Vitamin B12 stops pins and needles

Vitamin B12 stops pins and needles

My doctor said pins and needles sensation in my feet came from vitamin B12 deficiency. I’m sure he was right. The pins and needles feeling reduced as I had B12 replacement and finally stopped altogether.

Jarrow Methyl B12, 5000mcg, 60 Lozenges

 Jarrow Methyl B12 5000 mcg

Vitamin B12, Back Pain and Magnesium

2005 ~ Now that I’m getting over the tetanus I got last year (2004) when I hadn’t had a tetanus shot for 30 years, I am keenly aware of debilitating pain in my back, similar to that prior to my B12 replacement.

Here’s the crunch. All these years I thought the pain in my back pain went away because I had cyanocobalamin injections i.e. B12 replacement.

For a fact the pain in my back dramatically decreased. And, I was having B12 replacement, that is, vitamin B12 injections. What I forgot was that when I had money for B12 replacement, I began to buy and take magnesium. I wanted to follow the advice in a newsletter I took. (I also began to eat more protein which may also have had an effect.)

At the time I bought the cheap K-Mart magnesium, which I expect was Magnesium Oxide, just as the cheap Wal*Mart brand is the Oxide form today.

Inadvertently stopped taking Magnesium

Tetanus ~ When gardening becomes life threatening ~ When I got tetanus, a very unpleasant disease, I stopped taking magnesium because I was too sick to cook so Kitchen Angels   delivered my meals. Previously I’d eaten a lot of cheese and yogurt, and each time I had some I took magnesium so as not to get headaches or bone spurs from the large amounts of calcium.

 

Now, I’ve not had much magnesium this last year, while at the same time I’ve had a lot of B12. If it were the B12 which reduced my back pain, I shouldn’t have any back pain now. But I do.

When I had this realization on September 28, 2005, I decided I needed to go back to taking magnesium with calcium foods, and to eat a lot more cheese and yogurt so that I would in fact be taking more magnesium.

Years ago I took one magnesium tablet each time I had a bit of yogurt or a piece of cheese. In total I was probably taking anywhere from three to six or nine tablets a day.

Pins and Needles cartoon by Science World British Columbia to promote development of a knowledge-based society in British Columbia.
Pins and Needles cartoon by Science World British Columbia to promote development of a knowledge-based society in British Columbia.
“Pins and needles is often a warning signal of magnesium deficiency,” wrote Francine Prince in Saturday Evening Post two decades ago.

I found that while trying to understand the forms of magnesium and which is most easily and efficiently absorbed and therefore best.

Magnesium Overcomes many Diseases

Magnesium, like vitamin B12, reduces pins and needles and has a well researched history of overcoming diseases. Keep in mind that if you have low vitamin B12 levels you are likely to have low magnesium levels, due to the fact that both the vitamin and mineral need sufficient levels of stomach acid in order to be released from food. If you have a B12 malabsorption problem, then you are most likely not absorbing magnesium, either.

My friend Christena sent me an email about magnesium that began:

  • Many of the symptoms of Parkinson’s disease can be overcome with high magnesium supplementation.
  • In a trial with 30 epileptics 450 mg of magnesium supplied daily successfully controlled seizures.
  • In an American study the death rate due to diabetes was four times higher in areas with low magnesium water levels.
  • Many studies have shown an increased cancer rate in regions with low magnesium levels in soil and drinking water.”

I wasn’t struck by the email because I don’t have Parkinson’s, epilepsy, diabetes or cancer. But, like a fertile seed, the article took root in my mind. I began remembering a women’s health newsletter in which the pharmacist-authors were zealots for magnesium, and convincingly so.

Month after month they emphasized the necessity for, and the strengths of magnesium. I became convinced. I bought magnesium and began taking a tablet each time I ate anything with calcium in it. (A main thrust of the newsletter was that we consume a lot of calcium in the United States which does more damage than good unless it is accompanied by magnesium.)

I fully expected the magnesium to make the calcium in my food usable for my body thus making my bones nice and dense even though I was nearing my sixties.

 

When I had a bone density test, sure enough, my bones were dense. The test administrators appeared most surprised. They were giving the test for free, then instructing people on a medication for increasing bone density. Presumably the medication manufacturers or distributors wrote their paychecks.

Magnesium and Sleep

The first day of my renewed interest in, and consumption of, magnesium a friend got me a pizza and I had five tablets over two meals and one snack of heavily cheesed pizza. (I hadn’t had any pizza in 50 weeks.)

That night I slept particularly soundly, and even dreamed. Usually I don’t fall deeply enough asleep to dream. (Prior to B12 replacement I seldom got four hours’ sleep a night unless I took a strong sleeping pill. So, I’m certainly not complaining about the 7 hours of sleep a night that I get now.)

Based on the sense of relaxation that I feel, I believe that in less than six months I am going to experience a dramatic reduction of pain in my back.

Foods containing magnesium

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