Magnesium is important to nearly every organ, tissue and function in your body. From basic cellular health to heart health, magnesium is a vital mineral. A low magnesium level can weaken your immune system and plays a critical role in various acute and chronic diseases.
Most people do not know what their proper level is or what it should be. A recent statistic shows that most Americans, nearly 80 percent according to Dr. Mercola, are magnesium deficient. Fortunately, it is easy to incorporate into your diet. There are various different food sources grains, fruits, dark-green leafy vegetables, nuts, fish, avocadoes, bananas, and even dark chocolate?to eat in order to get more of this critical mineral into your diet. The problem is these foods are not in your typical American diet. Most Americans consume processed foods, which lacks any substantial amount of magnesium.
Important to Health Benefits
Some of the main functions of magnesium are:
- Energy production, the energy storage unit of the body’s cells
- Helps promote proper digestion
- The body’s internal instructions for building proteins and new cells
- Enzyme activity, it helps enable thousands of bio-chemical processes
- Mineral balance
Magnesium is the trigger that activates more than 300 enzymes. Enzymes regulate many body functions, including energy production and muscle contractions. It works as a signal for muscles to contract and relax. And when the muscles that line major blood vessels contract, it impacts your blood pressure. Magnesium helps just about every other chemical in your body do its job. It is mainly an intracellular (inside the cells) ion. Most magnesium in the body is in the skeleton, 20 to 30 percent is in muscle, and only about 2 percent is outside of cells.
This leaves you with looking for signs and symptoms of deficiency. Below are 9 early warning signs that you are magnesium deficient.
- Leg cramps
- Insomnia
- Anxiety
- High blood pressure
- Muscle pain or fibromyalgia
- Persistent migraines
- Fatigue
- Type II diabetes
- Osteoporosis
Additionally, you might experience a loss of appetite, nausea, and overall weakness. If left untreated magnesium deficiency can lead to more serious signs/symptoms. Below are some more severe warning signs that you are magnesium deficient:
- Numbness and tingling
- Personality changes
- Muscle contractions and cramps
- Abnormal heart rhythms
- Seizures
- Coronary spasms
Start With Diet
Like with most other nutrient or vitamin deficiencies, starting with your diet is best. As mentioned above there are several different food/food categories that are rich in magnesium. Among foods relatively rich in magnesium are dark leafy greens (spinach and kale), nuts and seeds (squash and pumpkin seeds), fish (specifically mackerel), beans and lentils (soybeans, kidney beans, chickpeas), whole grains (brown rice, quinoa), avocados, low-fat dairy (plain non-fat yogurt, goat cheese), bananas, dried fruits (prunes, apricots, dates), and dark chocolate. Creating a balanced diet with some of the above mentioned foods will help increase the amount of magnesium you get in your diet.
Learn more about America?s #1 time released Magnesium Supplement
If you are unable to increase your magnesium levels enough with diet alone, there are supplements you can use to bridge the gap. You do not want to overwork or shock your body by immediately spiking your magnesium levels with supplement. So, it is best to slowly incorporate and gradually increase the amount of magnesium you intake via supplements. It is recommended to increase to about 300-400 milligrams per day (you can safely take up to 600 milligrams a day). Also, if you are experiencing added trips to the bathroom, do not be too alarmed. Magnesium does act as a laxative, which is another reason to gradually increase your supplement dosage.
Something that is so intertwined into your health should not remain unchecked and deficient. Whether it is through diet or a supplement, maintaining a proper magnesium level is vital to your body’s health.
Johnny hattingh
Does magnesium remove deposits in arteries? This is not mentioned in your argicle. Also my wife has tingling feelings in her hands. Any recomendations? She is also experiancing that she freels that her eyes are poppig out of her head. ??
sylvie
Does low fat or non-fat dairy has more magnesium than regular fat?
Non-fat anything is of little benefit to health so is it different for magnesium absorption or something once fat is removed??
Also- soybeans? C’mon you’re losing credibility in this important subject…
Toni
The body typically absorbs only 20-50% of ingested magnesium1 2 3 , so understanding the factors that can improve or prevent magnesium absorption is an important first step to addressing deficiencies and increasing magnesium intake.
Currently, an estimated 75% of Americans have daily magnesium intakes less than the RDA4 , with similar figures estimated for most industrialized nations. These radical figures point not only to the need for improved diets, but also to the need for a deeper understanding of the pathways that bring magnesium into and out of the body.
Broadly speaking, the following will raise magnesium levels:
Higher intake ? eating more magnesium-rich foods, using magnesium bath salts and magnesium oil, or taking oral magnesium supplements
Higher absorption of magnesium in the small intestines, in the case of oral and dietary magnesium
Lower elimination as waste through the gastrointestinal ?GI? tract (the stomach, intestines and colon) ? transdermal magnesium avoids this issue
Lower excretion by the kidneys
So, we can take in magnesium through foods or through the skin (via transdermal magnesium therapy), but we lose magnesium through the GI tract and the kidneys. If we don?t take magnesium ?in? we obviously can?t use it, but in a similar way, if we send it ?out? after we take it in, we still can?t use it!
Depending on the type of magnesium ingested and the magnesium status of the individual, these figures can be higher or lower. Studies have shown overall absorption of magnesium in some individuals as low as 20%.
And certain forms of magnesium supplements, such as magnesium oxide, may have an absorbable magnesium potency as low as 4%
Foods that may help promote best-absorbed magnesium include:
Fructose and complex carbohydrates
Protein, with the exception of unfermented soy products
Medium chain triglycerides, or MCTs, such as coconut oil and palm oil (the same types of fats more easily absorbed by those with pancreatic disorder and cystic fibrosis)
Fermentable or soluble fibers, such as fiber from fruits and vegetables, which may enhance magnesium to small degree in the healthy large intestine
Foods that hinder magnesium absorption include:
Non-fermentable or insoluble fiber, such as whole grain, bran and seeds
Foods high in phytates, such as whole flours and grains, bran, the hulls of seeds and nuts, and un-sprouted beans and soy
Foods high in oxalates, such as spinach, leafy greens, nuts, tea, coffee and cacao
The above list should be viewed with caution and reservation when selecting foods, however. In many cases, foods that contain high fiber, phytic acid or oxalic acid are also high in absorbable forms of magnesium. For example, choosing high fiber grains, which are high in magnesium, will typically provide better intake and absorption of magnesium than choosing low fiber grains that are low in magnesium, including processed breads made from white flour.
As has been discovered recently by modern medicine ? and practiced by traditional healers for centuries ? the digestive tract is not the only avenue of delivery for therapeutic substances. Transdermal therapy is a new way of absorbing both medications and health supplements, with the main organ of delivery being the body?s largest organ: the skin.
The advantages of transdermal magnesium overlap the advantages of the common transdermal drug-delivery mechanisms available today, such as transdermal nicotine and birth control systems.
Transdermal magnesium:
Bypasses the digestive tract, avoiding problems of irritation and diarrhea
Is easy and convenient
May be taken as a complement to oral magnesium for those seeking therapeutic levels above that tolerated orally
In addition, topical magnesium has been known to have secondary benefits to health due to its application on the skin. These include benefits toward eczema and psoriasis, as well as muscle cramps and pain.
Transdermal magnesium is currently available in four forms: a spray-on magnesium oil, magnesium bath flakes, magnesium lotion, and a magnesium gel, convenient for massage applications.
I buy epsom salt and soak my feet in it and warm water. I usually soak for 30 to 40 minutes. I have also made a bath scrub with epsom salt and a little olive oil. I use it by scrubbing my arms, legs and other area’s of my body with it. My skin feels wonderful after doing this and since I have started this I have stopped having leg cramps!!!
I also have mag oil, but that is expensive and tends to dry out my skin. Sometimes I will add the oil to my bath or my foot soak. My skin feels so soft after a soak!
Epsom salt is amazing as it has MANY uses. It can be used as a laxative, it helps soothe tired aching muscles, it can also be used as a natural fertilizer and it can help rid your garden of some pests! If you have a splinter soak the body part with the splinter in it in warm water and epsom salt. It helps the splinter move out of the body! Epsom salt is pretty darn cheap too! I have been able to get an 8 pound bag for under $6.00 and I have not yet finished one bag. My great grandfather and great grandmother used a lot of epsom salt and I just recently figured out why… It’s amazing stuff with so many uses! Not sure why people don’t use it more often, but my great grandparents knew what they had!
jose d herrera
I hace all? The s?ntomas
The you mentios in you article.
jose d herrera
I Have all The sintons
The you mentios in you article.