For years I've taken magnesium supplements to cope with chronic irregularity. I've also tried to avoid what depletes magnesium, like excess sugar, caffeine and alcohol. However, I've continued to struggle with irregularity despite daily magnesium supplements, treatments for conditions that affect gut motility (like CD, food allergies, low beneficial microflora (good intestinal bacteria). Occasionally I need even higher doses of magnesium to treat irregularity. When I feel desperate, I take Milk of Magnesia laxative, but I dislike its side effects (cramping pain). Yet, I seem to need more and more magnesium to maintain regularity.
Because I still wonder whether aspartame consumption affects regularity, I did a google search on aspartame and magnesium deficiency. Lo and behold, I found numerous studies which implicated aspartame in fatal heart attacks, because asparatame toxicity depletes magnesium. I only read one definitive study that showed "Aspartame administration also affects the excretion of magnesium from the organism, since it decreases the concentration of magnesium in both urine and feces." However, that one study was enough to convince me to continue to avoid aspartame.
Maybe my longterm use of aspartame increased my magnesium deficiency to the point that I need 950-1200 mg of magnesium aspartate with potassium supplements for 'regularity' now. That's scarey!! The good news is that I stopped consuming aspartame a week ago. So hopefully, my body will eventually recover from aspartame toxicity. So I won't need to take so much magnesium. For now, I will continue to avoid whatever depletes magnesium, like aspartame, and continue to consume magnesium rich foods and take magnesium supplements.
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Oh, that is interesting, Sue. I hope you find it to be the case that you can lower your dosage of magnesium.
Thanks, Lisa. I won't hold my breath. LOL I've been disappointed by too many previous 'cure' theories. Nevertheless, I asked my naturopath what he knew about Aspartame and Mg depletion. Maybe I'll educate him again, like I did about hypochlorida and acid blocker prescriptions. I'll continue my aspartame abstinence experiment, whatever he says ...
I need to add an update about magnesium depletion and aspartame. In late 2010 I was diagnosed with low thyroid hormone level or hypothyroidism. Constipation is a well-known symptom of hypothyroidism. After 3 years of trying different levels of thyroid supplements, I finally reached an optimum level, which stabilized my metabolic processes. So my blood pressure, body temperature, pulse and regularity are normal now. I still use aspartame daily, but take much less magnesium and suffer no irregularity. So hypothyroidism, not magnesium depletion by aspartame, caused my lifelong struggle with constipation.
I need to add an update about magnesium depletion and aspartame. In late 2010 I was diagnosed with low thyroid hormone level or hypothyroidism. Constipation is a well-known symptom of hypothyroidism. After 3 years of trying different levels of thyroid supplements, I finally reached an optimum level, which stabilized my metabolic processes. So my blood pressure, body temperature, pulse and regularity are normal now. I still use aspartame daily, but take much less magnesium and suffer no irregularity. So hypothyroidism, not magnesium depletion by aspartame, caused my lifelong struggle with constipation.
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