Too much of a good thing = BAD!

Hi, I had not participated here in a long time and I know this post is old but I want to write in case anyone finds it during a search (like I did).

This is my experience with magnesium cloride (oil):  I began using it in '07 at which time it worked very well to help me relax, etc., when used pure directly on my skin.  However, when I ordered my second 8 oz. bottle it didn't seem to work so well so I switched brands.  Since then, looking back, it seemed like sometimes it worked and others didn't, but only recently I began to suspect that it was making me worse...I have been under a lot of stress over the past year (or more) so I've resorted to the mg. oil on a daily basis, but last year I began having high blood pressure almost constantly.  At one point it seemed to normalize so I stopped worrying, but again this Spring it began to bother me (I do have symptoms), especially when under stress... a time I'd use more mg. oil.

To make a long story short, I recently had an "adrenal crash" after moving and losing a job and nothing I did seemed to make me better, to the contrary, I began getting worse and what I needed the most - sleep - I began getting less and less, first due to a bad mattress and then due to a pounding heart, and most recently apnea attacks at night and shortness of breath during the day, and even panic attacks.  Because I'm very intuitive I began having a vague suspicion that my beloved mg. oil was probably not helping but it might actually be hindering me, after all chloride is another halide that competes with iodine AND an electrolyte that  (as any other substance in our bodies really) should be in balance...  

And not only that, I often added potassium chloride to my meals trying both to boost the potassium and avoid some of the sodium in table salt, which I mistakenly considered might be increasing my blood pressure, and in recent days I even took 1/4-1/2 tsp. dissolved in water in an effort to lower my b/p but I must say the last time I couldn't even get down all of it at once, I began feeling nauseous, I felt like my body was rejecting it from the get-go (and it's happened with other things that later I was sorry I took...), so I saved the rest of the solution for later... Needless to say it didn't help other than making me urinate more, in fact I ended up having one of the worst days ever (I must add I sprayed my arms again with mg. oil mixed with a little water because I'd read magnesium neutralizes adrenaline, which is what I thought I had an excess of).  At one point I felt exactly like I did over a year ago when I ended up the ER with my b/p rather high and even afraid I could die.  But that little trip just got me a debt I haven't been able to pay, thus ruining my once perfect credit, so no way I'd try that again so I had to find a way to make myself better . Knowing Epsom Salts (mg. sulfate) is used in the ER to lower b/p, I've taken it many times in a capsule (even though the last time or two it had seemed to have no effect)  I decided to put some in a large capsule and also prepare a foot bath because I knew the capsule might take a while because I'd just eaten (a salt-laden meal...) and I was so tense my shortness of breath had become worse.  I began feeling a little better after 20 min. so I added more hot water (and a bit more E.S. to compensate) and repeated until I could finally feel my crazy heart rate finally slow down (took about an hour).  Then took a tranquilizer to help me go to sleep because I desperately needed it after getting only like 2 hours the night before.  However, in 4 hours I was awake again, probably due to low blood sugar because after I ate some dry cereal I was able to go back to sleep for like 6 hours or more.

Last night while soaking my feet, I did a search here and stumbled upon how chloride appears to be the acctual culprit for high blood pressure, particularly when mixed with sodium, and I felt like I'd had one of those "lightbulb" moments!  This morning I was thankful and relieved to feel better, but it didn't last too long and I began feeling ill again (though not as much as yesterday, thank goodness), then I did a series of searches concerning chloride and found most of my symptoms listed as an effect of "hypercloremia" or excess chloride, and that bicarbonates can lower it, so I've taken a little sodium bicarbonate with my Vit. C and I think it's already helped so I plan to take more later (or potassium bicarbonate, which I also have) AND of course, I'm laying off the mg. chloride as of today.  

Naturally, I was disappointed and at first a little puzzled thinking how I'd felt I "couldn't live without it" for so long and then recalled my own experience with progesterone cream the first time I used it:  in the beginning it cured my hot flashes and sleep problems but as I continued using it not only stopped working but the symptoms returned, so I tried using more... and that gave me an excess of cortisol (as I found out much later) the effect of which can still be seen in my body as excess fat on my back.  And this was the reason why:  it worked in the beginning because it balanced the unopposed estrogen in my body, but once the balance was achieved I should have rested for maybe a month (but the book I read only said like one week...) if not longer.  MORE just tipped the scale in the other direction, which is what I believe has happened with the mg. chloride oil, some was great but over time and possibly the varying needs of my body, MORE was NOT better.

And we should do well in remembering that it's the same with EVERY nutrient in our bodies, a deficiency causes an imbalance so we should take a supplement , especially if at a high dose, only until BALANCE is obtained (and not for years on end), after that go easy or stop altogether if our diet has been corrected.