{"id":6210,"date":"2014-04-28T09:01:57","date_gmt":"2014-04-28T14:01:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wholehealthchicago.com\/?p=6130"},"modified":"2022-03-21T14:59:01","modified_gmt":"2022-03-21T19:59:01","slug":"my-favorite-supplement-magnesium","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wholehealthchicago.com\/blog\/2014\/04\/28\/my-favorite-supplement-magnesium","title":{"rendered":"My Favorite Supplement: Magnesium"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Along with most things relating to good nutrition, I wasn\u2019t taught much of anything about supplemental magnesium either in medical school or during my internal medicine residency. It was a professional clinical nutritionist I met during a long-ago meeting of the American Holistic Medical Association who first told me, \u201cYou\u2019ll never go wrong if you add magnesium to your patient\u2019s list of daily supplements.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

During that same meeting, I first learned about the now-famous Myer\u2019s Cocktail from nutritional guru Alan R. Gaby, MD. A few years later he would write an entire book on magnesium. It was the magnesium component of the Myer\u2019s bouillabaisse of IV vitamins that was responsible for its sometimes magical effects: ramping up energy, relaxing the tense muscles of fibromyalgia, stopping a migraine or an asthma attack in its tracks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Magnesium is the fourth most abundant positively charged ion (called a cation, pronounced \u201ccat-ion\u201d) in the body, after sodium, potassium, and calcium, and it\u2019s involved in an astonishing 300+ enzyme reactions. As a result, if your magnesium is insufficient for your needs, 300 chemical processes in your body operate at a level that can only be described as pathetic and you may not feel too chipper. Probably the most vital of these is the adenosine triphosphate (ATP) system, our source of cellular energy. Unfortunately, unlike the other ions that can be measured using a serum sample, magnesium is stored mainly inside your cells and is very difficult to measure accurately.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to many studies on magnesium, we simply don\u2019t get enough of it in our diets. This is unfortunate because although magnesium deficiency itself really produces no symptoms, chronically low magnesium is associated with a wide variety of life-shortening illnesses, including diabetes, acute myocardial infarction (heart attack), high blood pressure, heart arrhythmias, and high cholesterol.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As an example, 400 patients who were considered at high risk for heart disease and high blood pressure were divided into two groups, both receiving the usual conventional medications. In addition, half were placed on an especially high-magnesium diet, the other half following their usual everyday diet. At the end of a decade, the high-magnesium group had an overall improved mortality rate, with a very strong drop in the number of sudden deaths from heart arrhythmias.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The primary reason our magnesium levels are likely on the low side is our preference for processed food, whose manufacturers process out a lot of vitamins and minerals, including magnesium. Good food sources of magnesium include pumpkin seeds, legumes, nuts, dark green leafy vegetables, and summer squash. Check this chart for details.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It can be hard to keep track of all the conditions magnesium can help, but I\u2019ve found it useful to divide them into four basic categories.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1.      <\/b>Medical conditions that can benefit from relaxation<\/b>
Magnesium relaxes both muscles and nerves (the opposite of calcium, by the way). Take any condition where the word spasm or tension might be used and likely magnesium can help. If you\u2019re prone to muscle spasms, waking in the morning stiff and achy, feeling sore and \u201cold,\u201d magnesium, taken regularly, can probably help. Virtually every treatment for fibromyalgia, which is really a chronic, non-stop muscle spasm over your entire body, includes some magnesium-based product. If you\u2019re prone to tension headaches, that band-like squeezing sensation around your forehead, magnesium will probably help.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Spasm\/tension occurs in other situations besides tight muscles. For example, constant spasm of blood vessels contributes to high blood pressure, coronary artery disease, migraine headaches, and Raynaud\u2019s disease, and magnesium will help all of these. Magnesium is useful for the bronchial spasms of an asthma attack and the painful spasms of menstrual cramps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Magnesium also helps your entire nervous system function smoothly. For many people prone to anxiety and panic attacks, magnesium taken regularly has been shown to reduce the need for anti-anxiety meds and SSRIs like Prozac. Magnesium taken at bedtime is so relaxing, in fact, that nutritionists and supplement manufacturers routinely include it in natural sleep aids.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2.      Medical conditions in which you need more energy<\/b>
Because of magnesium\u2019s intimate involvement with the ATP\/ADP system of energy production (click here<\/a> if you\u2019ve forgotten your lecture on the Krebs Citric Acid Cycle), regularly taken magnesium is virtually always included in any program to treat chronic fatigue symptoms<\/a>.  In addition, Dr. Gaby defined a spectrum of symptoms he\u2019d seen in patients as the \u201cmagnesium deficiency syndrome.\u201d These individuals reported a combination of fatigue, depression, anxiety, irritability, insomnia, muscle spasms and twitching, chest tightness, confusion, and memory loss. Mild symptoms would respond to modest doses of both IV and oral magnesium, indicating the deficiency was minimal but its effect on the body was profound. Factors contributing to deficiency included poor diet, stress, and medications like diuretics and laxatives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

3.      <\/b>For healthier bones<\/b>
Along with calcium, magnesium is essential for developing strong bones and preventing osteoporosis. Virtually all supplements with the phrase \u201cbone-building\u201d on the label contain three key ingredients: calcium, magnesium, and vitamin D. Generally, we get lot of calcium in our diets, magnesium not so much, and with months and months of overcast winter days, unless we supplement with D we\u2019re likely all deficient in this valuable vitamin as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

4.      <\/b>Medical conditions in which we don\u2019t know exactly how magnesium works<\/b>
We\u2019re not sure precisely how low magnesium levels increase your risk for developing adult onset diabetes mellitus, with its complications like eye and kidney disease and risk for high cholesterol. Current theories focus on an intracellular failure to regulate sodium\/potassium\/magnesium exchanges. This in turn leads to a condition called insulin resistance, the first step in adult onset diabetes and hyperlipidemia (high cholesterol). Both of these increase your risk for developing coronary artery disease.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What should you do about magnesium?<\/b><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

First, there\u2019s really only one group who should not work on raising their magnesium levels and these are patients with chronic kidney disease. Your kidneys are excellent at getting rid of excessive magnesium, but if they\u2019re not working you do run the risk of having too much magnesium in your body.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Second, if you\u2019ve got any of the health issues I\u2019ve listed so far, or you have a family history of diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, or heart disease, adding magnesium to your supplement list is a good idea. On the other hand, if you have none of these and you\u2019re feeling fine, family members routinely reaching their 80s or 90s, just be sure to include high-magnesium foods regularly in your meal planning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Third, there are so many magnesium products on the market that you\u2019ll end up looking like a deer in headlights if you stand in front of the magnesium section of your health food store. After trying different forms over the years, I finally settled on Dr. Gaby\u2019s recommended magnesium glycinate, sold as Magnesium Glycinate Plus<\/a> by Integrative Therapeutics. Some studies have shown magnesium malate is especially useful for fibromyalgia and magnesium citrate is more useful as a laxative. The usual dose of magnesium is between 400 and 500 mg a day (or two tablets twice a day).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So why is this my favorite supplement?<\/p>\n\n\n\n