Magnificent Magnesium

by Dennis Goodman

  OTHER COMMON HEALTH CONDITIONS THAT BENEFIT FROM MAGNESIUM

  Besides obesity, type 2 diabetes, and metabolic syndrome, there are a lot of other health conditions to which magnesium deficiency can contribute. These conditions can also benefit greatly from magnesium supplementation. This section will examine some of the most common health issues in which magnesium plays a role.

  Depression

  Depression is a psychological condition that can have serious consequences if left untreated. It is characterized by feelings of sadness and disinterest in one’s daily life. Severe cases of depression can lead to a withdrawal from friends and family, prolonged fatigue, feelings of futility, irrational outbursts of anger, and even suicide. Chronic depression can also trigger a wide variety of physical symptoms, including loss of appetite, compulsive overeating, gastrointestinal problems, sleeping problems, back pain, and headaches. If you or your loved ones suffer from prolonged bouts of depression, seek prompt medical attention and the help of a skilled therapist or counselor trained to deal with such issues.

  While magnesium is certainly not a complete solution for depression, research does indicate that it can be very helpful for easing the symptoms, potentially resolving them completely and reducing the risk of their recurrence. In fact, because of the mental health benefits magnesium can provide, Dr. Emily Deans, a practicing psychiatrist, referred to it as “the original chill pill” in an article published online by Psychology Today. As she wrote, “When you start to untangle the effects of magnesium in the nervous system, you touch upon nearly every single biological mechanism for depression.”

  Magnesium helps to protect against depression in a number of ways. First, when present in the body in optimal amounts, it regulates the activity of both calcium and glutamate, which are found in the synapses between the cells of the nervous system, or neurons. Among other functions, calcium and glutamate serve to activate a part of the neuron called the N-methyl D-aspartate ( NMDA) receptor, which plays a role in both memory function and the ability of the synapses to adapt in response to nerve impulses. When levels of magnesium are low, calcium and glutamate build up, triggering the NMDA receptor too frequently. This excess activity in the NMDA receptor is correlated with higher rates of both anxiety and depression. In addition, this activity can also lead to neuron damage or death. As George and Karen Eby write, “Without magnesium, the neuron operates much like an automobile without brakes, blasting calcium through the synapses, causing great harm to the brain, with severe disruption of thinking, mood and behavior.” Sufficient levels of magnesium prevent this cascade of events from happening by regulating the calcium and glutamate that cause the initial damage.

  The second way by which magnesium protects against anxiety and depression has to do with its ability to buffer the effects of stress. As this chapter shows, long-term exposure to stress can result in sleep disorders and chronic inflammation, both of which are independent risk factors for anxiety and depression. In addition, the brain’s memory center, the hippocampus, is particularly sensitive to the stress hormone cortisol. When exposed to excess levels of that stress hormone, the hippocampus can become damaged or even atrophy—waste away. Recent studies have shown that this smaller or partially impaired hippocampus is highly correlated with major depressive disorder.

  How can magnesium help? As explained previously, magnesium helps regulate cortisol, effectively buffering the effects of stress and limiting the toll it takes on your body and brain. In a research paper, the Ebys examined multiple case histories of patients who suffered from major depression, and found that all of the patients experienced rapid recovery in less than seven days after using 125 to 300 milligrams of magnesium with each meal and at bedtime. They also found that magnesium supplementation improved related mental illnesses, including traumatic brain injury, headache, suicidal ideation, anxiety, irritability, insomnia, postpartum depression, cocaine, alcohol and tobacco abuse, hypersensitivity to calcium, short-term memory loss, and IQ loss. Clearly, magnesium has enormous significance for the treatment of psychological disorders.

  Asthma

  Asthma is a chronic lung disease in which the airways are inflamed and narrowed, making it difficult to breathe and causing coughing, wheezing, and shortness of breath. The incidence of asthma has increased over the last few decades, particularly among the young. Researchers estimate that up to 15 percent of all children in the United States now suffer from asthma. This statistic is sad, but not surprising, as the rise of asthma corresponds to the decline of magnesium in our food supply.

  Magnesium can be useful in preventing and treating asthma. Many studies have linked magnesium deficiency to lung dysfunction, and magnesium sufficiency to improved lung function. Asthma is triggered when levels of histamines and stress hormones become elevated, causing muscle spasms and inflammation and thus narrowing the airways. Magnesium helps control the release of histamines and stress hormones, keeps your muscles relaxed, and more generally prevents unhealthy inflammation. Because of these properties, magnesium can actually stop an asthma attack as it occurs. Conversely, lack of magnesium can leave your body more vulnerable to an attack.

  In a study of over 2,500 children between the ages of eleven and ninteen, researchers found that low magnesium levels were correlated with a reduction in overall lung function, decreasing lung capacity and the flow of air through the respiratory system. Another study examined the effects of magnesium supplementation on patients who suffered with mild to moderate asthma. After six months, patients who had taken 170 milligrams of magnesium citrate twice a day showed improvement in the frequency and severity of asthma attacks, performed better on pulmonary function tests, and generally were seen to have higher quality of life.

  Clearly, magnesium has a number of benefits for asthmatics. An adequate supply of magnesium in the body helps to keep the muscles of the respiratory system relaxed and dilated, facilitating breathing. Magnesium has also been shown to reduce histamine and inflammation levels in the lungs and overall respiratory system, thus helping to prevent the recurrence of asthma attacks. These beneficial properties of magnesium explain why magnesium is administered intravenously in hospitals to treat the symptoms of life-threatening, drug-resistant asthma attacks. Unfortunately, many of the medications typically prescribed to treat asthma often worsen the condition. One of the most notorious side effects of these drugs, which are used to open respiratory pathways and reduce inflammation in the lungs and nasal passages, is the depletion of magnesium in the body. While quick-relief asthma drugs can certainly be valuable in cases of severe asthma attacks, patients should be weaned off of long-term medications, while simultaneously increasing their magnesium intake in order to improve overall lung function.

  Chronic Fatigue and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS)

  Chronic fatigue, or chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS), is one of the most common health complaints. It is characterized not only by debilitating fatigue, but also a range of other symptoms, including headaches, swollen glands, periodic fevers and chills, muscle and joint aches and pains, muscle weakness, sore throat, and numbness and tingling of the extremities. The primary symptom is a state of severe fatigue that makes doing even the simplest of tasks an exhausting proposition. Considering that nearly everyone in the United States today is deficient in magnesium, the preponderance of chronic fatigue syndrome is hardly surprising. Why? Because, as explained in Chapter 4, magnesium is by far the most important nutrient needed by your body to produce energy at the cellular level.

  Briefly, let’s review how your body produces energy. Inside each of your body’s 100 trillion cells are tiny energy factories called mitochondria. The job of the mitochondria is to create energy by breaking down glucose and other compounds to release a useable cellular fuel called adenosine triphosphate, or ATP. ATP acts as an instant source of energy within the cell, powering all of your body’s energy-consuming functions. Without magnesium, the mitochondria can’t do their job. No magnesium means impaired mitochondria
function. Impaired mitochondria means no ATP. No ATP means no energy. It’s that simple.

  Not only is magnesium essential for the production of ATP—it’s also important for maintaining the stability and functionality of ATP once it’s produced. As discussed earlier, the substance that we commonly refer to as ATP is actually the compound magnesium-ATP, or Mg-ATP. Without its magnesium attachment, ATP quickly begins to break down into less stable, and therefore less usable, compounds.

  In other words, without enough magnesium to draw upon, you cannot get the energy you need to conduct your daily life, and will necessarily suffer from fatigue. When you suffer from fatigue, your body’s need for magnesium becomes even greater. Chronic fatigue and magnesium deficiency thus form a vicious cycle.

  Although there are many causes of CFS, there is no doubt that magnesium deficiency is a major factor. In 1991, two studies on the relationship between magnesium deficiency and CFS were published in the prestigious medical journal Lancet. In both studies, test subjects with CFS were found to have low magnesium levels. After receiving magnesium injections, the subjects showed dramatic improvement, and had noticeably improved energy levels, reduced pain, and a better emotional state.

  So, if you are tired, don’t wait for your symptoms to worsen. Instead, take more magnesium, giving your body the essential ingredient it needs to produce and make use of energy.

  Chronic Pain

  Lack of magnesium can also lead to chronic pain, especially in the muscles. As Dr. Mildred Seelig says, magnesium is “the mineral of motion”; it is the most important substance for your muscles, controlling their capacity to function and relax. Without magnesium, you would not be able to move. Magnesium is important for the proper regulation of your body’s nerves and muscle tone, acting as a gatekeeper and overseeing the amount of calcium that enters into nerve cells. Too much calcium inside a nerve cell will overactivate the nerve. Constant overactivation causes the nerves to send too many messages to the muscles. This in turn causes the muscles to overcontract, resulting in muscle tension, spasms, and ultimately muscle pain and fatigue, leaving you feeling weak and drained.

  Compounding this problem is the fact that chronic pain is a stressor that causes your body’s stores of magnesium to be used at a faster-than-normal rate. Ongoing pain can quickly deplete magnesium stores, making pain even worse. Types of chronic pain caused or exacerbated by lack of magnesium include back, neck, and shoulder pain, arthritis, carpal tunnel syndrome, and pain or injuries to the soft tissues of the body.

  Another cause of pain in the body is the excessive release of a neurotransmitter known as acetylcholine. Neurotransmitters, including acetylcholine, are chemicals that allow nerve impulses, or messages, to be passed from one nerve cell (neuron) to another. The release of too much acetylcholine results in the transmittal of pain impulses. Magnesium is well known for its ability to regulate the release of acetylcholine and prevent it from flooding your system.

  In sum, because magnesium deficiency can contribute to the causes of chronic pain, magnesium supplementation can significantly relieve or reverse your symptoms.

  Fibromyalgia

  Fibromyalgia is a syndrome characterized by fatigue, depression, deep and widespread muscle pain, and the presence of tender points, or specific areas of the body that experience intense pain when pressure is applied. Scientists believe that fibromyalgia is caused by oxidative stress, a type of stress placed on cells and tissues by unstable oxygen compounds called free radicals. Because this oxidative stress results in the destruction or impairment of your body’s cells, it has been linked to a number of conditions besides fibromyalgia, including cancer, Parkinson’s disease, and certain types of coronary heart disease. Researchers now believe that magnesium deficiency can contribute to oxidative stress, and thus to fibromyalgia.

  To test this hypothesis, researchers recently observed a group of sixty women with fibromyalgia against a control group of twenty healthy women. The women with fibromyalgia all had lower levels of magnesium compared to the control group, and the severity of their fibromyalgia symptoms correlated with the degree of magnesium deficiency they had. The women were then divided into three groups. The first group was given 300 mg of magnesium citrate orally each day, the second group was given 10 mg of the fibromyalgia drug amitriptyline each day, and the third group was given the 300 mg of magnesium citrate in combination with the 10 mg of amitriptyline each day. After eight weeks, all three groups were reevaluated. Compared to the group that had taken only the amitriptyline, both of the groups that had taken magnesium (either alone or in conjunction with amitriptyline) showed significant improvements in their symptoms, demonstrating a marked decrease in the presence and sensitivity of tender points and a reduction of pain, fatigue, and psychological distress.

  One objection to this study is that the amount of magnesium administered to both groups of women was very low. If the daily dosage of magnesium had been higher, it’s likely that the improvements would have been greater, too. Also, as this study shows, magnesium supplementation by itself can be a powerful tool against fibromyalgia; consistent magnesium intake can make the use of drugs like amitriptyline unnecessary.

  Headache and Migraine

  We’re all familiar with headaches—pain or discomfort in the head or neck areas. Headaches and their more severe variant, migraines, can be caused by a variety of factors, including mental or emotional stress, food allergies, exposure to environmental toxins, muscle tension (particularly in the head, shoulders, upper back, and neck, which can constrict blood flow to the brain), skeletal misalignments, and eye strain.

  Another significant cause of both headache and migraine is nutritional deficiency, including suboptimal levels of magnesium. Through their research, the director of the New York Headache Center, Dr. Alexander Mauskop, and his colleagues, have shown that people who suffer from migraine and many other types of headache consistently demonstrate a lack of magnesium.

  Accordingly, magnesium supplementation can help to prevent headache and migraine in a variety of ways. As you learned in Chapter 4, magnesium relaxes blood vessels and allows them to dilate, reducing spasms and constrictions that can cause headache and migraine. And, as pointed out earlier in this chapter, magnesium regulates the action of your brain’s neurotransmitters, which, when unbalanced, can also contribute to headache and migraine by overactivating your nerve cells. Magnesium also helps keep inflammation in check and relaxes head, back, neck, and shoulder muscle tension, all of which can cause or contribute to head pain.

  In a study led by Dr. Mauskop, a group of 3,000 migraine patients were given a daily oral supplement of 200 mg of magnesium. This low dose of magnesium was enough to reduce the patients’ migraine symptoms by 80 percent. Various other studies have also demonstrated the benefits magnesium has for preventing and relieving headache and migraine symptoms, both by itself and in tandem with other nutrients, especially B vitamins.

  Gastrointestinal Problems

  Your gastrointestinal (GI) tract, which begins at your mouth and continues down through your esophagus, stomach, and intestines, performs three tasks: it digests the foods you eat, metabolizes the foods so that the nutrients they contain can be properly absorbed, and then eliminates the waste byproducts. All three of these functions are vital to optimal health. When your GI function is impaired, your body is unable to properly absorb and utilize nutrients—including magnesium—from either food or oral supplements.

  The result is a vicious cycle of illness, as magnesium deficiency can also cause significant gastrointestinal disorders. One of the most common GI disorders associated with a lack of magnesium is constipation, or difficult or infrequent bowel movements. Consequently, people who suffer from chronic constipation should increase their intake of magnesium. Magnesium supplementation has inadvertently been prescribed for years by doctors who tell their patients to add more fiber-rich foods to their daily diet. Fiber-rich foods also tend to be good sources of magnesium, thus doubly helping to improve d
igestion, and to prevent and reverse constipation.

  Magnesium plays an important role in preventing leaky gut syndrome. It also prevents GI tract inflammation, a condition that not only prevents your body from absorbing and metabolizing nutrients, but also destroys or damages immunoglobulin A (IgA), a disease-fighting antibody contained in the protective coating of the GI tract. When your IgA is impaired, your body loses some of its ability to ward off microorganisms that are otherwise held in check within the GI tract, including gut bacteria. This can result in systemic yeast overgrowth, otherwise known as candidiasis. When excess yeast bacteria passes out of the lower GI tract (where it belongs) and into the bloodstream, it acts as a poison, creating havoc for your immune system and potentially triggering the development of other conditions, including allergies, anxiety and depression, chronic fatigue, impaired cognitive and memory function, sexual dysfunction, hyperactivity, hives and other skin problems, respiratory problems, and weight gain, as well as various other GI disorders.

  GI disorders rank among the most common chronic health complaints suffered by Americans today. Left unchecked, both leaky gut syndrome and GI tract inflammation can lead to a range of other gastrointestinal conditions, including gastritis (inflammation of the stomach), colitis, Crohn’s disease, and irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). All of these conditions can be prevented by magnesium in combination with a healthy diet. Research also indicates that magnesium supplementation can also help reverse these conditions and improve their symptoms.