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Need More Magnesium? 10 Signs To Watch For
Magnesium deficiency contributes to many different health problems. Magnesium is the second most abundant intracellular cation and the fourth most abundant cation in the body. Magnesium plays an essential physiological role in many functions of the body.
Magnesium deficiency and hypomagnesaemia can result from a variety of causes including gastrointestinal and renal losses. Magnesium deficiency can cause a wide variety of features including hypocalcaemia, hypokalaemia and cardiac and neurological manifestations. Chronic low magnesium state has been associated with a number of chronic diseases including diabetes, hypertension, coronary heart disease, and osteoporosis.
Need More Magnesium? 10 Signs to Watch For -Symptoms of poor magnesium intake can include muscle cramps, facial tics, poor sleep, and chronic pain. It pays to ensure that you get adequate magnesium before signs of deficiency occur.
But how can you know whether you’re getting enough?
According to population studies of average magnesium intake, there’s a good chance that you’re not.
Less than 30% of U.S. adults consume the Recommended Daily Allowance (RDA) of magnesium. And nearly 20% get only half of the magnesium they need daily to remain healthy.1 2 3
Estimated U.S. Intake of Magnesium Recommended Daily Allowance
DO I GET ENOUGH MAGNESIUM?
One method of assessing your magnesium status is to simply contact your health care provider and request detailed magnesium testing. Yet magnesium assessment is typically done using blood serum testing, and these tests can be misleading. Only 1% of magnesium in the body is actually found in blood, and only .3% is found in blood serum, so clinical blood serum testing may not successfully identify magnesium deficiency.
What to do?
Fortunately, it’s possible to get a sense of where your intake may lie simply by asking yourself a few questions about your lifestyle, and watching for certain signs and signals of low magnesium levels.
Learn how to read your signs below, and find out what you can do to ensure magnesium balance and good health. If you answer yes to any of the following questions, you may be at risk for low magnesium intake.
1. Do you drink carbonated beverages on a regular basis?
Most dark colored sodas contain phosphates. These substances actually bind with magnesium inside the digestive tract, rendering it unavailable to the body. So even if you are eating a balanced diet, by drinking soda with your meals you are flushing magnesium out of your system.4 5 6
The average consumption of carbonated beverages today is more than ten times what it was in 1940.7This skyrocketing increase is responsible for both reduced magnesium and calcium availability in the body.8 9
2. Do you regularly eat pastries, cakes, desserts, candies or other sweet foods?
Refined sugar is not only a zero magnesium product but it also causes the body to excrete magnesium through the kidneys. The process of producing refined sugar from sugar cane removes molasses, stripping the magnesium content entirely.
And sugar does not simply serve to reduce magnesium levels. Sweet foods are known by nutritionists as “anti-nutrients”. Anti-nutrients like sweets are foods that replace whole nutritious foods in the diet, yet actually consume nutrients when digested, resulting in a net loss. Because all foods require vitamins and minerals to be consumed in order to power the process of digestion, it’s important to choose foods that “put back” vital nutrients, and then some.
The more sweet foods and processed baked goods you have in your diet, the more likely you are deficient in magnesium and other vital nutrients.
3. Do you experience a lot of stress in your life, or have you recently had a major medical procedure such as surgery?
Both physical and emotional stress can be a cause of magnesium deficiency.
Stress can be a cause of magnesium deficiency, and a lack of magnesium tends to magnify the stress reaction, worsening the problem. In studies, adrenaline and cortisol, byproducts of the “fight or flight” reaction associated with stress and anxiety, were associated with decreased magnesium.4
Because stressful conditions require more magnesium use by the body, all such conditions may lead to deficiency, including both psychological and physical forms of stress such as surgery, burns, and chronic disease.
4. Do you drink coffee, tea, or other caffeinated drinks daily?
Magnesium levels are controlled in the body in large part by the kidneys, which filter and excrete excess magnesium and other minerals. But caffeine causes the kidneys to release extra magnesium regardless of body status.
If you drink caffeinated beverages such as coffee, tea and soda regularly, your risk for magnesium deficiency is increased.
5. Do you take a diuretic, heart medication, asthma medication, birth control pills or estrogen replacement therapy?
The effects of certain drugs have been shown to reduce magnesium levels in the body by increasing magnesium loss through excretion by the kidneys.
See also:For a complete list of the specific drugs which can affect magnesium levels, read our article, Causes of a Lack of Magnesium.
We will learn: The Higher The Magnesium Level, The Healthier Our Arteries
Higher serum levels of magnesium may reduce the risk of hypertension by almost 50% and the risk of coronary artery calcification by 42%, says a new study.
More than 70 percent of the population have an unhealthy balance of 10 calcium to 1 magnesium in our many trillions of cells. A previous study 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%.
Another 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.
Data from 1,276 Mexican-mestizo subjects also indicated that for every 0.17 mg/dL increase in serum magnesium level was associated with a 16% reduction in coronary artery calcification.
While the data indicates correlation and not causation, scientists from the National Institute of Cardiology – Ignacio Chávez in Mexico City said that there is biological plausibility for the potential cardiovascular benefits, adding that the mechanism(s) may be linked to enhancing endothelial function and reducing inflammation.
One 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.
Benefits
The results add to an ever growing body of science supporting the potential health benefits of the mineral. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) lists magnesium as being necessary for more than 300 biochemical reactions in the body, from helping maintain normal muscle and nerve function, to keeping heart rhythm steady, supporting a healthy immune system, and keeping bones strong. The mineral is also needed for blood sugar management, and healthy blood pressure.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1855626/
