The Secret Sauce

my adventure with magnesium

Sep 12, 2024

My first massage therapist was a retired prima ballerina with a prestigious dance company in Canada. When she became a bodyworker, she brought her matchless talent, enthusiasm and dedication to her new profession. She never tired of learning new techniques, combining elements of Abhyangam from India, Feldenkrais, Alexander Technique and more along with her own wealth of intuitive knowledge and experience.

I was fortunate to be her guinea pig. I certainly provided the challenge she needed.

I will never forget the time she reached in to the base of my rigid neck muscles and told me that she was going in behind those muscles and the clavicle to tickle my top rib!

Or the time she was digging into my inner thigh and I begged her to stop, crying “Judith! You’re breaking my bones!”

“No dear…these are not bones. These are calcified muscles.” A few excruciating minutes later, I had to make her stop. “Judith! I KNOW my body!” Panting in pain, and feeling like a wishbone about to snap any second, I argued ‘You are about to break my BONE! I’m not kidding!!!” At this, she crossed the room, removed an anatomy chart from the wall and put it in my face.

“SEE??!” She showed me. “THERE ARE NO BONES where you are pointing.”

Ever her intrepid self, she continued her work.

“If you will give me a little time, I will turn those ‘bones’ back into flesh for you!”

And she did! An absolute genius with the body!

That genius was born of long experience as a dancer. She knew pain, she knew healing. She understood what the body is capable of. Nearly all her toes had been broken-some more than once. Add tendon injuries, muscle strains, the injuries from being dropped from overhead in rehearsals and more…

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A few years later, I was in Thailand on business and that is where I first encountered Traditional Thai Massage. I was so fascinated by this rhythmic ‘ballet’ of massage…spell-bound, really. I thought to myself, ‘This is the strangest so-called massage, but it looks like it could help me.’ So I took the plunge.

The system was revealed to the Buddha’s physician about 2500 years ago. A session can last 3 hours…and impact you in unexpected ways for months afterward.

The Thais also understood challenging the body, pain and provoking healing. But this was massage…and healing…redefined! It was holistic before holistic became a buzzword. Designed to bring a person to a high degree of health on mental, physical, emotional, and spiritual/energetic levels.

It had an extraordinary impact on my health. Their healing modality stood in such contrast to our medical approach! I thought “We need this in America!” (at the time Thai massage was almost non-existent in the US)

So I ran back and forth on business as often as I could for the next few years, tacking on a couple of extra weeks for training each time…in a remarkable school. Then I returned home and gave it away for 10 years so I could learn. Those years of receiving and giving helped to wear away my western haste and overcome my own temperament so I would be ‘fit for purpose.’

I was fortunate to practice on body-builders who competed around the world…the best of the best…along with the ballet community. These extraordinary young athletes were the perfect training ground. We taught each other so much!

Before a major competition or performance, these young people would have a 2 wk. period of intense training and dieting. One of the things I observed was that after a grueling 10-hour day in the gym, they all had this trick where they went straight home and hopped into a bath tub LOADED with Epsom Salts. Our big guys were using 15-20 lbs per bath and our little 99 lb. dancers were using 4-6 lbs! They would soak for half an hour, go straight to bed, sleep like babies and wake up the next morning fully recovered and bursting with energy. In fact, they couldn’t wait to go out and do it all over again. It was hard to believe. They weren’t sore or stiff anywhere and they had scary amounts of energy.

“So what’s this thing with Epsom salts?” I asked them.

“We don’t know…the coach makes us do it. We just know it works!“ Nobody understood the chemistry behind it…

We tried to tease it out, bit by bit. Then one day Mr. Georgia strode into the office…an immense black man with the temperament of a kitten. He grinned as he said “I think I’ve got a piece of the puzzle!”

“OK! Whatcha got?!”

He then proceeded to flex a bicep that was bigger than my head, saying “Feel THIS!” I did…it was a hunk of steel! “Feel it all over!” Impressive! All steel everywhere!

Then he laid his massive arm on the desk and said “NOW feel it!!” I reached out to grab the hunk of steel and my thumb went straight to the bone with no resistance! My eyes popped wide open! THAT wasn’t supposed to happen!! He laughed and said “Go ahead! Run your thumb along my bone! It’s ok!!” I did…I couldn’t believe what I was seeing and feeling! “DO that again!” He flexed and released his bicep several more times. It went from steel to Wonder Bread…softer than a baby’s bottom…in seconds!

“Wait a minute! I thought our muscles were supposed to be toned and tight all the time!'“

“No! In fact, that’s a recipe for a painful life….injuries, tight muscles that tear instead of stretching…and an early death!

“THIS is a healthy muscle!! When it’s time to work, it should be there for you, fully responsive! But when it’s time to rest, it’s supposed to rest completely! When you go to bed at night, all 900 muscles should go soft in about 4 seconds and you should fall into a deep sleep and wake up refreshed and full of energy in the morning. So…if your muscles are working for no good reason…working when they should be resting, then the athlete is malnourished…and magnesium is what they need.“ Not long after that, we looked at the back of the box of Epsom Salts…active ingredient 3-8% Magnesium Sulfate.

I learned that Magnesium fuels all of the electrical activity in the body…the heart, the brain and the nerves that fire your muscles. That was the secret of their bountiful energy! It feels like the energy you had as a child. Much better than any stimulant!

The Secret Sauce.

Within their community, it seemed to be somewhat of a trade secret…the thing that made them the best of the best.

I continued to be fascinated by Epsom Salts. How could that cheap, white stuff do all they claimed? So I decided to find out for myself. I shadowed the dancers for 2 weeks…both in dance class and the gym. The only problem was that they were 20 and I was 40…and I did not have the background. So I tore myself up, thinking I might have done permanent damage! But I had to see for myself what the cheap, white stuff was about. I hobbled home to the bath each evening. The results amazed me. Now, it took me 2-3 baths to fully recover, but recover quickly, I did!! For an older body, it takes a bit longer, but young bodies heal overnight!

I remembered watching Michael Phelps, the swimmer, the most decorated Olympian with a total of 28 medals. As he was kneeling in position waiting for the starting gun to go off, he flapped his arms a few times. I was almost embarrassed for him, his arms were so flabby…like elephant’s ears. (I still carried the old prejudice about muscles being toned and tight all the time). Then the gun went off and Michael leapt into action. As he powered into his 1st stroke, every muscle exploded into clear definition. The most amazing thing to see! Those same muscles rested completely in-between,

The perfect muscle…rarely seen. Magnesium had made him the best of the best.

For most of us ordinary mortals, the fastest and safest way to restore your magnesium levels is by soaking in 4-6 lbs of unscented Epsom Salts in a warm (not hot) bath twice a week for 20-30 minutes. An even better alternative is to use magnesium chloride gel twice a day…cheaper, easier and more effective. (magnesiumshoppe.com The site also has great, free articles)

On average, it takes about 4 months to get your levels up to where they should be. The good news is that you will feel improvement with every bath. At the 2 month mark…halfway through…people feel so good that they tend to stop. But I encourage people to go the full 4 months and see how good they are supposed to feel. It can be quite a life-changing experience!

I read books like “The Magnesium Miracle” and “The Magnesium Factor” along the way and I kept a very critical journal during my 1st 4 month trial just to see if all the claims were true. They were…

It varies with each person’s background, needs and lifestyle, but in general, the 1st improvements will be better sleep, less pain, muscles that are beginning to relax. In the next stage (2-5 wks) you feel the mental and nervous system improvement. Anxiety and depression lift, your heart feels more at ease and stress just feels less ‘stressy’.

Magnesium will steadily impact every system of your body. Brain focus improves, you feel younger, hormone imbalances that come with puberty and menopause will improve, sometimes dramatically. Issues like depression, anxiety. OCD and panic attacks resolve without effort. Eating disorders lessen, many people quit smoking or vaping because they no longer feel the anxiety that provoked their behaviors.

Once the deficiency is corrected, people begin to realize that there was nothing wrong with them as they had imagined for years.

For best effect, nutritional doctors recommend cutting out calcium supplements and limiting caffeine. In layman’s terms, calcium makes a muscle work, too much calcium makes a muscle work around the clock and cramp. And when your muscles are already tight, splashing caffeine on them is like pouring gas on a fire! It makes all 900 muscles tighter.

The 1st muscles to show a magnesium deficiency are the neck, jaw and shoulder muscles. Then people typically start having lower back problems, followed by hip and buttocks issues and then the rest of the body is affected. Leg cramps, muscle spasms, little spasms around the face and eyes, constipation, heart arrythmias and more.

Of particular note are chronic headaches and migraines. A migraine is a muscle spasm of an artery. Slowly weaning yourself off of caffeine, including over the counter migraine meds which are loaded with caffeine, while bringing your magnesium levels up is a gentle and safe way to reverse the problem. (I had an 8 year long headache in my 30s. Once I learned and made the adjustments, I have not had a single headache in over 40 years. I didn’t think that was even possible!)

As you heal, the last place to soften and let down will be the jaw, neck and shoulders.

Another note is that a craving for chocolate is a tip-off for deepening magnesium deficiency. Chocolate (esp. dark) is the last reliable food source of magnesium. Bodies are that smart! They know what is needed! So enjoy your chocolate for now. You actually need it! There will come a time when the craving just goes away of its own accord. A great barometer.

*The old doctors recommended Epsom Salt baths for so many things… It was their #1 remedy, in fact.

Lastly, we tend toward oral solutions. While an oral dose helps with your daily needs, for the backlog of problems, you always go through the skin. Magnesium has been the single most effective and helpful item in my health journey. The old doctors had it right!

And for our athletes, it is their Secret Sauce!

Here are 2 companion posts well worth reading!