long term after effects post interferon

[jem43]

My last interferon injection was 12 months ago. I feel tired, lethargic, my bones ache in the morning esp in my feet. I'm in bed asleep by 10-30....and now i've developed a fissula, a perenanal abcess. My doctor thinks it may be because since the interfeon my immune system is v.low to warding off infections.
Are these symptoms shared by others.

[Frieda1979]

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/bmb.2002.494030060138/full

[Frieda1979]

Read my new comments... pain in muscles and bones is also a common symptom of magnesium deficiency.

Also, there are positive correlations between thyroid hormones and magnesium levels. Some studies have seen higher magnesium with higher thyroid hormones.

Magnesium binds to ATP - the energy molecule in our bodies - every cell contains ATP and more there are over 300 enzymes where magnesium is cofactor, which means that the presence of magnesium is needed in order for the enzymes to be build.

Magnesium is cofactor to alkaline phosphatase as well.

[Frieda1979]

It is difficult to get tested on magnesium since the plasma levels are usually very stable.

There was however one value in my case that was always way below the reference range. It was alkaline phosphatase, but since it often happens together with hypothyroidism I thought that it is due to that and to be honest I didn't know that there is a connection between magnesium deficiency and low alkaline phosphatase.

I went back to my blood tests of alpha-Interferone plus Ribavirin therapy and I can literally see how the alkaline phosphatase was decreasing with each month... it still is very low in my case.

Just google "alkaline phosphatase magnesium deficiency"

If you have your blood tests, maybe you got tested on this as well. It could be an hint on the direction to look at.

[Frieda1979]

I am not sure if this can help some of you. But recently my doctor suggested that I might have a magnesium problem. I orally tried magnesium and I was surprised how much better I feel.

Since magnesium is depleted by: stress, sickness, too much calcium, caffeine, nicotine, drugs and also RIBAVIRIN (look at overdosage: http://www.drugs.com/ppa/ribavirin.html )

and also since magnesium causes an exhaustive list of symptoms, like

muscle and bone pain, tiredness, exhaustion, depression

just read the abstracts of

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4379450/

and

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16542786

it could be that due to the interferone therapy some of us where low in magnesium and for many reasons, maybe by trying to cope with tiredness by drinking more coffee and so on, we never managed to get our magnesium balance back.

Apparently in the US 75% have a daily magnesium intake that is below the recommended amount. Every process in your body depends on magnesium, so a deficiency can also cause serious diseases.

Here you can find a short movie which shows how much magnesium ist in what kind of food so you can get an estimate how much magnesium you took in recent years and if this might be one reason for not recovering after interferone

coldcure.com/gif/foods-containing-400mg-magnesium.wmv

I don't know if I am right, but I think it is worth a try. I hope it will help some of us.

[Frieda1979]

Thank you.

[ExInOhio]

What kind of personality changes? And to what extent are you AWARE of these changes?

Do other people tell you that you are a "different person?"

Have you made (and acted on) MAJOR life decisions that affected and shocked other people?

I would be very interested to know if this is a common post-treatment symptom for many people, and what if anything folks have done about it.