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hpaige28
hpaige28 Posts: 15 Member
in Social Groups
I am one month down in Kito and doing well. However now I am starting to have insomnia And Charlie horses. I’ve started taking magnesium at night which has helped with my Charlie horses. Does anybody else take other vitamins or supplements with Keto?

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  • kpk54
    kpk54 Posts: 4,474 Member
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    I've been eating low carb for 5 years in May. Oh! It is May. :) The 1 year I ate strict keto I got occasional leg/foot cramps so took 100mg of magnesium glycinate until I decided to keep my sodium intake up. Increased sodium solved the leg/foot cramp problem.

    I eat about 50 carbs/day now and probably eat a more nutritious diet than I did the 10 years I was gaining weight. 50 carbs is a breeze after eating <20 for a year. The vast majority of my daily carbs are from vegetables and a little bit of fruit.

    I don't take vitamins. I would if I found I was deficient in something.
  • Sunny_Bunny_
    Sunny_Bunny_ Posts: 7,140 Member
    edited May 2018
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    You need 5000-7000mg sodium a day in keto.
    Maybe try to take 3000mg by swallowing coarse salt and then salt food to taste to get more. You may need to take 5000mg and salt food. Some things increase your need. Like drinking a lot of water or sweating.
    That’ll fix the cramps right away.
  • tcunbeliever
    tcunbeliever Posts: 8,219 Member
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    The only thing I take specifically for keto/low carb is topical magnesium and sea salt.

    I take the following for carpal tunnel:
    MSM
    B6

    And these for perimenopause:
    Vit C
    Red Raspberry
    B complex
    Calcium
    GLA
    Wild Yam & Chaste Tree
    C-X ((black cohosh root, squaw vine herb, licorice root, blessed thistle herb, eleuthero root, false unicorn root, sarsaparilla root)

    And Vit D just because we are coming off winter here...I'll switch to beta carotene once I get consistent days out in the sun.
  • nvmomketo
    nvmomketo Posts: 12,019 Member
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    Sunny_Bunny_ wrote: »
    You need 5000-7000mg sodium a day in keto.
    Maybe try to take 3000mg by swallowing coarse salt and then salt food to taste to get more. You may need to take 5000mg and salt food. Some things increase your need. Like drinking a lot of water or sweating.
    That’ll fix the cramps right away.

    I agree with this.

    When sodium gets low, and is not corrected, then potassium and magnesium are leeched out to act as electrolytes and get low too.

    Salt will probably help. A lot of it. ;)

    BTW, I started getting cramps too. An extra teaspoon of salt a day (2300 mg of sodium) was all it took, on top of my regular salt intake, to correct it. I just ate it and then drank water. ;)
  • Running_and_Coffee
    Running_and_Coffee Posts: 811 Member
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    I found myself gravitating towards smoked salmon, cheese and dried seaweed as snacks for weeks before I had heard about keto & needing more salt--so crazy! I do add a lot of sea salt to my food, and I take a calcium/magnesium/potassium supplement every day.
  • Dragonwolf
    Dragonwolf Posts: 5,600 Member
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    I can pretty much guarantee that you're sodium deficient. Most people don't know that insomnia (or more generally, "sleep disturbances") is a sign of low sodium. I found it out there hard way when my son had trouble sleeping a few years ago (he's genetically prone to sodium deficiency regardless of diet).

    Do what Sunny_Bunny_ recommends and both should go away pretty quickly. Like, if not immediately, then within a couple of days.

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