Questions for Ted

Dear Meth: Azomite is in an oxide form and is therefore poorly absorbed, so its effect on your body is little. Of course there is a way around it if you insist on using it. One way to improve its bioavailability is to add a 50% mixture of disodium EDTA to the azomite mix. (azomite: edta at 1:1) Not a perfect mix, but the EDTA will pick up the oxide form form an insoluble for to a soluble form. Of course, you must, try to stir the mix in water for several minutes. The problem about using EDTA is its tendency to be selective to certain minerals. To eliminate this problem, you might have to keep adding more then I suggested somewhat to increase the cloudiness.

I would much prefer to use humic acid/fulvic acid over azomite, since these mixture are also rich in minerals, but its key advantage over azomite is its bioavailability. Fulvic acid is 100% soluble, while humic acid is mostly soluble and they are very rich in minerals because they come from dead prehistoric vegetation.

As to your feedback on magnesium:

I took some magnesium citrate powder right away. I had done some sweating outside today and I was feeling tired--the kind of sweating that could not have any negative impact on me just a few years ago! But I felt better right away after taking the magnesium supplement.

Yes, magnesium citrate is quite bioavailable. Magnesium chloride also. The secret is its solubility. You cannot do this with magnesium oxide since they don't dissolve and therefore do not go into your blood stream. This is the same with magnesium carbonate. You can tell. Just put it in a glass of water, they will settle on the bottom.

It takes about 30 -45 minutes for the therapeutic effects after you take magnesium. Yes, I have gone so far as to time how long it takes before you can feel it. I have tested many people here in Bangkok, but only in the form of magnesium citrate or magnesium chloride. Bangkok don't have magnesium citrate, so I guess magnesium chloride will do. The advantage of magnesium citrate is two things: it buffers your pH to alkaline and it puts magnesium where your body needs the most: the muscle.

Here is a tip: if you have muscle pain that refuses to go away. A 500 mg dose of magnesium citrate will get almost all the pain out the next day. Let me in on a secret to predicting heart attacks and heart disease. Before people get them, there will be a warning signs. The body, brilliant in its design, will deplete the magnesium from the back, arms and legs before it reaches the heart. So if you have a long term muscle pain and magnesium is depleted, given enough time the heart will be effected. Another way to tell if you are magnesium is depleted is hot weather, and muscle twitching, or nightmare shock such as falling down from a tower. These are just simple signs of magnesium deficiency and by paying attention to these little things, you have a good chance to avoid heart attack. When muscle in heart twitches, just like you have in your arms and legs, it will soon reach the heart, given enough time. Mother nature always warns us, we just don't pay attention. In the States, while I was in High School, way back in the early 1970s no one ever heard about magnesium or even find a good magnesium supplements, for conditions of heat exhaustion for example. Therefore, if you cannot find it, take plenty of sunflower seeds. It is high in magnesium. It just takes a longer time for the body to absorbed them and notice the effect, which takes at least 24-72 hours before you can feel it. The reason is simple, sunflower seeds are not water soluble that much so the body takes somewhat more effort to make use of it.

Moreover, what would be your choices of magnesium supplements if you had to choose among malate, ascorbate (aside from its vitamin C content), or citrate salts of magnesium? Would a rotation approach be the best?

All of the magnesium shown below are quite good:

1. Magnesium citrate
2. Magnesium malate
3. Magnesium chloride
4. Magnesium ascorbate
5. Magnesium bicarbonate (exists only water)

Are all good. They are all water soluble. However, citate, malate, and ascorbate are good regulators of your body's pH. While magnesium chloride are important in increasing your stomach acid, an important factor since your stomach acid decreases with age. In practice, the magnesium effect I have seen the best with me is magnesium chloride, citrate, and bicarbonate. You can try a rotation if you wish.

I use boiling water because Azomite is just a mined mineral deposit which is pulverized and packaged without any sanitization or sterilization treatment.

Yes you can boil it. But it is best to boil them in glass coffee pots. The metals from the pots and pan might adversely effect the natural mineral balance. The longer you boil the better as it will convert the oxide form of minerals into a more bioavailable form such as bicarbonate. If this is done, you can use it this way also, if you cannot get fulvic/humic acid, which is the preferred way I do to get minerals. Using Azomite is quite cheap, which is how vitamin companies sometimes does anyway, but not necessarily the quality. As mentioned before, adding some EDTA will help, but there is a limit on how much EDTA you can take orally. Taken too much can cause diarrhea, which is good as it removes the toxins from your body, but not a desired characteristic if you do it often.

Azomite is o.k. if you take them in oxide form as a mineral supplements for those rare earth minerals, e.g. neodynmium, lanthanum, cerium oxide, etc. But you will need to supplement separately the macro minerals, magnesium, zinc, calcium, etc.

All of these are readily available in U.S. with some price variance, and are probably more bioavailable than the chloride form.

One secret of measuring bioavailability is solubility. The chloride form is soluble. They are quite bioavailable. The internet might have useful information, but this is a serious misinformation. How do I know magnesium chloride is bioavailable and sometimes more so then magnesium citrate? Simple, if you take them on a bad back or heat exhaustion, the effect from this you can feel within about 30-45 minutes. This is bioavailability! You won't get this taking vitamin supplements with magnesium oxide!

Incidentally, over the past week I have been following your recommendation of mixing apple cider vinegar (3 tbsp), lime juice (3 tbsp) and vitamin C, and then neutralizing the mixture with baking soda and sipping it over several hours, and I have done it twice a day. I have noticed that the stiffness in my lower back is much less now after a week although just one-week

A mixture will reduce some pain and some stiffiness, but most will be felt from the magnesium. Three day is my standard for measuring the effects of these mineral supplement. It doesn't take longer than that. Effect from muscle pain can reduce within 45 minutes, the longest I have seen is 3 hours.

because of the fact that I have also been taking electrolyte solutions (salts of sodium and potassium) to recover from the heat exhaustion.

Potassium will give the feeling of relief, and some tiredness, also it takes less then an hour. However, magnesium is not something to forget either and the effect is quite more dramatic. It is best to take potassium electrolyte on a minimum, as too much can unbalance the body's electrolyte quite easily, since the electroyte drinks is missing baking soda, magnesium, and a tiny amount of phosphate.

I have also been taking several grams of plain baking soda as well as 2-3 tbsp of blackstrap molasses for potassium.

If you do, try adding the magnesium. Be easy on potassium, people do get side effects if taken too much and may have difficulty of breathing. If taken too much potassium, a simple antidote is Salt.

How to know if you take too much potassium? Too much sweating, uncomfortableness, irregular breathing, sometimes diarrhea. On overdose of potassium, immediately take 1 -2 teaspoon of sea salt in a half glass of water, the effect will be reduced within minutes. I know, I did it to myself as part of the experiment and almost killed myself in the process! Had to do it you know, so I will know what to do when it DOES happen, I will be prepared!