Magnesium
What is your Magnesium status?
Magnesium is essential for metabolism at a cellular level therefore the higher your cell metabolism, the more your body will require magnesium (1). It is also needed for energy production and is a natural sedative helping to calm nerves and improve mental concentration.
Do you suffer with a magnesium deficiency?
If you struggle with some of the symptoms mentioned below, you may have with a magnesium deficiency!
Anxiety, irritability and short tempered – Magnesium is a natural sedative therefore a deficiency can lead to anxiety.
Insomnia – Magnesium deficiency can cause people to fall asleep easily but wake during the night restless. They toss and turn for the rest of the night and wake up still feeling tired.
Muscle cramps – Magnesium helps prevent a build up of calcium within your cells, around your joints and in other tissues apart from your bones and teeth. When calcium enters a muscle cell, it contracts. This leads to a build up of magnesium within the cell which causes the calcium to exit. This is when the muscle relaxes. When magnesium is deficient, calcium can remain in the cell and this leads to muscle cramps.
Frequent urination – The muscles surrounding the bladder do not fully relax therefore the bladder cannot hold its normal volume of urine. This causes you to urgently go to regularly.
Constipation – Muscles in the digestive tract contract and relax in order to move the stool along, this is known as peristalsis. Magnesium is needed in this process and is considered a natural laxative.
Osteoarthritis – This can be caused by a build up of calcium deposits in the joints and tissues (tendons and ligaments). Magnesium is needed to enable calcium to exit cells.
Gallstones and Kidney Stones – Again, these can be caused by a build up of calcium in the wrong places.
Cardiovascular conditions – studies have shown that people with cardiovascular conditions have significantly lower serum magnesium levels (Ma J et al, 1994). Magnesium is needed to relax the heart during the resting stage of a heart beat. Research has shown that people who have sudden heart attacks have a magnesium deficiency.
Pre-eclampsia during pregnancy – Spasms in the umbilical arteries due to lack of magnesium during pregnancy can affect the nutrition to the unborn baby.
Migraine and Headaches – Research has shown low levels of magnesium in migraine and tension headache suffers. Magnesium helps to relax blood vessels in the head.
Other symptoms include
- Mental confusion
- Loss of appetite
- Perspiration
- Foul body odour
What can cause magnesium deficiency?
A deficiency can result if your body either cannot absorb the mineral properly or if it excretes more than usual. When you feel stressed, your body to excretes higher than normal amounts of magnesium. Magnesium is a natural sedative therefore a magnesium deficiency can lead to feeling more stressed and a vicious cycle begins.
A typical western diet full of sugar and refined foods does not provide the body with sufficient magnesium needed to battle everyday strains and stresses. Alcohol is known to increase magnesium excretion hence many alcoholics are severely magnesium depleted.
Diarrhoea and Coeliac’s Disease can lead to poor magnesium absorption from the digestive tract. Other medical conditions and medicines can also interfere with magnesium absorption.
How can I know if I have a magnesium deficiency?
Emma uses a tissue hair mineral analysis for evaluating magnesium status. This test not only analysis magnesium but also other essential minerals. She does not recommend that a person take any single minerals at high doses because nutrients work in synergy and supplementing too much of one can lead to an imbalance of others.
What foods are high in magnesium?
Whole foods such as whole grains, legumes, nuts, seeds and green leafy vegetables are very good dietary sources of magnesium.
References
Seelig MS (1980) Magnesium deficiency in the pathogensis of disease. Early Roots of Cardiovascular, Skeletal and Renal Abnormalities. New York, Plenum Publishing. [Online – http://www.mgwater.com/Seelig/Magnesium-Deficiency-in-the-Pathogenesis-of-Disease/preface.shtml]
(1) Jones JE (1966) Magnesium metabolism in hyperthyroidism and hypothyroidism. Journal of Clinical Investigations, 45(6):891-901. [Online – http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC292768/pdf/jcinvest00264-0105.pdf]
Altura BM et al (1983) Magnesium deficiency-induced spasms of umbilical vessels: relation to preeclampsia, hypertension, growth retardation. Science, 221(4608): 376-8. [Online] Pubmed
Johansson G et al (1980) Biochemical and clinical effects of the prophylactic treatment of renal calcium stones with magnesium hydroxide. Journal of Urology, 124(6): 770-4. [Online] Pubmed.
Purvis JR, Movahed A (1992) Magnesium Disorders and Cardiovascular Diseases. Clinical Cardiology, 15(8): 556-568. [Online] PubMed.
Sarchielli P et al (1992) Serum and salivary magnesium levels in migraine and tension-type headache. Results in a group of adult patients. Cephalalgia, 12(1): 21-27. [Online] Pubmed
Watt DL (1988) The nutritional relationships of magnesium. Journal of Orthomolecular Medicine, 3(4): 197-201. [Online] Google Scholar
