Magnesium Saves Lives

By Hans R. Larsen MSc ChE – http://www.afibbers.org/magnesium.html

LEICESTER, ENGLAND. Reports of the beneficial effects of the use of magnesium in the treatment of heart attack patients date back to the 1960s. More recent studies show a possible 25% reduction in mortality among patients injected with magnesium. Now a large study carried out at the Leicester Royal Infirmary in England confirms the beneficial effects. The experiment involved 2316 randomly selected heart attack victims. Half of the patients were given an injection of 8 mmol of magnesium sulfate injected intravenously over 5 minutes followed by a total of 65 mmol supplied by constant infusion over a 24-hour period. The placebo group received the same amount of saline solution. After 28 days, 90 of the 1150 patients treated with magnesium had died as compared to 118 of the 1150 patients in the placebo group. This corresponds to a 24% reduction in mortality. Researchers involved in the studies conclude that magnesium injection is a safe, effective, and inexpensive therapy in the management of myocardial infarction (heart attack).

Yusuf, Salim, et al. Intravenous magnesium in acute myocardial infarction. Circulation, Vol. 87, No. 6, June 1993, pp. 2043-46