Magnesium - Testing info

[Gabes-Apg]

Magnesium Testing
Laboratory tests should be used to confirm what our senses and intuition tells us, but all too often doctors place all their faith in tests. Yet finding the definitive test for a condition which can clinch a diagnosis, makes both doctor and patient feel safe. Over the years lab testing for minerals evolved from measurements done on whole blood to isolating minerals inside cells. The present state of the art, however lies in testing mineral ions, which are the active component of minerals working at the tissue level. Much of the current research on magnesium has made use of ionized Magnesium Testing to measure magnesium at work in the cells; however, that testing is still not readily available to the public. The Magnesium RBC test, discussed below, is a much more available magnesium test – although not as accurate as Ionic Magnesium Testing, it is more accurate than serum magnesium testing.
There are two clinical tests that can be done in a doctors office, the results of which can indicate both calcium deficiency and magnesium deficiency: Chvosteks sign ( a contraction of the facial muscles caused by tapping lightly on the facial nerve located in front of the ear) and Trousseau’s sign (a spasm of the hand muscles caused by applying a tourniquet or blood pressure cuff to the forearm below the elbow for three minutes) but since neither test distinguishes calcium deficiency from magnesium deficiency,. Doctors use the test to only diagnose and treat calcium deficiency. As a result of calcium supplements are recommended based on either of these tests, magnesium levels are drive even lower, causing more magnesium deficiency symptoms.

Serum (blood) Magnesium Test
In spite of, or perhaps because of, all the metabolic processes that rely on magnesium, less than 1 percent of our body’s total magnesium can be measured in our blood; the rest is busily occupied in the cells, and tissues or holding our bones together. Therefore, it is virtually impossible to make an accurate assessment of the level of magnesium in various body tissue cells using a routine serum magnesium test, which you might imagine relates to all the magnesium in your body – but it does not.
Magnesium in blood does not correlate with the amount of magnesium in other parts of your body. In fact, if you are under stress of various ailments, your body pumps magnesium out of the cells into the blood, giving the mistaken appearance of normality on testing, in spite of bodywide depletion. Unfortunately, most of the magnesium evaluations done in hospitals and in laboratories use the antiquated serum magnesium test.

Red and White Blood Cell Magnesium Tests
All body cells, including red and white blood cells, contain magnesium – up to 40percent of the body’s total. Because red blood cells are 500 times more abundant in blood than white blood cells, they are the preferred test material. Studies show that blood cell magnesium is much more accurate measure of the total body magnesium than the serum magnesium test.

The Buccal Cell Smear Test (EXATest)
Using cells gently scraped from an area in the mouth between the bottom of the teeth and back of the tongue provides and accurate means of measuring the amount of magnesium in the cells of the body. Measuring cellular magnesium in this way indicates the amount of magnesium in heart and muscle cells, the two major body tissues affected by magnesium deficiency.
The buccal cell smear test can be used to sample many things in cells; however, IntraCellular Diagnostics has developed a testing procedure called EXATest specifically to identify the amounts of certain minerals in the cell, The company send sampling kits to your doctor’s office, where a simple procedure, which takes 60 seconds, is performed.
The results are sent back to your doctor. The test is expensive but may be covered by Medicare and insurance.
[goes into info on how the test is done]

Magnesium Challenge Test
Time consuming and cumbersone but necessary for people who may be magnesium wasters, the magnesium challenge test requires twenty-four hour urine collections on two separate occaisions. The first urine collection is done when you are taking your normal supplements. Then in the doctors office a dose of 2 meq/kg of magnesium chloride or magnesium sulphate is given intravenously, infused over a four hour period. A second urine collection begins after the IV, and every urine sample is collected for 24 hours .
Deficiency is diagnosed when the body exhibits a need for magnesium by holding on to more than 25percent of the magnesium given. A decade ago, the magnesium challenge test was the best method of determining body stores. While today comparison studies using magnesium challenge and ionised magnesium indicate that the ionised magnesium testing appears to be a better indicator and is more easily done. The ionised magnesium test is currently not available except for research purposes.

Blood Ionised Magnesium Test
The blood ionised magnesium test, pioneered and testing extensively at the State University of New York downstate Medical Centre in Brooklyn by magnesium researchers Bella and Burton Altura, is the most accurate and reliable blood test available but presently limited to research use.
[goes on with explanation of how the test is done]

The oral clinical trial
For the average individual, one way to diagnose magnesium deficiency is simply to try supplementing. For one to three months take magnesium while recording all changes in your physical and mental health. It may be best to do this under a health professional’s guidance, especially if you are on medications or have an existing medical condition. But we have long been our own caretakers and that freedom should not be taken from use. The alleviation of symptoms after thirty to ninety days constitutes the best proof that you had a magnesium deficiency.

False positive Magnesium Tests
The lack of adequate tools to measure magnesium in most hospitals and clinics is one of the main reasons medical doctors do not prescribe it. A serum magnesium test is actually worse than ineffective, because a test result that is within normal limits lends a false sense of security about the status of the mineral in the body. It also explains why doctors do not recognise magnesium deficiency; they assume serum magnesium levels are an accurate measure of all the magnesium in the body.

The end

There are 40 pages of references – I have scanned these pages into a pdf. PM or Email me if you are interested in a copy of this
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[Chrisdat]

Gabes, fantastic info.

Love the line, "A serum magnesium test is actually worse than ineffective". So true!

Talking to my Dr. Yesterday about tinnitus due to Pepto that is cropping up. She talked to ENT. He said, most likely not Pepto, but electrolyte imbalance due to D. Ordered blood test for electrolytes. Crazy! I have been tested at least 6x for electroyte imbalance, and serum levels always come back in normal range, despite my obvious dehydration. Cramps, dry. Eyes and mouth, tachycardia, postural hypotension, and the list goes on, after a bad couple of days with D. But, electrolyte levels always normal. My body is working very hard to keep electrolytes in balance.

BTW, seems ENT is unaware of a Pepto - tinnitus correlation. Gosh, it's on the back of the pink box! But no, must be electrolyte imbalance (said sarcastically). I'm not dehydrated currently, but ringing started last week on occasion. Not sure what I am going to do. But not going to do another serum level blood test for electrolyte imbalance.

-Chris

[tex]

Chris,

Be careful. In most cases, the tinnitus resolves after the Pepto is discontinued, but if it's allowed to continue too long, it's not impossible that the issue might become permanent.

I've had severe tinnitus for over 32 years, and I can't say that I've noticed that it has any redeeming values (unless you count the inability of barking neighborhood dogs in the distance to keep you awake at night, because you can no longer hear them. ). After about 20 years you get used to it, but you're still almost always aware of it. And no, my tinnitus wasn't caused by taking Pepto. It was caused by loud sound pressure waves.

Tex

[Heady]

Had tonsillitis my whole childhood(tonsillectomy in 1979)
dental assistant for 32 yrs..... I don't remember not having tinnitus. I tried pepto for a few days and it made the ringing in my ears worse. Never again!