WOW WOW WOW.

Scott -- Not only are you my favorite cartoonist (Dilbert is the only cartoon I read daily), but now you also have "witnessed" your magnesium story. I cannot tell you how happy this makes me!

I had a similar experience with magnesium and allergies years ago. I've never been able to adequately ascertain the explanation. But I've learned enough about magnesium to understand why it truly is a "miracle mineral." It's involved in all cellular function and over 300 enzymatic processes. Basically, wherever you have a cell/tendon/muscle, etc. in constriction, it's a good idea to try magnesium (especially if you consume a lot of dairy). There's a huge body of research on its role in preventing diabetes, hypertension, chronic fatigue, etc. Bottom: Serious science around magnesium.

Anyway, anyone who's suffered from allergies knows that allergists, well, they're often rather limited in their offerings. Did one ever mention magnesium to me? No, not in 20 years. And boy did I suffer. Finally, in the middle of a cat-allergy fit (I was traveling, not expecting to be around a cat, and didn't have any antihistamines), a kindly nutritionist whipped up a magnesium, fruit juice, and something- or-other toddy. Wanting to be polite but having no hope that it would help, I drank it down. Amazingly, my allergies stopped.

Cut to the chase here: I got a little irked reading one snarky post after another at the SciencebasedMedicine.org blog the other day. Yes, there are many quack treatments we need to avoid, but physicians miss a lot when they don't have the first clue about vitamins and minerals -- you know, the basic stuff. And yes, anecdotes do not science make. But when anecdotes potentially demonstrate the science in action, that's worth paying attention to.

So, in reading this blogger's snarky attack on naturopaths and allergy treatments (no doubt, deservedly in many cases), I thought he was missing the gray area. So, I wrote a comment, and I happened to mention magnesium.

Now, I never claimed that I had bona fide double-blind/controlled study proof that magnesium works on allergies, but there is published research on its effect alleviating asthma, and a basic understanding of magnesium would make the thought of allergy relief plausible. And, what could it hurt? As long as you're not a dialysis patient, it won't hurt you! And deficiency is practically epidemic in the U.S. So it would probably help something, even if it didn't alleviate allergies.

What followed was a malestrom of black/white thinking from other commenters, castigating me as a journalist, badgering me to provide the PROOF, and on and on. (I stopped reading after the 117th comment.)

http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/?p=5225

Frankly, it all left me feeling a little beaten up. I don't really care what anonymous pot-shotters say about me. What if someone read my post, said, "What the hell, I'll try magnesium; it can't hurt," and they found relief? To hell with the pointy-headed "science-based" commenters (most of whom were anonymous, of course).

But still, it wasn't pleasant. So, how great to see my hero, SCOTT ADAMS, who is so smart he can make me laugh every day, validating my experience!! Score a victory for the Mag Nag!

Sorry to go on, but I was so excited to read your post -- and glad to hear that mag worked for you!

Gina Pera, author
Is It You, Me, or Adult A.D.D.?
http://www.ADHDRollerCoaster.org

When I read this blog entry, I thought, why not? (after also googling "magnesium allergy"). I'm allergic to pretty much everything that moves and, it also seems, to many things that don't. I've been using allergy and asthma stuff for as long as I can remember, including an inhaler several times a day.

So, the next time I went shopping, I bought a bottle of magnesium supplements (the supermarket stuff - two tablets a day - nothing fancy). Within two days, I noticed that I had hardly used my inhaler. And it's been like that ever since. Today (over a month later), I just noticed that I even forgot to bring my inhaler to the office - something that would have made me go home to get it straight away, in the past.

So for me, this advice from non-Doctor Scott has certainly helped. I'll buy a new bottle of magnesiunm supplements this weekend (my current bottle will run out on Sunday).

I know that some italian politicians take magnesium, so I can imagine it to have some bad side effects... (you coud become an italian politician)

Knee problems. Time to get off the hardcourts and join a club with clay (or simulated clay) "soft courts'.

Magnesium deficiency can cause a lot of muscle/bone/nerve related problems. Quotes from Worlds Healthies Foods website:

"Because magnesium plays such a wide variety of roles in the body, the symptoms of magnesium deficiency can also vary widely. Many symptoms involve changes in nerve and muscle function." "Because of its role in bone structure, the softening and weakening of bone can also be a symptom of magnesium deficiency."

http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=nutrient&dbid=75

They don't talk about allergies, though. Interestingly, one of the main source of magnesium is spinach. Ever heard of popeye?

One of your best, but I'm biased. If you had mentioned Branson in advance of your departure you could have gotten lots of tips to make your visit even more enjoyable. I know it well as my folks moved down there when Silver Dollar City was the only attraction. Fortunately, I was already on my own by then. My sister's second husband probably contributed some of the nails to your roller coaster. If not, he was still inebriated. Not all the doctors in that hospital are good (RIP, Dad). The idea for a Dilbert Branson week is good, but the Simpsons did a Branson episode which you better research first to avoid appearances of plagerism. Another item missing from your list, and others, is tributes to veterans in the "theaters." Branson is also the first place I ever received an unsolicited senior citizen discount. Guess I'll quit now before I start rambling about Little League in another part of the country.

I have severe allergies, so I started taking magnesium supplements based on the advice of the doctor who writes this health column. Unfortunately, it turns out that I am also severely allergic to magnesium, so when I took them, I went into anaphylactic shock and I died.

RIP

This has nothing to do with magnesium

I was so tickled by the idea that Dilbert has apparently built a cyclotron in his living room that I didn't even need a punchline.

This is probably the first time Paul Dirac has ever been cited in a daily comic. (I think I may have seen Feynman mentioned once.)

Whats with the re-runs on the daily strip (tease)? If Scott is on a holiday, is the brain without the body or the body without the brain in the office?

I can't stand poor quality work, specially when it is free!!!

I've heard that taking magnesium can, for some people generally tall thin people, cause them to lose their voices for no reason. ;)

I think Rita Mae's kidnapped Scott.

Is it just a coincident that you and the pointed-haired boss are both on vacation at the same time? Or has this been self-deprecating musings all these years?

I married magnesium and we are very happy together.

It seems like your knee pain was possibly something like what Dr. John Sarno talks about it his books. http://www.amazon.com/Mindbody-Prescription-Healing-Body-Pain/dp/0446675156/ref=pd_bbs_sr_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1214432640&sr=8-2
real pain but with a possible psychological aspect. Perhaps the magnesium allowed you to put your mind at ease. Sarno has some really interesting ideas. I recommend reading his books. They are quite brief and that's always a bonus. Someone that can get they point across succinctly.

Sondra,
I hope you mean child-bearing, not baring...
Let's make that clear, before you are banned from the city parks and playgrounds.

I believe nutritional deficiencies are responsible for a lot of the illness that folks suffer from today. Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be any good method of testing for all the vitamins and minerals we need.

In terms of allergies - I have found that MSM (Methyl-sulfonyl-methane) has worked to virtually eliminate (I say virtually because I'm not consistent in taking it every day but have discovered that I haven't had to take any allergy feds at all this year) my seasonal allergies.

Wow! I never thought of that, I started smoking 10 years ago and I have never caught a cold the entire time!

Smoking cures the common cold!

Scott's not on the air guys. He's just put the readers on this Magnesium thing and has weasled off to the Kandahar for a snort...