Gabapentin Withdrawals (Page 2)

I'm being taken off of Neurontin/Gabapentin after seven years. I'm now crying, anxious, and itching all over! I have tried antihistamines and cortisone creams but with no relief.

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Hi Chris,

JIGSAW, Magnesium w/srt (sustained release technolory) 125 mg. 240 tablets. Google "Jigsaw w/srt"
Untill you know how you respond to the Jigsaw w/srt I'd take just one a day. Altostrata says Jigsaw w/srt can activate your system, this means you might have a bad reaction to it.

I have been taking one at bed time and I got a mild head ache (very mild) from it for the first 4 days I took it. Now day 5, 6, and 7, no problems. What I notised with the Jigsaw w/srt was it quieted my tinnitus.

On a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being drowing out the volume on my tv my tinnitus was reduced to about a 3 or 4 from a 7 or 8 (considerable less).

I don't think you should break the pill it would spoil the sustained release aspect. (defeat the prupose of the srt)

I took epson salts baths at least once a day and swished 3 or 4 times a day. I used at least 4 cups of epsom salts in my baths.

I did not know if the epsom salts was going to work but I had nothing to loose for trying.

hope it works for you.
Later

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Hi Chris,

I've been doing more research into magnesium, and I found this and I thought of you.

There is a magnesium product on the market now called (remag) google (carolyndean) there is a lot of interesting information and she has a book called (the magnesium miracle) in there she helps explain how meds mess with our magnesium.

I just took a spson salts bath. I was feeling a little down today.

Wish you well.

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Gabyist,
How is your withdrawl going. My doctor switched me from Gralise (1200mg) to generic gabapentin 300mg 3x a day. I have only been doing this for 2 days. Then 300 for 3 days for a week then 300 once day for a week, then 300 every other day for a week. Can't wait to see how this goes - haha. I can kick myself for getting on this medicine in the 1st place. I am taking Nature calcium, mag, zinc pill once in the morning then sipping another in water the rest of the day. Any advice on your mag supplements since you have been taking them longer than me?

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Hi Chris it's good to hear from you. I received the ReMag in the mail Dec. 13, it works as advertised. 100% absorbed! So you are on the right track taking mag-cal- zinc supplement. Is that nature made brand, please check the ingredients label and find out what kind of calcium and magnesium they are useing. If calcium carbonate and magnesium oxid. Your stomach can't digest these forms very well not a good source of oral magnesium. Also for now I would suggest remag google Dr. carolyn Dean go to her web sight and scroll down to where it says resources and click on resources and order the remag it is around $40.00 with shipping and handling. If you take 4 ml. = 250 mg. this one 8 oz. bottle is 60 days supply of the liguid magnesium remag, since it is 100% absorbed. This is the best magnesium product on the market right now. You allso need the zinc and vitamin D3, you can get this from a daily multi-vitamin. The problem we are confronted with is so many choices, you might consider the multi-vitamin Dr. Carolyn Dean uses and recomends on her resource page.

Admittedly they are more expensive than picking up a multi-vitamin from your local drug store and all I can say about that is I trust Dr. dean on her recomendations. And if you can afford the added expense of a good multi-vitamin I think this is a good way to go.

Something else you can do is hol off on the taper untill you have the ReMag or other recomended magnesium supplement and multi-vitamin so before you begin your taper start taking the magnesium and multi-vitamin say for about a week before you begin your taper this way your body will better prepared in advance of your taper,

If I had to do this over before I began my taper I know for me at least that I would have not experienced any withdrawal at all. I can't speak to your situation as we are all different but I am suggesting that this is a better way to taper for you will have prepared your body before the taper and your body and your wellbeing will be better for it.

So you are tapering off the gabapentin. you might want to slow down your taper espesially if you have the nature made brand of Cal mag zink you won't get enough usable magnesium to help with your withdrawal if you experience any withdrawal.

You should only do a 10% taper and hold for a 2 week period and see if you are going to experience withdrawal. You are taking 900 mg. so 10% would be a reduction of 90 mg. Probably ok to drop by 100 mg. for your starting taper and hold at that untill you get the remag.

You will want to get the 100 mg. capsules as the 300 mg. will be harder to split and cut up into smaller doses as you want to maintain the taper at no more than 10% of the amount you are taking, so when you are taking 100 mg. your taper will now be only 10 mg.

100mg. X 10%=10 mg. so you would be taking 90 mg.

It is possable that you have a good supplement allready it may not be nature made. But if it is nature made or an other brand and it has magnesium oxide and calcium carbonate as I mentioned earlier then you should select one of the recomemded magnesium supplements from Dr. dean. A 10% taper will require patience on your part as it will take you much longer to taper but I think once you have a good magnesium supplement you may be able to increase the speed of your taper. It is a good idea that if you do run into withdrawal to reinstate to a previous dose of gabapentin where you didn't experience any withdrawal and taper more slowly. a 5% taper instead of 10% for example, you may be lucky and not experience any withdrawal I have read that not every body experiences withdrawal from gabapentin.

If you should decide to purchase the ReMag and the multi-vitamin Dr. Dean recomends it may be servral weeks before you receive the products in the mail. On accout of the holidays and the strong demand for the Remag- it took me about 15 days from when I ordered the ReMag and it arrived in the mail. You should know it has a lousy taste but putting it in some fruit juice you shouldn't notice the taste. You will note on Dr. Deans resource page there are servral other magnesium products which she recomends and has used herself. I have tried the Jigsaw magnesium w/srt and it works well. but now that remag is on the market I'd definately go with it, 4 ml. of remag is 4/5th teaspoon half a teaspoon in the morning and half a teaspoon at bed time = 250 mg. pure 100% absorbed magnesium. This beats all of the other magnesium supplements bar none, as other oral magnesium supplements are maybe 30% absorbable. You should take it servral hours before you eat as it has a sedative effect and you may find your self feeling the need to lie down for a while, for about an hour or so. You can avoid this by cutting the dose to 1 ml. dose. The bottle comes with an eye dropper. And so you can measure out 1 ml. = 20 drops. and take this 4 times a day. So should help reduce the sedative effect. Also you know that after a week or so the sedative properties seem to go away. As I am taking 4 ml. in the morning afternoon and evening for a total of 375 mg. magnesium. The equivilent amount of magnesium oxide you would need to take would be 9000 mg. And you probably could never achieve that goal as long before you reached this amount of magnesium oxide you would experience diarea. Only 4% of magnesium oxide can be digested and if you precipitate diarea you would loose more magnesium through the diarea than you gained from the 4% you absorbed.

My first purchase of a magnesium supplement was magnesium oxide so I speak with first hand experience in regards to the diarea.

You probable don't need any calcium at least for now as if you take too much calsium supplement if will interfere with the obsorbtion of the magnesium. The calcium in your diet will be good enough for now.

Well I hope I have written this with good clarity and it's not an information overload for you.

I wish you with best of luck in your quest to wean yourself off of the gabapentin.

gabyist

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Hi Chris, I need to make a correction I am taking 2 ml. 4 times a day. For 500 mg. magnesium. of the ReMag.

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Hi Chris, I am completely off of the gabapentin for more than 60 days now. Since I started taking a good magnesium supplement I had no more withdrawal period. With in a month of taking the magnesium I was completely off the gabapentin.

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Hi Chris, I should post one more thought, with the ReMag there is NO diarea at all. And I took 2 epsom salts baths a day and swished 4 times a day once after each meal and at bed time.

Sorry I didn't make this clear in my earlier post.

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Hi Chris, I am currently useing the, Organic Life Vitamins which is recomended on DR. Deans resource page and I have had good success withit.

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Gabyist, I ordered the jigsaw and it helped alittle. So u think the dr deans would much better ? Did you have a tight chest ?

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Hi Chris,

It will take your body a week or longer to adjust to the magnesium, it is not used to having such a rich supply of magnesium. I suggest to start with 1 pill in the morning and 1 pill at bedtime for the first week. and gradually add a 3rd pill at mid day. As for the tight chest I didn't experience that. But as your body adjusts to the magnesium this should go away, or it could be totally unrelated to the magnesium, but if it continues and you are uncomfortable with the feeling take less but don't cut the pill in half as that would destroy the the Sustained release aspect of the product.

I take both ReMag and Jigsaw, I take the Jigsaw because of the vitamins that are in the product.

ReMag I do believe is 100% absorbed But I have not been able to determine how much of the Jigsaw product is absorbed. But it is probably higher than most other Magnesium product's on the market.

The good thing about these 2 magnesium supplements is they don't cause diarea when taken at the recomended dosage.

One thing about the ReMag is it is absorbed by your body and goes to work imediately. If I experience a headache which for me is my body telling me I'm not getting enough magnesium I can take 1 teaspoon of ReMag 250 mg. or 4 ml and in about 15 minuites the headache goes away.

If you decide to purchase the remag make sure you have a couple of hours to set aside as it is has a slight sedative effect. You will want to take a nap after taking the remag. This will go away after a week or so as your body adjusts to the magnesium.

You can continue to take the Jigsaw 1 or 2 pills a day and add the ReMag to this, with the ReMag I started with 40 drops in the morning and 40 drops in the evening 1 ml = 20 drops so 80 drops = 4 ml which is 250 mg. magnesium.

Research has shown that rubbing the magnesium on your skin which is absorbed through the skin the body will generate DHEA.

Listen to your body it will tell you when your are taking too much magnesium, even taking too much ReMag can give you diarea but if you have healthy kidneys you won't OD on the magnesium. After your body has had a chance to adjusted to the magnesium you should be able to maintain a daily dose of 500 mg. total magnesium.

But go slowly at first as I have described above. 2 pill Jigsaw is 250 mg., the recomended dose is 4 pills a day.

I apologise if I am making this too simplistic I don't intend to insult your intelegence I am simply passing on my own experience with these 2 products.

I have had many other conversations with other people and I know that just as I had experienced the sedative effect of taking magnesium and was wondering if I had taken too much so to have other people thought the same thing. But this effect will go away as your body adjusts to the magnesium.

It is my thinking that if I express myself by example that you will be better prepared for how your body will react when you first start takiing Magnesium.

I take both Jigsaw and ReMag, I don't take the ReMag at the same time I take the Jigsaw I wait at least an hour. between.

I know some doctors have prescribed as much as 1000 mg. magnesium. But it is your body and so you adjust according to your needs.

I wish you the best

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Hi Chris,
I am currently taking remag 3 times a day, in 4 ml. dosage for total of 750 mg. a day. how are you doing with your taper?
Had any success? I find the Remag to be the best magnesium, I have replaced my multivitamins I purchased at the local drug store with a liquid multi, organic life. For magnesium to work properly we need plenty of Vitamin D3. I am not experiencing any ill effects from 750 mg. magnesium no diarea, fewer headaches and less severe.
ope you are doing well.

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I just started with the brain zaps. I read omega 3 oil might help. I used the remag but I found it didn't help like the jigsaw. Maybe I wasn't taking it correctly. The dropper wouldn't fill the top so ... How do I know what is 4ml?

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20 drops is 1 ml. but the easiest way to get 1 ml. is to pull the eye dropper out squeez out all of the remag back into the container, once the eye dropper is empty, squees the rubber part of the eye dropper and while holding tight to the rubber head put the eye dropper back into the bottle and let go so the eye dropper it fills up part way, pull out of the bottle and drop by drop count the drops, you should have about 20 drops = 1ml., dont try to fill the dropper all the way full. There is just enough volume in the rubber part of the dropper to displace enough for 1 ml. So this is 4 droppers or 4 ml.
4 ml. is 4/5 teaspoon so fill a teaspoon and take that amount, you might want to split that and take 1/2 teaspoon in the morning and 1/2 teaspoon in the evening =250 mg. approx. And yes you might have better luck with the Jigsaw.

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Hi Chris I found this on magnesium:
utahsportsandwellness.com/pdfs/ChangeMagnesium.pdf

I hope it helps.

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Gabyist, there are supplements called GABA supplements. Why wouldn't that help with the withdrawl?

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Hi Chris,

I have have heard of GABA but haven't looked into it.
Did you check out survivingantidepressants web sight?

How are you doing with the Jigsaw, magnesium? Any luck? I started taking Jigsaw magnesium again along with the ReMag, I take 750 MG. ReMag and 250 mg. Jigsaw Magnesium w/SRT. I think the B6 and folate in the Jigsaw product are very helpful in eliminating my headaches. After reading some of George Eby's web sight I decided to buy some kelp, lots of magnesium, iodine, and potassium. FDA for iodine is very low and kelp has much iodine. Purchased Methyl B12 and B6 P5P, supplement also.
Here is a wonderful resource about much of everything from George Eby:
george-eby-research.com/html/depression-anxiety.html#story

See ya later.

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Chris,
Gabapentin depletes magnesium,

drcarolyndean.com/2013/01/magnesium-a-nervous-system-lifesaver

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About a year ago, I tried iodoral ( iodine supplement) my gyn did a iodine test on my arm to see if I was deficient. Anyway, it gave me bad headaches but they told me if I could get through a week I would feel great. Well, I couldn't even on 1/4 the dose. You might want to try it???

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Gabyist, how much vitamin d do you take. My gyn was making me take 10,000 iu which is 2500% ) 1 capsule).

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Chris hi,
I take the Organic life Multivitamin (natural vitality) it contains 800 IU D3 it allso contains Concentrace 450 mg. trace minerals. The Iodine is natural in the Kelp so maybe there won't be any problems. It's all an experiment, what about calcium? It's been suggested that we supplement too much with calcium and not enough with magnesium. Do you read (natural news) the alternative news source?

I'll be picking up Omega 3 oil tomorrow.

See ya.

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