I’ll start this blog by freely admitting that I tend to go overboard on things I like, especially if they’re related to health, but I have to tell you how excited I am about our new product – Essential Electrolytes!  It’s a lemon-lime flavored powder that supplies several electrolytes, including magnesium.  For a complete list of ingredients you can click here .

I’ve been testing this product for a few months prior to us bringing it into our product line, and I wanted to share with you some of my experiences:
• One night I was having terrible foot cramping for no apparent reason, so I took a dose of Essential Electrolytes (I’ll abbreviate as EE from here on as a special treat to acronym lovers out there) dissolved in a big glass of water.  Within 30 minutes, the cramps that had been happening on and off for over an hour went away!
• Last month I had a dull headache that lasted for several days which I realized on day 3 was most likely due to not drinking enough water.  I increased my water intake and also took 3 or 4 doses of EE over the day and by the afternoon the headache was gone.
• A chiropractor I work with gives a dose of EE to her patients before adjusting them and has found that it helps them hold the adjustment and not suffer any “detox” reaction from being adjusted.  I have started taking it before I go to have any kind of body work (massage, acupuncture, or chiropractic) done, so I get the most for my money!
• A horse trainer I know who is an outdoorsy type (as most horse trainers are) was feeling very fatigued, and he remembered a conversation we’d had about electrolytes in the past so he went to Marilyn Farms and bought a bottle of EE.  He said that after incorporating it into his routine he feels “back to his old self” and has joined me on the bandwagon of promoting electrolytes.
• When I started writing this blog I had a slight headache at the base of my neck (you know, the kind you get after sitting at a desk staring at a computer all day long) so I took a scoop of EE in a small cup of water and now I feel so good I think I’ll stare at my computer all night, just for fun!  Okay, I’m kidding about that but I do actually feel better and it’s only been 5 minutes since I took it.

So are you convinced?  If not, that’s okay.  But if so and if you have a story to share about electrolytes I’d love to hear it!  Please post it in the comments section.  I’m getting better about responding to those – really.

The weather has been kind of stormy here lately which always makes it harder for me to sleep.  Over the past few years I have found that I sleep much better and feel happier overall if I take a dose of magnesium before I go to bed.  I usually alternate between 2 or 3 tablets of Marilyn Farms Mag Calm and 1 scoop of Marilyn Farms Essential Calm in a small glass of water.  Either choice provides about 300 mg of magnesium in a very absorbable form (chelate, glycinate, and citrate are the best – avoid magnesium carbonate and oxide if possible).  This dosage puts me right to sleep and I wake up feeling pretty good (though I would feel better if my early bird husband would sleep a little later so I could enjoy my rest without feeling guilty).

The best way to figure out what dosage of magnesium works for you is to start with a small dose (about 100 mg) and gradually work your way up over the course of a few days.  You’ll know you’ve had enough magnesium when you start to have loose stool.  When that happens, just reduce your dosage back to whatever you were taking the day before you had loose stool (for example, if 400 mg gives you diarrhea, go back to 300 mg) and take that for maintenance.  Needs for magnesium will vary based on stress and activity levels as well as how much you’re getting in your diet. 

For more info on magnesium as well as a list of foods that contain magnesium, see this website:

http://lpi.oregonstate.edu/infocenter/minerals/magnesium/
NOTE: This blog is not intended to replace the advice of a qualified healthcare practitioner.  If you are being treated for impaired kidney function, you should not use magnesium supplements without the consent of your physician.

Last week I attended a 4-day conference in Chicago on nutrition and chronic disease.  The conference itself was fantastic, but I’m writing this blog to tell you of my 4-day love affair with the free samples of magnesium glycinate (the same form of magnesium found in our very own Mag Calm and Essential Calm) that were provided at the conference.  You see, the conference was sponsored by a supplement company that wanted to make sure the practitioners in attendance knew all about the wonders of their supplements so they had open bottles of their entire product line for us to sample.

Magnesium is commonly used for the nutritional treatment of a diversity of issues including osteoporosis, pre-menstrual syndrome, fatigue, fibromyalgia, arthritis, insomnia, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, arrhythmia, and diabetes.  I personally experience none of the above but since an estimated 80% of the US population doesn’t get enough magnesium in their daily diet I thought I’d take advantage of the free samples.

After just one day of taking about 400 milligrams of magnesium I found myself sleeping better, waking up easier, and just generally feeling relaxed and refreshed – which is not usually how I feel when sitting in a chair for 8 hours a day listening to scientific lectures.  The dosage I took is slightly above the RDA of 310 mg/day for women but magnesium is hard to overdose on when taken orally – if you get too much your body will eliminate the extra via the bowels (translation: if you find yourself running to the bathroom, you took too much).  The only exception to this would be if you have inadequate kidney function or are on medications that alter your metabolism of magnesium.

As I write this blog I’m staring at my own bottle of Mag Calm, which I keep by my computer to remind me to keep up the experiment I started at the conference.  It’s been a week and I’m still feeling energetic and waking up refreshed and happy in the morning which is highly unusual for me when it starts getting cold outside!

Magnesium has so many amazing qualities that I couldn’t do it justice in one blog so I wanted to also provide you with a link to one of my favorite reference websites on nutrition – the Linus Pauling Institute.  Here is the link to their page on magnesium.  Enjoy!
http://lpi.oregonstate.edu/infocenter/minerals/magnesium/