Magnesium: The Missing Health Supplement

By Laura Owens

You won’t find magnesium flashed all over the news as some exotic cure-all. It doesn’t have multi-million dollar marketing fanfare surrounding it, and it’s not a miracle weight loss supplement (although it can help curb cravings). Magnesium is a simple, “quiet” mineral involved in a large number of complex and critical body functions. Whether in tablet, liquid or oil form, magnesium is powerful in what it can do for you.

Who Needs Magnesium Supplements?

Dr. Carolyn Dean author of “The Magnesium Miracle,” spent decades researching magnesium and what it can do to dramatically improve the health of individuals.

Dr. Dean suggests that virtually everyone can benefit from some level of magnesium supplementation.

The list of symptoms and conditions related to magnesium deficiency is surprisingly long and includes:

* anxiety
* depression
* muscle weakness
* fatigue
* eye twitches
* PMS
* insomnia
* anorexia
* apathy
* apprehension
* poor memory
* confusion
* anger
* nervousness
* rapid pulse.

What Does Magnesium Do?

It’s a co-factor in numerous chemical reactions. Co-factor means it’s needed in the “assistance of” or is a catalyst for other functions. Magnesium is needed to make hundreds of enzymes work and assists with thousands of others.

It’s part of your life force. Yes, it’s that important. Magnesium produces and transports energy and is involved with hundreds of enzymatic reactions in the body. As a result, magnesium deficiency can affect every aspect of your physiology. Because magnesium is involved in activating the most important enzyme reaction in the body, ATP (adenosine triphosphate), without it there is no energy, no movement, no life.

It synthesizes proteins. Magnesium is used in conjunction with and synthesizes many other vitamins and minerals.

It transmits nerve signals. Magnesium allows a small amount of calcium to enter a nerve cell. Our thoughts, via brain neurons, are dependent on it.

It relaxes muscles. Too much calcium and the not enough magnesium inside a cell and you can get muscle twitches, spasms, even convulsions.

How Much Magnesium Should You Take?

Although the adult Recommended Daily Allowance (RDA) for magnesium is between 350 and 400 milligrams per day, Dr. Dean suggests that “for optimal health and for the twenty-two conditions that are triggered by magnesium deficiency, perhaps twice as much magnesium is needed.”

Although there are some people who should not take magnesium, most can supplement without any problems. The only indication you’ve over done it is loose stools. The laxative effect, however, can be managed by taking smaller doses or switching to magnesium citrate, taurate or magnesium oil. Liquid magnesium or a powder to mix with water is also available.

Be sure to check the small print on your bottle. A brand may claim you’re getting 400 milligrams, while you might be getting a lot less. And if you want to eat foods with magnesium, green vegetables, some legumes (beans and peas), nuts and seeds, and whole, unrefined grains are good sources.

The Best Kept Secret Mineral to Better Overall Health

Dr. Dean concludes that “Magnesium is not some wonder drug touted by a pharmaceutical company in an aggressive marketing campaign. It is a simple element, a mineral vital to life and health, and easily obtained. The more I learn about magnesium, the more convinced I am that doctors are missing a huge opportunity by not making it one of their drugs of choice. As one of the most inexpensive and accessible supplements on the market, magnesium is responsible for regulating 325 enzymes in the body.

Why don’t more doctors tell their patients about it?

First, magnesium, like many safe, all natural health solutions, has long been overshadowed by the practice and protocol of traditional medicine. Doctor’s by virtue of their training and mandate, write FDA-approved prescriptions for virtually every ailment. And as far as supplementation recommendations go, calcium has become the gold standard for what physicians want their female patients to take. Yet magnesium is needed for calcium to be incorporated into bone. Without magnesium (and Vitamin D for that matter), calcium is lost.

The key to good health is to consistently stick to the basics: get regular wellness check-ups, drink water, exercise, manage stress, take a good multi-vitamin, get plenty of rest and eat right. Yet this easy to do, inexpensive idea, “supplement with magnesium” provides such an effective and powerful solution to alleviate so many symptoms and conditions, that it’s time for people to add magnesium viamins to their lifestyle and regular shopping list.

Laura Owens is a professional freelance writer and co-founder of the Orlando Chapter of Mothers & More, a non-profit organization dedicated to improving the lives of mothers through support, education and advocacy.