Magnesium in the News

While you are supplementing with magnesium to keep your heart cells well supplied, you may also be helping to avoid other problems related to magnesium deficiency. Remember that its difficult to get optimal amounts of magnesium from food sources so consistent supplementing becomes very important.
Jackie


FoJ Neural Transm.
2012 May;119(5):575-9. Epub 2012 Mar 18.

Why all migraine patients should be treated with magnesium.
Mauskop A, Varughese J.
Abstract
Magnesium, the second most abundant intracellular cation, is essential in many intracellular processes and appears to play an important role in migraine pathogenesis. Routine blood tests do not reflect true body magnesium stores since <2 % is in the measurable, extracellular space, 67 % is in the bone and 31 % is located intracellularly. Lack of magnesium may promote cortical spreading depression, hyperaggregation of platelets, affect serotonin receptor function, and influence synthesis and release of a variety of neurotransmitters.

Migraine sufferers may develop magnesium deficiency due to genetic inability to absorb magnesium, inherited renal magnesium wasting, excretion of excessive amounts of magnesium due to stress, low nutritional intake, and several other reasons.

There is strong evidence that magnesium deficiency is much more prevalent in migraine sufferers than in healthy controls. Double-blind, placebo-controlled trials have produced mixed results, most likely because both magnesium deficient and non-deficient patients were included in these trials. This is akin to giving cyanocobalamine in a blinded fashion to a group of people with peripheral neuropathy without regard to their cyanocobalamine levels.

Both oral and intravenous magnesium are widely available, extremely safe, very inexpensive and for patients who are magnesium deficient can be highly effective. Considering these features of magnesium, the fact that magnesium deficiency may be present in up to half of migraine patients, and that routine blood tests are not indicative of magnesium status, empiric treatment with at least oral magnesium is warranted in all migraine sufferers.
PMID:22426836
[www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov]

Altered Ionized Magnesium Levels in Mild-To-Moderate Alzheimer's Disease
Magnes Res. 2011; 24(3):115-21.
Barbagallo M, et al.
Summary
Magnesium deficiency is found in several chronic, age-related diseases: cardiovascular, metabolic and neurodegenerative diseases. Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the most common cause of dementia. This research studied magnesium homeostasis in patients with mild to moderate AD. One hundred and one elderly (?65?years) patients were consecutively recruited (mean age: 73.4±0.8?years; M/F: 42/59). In all patients, a comprehensive geriatric assessment was performed including cognitive and functional status. Admission criteria for the AD group (diagnosed according to the DSM-IV and the NINCDS-ADRDA criteria) included: mild to moderate cognitive impairment (MMSE score: 11-24/30, corrected for age and education). Blood samples were analyzed for serum total magnesium (Mg-tot) and serum ionized magnesium (Mg-ion). AD patients had significantly lower MMSE scores, and for the physical function tests. Mg-ion was significantly lower in the AD group as compared to age-matched control adults without AD. No significant differences were found in Mg-tot between the two groups. For all subjects, Mg-ion levels were significantly and directly related only to cognitive function, while no significant correlations were found in this group of patients between magnesium and ADL or IADL. Our results show the presence of subclinical alterations in Mg-ion in patients with mild to moderate AD.
[www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov]

Suboptimal magnesium status in the United States: are the health consequences underestimated?
Rosanoff A, Weaver CM, Rude RK.
Center for Magnesium Education & Research, 13-1255 Malama Street, Pahoa, HI 96778, USA.
Nutr Rev. 2012 Mar;70(3):153-64. doi: 10.1111/j.1753-4887.2011.00465.x. Epub 2012 Feb 15.
Abstract
In comparison with calcium, magnesium is an "orphan nutrient" that has been studied considerably less heavily.
Low magnesium intakes and blood levels have been associated with type 2 diabetes, metabolic syndrome, elevated C-reactive protein, hypertension, atherosclerotic vascular disease, sudden cardiac death, osteoporosis, migraine headache, asthma, and colon cancer.
Almost half (48%) of the US population consumed less than the required amount of magnesium from food in 2005-2006, and the figure was down from 56% in 2001-2002. Surveys conducted over 30 years indicate rising calcium-to-magnesium food-intake ratios among adults and the elderly in the United States, excluding intake from supplements, which favor calcium over magnesium. The prevalence and incidence of type 2 diabetes in the United States increased sharply between 1994 and 2001 as the ratio of calcium-to-magnesium intake from food rose from <3.0 to >3.0.

Dietary Reference Intakes determined by balance studies may be misleading if subjects have chronic latent magnesium deficiency but are assumed to be healthy. Cellular magnesium deficit, perhaps involving TRPM6/7 channels, elicits calcium-activated inflammatory cascades independent of injury or pathogens. Refining the magnesium requirements and understanding how low magnesium status and rising calcium-to-magnesium ratios influence the incidence of type 2 diabetes, metabolic syndrome, osteoporosis, and other inflammation-related disorders are research priorities.
© 2012 International Life Sciences Institute.
PMID:22364157 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
[www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov]