Magnesium supplements and Crohn's symptoms

[Riven]

Hi all, not sure if this is the best location for this thread but I'm in need of some opinions/advice.

I've been on Simponi 50mg for ileocolic Crohn's disease and in remission for over a year. I started magnesium supplements for migraine prevention in early July. Titrated up slowly to 500mg as I didn't want the GI side effects - all good, no issues. Added another preventative in early August. The combination worked well and the headaches improved.

Towards the end of August I started getting joint pain. Then the bowels started acting up with mild right sided pain and BM's a bit more frequent. A routine GI appointment happened around that time, bloods normal but they said they'd check a calprotectin as they'd just starting testing them.

Symptoms settled with my next simponi injection but after a week started on a downward slope - alternating 6-10 very soft BM's or 3-4 loose/liquid ones with urgency. Very little pain but loss of appetite, nausea and weight loss from lack of eating. Initial calprotectin was normal but they're repeating it. And I'm now reducing down the magnesium.

I suppose my question is if anyone else has had issues with side effects from magnesium supplements? I got the impression these side effects were common but fairly immediate rather than after almost two months on supplements. I know magnesium is absorbed in the ileum, so is it possible I've got milder inflammation there that's preventing my absorbing the magnesium and that that's causing the diarrhoea?

 

[araceli]

Welcome to the forum. Have you considered that maybe it can be too much magnesium in your body? Magnesium overdose is very rare but people with gastrointestinal disease among others are at most risk. Maybe a test for magnesium levels? Just an opinion. I hope you find out what is it. Let us know.

 

[Cat-a-Tonic]

Certain forms of magnesium can absolutely cause diarrhea/loose stools. Magnesium citrate is sometimes used as colonoscopy prep to clear you out! So you may want to look into the different types of magnesium supplements, and try taking one that isn't likely to cause you so many symptoms.

 

[Riven]

Welcome to the forum. Have you considered that maybe it can be too much magnesium in your body? Magnesium overdose is very rare but people with gastrointestinal disease among others are at most risk. Maybe a test for magnesium levels? Just an opinion. I hope you find out what is it. Let us know.

Thanks for the welcome!

That's a good point and I have thought about that possibility, but once it's absorbed, magnesium becomes the responsibility of the kidney's to remove and thankfully mine are working well! Too much magnesium in the blood causes symptoms that are very different to what I'm experiencing (things like dizziness and low blood pressure).

 

[Riven]

Certain forms of magnesium can absolutely cause diarrhea/loose stools. Magnesium citrate is sometimes used as colonoscopy prep to clear you out! So you may want to look into the different types of magnesium supplements, and try taking one that isn't likely to cause you so many symptoms.

Thanks for the reply, you raise a good point about the different types of magnesium. Funnily enough though, when I researched this initially, magnesium citrate turned out to be one of the better absorbed versions. In high doses it's great as a colonoscopy prep but it's actually the recommended magnesium option for migraine prophylaxis at doses of around 4-600mg.

I actually had no side effects from it for the first six weeks and most of that time was at my highest dose of 500mg so it's just confusing to suddenly be having symptoms because of it. I'm reducing it now though so fingers-crossed I'll know over the next few weeks if it's the cause my problems.