In The Magnesium Factor, p. 31, Drs. Mildred Seelig and Andrea Rosanoff write:
"...magnesium intake at the time RBCs are formed influences the level of magnesium in [those] cells. Young RBCs contain more magnesium than do old RBCs. Given these facts, a doctor who suspects that magnesium deficiency may be causing early symptoms and orders a test for serum or RBC level will likely not get test results confirming a low magnesium status. Such negative results will likely cause the doctor to disregard (mistakenly) low magnesium as a possible cause of the problem."
As an aside, see The Healing Nutrients Within, 3rd ed., Eric Braverman, MD, et al, p. 2: "Every second, the bone marrow makes 2.5 million red cells."
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On the web page of noted magnesium researcher Herbert C. Mansmann, Jr. M.D., he states:
The RBC test for magnesium "should be the clinical practice Gold Standard for the diagnosis of Normomagnesemia MgD."
[
barttersite.org]
Note the word 'normomagnesemia', his meaning being that the RBC magnesium test should be the "gold standard" for determining if the serum magnesium level is normal. Confusing? Me too! It's not clear why testing RBCs for serum magnesium is better than testing the serum itself The only thing I can think of is that much of serum magnesium is bound, hence not bio-available, whereas RBC magnesium might all be free and bio-available?
See: Altura BT, Altura B.M. A method for distinguishing ionized, complexed and protein-bound Mg in normal and diseased subjects. Scand J Clin Lab Invest 1994; 54, Suppl 217: 83-7. [
www.informaworld.com]
"Since 1932, it has been known that Mg exists in blood in several forms: protein-bound, complexed to certain anions, and ionized. However, there is discrepancy and debate on what these fractions are, how to accurately assess them, and whether they are important in diagnosis and prognosis of disease syndromes. Using the NOVA ISE* for IMg2+, a controlled method for ultrafiltration of Mg and atomic absorption spectrophotometry, we have found four distinct fractions of Mg in healthy normal plasma and serum: 1. ultrafilterable Mg (81%)(made up of ionized and complexed); 2. ionized Mg (67%); 3. protein-bound Mg (19%); and 4. complexed Mg (14%). The amount of each fraction appears to depend upon the pathophysiologic state of the patient. Previous observations on the amount of complexed and ionized Mg are, at best, only approximations, due to the absence of a device (i.e., ISE) to measure accurately IMg".
*ISE = ion sensitive electrode.
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In addition, as far as I've been able to determine, or imagine, RBCs have no mechanism by which to accumulate more magnesium inside themselves than that in their surrounding serum environment when they were 'born'. 'Metabolically active' cardiomyocytes have membrane magnesium pumps, mitochondria, and ATP with which to raise the internal magnesium level.
See Conference Room Session 55 (about halfway down) where pathologist Patrick Chambers, MD, says that "in the normal population the intracellular Mg++ concentration is more than 20 fold higher than the extracellular concentration. If the IC component is already low, then it will be even more difficult to staunch the leakage across this gradient, since Mg++ is required for any ATP pump activity kind of a Catch-22."
[
www.afibbers.org]
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Erling
