How Could You Benefit From Taking A Magnesium Supplement?

Magnesium is the fourth most abundant mineral in your body, and so maintaining it is essential for your wellbeing. Therefore, if you’re not getting enough of it, it might be time to add magnesium to your vitamin and mineral supplementation programme, but why?

Magnesium is essential for energy production, normal nerve and muscle function, bone wellness, a healthy immune system, and heart health. It also helps you to regulate your blood sugar and blood pressure levels, and is known to be involved in protein synthesis. There is also evidence that magnesium can be used for nerve pain associated with cancer treatment, chronic fatigue syndrome, cluster and migraine headaches, angina, fibromyalgia, osteoporosis, and premenstrual syndrome.

You can absorb magnesium from food, but you need enough vitamin D to do it, which people are commonly lacking in. Generally, foods that are high in fibre are also high in magnesium, so that means legumes (peas and beans), whole grains, vegetables (especially broccoli, squash and green leafy vegetables), and seeds and nuts (especially almonds). However, you should avoid refined white flour, as this has lost its magnesium in the refining process.

In hospitals, a magnesium deficiency occurs in 12% of patients, increasing to 60-65% in the intensive care unit. According to data from the 1999-2000 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, magnesium deficiency is especially common in women, black people and the elderly. But how do you know if you have a magnesium deficiency? A constellation of symptoms often alerts doctors that your body is deficient in this mineral. You may be experiencing constipation, muscle pain, asthma, palpitations (extra heart beats), sleep disorders (including restless legs), hypertension, and headaches.

Some doctors may measure your measure red cell magnesium or cellular magnesium from a mouth swabbing, but as blood tests don’t reveal much about magnesium status unless the deficiency is very low, doctors tend to just supplement with magnesium and increase the amount until your stool loosens. The most common drugs used for doing this are Beta2-agonists (often used for asthma, like albuterol, Serevent), digoxin (for heart failure) and some diuretics (used for high blood pressure).