Magnesium Lowers Diabetes Risk

dailyRx – In a new study, researchers found that higher magnesium intake was associated with a lower risk of developing diabetes. The authors of the study, led by Adela Hruby, PhD, MPH, of the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University in Boston, wanted to explore potential connections between magnesium intake and metabolic impairment in otherwise healthy individuals. In people who already had metabolic impairment, the researchers looked for progression of these problems into type 2 diabetes.

Among the 1,654 participants without metabolic impairment at the study’s beginning, 307 cases of metabolic impairment, including 25 cases of diabetes, developed over the study’s course. The researchers found that those with the highest magnesium intake had a 37 percent lower risk of metabolic impairment than those with the lowest amount of magnesium intake.

Among the 928 participants with metabolic issues at the start of the study, 154 cases of diabetes developed. The researchers found that those with the highest magnesium intake had a 32 percent lower risk of diabetes than those with the lowest amount of magnesium intake.

In combining these two groups, a total of 179 diabetes cases were seen. For the total study population, a higher magnesium intake was associated with a 51 percent lower risk of diabetes, the study authors reported.

“In conclusion, higher magnesium intake may lower risk of progressing to diabetes among those with the highest risk of doing so—namely, those with insulin resistance or prediabetes,” Dr. Hruby and colleagues wrote. “These findings support a role for higher magnesium intake in those at high risk of developing diabetes, and the need for large, randomized trials to confirm these observations.”

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