Presentation and looking for advice

[dps231]

Thanks Tex..
but my sleep ocd is killing me, I didn't sleep this whole year and I have an important conflict with this.
I don't know what to do, regarding MC, what are my chances if I continue on SSRI? Is there some similar case?

[dps231]

Regarding magnesium I want to point that I have creatinine at 1.48 and GFR at 60. Values have been getting worse little by little. Is this related to magnesium? They used image testing to check the state of kidneys but they didn't find anything.

[tex]

Most of us are obsessive-compulsive, and we're perfectionists, early adapters. That's one of the reasons why we have MC, in the first place. Do you get good relief, and good sleep when you're taking the full dose of the SSRI? Or are you just hoping that it will help. Most antidepressants are only slightly better than placebos in actual trials.

Your kidney function is normal, and it's natural for it to slowly decline as we age. I note that when I had a chronic magnesium deficiency, my eGFR was usually around 60, or slightly below, and when my magnesium deficiency got so bad that I was having occasional arrhythmias, my eGFR plunged into the high 30s. Now that I take enough magnesium daily, I have no more arrhythmias, and my eGFR is better than ever, usually over 70. My last test, about a month ago, showed an eGFR of 76, and I'm now 82. I recall having a kidney ultrasound scan back when my eGFR was around 38, and they also found nothing.

Please don't count on your doctors to diagnose a magnesium deficiency — that's never going to happen. I even went to the emergency room one day, because I felt so bad I couldn't eat breakfast, and they ran all sorts of tests and then told me everything was fine. After I went back home, the next day I checked my online test results, and my magnesium was so low that it was even flagged, yet the doctors totally ignored that result. I didn't, and even though I was already taking a magnesium supplement, I doubled my daily dose, and by the next day, I felt fine.

You're between a rock and a hard place, because your MC is not likely to go into remission if you're not getting at least a minimal amount of sleep, and unless you're much luckier than most of us, your MC is not going to go into remission as long as you're taking an SSRI. I'm not aware of a magical solution for that situation. Your best bet might be to try to find a good internist or maybe even a naturopath who can help with your sleep issues, and understands the negative effects of taking antidepressants, and how to wean off them without any residual negative effects.

I hope this helps,

Tex

[dps231]

Regarding your question "Do you get good relief, and good sleep...
". All I know is that I've tried to quit SSRI three times in my life, and always end up with insomnia. This time I started with the withdrawal in September 2022, after multiple reductions, with about 50% of the full dose (in December) I wasn't sleeping. Always it's similar, at certain point there is a wall.

By the way, why do you link OCD with MC? My OCD was diagnosed when I was 20, many years before MC.

I'm not thinking clearly, but is colestomy an option?

[tex]

I link the two simply because our experiences here have demonstrated that it's true — there are past discussions about this in the archives, if you want to look them up, but the simple fact is most of us have obsessive-compulsive tendencies, and we're perfectionists and overachievers. There are even medical research articles that support this. Here's one, for example:

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31821232/

Here's more discussion about it on the Microscopic Colitis Foundation website:

https://www.microscopiccolitisfoundatio ... fects.html

Some gastroenterologists claim that surgery is an option for "curing" MC, but I've never heard of anyone personally, whose MC was cured by a colostomy. I know of at least one other MC patient who tried a colostomy after her doctors talked her into it. After it didn't work, she decided to have the surgery reversed, because her symptoms were worse after the surgery.

I, myself, have a colectomy, because of a massive colonic bleeding problem due to a genetic defect inherited by some of the males on my father's side of the family. The details are posted, if you wish to search the archives. That surgery was done over 13 years ago, but I can assure you that I still react to the same foods (if I'm careless enough to accidentally eat any of them) — a colectomy certainly didn't resolve my MC symptoms.

Tex

[Lee404]

I was in your situation with SSRI use of 35 years causing MC. I was so afraid of stopping the antidepressant fearing the dark depression and anxiety. I had horrible insomnia for months, waking 10+ times per night. I finally learned that serotonin is necessary for our bodies to make melatonin. Now I take liquid melatonin every night. I can sleep about 4 hours before waking. If I can’t go back to sleep I take a tiny dose of Xanax. It sounds like I still need to get more magnesium.
I have been in remission and healing, but I would not have been able to get improvement if I had continued the SSRI. I tried many other classes of antidepressants without success. Supplements of tryptophan made the MC flare. I’ve had many dark days and nights, but I had not known about the importance of magnesium and vit d until recently finding this wealth of knowledge and compassion in this website. As others have advised, get outside, sit in the sun, rest even though you can’t sleep, turn off the news, find funny things or people to enjoy.

[tex]

Welcome to the group. Great advice, because the RDA recommendations for vitamin D and magnesium are only barely adequate for people in good health. They're way short of being adequate for anyone who has an autoimmune disease, especially an IBD.

Thanks for sharing.

Tex

[Lee404]

Tex, While looking at this website there is some confusing information about magnesium. There is a list of magnesium types, and makes the distinction between magnesium and elemental magnesium. The info I gleaned from it is that we need to get 600 mg of ELEMENTAL magnesium, which is, as also noted, a small percentage of the dose. Then I also read “don’t worry about the elemental magnesium”, just the whole dose. Please clarify, thanks

[tex]

That's a good question, since magnesium can make up less than half the weight of compounds that include it, such as magnesium citrate, magnesium chloride, or magnesium glycinate, for example. If "elemental magnesium" is mentioned on the label, then the amount should be clear. But "elemental magnesium" is usually not mentioned on the label (at least not in the U.S.). So don't worry about the term "elemental". Look at the label to see what it's actually saying.
'
The amount of magnesium you actually get from a supplement (often called "elemental magnesium") should be listed on the label, but that's not always the case. Pay close attention to how the magnesium content is described. For example, if the label says, "Magnesium (as magnesium citrate)...500 mg," it means you are getting 500 mg of actual magnesium. However, if the label says, "Magnesium citrate 500 mg," it refers to the total weight of the compound, not the amount of magnesium. In this case, only a small percentage of the compound is magnesium—specifically, 11.2% for magnesium citrate or 16.2% for trimagnesium dicitrate (which may also be labeled as magnesium citrate).

I hope this clarifies that issue.

Tex