How to Ruin Your Health in 7 Easy Steps
Yes, you read that correctly. I said ruin, not improve. But later I'll tell you how to improve or, rather, prevent this very thing from happening to you.
Here, below, are 7 steps I took (*specifically in 2014) to ruin my health.
1. Drink lots of 12 ounce cup-loads of coffee, every morning of every day. Is that bad? Because I love coffee. America runs on Dunkin', you know. (Dunkin' Donuts coffee, if you're not familiar)
2. Take loads of Vitamin D3-- 8,000 to 10,000 IU-- per day.* Hey, back off. I needed to bring my levels up. (says that blood test and the doctor who told me to)
3. Take 1200 mg of Calcium supplements each day.*
"You need it," says the doctor.
"Why?" I ask. "There's so much calcium added to food products nowadays. Besides, I drink Kefir and I eat yogurt. Isn't that enough?"
"No, you need at least 1200 mg per day. You're a woman past menopause. Think of your bones. It will prevent osteoporosis."
4. Stay away from Magnesium.
Hell, I took that Calm Magnesium fizzy stuff once. It made my muscles quiver and spasm like crazy. I'll never take that shit again. Besides, I eat my veggies. Heck, I even drink fresh green juices, so I get plenty of magnesium.
5. Keep on taking prescribed pharmaceuticals. Hey, with no Thyroid and having Fibromyalgia, I need my drugs, thank you very much. Muscle relaxers help me sleep. I need my sleep!"
6. Smoke Cigarettes. Quit? I have stress. How would I manage my stress?
7. Unregulated Stress. That's what comfort food and cigarettes are for.
I am guilty of all of the above, and even more that I'll just mention but not enumerate. I didn't take a multi-vitamin (they're bad anyway) or minerals, just Vitamin D, calcium, and occasional packets of Emergen-C, which is Ascorbic Acid and another mistake I made. (But that's another story.) I thought I ate well most times. I thought my cigarette habit was under the radar. I had it all covered, so I thought.
The beginning of the end for me started with insidiously creeping food allergies, sneaky calf and foot cramps, inflammation everywhere and, in particular, swollen thighs, knees and ankles. Then in October 2015, my leg muscles kinda seized up, felt sickly hot and feverish, shaky and weird, and caused my husband and I to hightail it out of our Aruba timeshare to get our asses a flight home, leaving Aruba after spending only 24 hours into our vacation week. (Yes, I was that ill)
Last November 2015 I landed in the Emergency Room 5 times and was hospitalized 3 out of those 5 times.
My torso, buttocks and leg muscles were tightened around my severely aching bones. They wouldn't relax and my legs and butt had thousands of tiny knot-balls under my skin. They were in constant spasm, constant pain. So were my bones, the pains were unbearable. My buttocks muscles were tightened around my coccyx bone 24/7. Muscle relaxers no longer worked. I went from Flexeril to Skelaxin to Soma. They'd work for the first ten minutes then the severe tightening started all over again. It was like a switch in my brain was stuck on "tighten all them muscles" for months on end.
I thought I had Bone Cancer because of the pain. They did too. They did a Bone Scan. Found nothing.
I had a gazillion tests by one specialist after another during my 5 trips to the hospital. Yes, it felt like a gazillion--4 MRIs, multiple CT Scans, 2 Ultrasounds. Mega Blood work was done for every disease under the sun--All with nothing to show for it. Not that I wanted something to show, but . . .
Is it Lupus or some other serious muscle disease? Myositis. They mentioned that was possible. I mean, my WBC count was elevated. That's gotta mean something, right? Not wishful thinking, of course, but I need to know what's going on with me. Please don't release me. I'm afraid to go home.
"We don't know. You're a complicated case. You need an EMG and that's done as an outpatient, not here in the hospital," they had said, and then finally decided upon a diagnosis, "Fibromyalgia," which I already knew I have, or had, or never had. Not sure, really. Years ago, I was told I had it. And then another doctor told me I didn't have it. Then I was told by yet a third doctor that I do have it.
Hmm . . . sigh.
Fibromyalgia? Are you kidding? Is that all you got? Now listen, I know Fibromyalgia. This is not Fibromyalgia. This is some other shit. I can't even walk, for Christ's sake!
They sent me home with Steroids, Percocet, and more muscle relaxers.
I had no choice but to quit working my day job. I filed for disability and got approved within 3 weeks. Wow. What the hell was wrong with me?
My knee joints had become severely arthritic, seemingly overnight, I might add. I could no longer hold myself up. Not even in the shower. All I did was cry. I was increasingly allergic to most food all of a sudden. In three months' time my tolerable diet dwindled to nearly nothing. I was afraid to eat. All I did was cry.
My final hospital inpatient stint was in the end of November 2015 and I swore if I came out of this alive I'd never step one foot through an ER again. (worthless) But this time I was discharged with Lyrica. Yes, a Fibromyalgia-approved drug they use for Diabetic Neuropathy. (I watch all those TV drug commercials) An okay drug, I guess. It worked. Sort of. Not really. My muscles had no ATP, no energy. Lyrica wasn't going to fix that. So what will?
This is where the amazing Internet comes in. My lifesaver. The Universe (really, it was Facebook not the Universe) sent me an ad in my News Feed about Magnesium. It was one of those things you don't ask for but, somehow, Mark Zuckerberg knows you need. It came at the right time, I'll tell ya.
MAGNESIUM is THE MOST IMPORTANT MINERAL we humans require, and that magnesium
1. Does not stay in the body. It needs constant replenishment.
2. Calcium and Vitamin D supplements deplete magnesium stores, rapidly.
3. Coffee depletes magnesium, rapidly.
4. Stress depletes magnesium, rapidly.
5. Pharmaceuticals, legal or otherwise, depletes magnesium, rapidly.
6. Cigarettes? Yup, you guessed it, depletes magnesium too.
7. The veggies you eat and drink are already magnesium-deficient due to the condition of our modern-day soil. Our SOIL is magnesium depleted. Hell, our soil is depleted of many minerals that humans need.
I needed MAGNESIUM! Yes, it was almost as simple as that. Sure, they tested my serum levels of magnesium. It was a 2. They said my level of 2 meant my magnesium was normal. They said it wasn't causing my muscle issues. "Absolutely not. It's your Fibromyalgia. Keep seeing your Rheumatologist. She'll refill your Lyrica."
Well guess what? They were wrong!
A serum Magnesium test is useless. While in the hospital, (I forget if it was visit #1, 2 or 3) I had asked for an RBC Magnesium test. That's a Red Blood Cell (RBC) Magnesium test, and a more accurate test for magnesium levels. It's what's in your cells, in your mitochondria, that counts.
They wouldn't do it. They said they don't do that type of test in a hospital setting. No doctor would do it for me. They said it is too expensive and specialized and I didn't need that anyway. (What a crock!)
PLEASE NOTE: This post is written in simplified Layman's Terms, but . . .
I was indeed MAGNESIUM DEFICIENT, dumping more magnesium than I was putting in, even with all those nutrient-dense organic dark green drinks and spinach at dinnertime. Probably for years, but I didn't crash and burn until that one solid year when I was poisoning my system by taking heavy-duty Calcium and Vitamin D3 supplements, which deplete magnesium stores rapidly. And little did I know, by taking isolated Calcium and Vitamin D3 (which is really a hormone), the combination of those two wreaked havoc with my bones, my arthritis and my already problematic Fibromyalgia-plagued muscles. (And the EMG showed, you guessed it, nothing!)
Without sufficient magnesium, calcium and Vitamin D actually deposits calcium into your soft tissues where it does not belong. Calcium belongs in the bones, not in the soft tissues of your body, and not floating uselessly in your blood stream. And taking Hormone D is just as bad to that end. If you take isolated Hormone D it will negatively catch up with you eventually, I guarantee it.
And in order for Magnesium to work properly, you need the right types of magnesium, the correct milligrams for your body weight, and you need all the co-factors to help get magnesium into your cells and keep it there.
Magnesium Co-factors:
Whole Food Source of B-6
Boron
Bicarbonate of Soda
There is so much more information about the health benefits of Magnesium, technical and simplified. So, please . . .
Do yourself a big favor. Google search these terms:
•Benefits of Magnesium
•Types of Magnesium
•Magnesium Deficiency
•Adrenal Cocktail (balances magnesium intake w/ potassium and real sodium)
•The Borax Conspiracy
•Magnesium Co-Factors
•The Magnesium Miracle by Carolyn Dean
•Morley Robbins:
•Magnesium Advocacy Group (join them on Facebook)
Again, I need to stress to you, this post is an abbreviation of my recent health experience, a mere drop in the bucket of knowledge, and it is written in Layman's terms only.
**I'll soon write another post on my progress since discovering Magnificent Magnesium, but now:
***For a complete understanding of the benefits of Magnesium and all it can do for you, please do your research. Your health depends upon it.***
