Could Magnesium Deficiency Be Causing Many of Your Health Problems?

April 19, 2014

By Mae Chan
PreventDisease.com http://preventdisease.com...

Magnesium is one of the most essential minerals required for more than 300 biochemical reactions in the body. It controls nerve impulses, body temperature regulation, detoxification, energy production, and the formation of healthy bones and teeth. There are over hundred different symptoms and cofactors of magnesium deficiency, some of which include muscle pain, insomnia, fibromyalgia, migraines, and low bone density.

According to Linda Bolton “80 percent of the population have an unhealthy balance of 10 calcium to 1 magnesium in our 70 trillion cells.”

Findings published in the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition indicated that for every 50 mg per day increase in intake of the mineral, the risk of cancer was modestly reduced by 7%.

A notable study of more than 4,600 Americans, begun in 1985, found the risk of developing metabolic syndrome over the next 15 years was 31 percent lower for those with the highest intake of magnesium.

Supplements of magnesium may also improve sensitivity to insulin and help reduce the risk of diabetes. Daily supplements of the mineral for six months improved two out of three measures of insulin sensitivity, compared with placebo. Low magnesium status may actually exacerbate the symptoms of type 2 diabetes by further influencing insulin status

Data from 22 trials with magnesium supplements revealed that the mineral may reduce systolic and diastolic blood pressure, researchers from the University of Hertfordshire reported.

A diet rich in magnesium may help reduce the incidence of metabolic syndrome, the cluster of conditions that can lead to diabetes and coronary heart disease.

A study, which combined data from 313,041 people, provides the “most robust evidence to date of the associations between circulating and dietary magnesium across their usual physiologic ranges and CVD risk”, wrote Dr Dariush Mozaffarian and his co-authors in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.