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Hi folks,
wondering if anyone has any advice. Been having a rather annoying few weeks with increased twitching all over. Fasciculations, being the proper word I suppose. Wondering if anyone has any suggestions for some supplements that might help curb this.

This has often (or always? I forget) been a symptom of my MS.

Also may be relevant that I am on Copaxone since Jan 09, DX in Dec 08, dealing with this nonsense since 1997.

Thanks all - first post - more to come.

Magnesium perhaps x

yep magnesium, and you'd want to balance it with other electrolytes, minerals... the last multimineral i bought is really good, inno-cal-mag complex. you're supposed to take 4 per day, they are liquid in softgels, 4 gelcaps provide:

calcium 1000mg
magnesium 500mg
phosphorus 250mg
zinc 5mg
vit d3 200mg
vit C 60mg

in a base of:
sunflower oil, flaxseed oil, and evening primrose oil

HTH,
JL

Absentee,
I often experience restless leg syndrome in both legs that can greatly interfere with sleeping, and is at its worst at night or when my legs are in a confined space for a prolonged period.

Magnesium is the best thing I have found to calm it, but I know of others who take any of various prescription meds for this (for which they then have to contend with side-effects).

My favorite supplements for treating this are:

o Metagenics Cal Apatite with Magnesium - 2 tables taken with each meal - this provides a total of about 1200mg calcium a day, and 600mg magnesium (I have osteopenia and was told I should take 1500mg calcium daily)

o Ionic-Fizz Calcium Plus - one scoop of powder dissolved in a small amount of water before bed.

Hope this helps....

q, i imagine you're also taking d3 for the osteopenia?
as for the cal-mag, this might be of interest:

"Calcium without phosphorous could lead to bone loss
04-Jun-2002

New research published in the June issue of the Journal of the American College of Nutrition shows that osteoporosis patients should receive their calcium in the form of calcium phosphate to reduce the risk of phosphorous deficiency.
The study shows that if calcium intake increases without a corresponding increase in phosphorus, total phosphorus absorption falls and the risk for phosphorous deficiency rises. Phosphorus deficiency may make calcium supplementation less effective and could actually lead to increased bone loss."

jimmylegs wrote:q, i imagine you're also taking d3 for the osteopenia?

Jimmylegs,
Yes, I'm taking 5000IU D3 daily (metagenics brand also).

The calcium supplement I'm taking is in the form of MCHC (?) and dicalcium phosphate, so hopefully that satisfies the phosphorous concern.

(I've also been eating at least 3 brazil nuts daily for selenium for several weeks now. )

lol good stuff
looks like you're all set on the P side of things too

thanks for all of your advice everyone.

Jimmy, I assume that is the brand - "Inno". I had been taking Mag every day and ramping up, but I not been doing it regularly in the past two weeks. I wondered if this spike in spasms could be traced to that.

It is definitely making it hard to get back to sleep if (or more likely, when) I wake up in the night.

thanks again!

yep it's inno. if you have some mag in the house maybe finish it up and see if you can pick out a decent multimineral next time you shop. let us know how things pan out

hi absentee, got an update? how's your twitching? any better? worse? same?

hey thanks for checking in Jimmy.

The twitching has scaled back considerably. I attribute this to:

1. getting back on my vitamin regimen
2. getting to see my acupuncture/chinese medical doc after a longer than normal delay between visits
3. finally getting some good sleep (thanks to a better sleeping baby)

Not necessarily in that order...but all three combined. Did wonders for the mental state too.

Cheers!

good stuff A, glad to hear it!