their own since allopathic medicine is lost in this regard. It is really something much more subtle then hunger or thirst but it is comparable. In a world though where doctors and patients alike do not even pay attention to thirst and important issues of hydration, it is not hopeful that we will find many recognizing and paying attention to magnesium thirst and hunger, which is a dramatic way of expressing the concept of magnesium deficiency.

Few people are aware of the enormous role magnesium plays in our bodies. Magnesium is by far the most important mineral in the body. After oxygen, water, and basic food, magnesium may be the most important element needed by our bodies; vitally important, yet hardly known. It is more important than calcium, potassium or sodium and regulates all three of them. Millions suffer daily

 from magnesium deficiency without even knowing it
In fact, there happens to be a relationship between what we perceive as thirst and deficiencies in electrolytes. I remember a person asking, "Why am I dehydrated and thirsty when I drink so much water?" Thirst can mean not only lack of water but it can also mean that one is not getting enough nutrients and electrolytes. Magnesium, Potassium, Bicarbonate, Chloride and Sodium are some principle examples and that is one of the reasons magnesium chloride is so useful.

Magnesium Torment (Deficiency)

You know all those years, when doctors used to tell their patients 'its all in your heads,' were years the medical profession was showing its ignorance. It is a torment to be magnesium deficient on one level or another. Even if it's for the enthusiastic sport person whose athletic performance is down, magnesium deficiency will disturb sleep and background stress levels and a host of other things that reflect on the quality of life. Doctors have not been using the appropriate test for magnesium - their serum blood tests just distort their perceptions. Magnesium has been off their radar screens through the decades that magnesium deficiencies have snowballed.

Symptoms of Magnesium Deficiency

The first symptoms of deficiency can be subtle - as most magnesium is stored in the tissues, leg cramps, foot pain, or muscle 'twitches' can be the first sign. Other early signs of deficiency include loss of appetite, nausea, vomiting, fatigue, and weakness. As magnesium deficiency worsens, numbness, tingling, seizures, personality changes, abnormal heart rhythms, and coronary spasms can occur

A full outline of magnesium deficiency was beautifully presented in a recent article by Dr. Sidney Baker. "Magnesium deficiency can affect virtually every organ system of the body. With regard to skeletal muscle, one may experience twitches, cramps, muscle tension, muscle soreness, including back aches, neck pain, tension headaches and jaw joint (or TMJ) dysfunction. Also, one may experience chest tightness or a peculiar sensation that he can't take a deep breath. Sometimes a person may sigh a lot."

"Symptoms involving impaired contraction of smooth muscles include constipation; urinary spasms; menstrual cramps; difficulty swallowing or a lump in the throat-especially provoked by eating sugar; photophobia, especially difficulty adjusting to oncoming bright headlights in the absence of eye disease; and loud noise sensitivity from stapedius muscle tension in the ear."

"Other symptoms and signs of magnesium deficiency and discuss laboratory testing for this common condition. Continuing with the symptoms of magnesium deficiency, the central nervous system is markedly affected. Symptoms include insomnia, anxiety, hyperactivity and restlessness with constant movement, panic attacks, agoraphobia, and premenstrual irritability. Magnesium deficiency symptoms involving the peripheral nervous system include numbness, tingling, and other abnormal sensations, such as zips, zaps and vibratory sensations."

"Symptoms or signs of the cardiovascular system include palpitations, heart arrhythmias, and angina due to spasms of the coronary arteries, high blood pressure and mitral valve prolapse. Be aware that not all of the symptoms need to be present to presume magnesium deficiency; but, many of them often occur together. For example, people with mitral valve prolapse frequently have palpitations, anxiety, panic attacks and premenstrual symptoms. People with magnesium deficiency often seem to be "uptight." Other general symptoms include a salt craving, both carbohydrate craving and carbohydrate intolerance, especially of chocolate, and breast tenderness."
 

 

Like water we need magnesium everyday. There is an
eternal need for magnesium as well as water and when
magnesium is present in water life and health are enhanced.

One of the principle reason doctors write millions of prescriptions for tranquilizers each year is the nervousness, irritability, and jitters largely brought on by inadequate diets lacking magnesium. Persons only slightly deficient in magnesium become irritable, highly-strung, and sensitive to noise, hyper-excitable, apprehensive and belligerent. If the deficiency is more severe or prolonged, they may develop twitching, tremors, irregular pulse, insomnia, muscle weakness, jerkiness and leg and foot cramps.

If magnesium is severely deficient, the brain is particularly affected. Clouded thinking, confusion, disorientation, marked depression and even the terrifying hallucinations of delirium tremens are largely brought on by a lack of this nutrient and remedied when magnesium is given. Because large amounts of calcium are lost in the urine when magnesium is under supplied, the lack of this nutrient indirectly becomes responsible for much rampant tooth decay, poor bone development, osteoporosis and slow healing of broken bones and fractures. With vitamin B6 (pyridoxine), magnesium helps to reduce and dissolve calcium phosphate kidney stones.

Magnesium deficiency may be a common factor associated with insulin resistance. Symptoms of MS that are also symptoms of magnesium deficiency include muscle spasms, weakness, twitching, muscle atrophy,  an inability to control the bladder, nystagmus (rapid eye movements), hearing loss, and osteoporosis.  People with MS have higher rates of epilepsy than controls.  Epilepsy has also been linked to magnesium deficiencies.[1]
Another good list of early warning symptoms suggestive of magnesium insufficiency:

• Physical and mental fatigue
• Persistent under-eye twitch
• Tension in the upper back, shoulders and neck
• Headaches
• Pre-menstrual fluid retention and/or breast tenderness

Possible manifestations of magnesium deficiency include:

• Low energy
• Fatigue
• Weakness
• Confusion
• Nervousness
• Anxiousness
• Irritability
• Seizures (and tantrums)
• Poor digestion
• PMS and hormonal imbalances
• Inability to sleep
• Muscle tension, spasm and cramps
• Calcification of organs
• Weakening of the bones
• Abnormal heart rhythm

Severe magnesium deficiency can result in low levels of calcium in the blood (hypocalcemia). Magnesium deficiency is also associated with low levels of potassium in the blood (hypokalemia). Magnesium levels drop at night, leading to poor REM (Rapid Eye Movement) sleep cycles and unrefreshed sleep. Headaches, blurred vision, mouth ulcers, fatigue and anxiety are also early signs of depletion.

We hear all the time about how heart disease is the number one health crisis in the country, about how high blood pressure is the "silent killer", and about how ever increasing numbers of our citizens are having their lives and the lives of their families destroyed by diabetes, Alzheimer's disease, and a host of other chronic diseases.
Signs of severe magnesium deficiency include:

• Extreme thirst 
• Extreme hunger 
• Frequent urination 
• Sores or bruises that heal slowly
• Dry, itchy skin
• Unexplained weight loss
• Blurry vision that changes from day to day
• Unusual tiredness or drowsiness
• Tingling or numbness in the hands or feet
• Frequent or recurring skin, gum, bladder or vaginal yeast infections

But wait a minute, aren't those the same symptoms for diabetes? Many people have diabetes for about 5 years before they show strong symptoms. By that time, some people already have eye, kidney, gum or nerve damage caused by the deteriorating condition of their cells due to insulin resistance and magnesium deficiency. Dump some mercury and arsenic on the mixture of etiologies and pronto we have the disease condition we call diabetes
.
Magnesium deficiency is synonymous with diabetes and is at the root of many if not all cardiovascular problems.

Magnesium deficiency is a predictor of diabetes and heart disease both; diabetics both need more magnesium and lose more magnesium than most people. In two new studies, in both men and women, those who consumed the most magnesium in their diet were least likely to develop type 2 diabetes, according to a report in the January 2006 issue of the journal Diabetes Care. Until now, very few large studies have directly examined the long-term effects of dietary magnesium on diabetes. Dr. Simin Liu of the Harvard Medical School and School of Public Health in Boston says, "Our studies provided some direct evidence that greater intake of dietary magnesium may have a long-term protective effect on lowering risk," said Liu, who was involved in both studies.
The thirst of diabetes is part of the body's response to excessive urination. The excessive urination is the body's attempt to get rid of the extra glucose in the blood. This excessive urination causes the increased thirst. But we have to look at what is causing this level of disharmony. We have to probe deeper into layers of cause. The body needs to dump glucose because of increasing insulin resistance and that resistance is being fueled directly by magnesium deficiency, which makes toxic insults more damaging to the tissues at the same time.

When diabetics get too high blood sugars, the body creates "ketones" as a by-product of breaking down fats. These ketones cause blood acidity which causes "acidosis" of the blood, leading to Diabetic Ketoacidosis (DKA), This is a very dangerous condition that can lead to coma and death. It is also called "diabetic acidosis", "ketosis", "ketoacidosis" or "diabetic coma". DKA is a common way for new Type 1 diabetics to be diagnosed. If they fail to seek medical advice on symptoms like urination, which is driving thirst they can die of DKA.

Oral magnesium supplements reduce erythrocyte[2] dehydration.[3] In general, optimal balances of electrolytes are necessary to maintain the best possible hydration. Diabetic thirst is initiated specifically by magnesium deficiency with relative calcium excess in the cells. Even water, our most basic nutrient starts having a hard time getting into the cells with more going out through the kidneys.

Autism and Magnesium Deficiency
When dealing with autism spectrum and other neurological disorders in children it is important to know the signs of low magnesium: restless, can't keep still, body rocking, grinding teeth, hiccups, noise sensitive, poor attention span, poor concentration, irritable, aggressive, ready to explode, easily stressed. When it comes to children today we need to assume a large magnesium deficiency for several reasons.
1) The foods they are eating are stripped of magnesium because foods in general, as we shall see below are declining in mineral content in an alarming way.
2) The foods many children eat are highly processed junk foods that do not provide real nutrition to the body.
3) Because most children on the spectrum are not absorbing the minerals they need even when present in the gut. Magnesium absorption is dependent on intestinal health, which is compromised totally in leaky gut syndromes and other intestinal problems that the majority of autism syndrome disorders.
4) Because the oral supplements doctors rely on are not easily absorbed, because they are not in the right form and because magnesium in general is not administered easily orally.
Modern medicine is supposed to help people not hurt them, but with their almost total ignorance of magnesium doctors end up hurting more than they help for many of the medical interventions drive down magnesium levels when they should be driving them up. Many if not most pharmaceutical drugs drive magnesium levels into very dangerous zones and surgery done without increasing magnesium levels is much more dangerous then surgery done with.
The foundation of medical arrogance is actually medical ignorance and the only reason ignorance and arrogance rule the playing field of medicine is a greed lust for power and money. Human nature seems to be at its worst in modern medicine when it should be at its best. It is sad that people have to suffer needlessly and extraordinarily tragic that allopathic medicine has turned its back on the Hippocratic Oath and all that it means.
For additional research on Magnesiun Deficiency, read the following articles:

• Magnesium's Importance Far Greater Than Previously Imagined
• What We Learned From The Accelerated Aging of Astronauts
• 7 Reasons to Get More Magnesium

Consult our Magnesium research database on the therapeutic role of magnesium in over 190 conditions.

---

References

[1] https://www.nhfw.info/magnesium.html

[2] Red blood cells are also known as RBCs, red blood corpuscles (an archaic term), haematids or erythrocytes (from Greek erythros for "red" and kytos for "hollow", with cyte translated as "cell" in modern usage). The capitalized term Red Blood Cells is the proper name in the US for erythrocytes in storage solution used in transfusion medicine.

[3] J. Clin. Invest. 100(7): 1847-1852 (1997). doi:10.1172/JCI119713. The American Society for Clinical Investigation
Originally published: 2018-02-12  
Article updated: 2019-10-17

Dr. Mark Sircus, Ac., OMD, DM (P) (acupuncturist, doctor of oriental and pastoral medicine) is a prolific writer and author of some astounding medical and health-related books. His books are heavily referenced, and for many years Dr. Sircus has been researching into the human condition and into the causes of disease; he has distilled many of the divergent medical systems into a new form of medicine that he has coined Natural Allopathic Medicine.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of GreenMedInfo or its staff.

Infertility Caused By The Environment

Infertility Caused By The Environment



Curiously, 'The Handmaid's Tale', was recommended to me recently.  I will now relish reading it.

Written By:

Anne Marie Fine, ND

This article is copyrighted by GreenMedInfo LLC, 2017
Visit our Re-post guidelines

In the Emmy Award-winning new series The Handmaid’s Tale, a chilling new picture of a dystopian society emerges. Environmental contaminants are causing decreased sperm production among men, couples having difficulty conceiving and children being born with numerous health concerns.  When I first read Margaret Atwood’s book The Handmaid’s Tale in the 80’s, I thought it was a science fiction novel. Never did I imagine that it was a plausible vision of the future.

The troubling reality is that we are seeing a huge increase in both chronic disease (over 50% of adults have at least one) and reproductive health issues.  The primary force behind the increase in chronic diseases has been unmasked.  The sheer amount of toxins overwhelming our body’s own detoxification systems, while simultaneously dysregulating the immune and endocrine system, is making us all sick. The CDC reports that over 100 toxic chemicals and metals out of the 212 that were measured (which is but a small fraction of the thousands of chemicals humans are exposed to daily) are present in the average U.S. resident.[i] This load is a prime causative factor for the majority of the epidemic of chronic diseases in the U.S. and must be addressed.  Studies have shown that even our babies are being born pre-polluted. Heavy metals like lead and mercury, flame retardants, pesticides, herbicides, Bisphenol A and phthalates have been found in their cord blood, amniotic fluid, and breastmilk.[ii],[iii],[iv]
Major medical associations are becoming aware of this problem. FIGO, the international Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics representing 125 different countries reports that:

Flying Should Come With A Health Warning

Flying Should Come With A Health Warning

 It has long been known that there are health hazards in flying in an airplane.  Too many people return from flying with viruses.

Did you know that the air you breathe on a commercial airliner comes directly from the engine, complete with engine oil, lubricants and hydraulic fluid? A new study confirms the link between contaminated cabin air and aerotoxic syndrome. Learn what you can do to protect yourself and your family.

If you don’t feel well after air travel, it might be more than simple jet lag. From the parking garage to the baggage carousel, your body undergoes a fusillade of toxic assaults. You may eat toxic food, drink toxic water, and touch contaminated surfaces—and then your body is bombarded by body scanners, Wi-Fi and cosmic radiation.

On top of all that, the air in the airplane is toxic.

For six decades, the airline industry has turned a blind eye to the adverse health effects of contaminated cabin air. Since warm air is needed for both engine propulsion and human respiration, aircraft manufacturers decided decades ago to combine the two by bringing air through the engine to heat it, then bleeding it directly into the cabin—unfiltered. This air brings with it a toxic mix of engine oil, lubricants, and various hydrocarbons. As noted by US Attorney Alisa Brodkowitz, the only air filters are the lungs of passengers and crew.

Magnesium Deficiency

 Here is a helpful article about Magnesium deficiency.  This could help identify some symptoms you may bee having like cramp or sleeplessness.  Yesterday I posted an article about Food Cravings, well you may find some answers here:

Magnesium Deficiency

Mental Illness and Hypothyroid Disease

 It has long been known that there is a connection between Mental Ilness and Hypothyroid Disease.  The article throws some light on the condition.  It is alarming to think what the effect of hormones deficiencies have on our health.

 The Link Between Mental Illness and Hypothyroid Disease