My most popular podcast by far is Show #6 – Kidney Stones and The Miracle of Magnesium. No surprise that Jigsaw Health’s specialty is magnesium supplements. The sustained release technology that coats the dimagnesium malate is especially helpful for those who have experienced bowel tolerance issues with other magnesium supplements.

On the site you can compare popular magnesium supplements, read magnesium supplement customer reviews, and learn about magnesium deficiency.

Please forgive my negligence at updating my podcast blog. I had high hopes when first starting it, but found that I just wasn’t much of a podcaster. I do still like to blog, and do so fairly often at the Pat Sullivan Blog with my dad.

As far as I know, the mp3 files have been dropped from Hipcast and probably won’t ever be brought back to life. No loss there.

Transcript for Vitamin P Show #6, Kidney Stones and Magnesium
12/2/06

Welcome to another edition of the Vitamin P Show on the Health Hacks Podcast.

As I record this, it is late Sunday night. I spent the weekend with some good friends in Dallas. On the ride to the airport this afternoon, one of my buddies told me that he had developed a massive pain recently that ended up being a kidney stone. He said that the doctors thought the stone was too big to pass on it’s own.

They presented him with two surgical options: something really painful sounding that would cost $3,000, or a sonic blasting that would cost a mere $12,000. Yeah, of course the non-painful approach is 400% more expensive.

Since he doesn’t have any insurance, he wasn’t too excited about either option.

I knew that kidney stones were caused by an excess of calcium, but I couldn’t remember all the details exactly and I told him I would do some research on the plane ride back to Phoenix.

Thankfully for him, I found lots of good stuff about kidney stones in the book, "The Miracle of Magnesium” by Dr. Carolyn Dean.

Basically, the presence of excess calcium is directly caused by magnesium deficiency — magnesium dissolves calcium.

As a kitchen experiment, you can put powdery calcium into a glass of water and stir it around. Some will be absorbed, but not all of it. Pour some powdery magnesium into the water and the rest of the calcium will dissolve. This same reaction happens in the body. Dr. Dean calls this the dance of calcium and magnesium.

We know about the importance of calcium, but it is utter foolishness that we continue to ignore the importance of magnesium in the equation.

For kidney stones, Dr. Dean recommends 300mg of magnesium twice a day, 800mg of calcium per day, and 50-100mg of Vitamin B6 per day.

Eat more magnesium rich foods, green veggies like broccoli.

Drink 6 to 8 glasses of WATER a day to adequately flush the kidneys. And I specifically say water because you absolutely must cut out soda. There 523 reasons not to drink soda, one of them being that phosphorus causes magnesium and calcium to be excreted.

Until you start taking magnesium, you need to stop making things worse by quitting dairy, cheese, etc, anything that would be adding to the amount of undissolved calcium in your body.

Starting tomorrow, spend at least 15 mins a day walking out in the sun. Expose as much skin as you can to the sun, no sunscreen. Your body converts the suns rays into Vitamin D, which helps absorb calcium. And walking is good exercise.

One option for a jump start is to take an Epsom salt bath. Epsom salt is magnesium sulfate. But you will need to supplement on a daily basis as well.

Jigsaw Magnesium really is the best product on the market. If you go for some cheap magnesium oxide product that isn't in a sustained release caplet and if you take any where near 300mg at one time, you will get diarrhea for sure. And that will cause you to lose even MORE magnesium. My buddy told me he has also been having some pretty bad gastrointestinal problems, so diarrhea is a foregone conclusion with magnesium oxide for him.

In the email I sent to him, I said that if I was him, knowing what I know now, this is what I would do ASAP. I would buy the Jigsaw Essential Daily Packets that will give him 500mg of dimagnesium malate, plus a bunch of other nutrients that he needs to be taking, including calcium. He should also get our Gastro Bundle immediately.

Now the really interesting question is, will my friend actually do this? I’m recommending a few lifestyle changes and about $140 worth of supplements that for sure, will absolutely make a difference for him. Any way you do the math, he’s going to save a ton of money not going the surgery route.

We’ve been good friends for 17 years. But I gotta tell you, dear podcast listener, I think it’s a coin toss. And that’s because he’s not in immediate pain right now. Without pain, procrastination is always our easiest option. Not that I can blame him. I’m the same way! My favorite T-shirt is the one that says, “Procrastinate now!”

When my friend’s pain was really bad a few weeks ago his dad found some advice on the internet to drink nothing but lemon juice for 12 hours. He said it was awful, but it did numb the pain. I learned from “The Miracle of Magnesium” book that this worked because the citric acid of lemon juice helps dissolve calcium oxalate and calcium phosphate.

If you suffer from kidney stones or know of someone that does, hopefully this tip will come in handy. At the very least, please tell them to do some simple research on magnesium. Dr. Dean’s “The Miracle of Magnesium” is a great place to start and it’s written to the layperson.

Please make sure you go and visit www.JigsawHealthHacks.com to download the eBook written by my dad, Pat Sullivan.

This is Vitamin P, signing off.

Ever wonder about "miracle" cure claims?

Think the dietary supplement market is unregulated and unsafe?

Have a listen. You might be surprised. (New)

Part 2 delves into why statin drugs can legally make the claim to lower bad cholesterol while pecan farmers cannot.

(Shh…don’t say anything, but a handful of pecans will lower LDL cholesterol.)

Go check out episode 10 of the Health Hacks Podcast. I give part 1 of DSHEA for Dummies, explaining the regulations in the dietary supplement industry.

Go listen to my first podcast.

Kevin Kennedy-Spaien, the producer of Health Hacks Podcast, has a little fun with PhotoShop to celebrate my first podcast about sprouted organic nuts.

SUSTAINABLE TABLE BLOG points to an intersting study about farm workers and the economic drivers that cause farms to treat workers poorly. Not that I’ve had a chance to read it yet today.

One day maybe I can pick up a rake and shovel and stop soaking in all that electromagnetic toxin from working in front of a computer for 16 hours a day. Only in dreams.

This is the first podcast I ever done. It will be a segment in this week’s Health Hacks Podcast. Hopefully I’ll be able to keep up with a weekly podcast.

Music is the beginning (and guitar solo) of the song “Waking Up” by my band Nigel. So I have free license I guess.

The topic of this podcast is nutrient density. Namely, when you eat foods that are non-nutrient dense, like Nacho Cheese Dorritos, you can eat the entire bag and not be full. This is because 1) your stomach tells your brain when to stop eating and B) your stomach won’t tell your brain to stop eating if it’s nutrient requirements are not met. Furthermore, Dorritos taste good, and the food scientists know that.

So give sprouted organic nuts and seeds a try. My personal favorite are the pistachios, followed closely by pecans and cashews. Find out more at www.JigsawHealth.com/Nuts

And post a comment to let me know what you think of the podcast.