Deficiencies and muscle twitching

[RCQ21]

Hi everyone,

I have been having muscle twitching for the past few months. It just happens randomly in different parts of my body every once in a while. It all started 7 months back when my physiotherapist told me that my body muscles were very tight, especially the shoulders and calf muscles. However the muscle tightness has significantly improved these days.

However the muscle twitching has not stopped. During this 7 month period I started having anxiety, started to become more confused in daily life tasks and my memory isnt as sharp as it was. Is there any vitamin/mineral deficiency which can cause these psychological and muscle symptoms? I carried out a lot of blood tests to check the muscle twitching such as electrolyte levels, thyroid function, kidney function and such. However everything was normal except a low iron level in my blood. Could it be magnesium deficiency,B1, B12 or Vitamin D? Since i did not get tested for those.

[Paxiled]

Take the above with a grain of salt, anxiety sufferers.  I am one, and none of the above is likely to help you.  Sure hasn't helped me any.  Vitamin C in excess will just give you a lot of expensive urine -- and a lot of urine, which can interfere with sleep.  Relora is more of a hormonal relaxant than an anti-anxiety remedy -- it's just a marketing gimmick (magnolia, one of the two main ingredients, is a hormonal balancer more than a relaxant).  Vitamin E for anxiety?  Don't see it.  Gym believes turmeric (circumin) cures everything.  Ayurvedic medicine, as practiced for centuries and where this herb comes from, doesn't.  Again, I use most of these supplements for other purposes, but none has done a thing for my anxiety, or for anyone else's that I know of.  Valerian can be helpful for some people both as a relaxant (works like a mild benzo) and a sleep aid, though as a relaxant other herbs are usually used because of valerian's tendency to cause drowsiness.  Passionflower, kava, and other relaxant herbs are used more frequently, in combination with a lot of other remedies in a holistic program, to treat anxiety, but I've never heard of any of the above used for that purpose in my own attempts at treatment and in 18 years selling them in health food stores.  Fish oil is associated some with depression, but not with anxiety, and if you do use it for mental health you have to take quite a bit.  Quercitin can be a useful anti-histamine, especially when combined with bromelain and Vitamin C, but if you take too much you will become immune to its effects.  I eat a ton of vegetables, but haven't had any anxiety reduction because of them.  There are a lot of natural remedies out there that have been used and are being used for anxiety.  A good book to read for an overview is Natural Highs by Hyla Cass, a psychiatrist at UCLA.  She uses them in her practice, so although this book isn't new, it will offer an idea of how an actual practitioner uses different remedies rather than the experimental studies often cited by Gym.  On the other hand, I do recommend the supplements he cites for other purposes, and it might help with your pain.  His advice on what to avoid is great advice.  I just don't think the anti-anxiety effects he's citing match up with what works in practice, and since there are so many alternatives that are being actively used such as adrenal balancers, relaxant herbs, and amino acids and that have had some success I'd go with those, but again, these are some highly beneficial supplements Gym has mentioned if taken in proper amounts.  More is not always better, and really, taking a ton of Vitamin C really will make you pee a lot more than you want to.  I don't believe Relora works for true anxiety, but it can work if hormonal imbalance of female hormones is your problem.

[gymdandee]

Evidence that monosodium glutamate (MSG) and other excitotoxins in foods and beverages can induce a panic disorder in experimental animals a reaction
that exactly resembles what are happening in humans. low magnesium can magnify this effect.
Carbonated soft drinks, among other causes. Also, a number of prescription medications can cause the magnesium problem.
You need to avoid excitotoxins in your food. These are MSG, aspartame,
hydrolyzed proteins, vegetable protein, isolated protein, soy products including soy protein isolates, soy protein and soy milk, natural flavoring, sodium or calcium caseinate and others. All of these food additives worsen brain excitation and have been shown to specifically target the amygdala nucleus a set of neurons in the brain’s temporal lobe.
Increase your vegetable intake to at least 5 servings a day. Many of the flavonoids in vegetables have been shown to reduce anxiety especially hesperidin, quercetin and curcumin. All three are available as supplements. The dose is 250 mg. of each three times a day. Quercetin comes in a
water-soluble form. Otherwise it must be dissolved in either fish oil or extra-virgin olive oil.
Reduce your intake of fats especially saturated fats and omega-6 fats vegetable oils, like as corn, safflower, peanut, sunflower, soybean and canola oils. Studies show that animals on high-fat diets release more cortisol and take longer to recover from stress than those on low-fat diets.
Magnesium is a natural calmative agent. It reduces excitotoxicity and when taken at bedtime, it helps with sleep. It also reduces the immune
over-reactivity seen with anxiety disorders. In addition, it reduces your risk of heart disease, stroke and type-2 diabetes and metabolic syndrome.
White tea contains a flavonoid called
epigallocatechin gallate. This has been shown to calm the brain and reduce
anxiety. White tea has a higher level of this flavonoid and much less fluoride than green tea.
valerian has been shown to activate the same calming brain GABA receptor. It has been used to induce sleep and calms anxiety during the day. It should not be mixed with medications that act as sedatives or
tranquilizers.
Try to avoid caffeine. People with anxiety disorders hyper react to stimulants, such as caffeine.

[RCQ21]

I just came back from the neurologist appointment. He examined me and told me that there is nothing to worry about as I am showing all signs of normal neurological function.

He says it is BFS ( benign fasciculation syndrome) since my twitching is very random and highly related to anxiety. He told me to continue using the magnesium supplements as it might also help.

[Paxiled]

Sorry, meant to say magnesium oxide is the least well-absorbed form.  By the way, Gym is right, a neurologist isn't a surgeon, that's not what I was distancing myself from him about -- it's mostly the trolling he gets into when anyone disagrees with him.  I was more trying to say that medical doctors of all types do not study nutrition very much and the response was, that's what they do.  No, they don't.  But he's right, they also don't do surgery.  Hope that ends that part of this and we can go back to helping the poster.

[gymdandee]

"mostly the trolling he gets into when anyone disagrees with him"
"the pot calling the kettle black"
I see you NEVER disagree with me!
You 99% of the time disagree with whatever I might post!

[Paxiled]

I'm pretty much through aiding you in hijacking posts, so I haven't been answering your rants anymore.  Just in case you haven't noticed.

[Paxiled]

Magnesium is the least well-absorbed form.  Citrates and taureates are good -- taureates are thought to be best for calming the nerves, though I have no idea if this would hold up under extensive study.