Magnesium. We’ve all heard of it (or least remember our high school chemistry teachers mentioning something about it in class!) but, chances are you aren’t aware of how essential magnesium is to good health. After all, amidst all of the exotic sounding supplements that now line the shelves in stores across the country, magnesium sounds relatively unappealing. However, as it turns out, magnesium is the one supplement that you really should consider taking.
It was once believed that magnesium was involved as a cofactor in around 300 enzymatic reactions in the body. Now, approximately 600 magnesium-dependent enzymatic reactions have been identified. At this point, it seems pretty clear that magnesium is fundamental to almost all of the human body’s most important metabolic and biochemical processes.
Magnesium is vital for the heart’s electrical activity, dilation of blood vessels, transmission of nerves, regulation of C-reactive protein, ATP (energy) production, good quality sleep, insulin sensitivity modulation, and general stress reduction.
Clearly, magnesium is a magic mineral, essential for maintaining good health. However, despite its significance, the majority of us are deficient in it. In fact, according to the World Health organization, up to 75% of the US population do not consume the FDA’s recommended daily intake of 420mg [1].
A magnesium deficiency is not easy to diagnose. Simple serum tests for magnesium are highly ineffective because only 1% of magnesium is stored in the bloodstream, the rest is held in our bones, muscles, and other tissues. While a magnesium deficiency can be asymptomatic, often, it produces an array of unpleasant symptoms.
Doctors first became aware of the severity of magnesium deficiency in 1968, when Warren Wacker MD and Alfred Parisi MD published their paper in The New England Journal of Medicine. Their research revealed that a lack of magnesium could cause depression, psychosis, irritability, seizures, and headaches.
More modern research has confirmed this to be true, and has also indicated that magnesium deficiency can be responsible for a whole host of debilitating health conditions. In Dr Carolyn Dean’s (2006) book, The Magnesium Miracle, she lists 56 different health problems that likely to be linked to a lack of magnesium, including Alzheimer’s, depression and diabetes.
So, why is magnesium deficiency so common in today’s world? Perhaps the greatest reason for this is the fact that the foods we eat and the lifestyles we live today do not contain the same levels of magnesium that they once did.
In the past, our ancestors would have consumed plenty of magnesium through seafood and organ meats, by drinking less contaminated water, and by swimming in the sea (where magnesium is absorbed through the skin). Today, the story is very different.
Intensive agriculture has depleted our soil of various minerals, including magnesium, so much so that it is estimated that the magnesium levels in vegetables like cabbage, lettuce, and spinach have dropped by 80 percent in the past 100 years [2]. Meanwhile, the processing of tap water has stripped it of any naturally occurring magnesium.
Similarly, our modern diets contain far more heavily processed foods than ever before — foods that have minimal magnesium content. For instance, modern dwarf wheat, which makes up a huge portion of the Western diet, contains much less magnesium that the ancient einkorn wheat our grandparents were eating. On top of all this, soft, carbonated drinks contain phosphates, which inhibit magnesium absorption, as caffeine and alcohol both increase magnesium loss through urine.
In light of all this, it’s pretty clear that we all need to be getting more of this magic mineral, magnesium.
References
- World Health Organization. Calcium and Magnesium in Drinking Water: Public health significance. Geneva: World Health Organization Press; 2009.
- Grober U. Magnesium and drugs. Int J Mol Sci 2019;20(9):2094.