Senior Health – Anti Aging and Magnesium Deficiency

Research has found that the so called “normal aging process” is associated with an increasing likelihood of high blood pressure, heart disease, reduced insulin sensitivity and …

…adult onset diabetes. These health issues do not have to be an inevitability of aging.

French magnesium researcher Dr. Pierre Delbert was convinced that the aging body’s tissues have three times more calcium than magnesium. He knew that calcium floods into cell tissues when there is a deficiency in magnesium, causing cell damage. He observed the toxicity of excess calcium in the testicles, brain and other tissues and concluded that magnesium deficiency plays a role in senility.

Clinical researchers are suggesting that it is the disturbance of calcium and magnesium that might be the missing link responsible for the frequent clinical coexistence of high blood pressure, atherosclerosis and metabolic disorders in aging. (1)

In a study of nursing home residents, low magnesium levels were significantly associated with two conditions that plague the elderly, calf cramps and diabetes. (2)

Individuals reaching a hundred years of age have higher total body magnesium and lower calcium levels than most elderly people. (3)

Free Radicals and Aging

A free radical is an unstable molecule that is the product of normal body metabolism. It is formed when molecules within our own body’s cells react with oxygen. Free radicals are necessary and normal products of metabolism but uncontrolled radical production plays a major role in the development of degenerative diseases such as heart disease, autoimmune disease and cancer.

Sources of free radicals include pesticides, industrial pollution, auto exhaust, cigarette smoke, heavy metals including dental fillings, most infectious viruses, bacteria, parasites, X-rays, alcohol, allergens, stress and even excessive exercise.

According to current research, low magnesium levels not only magnify free radical damage but can hasten the production of free radicals. (4)

One study utilizing cultures of skin cells found that low magnesium doubled the levels of free radicals (5). In addition, cells grown without magnesium were twice as susceptible to free radical damage as were cells grown in normal amounts of magnesium.

Antioxidants are vitamins and minerals such as magnesium, selenium, vitamin C and vitamin E that turn off the production of free radicals and thereby reduce or stop cell damage.

Summary

• Magnesium deficiency accelerates aging through its various effects on neuromuscular, cardiovascular and endocrine apparatus; kidneys and bones; and immune, anti-stress and antioxidant systems.

• Aging itself is a risk factor for magnesium deficiency. As we get older we become more deficient in magnesium and therefore require more in our diet and in supplement form.

• Around the age of seventy, magnesium absorption is two-thirds what it is at age thirty.

• Magnesium oil applied to the skin stimulates production of DHEA, the anti-aging hormone.

• A trial of oral magnesium supplementation is the best diagnostic tool for establishing the importance of magnesium. (6).

References:

1. Barbagallo M. Diabetes mellitus, hypertension and aging: the ionic hypothesis of aging and cardiovascular-metabolic diseases. Diabetes Metab, vol 23. no. 4. pp. 281-294. 1997.

2. Worwag M et al., Prevalence of magnesium and zinc deficiencies in nursing home residents in Germany, Magnes Res, vol. 12, no. 3, pp. 181-189, 1999.

3. Paolisso G et al., Mean arterial blood pressure and serum levels of the molar ratio of insulin-like growth factor-1 to its binding protein 3 in centenarians. J Hypertens, vol. 17, pp. 67-73, 1999.

4. Hartwig A. Role of magnesium in genomic stability. Mutat Research, vol 18, no. 475 (1-2), pp. 113-121, 2001.

5. Blaylock RL, Excitotoxins: The Taste That Kills, Health Press, Santa Fe, NM, 1997.

6. Durlach J et al., Magnesium and aging. II. Clinical data: aetiological mechanisms and pathophysiological consequences of magnesium deficit in the elderly. Magnes Res, vol. 6, no. 4. pp. 379-394, 1993.