Blood circulation problems

[Bossman]

A friend (age 52) of mine has blood circulation problems.
He has cold feet and cold hands. In addition, he has varicose veins in his legs and suffers from muscle soreness and cramps after walking just a few miles.
He has been taking 8 grams of vitamin C plus 3 grams of lysine daily (divided in 3 dosages over the day) for a few years now, but his circulation problems are getting worse.

He tried taking ginkgo biloba, diosmin and hesperidin several times over the past few years, but each time he had to stop after approx. two weeks because of chest pains, which he doesn't have when he is not taking these supplements. After stopping with these supplements the chest pain is gone in less than a day.

I have to mention that my friend is not very disciplined in taking supplements. So, the less supplements he has to take the better.

Is there any single (or combination of just two or three) supplement that he can try in order to alleviate his problem?

[Johnwen]

[Bossman]

Thank you Johnwen.
I checked but he never had an echo to check for DVT.
He mentioned that he has been taking magnesium citrate tablets a few years ago, but stopped because he was afraid of the calcium containing binder in the tablet. Is that calcium in tablets a real health risk?

[Bossman]

Following the question in my previous post about the possible risk/disadvantage of calcium in the filler material of tablets, can you recommend what is the best form of magnesium to take?
I once read magnesium citrate was amongst the best magnesium compounds to take.

Thank you for your advice.

[Johnwen]

Magnesium citrate is the form used mostly in laxatives it's a good supplement but you have to be careful with the dosing as it don't take too much to go over the edge (bowel tol.) on it.
My preference has been magnesium aspartate because it's attached to an amino acid and gets in the blood faster then the other forms. Here again you get what you pay for the cheaper forms can and will act like mag.citrate as above. So it's best to get a better form of it. The target range is between 100-400mg. per day. So start low and work up it'll let you know when your getting what is needed.

He needs to get an echo done because a lot of leg problems are related to this serious problem and it can cause some serious damage elsewhere in the system!

[Bossman]

Thank you again for this very helpful reply.