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Was I Slowly Lead-Poisoned by Magnesium Supplementation?
Related: certificate of analysis, chloride, electrolytes, exposure, health, heavy metals, magnesium, nutrition
re: magnesium
re: Certificate of Analysis
re: heavy metals
I’ll never know for sure. But I can check off zero boxes from the dozens of possible sources of lead (Pb) on the government exposure checklists.
I have switched from a problematic magnesium product to one with nil levels of heavy metals. Hopefully my blood lead levels will normalize within a few months.
Certificate of Analysis for Food Supplements: Never Ingest a Product Without Checking Toxin Levels)
How to Read Supplement Labels: Milligrams of Compound vs Elemental Magnesium
Discussino
I’ve been supplementing with magnesium chloride (MgCl) for nearly three years.
First I experienced excessive lead (Pb) in one product that got FDA attention and claims to have corrected the issue which is probably true. I was taking 10 to 20 servings per day initially due to magnesium deficiency, equating to an intake of 6 to 12 mcg of lead per day just from that supplementation—for 5-6 months and then cutting back. That was back in 2020. I tapered down to 3-4 servings per day after that.
In late 2021 I switched to another MgCl product that I thought was low in lead, but it turns out that the 3 servings per day I was taking (eg ~600mg elemental magnesium) contained “not more than” a whopping 3.3 mcg lead per serving, or up to ~10 mcg per day. That’s 2/3 of the recommended daily 15mcg limit for lead according to California and/or EPA. And 221X as much lead as an alternative product. And 20X the amount suggested for pregnant people (0.5 mcg according to California’s aggressive guidelines). Fortunately, I did not become pregnant.
The foregoing is of course in addition to unavoidable lead in anyone’s daily diet. The fact that my blood lead level tested 16X typical with no other risk factors suggests ~2.5 years of slow poisoning. The next test should be interesting, assuming different lab results can be trusted.
While no one can say for sure what the effects are of having ~16X the typical blood lead level, the idea that kidneys, brain, nerves, endothelium, etc were unaffected... highly unlikely.
And here’s the coincidence part: the EBV onslaught in mid-June 2020 and the ensuing nightmare of Long COVID symptoms all started 2-3 weeks after beginning consumption of that lead-tainted product—I checked the date of purchase and I’ll be damned. Coincidence? I guess so, but I’ll never know.
I cannot prove that the two MgCl products mentioned above caused my high blood lead level 16X typical. But the numbers make more sense than anything else comes close to explaining. Moreover, I can check off zero (0) boxes from the dozens of possible lead-exposure sources on the government exposure checklist.
