How a suspected stroke led to me discovering the amazing benefits of magnesium.

Short story...

You might struggle to believe this, but a year ago I was rushed to hospital under the suspicion I was having a stroke.

It was one of the most terrifying and surreal experiences of my life.

I was out Christmas shopping with my family.

Just as we were leaving to go back to the car, I started to feel a tingling in one of my hands as I was pushing the pushchair (my daughter was 11 months at the time).

It felt like pins and needles, which I thought was strange, because there was no reason for it to suddenly start happening.

The sensation started to travel up my arm, then up to my face.

I didn't say anything to my wife at this point, but I was mildly concerned.

By the time we got back to the car I couldn't walk properly. 

One of my legs just didn't want to cooperate with the messages it was getting from my brain.

I still remember looking at my wife as I sat in the driver's seat, and the concern on her face looking at me....

I couldn't get my words out, and one side of my face had dropped.

I was shocked when I looked in the rear view mirror and saw that the right side of my face was drooping, with that side of my mouth significantly lower than the other.

In the UK, there's been a strong push for awareness about stroke symptoms, so I knew I had to act. https://t.co/J17RxEnKi3

I still remember stumbling out of that car park, dialling 999, and explaining to the operator that I needed an ambulance because I thought I was having a stroke (whilst scarcely being able to believe that this could be happening to me at 32, and in decent shape).

The weird thing was, within 45 minutes I had totally returned to normal.

My speech was back to normal, my thoughts were ordered again, my face had returned to normal and I had full control of my body.

The paramedics and the doctors at the hospital said that it could have been something called a "transient ischaemic attack", or TIA, also known as a "mini-stroke".

I researched this on my phone and still found it hard to accept that this could be happening to me:

"A TIA is a warning sign that you may be at risk of having a full stroke in the near future"

I thought strokes only happened to older people who lived unhealthy lifestyles.

I had a CT scan, an MRI scan, and was discharged with aspirin with follow up scans to come.

During the next 6 days I would call an ambulance out twice more.

3 nights later I woke up with an impending feeling of doom.

I had no idea what was happening to me, I just had a strong feeling that I was going to die.

In my panicked state I thought I was having the larger attack that the TIA had been warning of...

The paramedic took my vitals and tried to reassure me that I wasn't having a stroke, I was having a panic attack and I needed to relax and get some rest.

I felt like if I went to sleep, I wouldn't wake up.

I was struggling to think or speak straight & I threw up several times.

3 nights later I had another TIA (or so I thought).

Exactly the same symptoms as the first time.

Tingling and numbness starting in one hand, travelling up the arm to the face, face drooping, one leg going numb, jumbled thoughts and garbled speech...

Rang 999 again (in case this time it was "the stroke"), same thing as last time. All stopped and back to normal within an hour.

I went to the hospital and it was around this time that I discovered something called a "hemiplegic migraine". https://t.co/lZbcVXOy14

These symptoms matched mine exactly.

Looking back, I realised I'd overlooked some of the other symptoms.

Before the first one I'd been seeing zig zag lines & the Christmas lights had looked strange to me.

Plus, I had vomiting in the days following (which I put down to panic)

What's more, there is something called familial hemiplegic migraine - and it turns out that my older brother and sister have also suffered with this (which I never knew!)

Here are some potential causes/triggers:

"Triggers that can cause an episode of hemiplegic migraine include certain foods, certain odors, bright light, too little or too much sleep, physical exertion, stress, or minor head trauma."

I can check off most of those.

Before each episode I'd eaten crappy food (apparently migraine causes food cravings!)

Sleep was dreadful (2 kids under 3) and the bright lights in the shopping centre (plus filming videos in my garage the night before) may have played a part.

This made much more sense to me, and my follow up MRI scans were all clear.

I started researching what I could do to prevent this happening again.

I came across magnesium.

I'd obviously heard of it before, being in the health and fitness space - it is spoken about alot. But I'd never tried it out.

Now I had a reason.

Magnesium has a TON of reported benefits, but the one that stuck out to me was "may prevent migraine".

It was worth a shot.

I ordered some off of Amazon (this is the one if you're interested)

I've been taking it for a year and not had another episode since. I've also experienced greatly improved sleep, no more "restless legs" and improved hair growth!

https://t.co/tPQNtRzUks

Read this thread for more about the benefits of magnesium supplementation:

https://t.co/uz2BO8oI6G

Important point:

DO NOT dismiss stroke symptoms. It's more likely that you actually are having a stroke, so if you experience any of the symptoms I described, get help straight away.

"The way we live has a big impact on our risk of stroke. 

Things such as smoking, drinking too much alcohol, being overweight and eating unhealthy foods can damage your blood vessels, increase your blood pressure and make your blood more likely to clot."

https://t.co/JRjGsW0dYg

That's the end of this thread.

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P.S.

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