Magnesium

Magnesium is an important catalyst in many enzyme reactions, especially those involved in energy production. It helps in utilization of vitamins B and E, calcium and other minerals. It is needed for healthy muscle tone, healthy bones, and for efficient synthesis of proteins. Magnesium is also essential for heart health. It regulates acidalkaline balance in the system. It’s involved in lecithin productions, is a natural tranquilliser, and prevents building up of cholesterol and consequent atherosclerosis.

Many people don’t take enough magnesium to replace what they lose every day. One reason: it’s most plentiful in foods like green leafy vegetables, whole grains, beans, and nuts – not exactly staples in most households.

The U.S. National Academy of Sciences (NAS) – in collaboration with Canadian scientists – recommends that women over 30 consume 320 mg of magnesium a day. Yet based on information from the only two provinces to report any, half of all women over 35 in Quebec get less than 235 mg a day and half of all women in Nova Scotia over age 35 get 210 mg or less.

The story’s the same with men. The average man would consume 420 mg a day. But half of all men over age 30 in Quebec get less than 315 mg from their food while the figure for Nova Scotia is 285 mg.

What’s wrong with losing a little magnesium each day?
Continuous deficiency will cause a loss of calcium and potassium from the body, with consequent deficiencies of those minerals. “Many of us in magnesium research feel that there are harmful consequences to getting less than the requirement – like diabetes, high blood pressure, osteoporosis, and atherosclerosis,” says Robert Rude of the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. ..

“There is mounting evidence that people with a number of diseases have lower blood magnesium levels, as measured by the only method readily available.” Here is some of that evidence.

Diabetes Magnesium and insulin need each other. Without magnesium, your pancreas won’t secrete enough insulin – or the insulin it secretes won’t be efficient enough – to control your blood sugar. And without insulin, magnesium doesn’t get transported from your blood into your cells, where it does most of its work. When Jerry Nadler of the Gonda Diabetes Centre in the City of Hope Medical Centre in Duarte, California, and his colleagues placed 16 healthy people on magnesium – deficient diets, their insulin became less effective at getting sugar from their blood into their cells, where it’s burned or stored as fuel. In other words, they became less insulin sensitive. And that’s a step on the road to diabetes.

Magnesium is not likely to change blood sugar very much because there are so many factors that influence glucose levels. But it may improve insulin sensitivity, and that would improve your long-term prospects of avoiding a heart attack or stroke.

High Blood Pressure Magnesium helps signal muscles to contract and relax. And when the muscles that line the major blood vessels contract, your blood pressure rises. When researchers studied the diets of 40,000 nurses and 30,000 male health professionals, they found lower blood pressures in people who ate more magnesium. Some smaller studies have found that magnesium lowered blood pressure modestly. In the latest, from Japan, 360 mg a day for eight weeks lowered blood pressure by an average of 3 points over 1 point in 60 men and women who started with highnormal blood pressures (they averaged 134/81).

Heart Disease and Stroke. Since the 1960’s, researchers have known that people who live in areas where the water is “hard” often have lower rates of heart disease and stroke. (“Hard” water contains more calcium, magnesium and other minerals than “soft” water.)

But the amount of magnesium in hard water is typically no more than 3 mg to 20 mg per litre. That’s less than ten percent of what people get from a day’s food. It’s hard to imagine how such a small amount could have such a big effect on preventing heart disease, but there is enough suggestive evidence out there that it needs to be seriously looked at.

Migraines Some people who suffer from migraine headaches may be deficient in magnesium. In one of two small studies, 40 migraine patients who took 600 mg of magnesium a day for 12 weeks went from three attacks per month to two.

Osteoporosis There are hints out there in human and animal research that magnesium is important for good quality bones. How much magnesium are you getting? Is it enough to keep you from running short?

Unfortunately there isn’t a reliable test of magnesium deficiency that is widely available. About all a primary care physician can do is measure the level of magnesium in the blood. But that doesn’t tell you if the level of magnesium is adequate within the cells, which is where it is critically important. Magnesium should be obtained from the diet if possible, but if someone can’t get enough from food, then taking a supplement is clearly better than nothing.

Multivitamin and mineral supplements seldom contain a day’s recommended dose of magnesium, simply because the 300 or 400 mg necessary won’t fit into a pill small enough for most people to swallow. So if you want more than a quarter of your day’s magnesium from a supplement, you’ll probably need to buy it separately. Can you get too much Magnesium? Taking too much magnesium from supplements causes diarrhea, so most people find out quickly when they’ve exceeded a safe dose.

No cases of toxicity from magnesium have ever been reported, says the National Academy of Sciences.

Food sources of Magnesium: Here is a list of Magnesium rich foods, beginning with the highest source. Black or navy beans, pinto beans, brown rice, almonds or cashews, garbanzos, spinach, lentils, baked potato with skin, peanuts, whole wheat bread, acorn squash, banana, peas, watermelon, grapefruit, broccoli.