hi there
i have to go to fairly specialized shops to find the brands i use for mag supplementation.. one brand is carlson and the other is new roots herbal.
i looked up malic acid research and found this abstract:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8587088
Treatment of fibromyalgia syndrome with Super Malic: a randomized, double blind, placebo controlled, crossover pilot study.
Quote:
Abstract
OBJECTIVE: To study the efficacy and safety of Super Malic, a proprietary tablet containing malic acid (200 mg) and magnesium (50 mg), in treatment of primary fibromyalgia syndrome (FM).
METHODS: Twenty-four sequential patients with primary FM were randomized to a fixed dose (3 tablets bid), placebo controlled, 4-week/course, pilot trial followed by a 6-month, open label, dose escalation (up to 6 tablets bid) trial. A 2-week, medication free, washout period was required before receiving treatment, between blinded courses, and again before starting open label treatment. The 3 primary outcome variables were measures of pain and tenderness but functional and psychological measures were also assessed.
RESULTS: No clear treatment effect attributable to Super Malic was seen in the blinded, fixed low dose trial. With dose escalation and a longer duration of treatment in the open label trial, significant reductions in the severity of all 3 primary pain/tenderness measures were obtained without limiting risks.
CONCLUSIONS: These data suggest that Super Malic is safe and may be beneficial in the treatment of patients with FM. Future placebo-controlled studies should utilize up to 6 tablets of Super Malic bid and continue therapy for at least 2 months.
so, 6 tablets twice a day means they were dosing some subjects with up to 600mg of magnesium and up to 2400mg malic acid each day. it seems that 2400mg is also considered the upper end of the recommended range for malic acid intake per day (1200-2400mg)
found this too:
http://www.healingwithnutrition.com/fdi ... study.html
a nice little non-sciency read
good luck! i hope you can get some bloodwork to determine your serum mag levels and see if they're at least 0.91 mmol/L! if they are, and you still have problems, then it's time to investigate in a little more detail.