Magnesium Depletion and Chronic Disease

For reasons that elude me (perhaps it’s because calcium is the most common mineral in the human body), calcium has historically been the primary dietary mineral that has received the most attention in both medical research and the mainstream media. Over the last couple of years however, the mineral magnesium has quickly been the focus of intense scientific study, recently culminating with the latest report that suggests that magnesium may be just as important, if not more so, to children’s bone health than calcium.
While magnesium is the fourth most abundant mineral in the body, it is needed for more than 300 biochemical reactions.  It is involved in supporting proper nerve function and a healthy immune system. It helps keep heart rhythm steady and bones strong. Magnesium also helps regulate blood sugar levels, promotes normal blood pressure, and is involved in energy metabolism and protein synthesis.
The metabolism of carbohydrates and fats to produce energy (which includes ATP production) requires numerous magnesium-dependent chemical reactions. Magnesium is also required for a number of steps during DNA and RNA synthesis. Glutathione, an important antioxidant, requires magnesium for its production.
Only 1% of magnesium is found in the blood, the rest being bound in the tissues and bones. Therefore the mineral is hard to test for and as a result, magnesium deficiency can be difficult to detect. Symptoms of magnesium deficiency can be varied and potentially fool even the best clinician. Insomnia, irritability, nervousness, fatigue, anorexia, muscle twitching, abnormal heart beat and poor memory are some of the signs.  When you take into consideration the myriad functions magnesium performs and the multiple systems the mineral affects, a magnesium deficiency can affect virtually every system of the body. Magnesium deficiency has even been associated with epilepsy and M.S.
Additionally, if you look closely at the symptoms of magnesium deficiency and apply some of them to a child, would this not describe symptoms of ADHD?
Magnesium deficiency has also been shown to be a predictor of both diabetes and heart disease, providing some direct evidence that greater intake of dietary magnesium may have a long-term protective effect on lowering risk in both conditions or, in the case of its long term, chronic depletion/deficiency, directly participate in the development of both conditions.
In the case of diabetes, it is suggested that insulin resistance can be directly related to long-term magnesium exhaustion while in cardiovascular heath, hypertension and endothelial dysfunction appear to be associated with chronic decline as well.
Finally, several studies have shown an increased cancer rate in regions with low magnesium levels in soil and drinking water (the same for selenium). In Egypt, the cancer rate was only about 10% of that in Europe and America. The main difference was an extremely high magnesium intake of 2.5 to 3g in these cancer-free populations, ten times more than in most western countries.
In the face of magnesium’s incredible importance in human health, it goes without saying that the possible deficiency of this mineral in the clinical setting may need to be more closely scrutinized, as the consequences could be quite impactful.
Michael Fuhrman, D. C.