This month I was asked to do a corporate health talk on magnesium. Given it was "Heart Health Month", I decided to focus on how sufficiency of this mineral in our diet can help prevent heart disease. However, in my review of the literature, I was pleasantly reminded of the countless ways such a simple, un-patentable nutrient can be used medicinally with side benefits, rather than side effects.
Magnesium is required for over 300 different chemical reactions in the body. Just type in "magnesium" and any health condition, into PubMed's database, the go to library for medical research, and find hundreds if not thousands of peer reviewed scientific papers.
By the way, I do not sell supplements and it would be remiss of me to imply that magnesium will resolve all that ails one. Further, seldom do I recommend supplementing nutrients in isolation, unless a known deficiency has been elucidated. Nature packages nutrients in such a way that they are optimally absorbed. Whole, natural foods, grown or raised in mineral rich soil, provide the best source of minerals, in the right doses.
I'd learned long ago that magnesium relaxes, while calcium contracts muscles. Calcium is abundant in our food supply and often supplemented to excess, with evidence associating it with heart disease - calcification of arteries. Magnesium helps keep calcium soluble and along with vitamin D, vitamin A and vitamin K2, helps direct it to teeth and bones, rather than arteries, joints and other soft tissue, where calcium does not belong.
Magnesium is considered 'nature's natural blood pressure lowering medication'. Because there is a class of drugs that treat high blood pressure (hypertension) called "calcium channel blockers", I knew there was evidence to support its use in hypertension. In the cell magnesium guards the entry of calcium into its channels. A deficiency of magnesium in the cell allows too much calcium in, where it will cause excessive contraction (blood vessels not relaxed) and other damage. In fact, for pregnant women experiencing preeclampsia (a condition marked by high blood pressure, headaches, rapid weight gain, swelling), intravenous magnesium is the safe treatment of choice.
To my surprise, I learned that this mineral also suppresses the pathway in the liver that can make excessive cholesterol, so it may be considered 'nature's natural statin (cholesterol lowering drug)', with side benefits, rather than the countless side effects. In fact, one of these side benefits appears to be reducing inflammation, a root cause of heart disease and other chronic conditions.
Imagine my elation, when further research led me to evidence that magnesium is also 'nature's natural Metformin', a drug used to treat type 2 diabetes and PCOS (polycystic ovarian syndrome), lowering blood sugar, and reducing the need for excessive insulin production. High insulin is inflammatory and promotes weight gain, among other adverse health effects.
Without magnesium we could not produce ATP (adenosine triphosphate), the fuel relied upon for all body function. Chronic fatigue, and fibromyalgia sufferers take note. You may experience some relief by addressing a potential deficiency.
Young women who experience excessive pain during menstruation and premenstrual syndrome, could be lacking magnesium. Taking birth control pills depletes magnesium further.
I grew up on a volcanic island, with mineral rich soil, surrounded by magnesium rich ocean water. It is my informed belief that if you grow up in an environment where there was abundance of a certain nutrient, your body is less likely to be trained to conserve it, or work hard to extract it. No need to with abundance. Move to a country where the nutrient is not as readily available, and you may find yourself less resilient than those who may have had generations to adapt to reduced availability.
Even so, Health Canada data shows that Canadians do not meet adequate intake. Given soil quality, no matter how well informed our food choices, it's hard to get sufficient amounts in our diet.
Based on what I discovered in my research over the past week, it would be negligent of me, not to encourage you to consider the possibility that any health concern, may be partially related to a magnesium deficiency.
Next time you have blood work done, ask your doctor to requisition a Red Blood Cell (RBC) magnesium test. Serum magnesium is not the right test to do, given only 1% of the body's magnesium stores are found in serum, and it is carefully preserved, at the expense of other tissue.
I'm not a doctor, so please check with your health care practitioner before self medicating. It is also not my intention to create fear and promote a stressful reaction. Stress hormones cause us to dump magnesium. I write this post hoping to empower, not disable. Hope I've succeeded.
Originally published February 24th, 2017
Comments