Health

Unless you were a chemistry major in college, you probably know little about magnesium. In fact, many in medicine don’t appreciate the far-reaching effects this mineral has on our health and well being. Magnesium is required for at least 300 different enzymatic reactions in the body. For example, for glucose (sugar) to be converted into energy, magnesium is needed in seven important steps. Magnesium is necessary for muscle relaxation, nerve function, protein production, fat metabolism and energy production. Deficient magnesium may create a number of clinical signs and symptoms including fatigue, exhaustion, tiredness, depression, muscle cramps, spasm and pain, headaches, insomnia and fibromyalgia. The following table lists the some of the conditions in which low magnesium is most common:

• Angina
• Glaucoma
• Asthma
• High blood pressure
• Cardiomyopathy
• Hypoglycemia
• Cardiovascular disease
• Insulin resistance
• Cardiac arrhythmias
• Intermittent claudication
• Congestive heart failure
• Kidney stones
• Diabetes
• Migraines
• Dysmenorrhea (painful periods)
• Osteoporosis
• Fatigue
• Premenstrual tension syndrome
• Stroke

I’d like to talk about several of the conditions in more detail:

Migraine

While working in the emergency room, I would see many patients with migraine headaches. It is not unusual for them to receive a shot of narcotics to relieve their symptoms. This would often help after a while, but leave them feeling drugged. It is estimated that an underlying magnesium deficiency plays a role in at least half of the patients affected. It was so gratifying for me to treat them with an intravenous dose of magnesium and see their headaches disappear quickly and without any drug hangover. A recent study showed 89 percent of those responding to this treatment showed low pretreatment levels of magnesium. It is even more effective if the patient has an “aura,” or visual symptoms before the onset of the headache.

Blood Sugar Regulation

Magnesium plays an important role in blood sugar regulation. Tissue levels are often low in diabetics. Daily magnesium supplements appear to improve the behavior of insulin receptors and improve glucose transport into the cell. Low magnesium levels in non-diabetic subjects have been associated with relative insulin resistance.

Premenstrual Tension Syndrome

Magnesium deficiency produces fatigue, irritability, mental confusion, menstrual cramps and insomnia, to name a few. A craving for chocolate can sometimes actually be your body’s craving for magnesium, since chocolate contains large amounts of magnesium. This is especially true for women craving chocolate before they menstruate or who have PMS. Magnesium helps mediate the symptoms of PMS because it is intimately involved in the manufacture of progesterone. A lack of magnesium can lead to inadequate progesterone levels, producing PMS symptoms.

Heart Arrhythmias

Many people are troubled by irregular heart rhythms. Magnesium is an important regulator of heart physiology. Magnesium supplementation has been shown to decrease the irregular heartbeats and can even benefit patients who also have congestive heart failure.

Fibromyalgia/Chronic Fatigue

It is common for people with fibromyalgia to be deficient in magnesium. Traditional serum levels may be normal but more sophisticated testing of the intracellular levels show the cells to be deficient. Oral supplements are quite helpful, but if the levels are too low, intravenous replacement may be best.

Constipation

Americans have widespread magnesium deficiency that leads to constipation. One of the many jobs of magnesium is the proper relaxation of muscles. Peristalsis is the rhythmic muscle contraction and relaxation. With low magnesium, poor bowel tone ensues and constipation follows. On the other hand, too much magnesium can cause diarrhea, a fact well known to the makers of Milk of Magnesia, which has long been used as a remedy for obstructed bowels.

Why are so many deficient in the valuable mineral? The average American diet is seriously depleted in many nutrients because of food processing that destroys or extracts nutrients. For example, whole wheat contains twenty-two vitamins and minerals that are removed to make white flour. After the bran and germ are removed from the whole wheat kernel, 84 percent of the magnesium is extracted. Foods high in magnesium include the whole grains, nuts and legumes, and seafood. Magnesium is an important component of chlorophyll and is found in large amounts in green vegetables.

The kidneys are an important regulator of magnesium. For reasons that are still not clear, when the body is stressed (physically and psychologically), the kidney starts to release magnesium. It is extremely common for patients to be deficient in virtually all chronic disease states. For mild to moderate deficiency, a well-absorbed form of magnesium should be used. Magnesium glycinate and magnesium citrate are two of the best. Magnesium oxide is cheap, but not well absorbed and has a higher side effect of diarrhea. It often takes three to six months to replace mild to moderate deficiencies.

Magnesium is an important mineral involved with the proper functioning of our bodies. When deficiencies of magnesium are present, a wide variety of symptoms can occur. Stress and illness play a big role in the depletion of magnesium from our cells. Rather than covering up the symptoms that occur, I hope you can see how important it is for us to get at the source of the problem to correct it. In so many ways, the old adage “you are what you eat” carries lots of truth. The next time you feel a burning desire for a chocolate bar, maybe you should consider having your magnesium level checked.