Unpleasant Topics that Affect our Health, and the Effect of Magnesium

The potty chair for the constipated 
child who spends a lot of time on it.

I went to the doctor the other day and she asked me if I was still having trouble with constipation.  If this topic bothers you, go ahead and stop reading.

When I was growing up, there were certain topics that were simply not discussed publicly.  I'm not talking about the birds and the bees either, unless you're thinking about how seeds get scattered. In my family we were not even allowed to say butt, poop, or pee.  We put our little "bottoms" on the "potty" and did "number one" or "number two" aka "big job."  I am not kidding you.  Given all that, I am pretty sure my mom was never aware that I was often constipated.

Grandpa's special chocolate

One time I took Grandpa's Ex-Lax, thinking it was chocolate, and My Mom caught me red-handed.  I knew I was in big trouble, but all Mom said was that I was going to be sorry!  I kept waiting for punishment, but it never came.  I don't remember anyone ever saying another word, and I was so puzzled that I remembered it for a long time.  I lived in trepidation of "being sorry" for several days.  I think I was 15 or 16 years old before I finally made the connection between the chocolate and the consequences! I really doubt I would have been sorry at all; any consequences were probably a relief!  Maybe it's a good thing I didn't make the connection; I would have gone right out and bought my own supply of Grandpa's special chocolate.

Back to the doctor...I told her yes, I am often constipated, and she that was surprising, because with the amount of magnesium I take, I ought to have diarrhea instead.  (Yuck!  Talk about unpleasant topics!) So why don't I?  Apparently it's a matter of absorption.  She gave me a couple of samples of magnesium powder, and when I got home I got to thinking about it.  Is it the magnesium I take, or the form it is in? I take magnesium malate, which is supposed to be really good.

I took all my magnesium pills and ground them to a fine powder in my blender.  I then added some water and blended it. I stored it back in the bottle and put it in the fridge.  I tried to figure out about how much I was taking, now as a liquid amount, and twice a day I shook the bottle up and measured half that amount into cereal or juice.  It's a little chalky but it's survivable.

The end result is that it is indeed a good laxative, but not an uncomfortable one.  In fact, I have cut down to half the original dose, and may need to go down once more.  I am feeling much better now.

My conclusion is that the magnesium is fine, but apparently I was not breaking down the coating at a point it was doing me any good.  By the time it dissolves, it is being processed as waste.  All the years I've been taking that stuff, it's been money down the toilet.

This makes me want to test all my other pills and capsules to make sure they are dissolving and actually useful to my system.  I will have to do some research and devise a test of some sort.  My mom used to do one with vinegar to simulate stomach acids.

If you are grossed out, sorry, but who knows?  Maybe you are just the one who needed to read this.