Suggest safe dosage for magnesium supplements to treat thigh muscle cramps

Posted on Tue, 22 May 2018

Question: I am a 72 year old woman. For the past week I have been getting excruciating thigh muscle cramping thinking it was sciatica. My doc doesn't have office hours today and I want to begin taking magnesium supplement. What is the safe dosage?

Answered by Dr. Praveen Tayal (2 hours later)

Brief Answer:
300 mg per day.

Detailed Answer:
Hello,
Thanks for posting your query.
Muscle cramping and spasms are often found in vitamin D and magnesium deficiency.

I suggest you to consult an endocrinologist and get prescribed vitamin D and magnesium supplements. Your symptoms should improve with that. In addition to your dietary intake you can have daily supplements of 300 mg per day. Also eat magnesium rich foods like bananas, beans, chickpeas, fish, nuts, soybeans, spinach etc which are natural sources of magnesium.

Regarding vitamin D levels, you need to take a XXXXXXX of vitamin D with milk or curd once a week for 8 weeks and then once a month. Each XXXXXXX contains 60,000 IU of vitamin D. But these should be taken only after getting your vitamin D levels checked.

I hope this answers your query.
In case you have additional questions or doubts, you can forward them to me, and I shall be glad to help you out.
Wishing you good health.
Regards.
Dr. Praveen Tayal.
For future query, you can directly approach me through my profile URL http://bit.ly/Dr-Praveen-Tayal

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar

Follow up: Dr. Praveen Tayal (32 hours later)

Thank you so much for such thorough response. I'm on track and will discuss further with my personal MD.

Forgot, why an endocrinologist? and not internist????? I thought endo's only treated hormone insufficiencies???

Answered by Dr. Praveen Tayal (47 minutes later)

Brief Answer:
Endocrinologist is a better option.

Detailed Answer:
Hello.
Thanks for writing again.
Endocrinologist will help in ruling out osteoporosis also at your age. You can get the prescriptions from internet also.
Hope my answer is helpful.
Do accept my answer in case there are no further queries.
Regards.

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Raju A.T