Muscle Twitches

In November 2001, I started having muscle twitches. At first, I thought it was related to my thyroid medication which I had started not long before that. After being taken off thyroid medication, I still had the twitches, though. They would happen usually every day in various parts of my body, and I couldn't figure out what caused them. I googled "muscle twitches" and Lou Gehrig's disease came up, which really scared me. I asked my doctor about it, and she said I probably needed magnesium and potassium, which I started taking. That didn't help. I did research on the internet and found there were other people who also had muscle twitches. Some of them had gone to neurologists and some had CT scans and other tests that came back negative.

I recently started going to a naturopathic doctor and told her about them. She also thought I may be magnesium deficient and started me on a different kind of magnesium (glycinate, chelate). I still had the twitches. I had a hair analysis done and it showed a high manganese level. One of the sources listed for high manganese was contaminated water, so I made some phone calls to see if I could get our water tested for manganese. One of the places I called was Culligan because we have an iron/sulfur filter from them. They informed me that they use manganese sand in the filter. Out of curiosity, I asked when our system was installed because I couldn't remember and was told November 2001 - the same time I started having the muscle twitches.

I don't know if this is just a coincidence, but I stopped drinking our water and started drinking bottled water. Bottled water is probably not healthy either but I wanted to see if the twitches would stop. They seem to be getting less, unless it's just wishful thinking.

High manganese levels can be associated with disorientation, memory loss, anxiety, emotional instability, bipolar-like behaviors, aberrant or violent behaviors and tremor or Parkinson-like symptoms.

The next step is to find out what to do about a water-filtering system. A Pur filter on our faucet apparently doesn't remove manganese. My doctor says steam distilled water is best, so I'll have to check that out.