Magnesium and Apnea

[purple]

Magnesium can be toxic in larger amounts. There are several minerals, like Calcium and Magnesium which have an effect in conjunction. This is a question that is best asked of an MD who does blood tests to know what your current levels of these minerals are. Also, some folks have problems getting some minerals into their system.

If one has kidney problems, I have been told that doctors will suggest that a person not use Sea Salt, but regular salt which is iodine enhanced. Of course, how much salt for a kidney patient varies patient to patient. I for instance, have low Thyroid, and taking a bit more of iodine is usually good.

When I have had medical procedures where I was given a bunch of fluids, and often I try to drink a lot of water to wash the toxic chemicals used out of me, then I can get skips of heart beats. Some I can not feel, some are very unpleasant.

Trying to make generalizations on minerals to fit most of us is not a good idea.

It is interesting that of the populations which are long lived, one of the groups is the one where they eat vegetables grown on an plain which gets floods every few years with waters washed down from mountains, and that deposits more minerals onto the plain where the vegetables are grown.

[postitnote]

"Magnesium and apnea? Huh?"

I know this sounds like a strange combination. Recently, I asked my doctor about trying a magnesium supplement to help with my PVCs (extra, benign heartbeats) and palpitations, and also because my blood pressure medication contains a thiazide diuretic (water pill) that can leech magnesium from the body.

After some research, I have chosen to go with a low dose chelated magnesium (glycinate/lysinate) because of its absorbability and it's easier on the digestive system. However, one of the benefits/side effects of magnesium is that it supposedly relaxes muscles. Should I be wary of taking this too close to bed time?

One would think a modest amount of a mineral should be safe, but I wouldn't mind other opinions. (BlackSpinner any comments?)

I have taken a B6 along with 500 mg of Magnesium at 9pm every night for years with no problems. Mine is for my diabetes...don't recall why but it was best to take at night. May have been due to other supps I take in the morning.

[Deep Sleep]

I take four 200 mg Chelated Magnesium (glycinate), plus I get 100 mg in my serving size = 4 multivitamins. That's 125% of DV total. I take two of each at breakfast and two of each at lunch to minimize interaction with sleep. Breakfast also has 100 µg K2 to go with the four multis' 1000 mg of D3, and lunch has 1000 mg Omega-3 fish oil. No problem with diarrhea but I am regular as clockwork. Other than the 100 mg in the multis, I don't supplement calcium, but get about 1,000 mg with that and a cup of TJ's plain yogurt at lunch and a cup of TJ's low-fat kiefer before bedtime. That yields a 2:1 ratio of calcium to magnesium.

[Woody]

I started taking some ginger and turmeric for my arthritis and besides helping
the arthritis my AHI has dropped from about 4.5 to about 1.5 . Kind of funny
sometimes I will take an hour nap and get a AHI of 0 and that never hapened before.

[klutzo]

I take 170 mgs. of Magnesium Citrate at 10 pm, again at 2:30 am and again at 5 am., when I have to get up to take other meds anyway. I need it for the palpitations caused by fibromyalgia and the constipation caused by drugs for a heart rhythm problem, and it's best taken away from foods. I think the drugs I take are likely a partial or major cause of my hypopnea in the first place, so a mineral is minor compared to that. I must take the drugs, or I won't be around long. The only worry with too much Mg is diarrhea or kidney disease. Nobody should take more than 1,200 mgs. of Mg daily. I've found asking doctors a waste of time. They don't know a thing about nutrition. Ask a Naturopath if you are worried. I hope the Mg helps you. It stopped me from having arterial spasms in cold weather that could have killed me, so I think it's worth a try.

[Babyjoy]

My sister has severe apnea and used to suffer from heart palpations all the time. Her heart would race so bad at night and not let her rest at all. Found out she has a gluten intolerance. Went gluten free and the heart palpations are gone. Just monitor it. See if they are worse when you eat a lot or bread or gluten? Go a week without it and see if the palpations go away. Hope this helps.

[Sir NoddinOff]

For any newcomers, both magnesium and potassium have been discussed here quite a lot. Try typing both terms into the search engine just below the CPAPtalk logo. The OP probably knows this already. I've found Chelated Magnesium to be helpful for nighttime jitters/nervousness and twitchy limbs (mellowing out certainly helps my AHI). Potassium is also useful for the same. Ask your doctor about doses and interaction with other drugs.

[Aclyesia]

I take Mg once a day about 2 hours before bedtime. I don't have RLS and I don't lack it in my diet, however it's more of a precaution against a deficiency as I take a diuretic in conjunction with Cozaar to treat hypertension. I haven't noticed any difference since I started taking it (about 9 months ago) so for me I guess it may or may not be needed at all. Just habit at this point.

In the mornings I take my antianxiety medication and a multivitamin, when I get home from work I take Cozaar, and around 9pm I take the Mg. It's not a huge dose or anything though, either. Bottle is at home or i'd be more specific, lol.

[hans007]

This is interesting, I also have sleep apnea, and for some reason it began to become better, stopped using the CPAP machine and for a few weeks as I could sleep without issues, but then one day I started to take glycine and magnesium bisglycinate and also had quite a lot of stress at work, and guess what ? My sleep apneas came back at force, so now I am wondering if the magnesium might be the issue. Seems all things that do me good for sleep and feeling relaxed make my sleep apneas worse, really not easy ...

For now the only thing that helped me was CBD oil and doing breath exercises with a balloon during day to strengthen the throat muscles, but I really need to find a definitive solution as I have way too many side effects from the CPAP machine.

best, Hans

[49er]

This is interesting, I also have sleep apnea, and for some reason it began to become better, stopped using the CPAP machine and for a few weeks as I could sleep without issues, but then one day I started to take glycine and magnesium bisglycinate and also had quite a lot of stress at work, and guess what ? My sleep apneas came back at force, so now I am wondering if the magnesium might be the issue. Seems all things that do me good for sleep and feeling relaxed make my sleep apneas worse, really not easy ...

For now the only thing that helped me was CBD oil and doing breath exercises with a balloon during day to strengthen the throat muscles, but I really need to find a definitive solution as I have way too many side effects from the CPAP machine.

best, Hans

Hans,

You might want to consider registering for the forum so that knowledgeable folks can help you troubleshoot the difficulties you are having.

49er

[Julie]

Don't blame the magnesium... been taking it for years along with Apap and if I didn't take it I'd run into trouble from other things, Cpap or not.

I wish you'd go into other problems you've had with Cpap so that we can help with those... what we try to do here and often succeed given a little time.

Not knowing anything else at all about you, your equipment or sleep habits, I'm more inclined to think recent stress could be at fault but that's just a wild guess based on your note and not knowing otherwise if e.g. you've gained even a little weight lately (can make a big diff.), whether you take other meds, drink alcohol before bed, have the right mask for you and one that doesn't leak hugely, what machine/model you have and whether or not your machine pressures are set up properly, etc. etc. So let us know more and we can go from there.

[hans033]

Thanks 49er and Julie, just registered waiting for confirmation,

I'm not sure anymore about a lot of things, I started to have sleep issues 2 years ago after a severe burnout, sad enough I never could stop working because of the financial needs for my family so I continued to work (freelance musician and graphics designer), this has been the worst two years of my life, severe anxiety due to work stress and sleep apneas, but I guess many of you know this, they said I have both obstructive apnea and central sleep apnea.

I'm actually in very good physical condition, I have always done sport, eating well, no coffee, very few alcohol, don't smoke, blood tests, weight, all is very good except that we recently discovered that I have way too low Vit D and too much vitamine B6. Now I must say that I think (not sure!) that probably the Vit B6 saturation comes from the magnesium supplements I used over the years which contained B6 ... I used magnesium supplements right before my burnout started and each time I test magnesium I have bad side effects, among them worse sleep apnea like most of the things to relax me.

The side effects I encounter with the CPAP machine are :

- painful bowel (air), we changed machine 3 times, still the same, just can't use it because of this

I just ordered a machine to train diaphragm breathing, this seems to help for people with asthma and sleep apneas too, so we'll see.

The best three weeks I had was after taking 3 drops of CBD oil before sleep and a little bit tryptophane too with high doses of vitamine D each morning, but for some reason something broke this good routine, hence the reason I was looking for the magnesium/sleep apnea relation and so I found this forum.

thanks,

Hans

[Julie]

Please tell us the full name(s) of your equipment, your pressure settings and your general experience sleeping with it - hours, wake-ups if any, and how you feel in the a.m.

The stomach problem is called aerophagia and can be addressed - put the word in the forum search box and you'll see lots of discussion.

But magnesium comes in many forms and if the one you took (or take) has ingredients that don't agree with you, try others. There is so much info online (Google of course) about it and you can usually find one that works for you. I don't know anything about the diaphragm machine but would like to know more, if only to consider whether you really need it, if it's a legitimate thing (there are so many scam things out there now), and how it might relate or react with a Cpap.

[hans03]

I'll need to look for settings as i stopped using the machine, I believe my settings (pressure) where between 9-10, I'll check for exact info. I felt a bit better using it (mouth + nose mask) actually I've found that it doesn't always make me feel much better then without, but they can't increase pressure because of the aerophagia. I looked on the web, but sincerelly no real solution for this, even the guy who comes from time to time to setup the CPAP doesn't have a solution. I really don't want to use the CPAP machine anymore, really makes me sick to think to use it again so no need to encourage me with this again I prefer other solutions.

The diaphragm exercise tool I bought is the POWERbreathe PLUS Sport, the reason I did was that I saw improvements blowing into a balloon a few times a day, and read that this indeed can strengthen the throat muscles too, so I'm quite sure that doing such exercises are a good thing to do, when I sit down I tend to surprise myself often not breathing correctly when working, so maybe this is also one of the reasons I developed sleep apnea.

Yes, magnesium comes in many forms, and I tried quite a lot of them, last one in date is the magnesium bisglycinate, which has been the best for relaxing feel.

[hans3]

On the other hand how can you be so sure it's not related to magnesium ? I mean there are so many things that can interact, and it seems I'm not the only one asking, for me there is for sure a relation that everything that relaxes the muscles can indeed make sleep apneas worse, so why not magnesium? There are many things we don't know and doctors don't know, something I sadly experienced when I started having problem with this.