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The Neglected Mineral We Cannot Live Without
Magnesium is an alkaline earth metal, the eighth most abundant mineral found in the earth’s crust. Because of its ready solubility in water, magnesium is the third most abundant mineral in sea water, after sodium and chloride. In the human body, magnesium is the eleventh most plentiful element by mass—measuring about two ounces. Most magnesium contained in the body is found in the skeleton and teeth—at least 60 to 65 percent of the total. Nearly the entire remaining amount resides in muscle tissues and cells, while only one percent is contained in our blood.
The importance of magnesium ions for all life itself, as well as for overall vibrant health, is hard to overstate. Magnesium is required to give the “spark of life” to metabolic functions involving the creation of energy and its transport (ATP, the body’s fundamental energy currency), and the creation of proteins—the nucleic acid chemistry of life—RNA and DNA, in all known living organisms. In plants, a magnesium ion is found at the center of every chlorophyll molecule, vital for the creation of energy from sunlight. Magnesium is an essential element for both animals and plants, involved in literally hundreds of enzymatic reactions affecting virtually all aspects of life.
Every single cell in the human body demands adequate magnesium to function, or it will perish. Strong bones and teeth, balanced hormones, a healthy nervous and cardiovascular system, well-functioning detoxification pathways and much more depend upon cellular magnesium sufficiency. Soft tissue containing the highest concentrations of magnesium in the body include the brain and the heart—two organs that produce a large amount of electrical activity, and which can be especially vulnerable to magnesium insufficiency.
Magnesium works in concert with calcium to regulate electrical impulses in the cell—magnesium concentration inside healthy cells is ten thousand times greater than calcium, and there are crucial reasons for this safeguard. Cellular calcium channels allow that mineral to enter the cell only as long as needed to conduct an impulse; it is ushered out immediately by magnesium once its task is fulfilled. This vigilance is necessary to prevent calcium accumulation in the cell, which could cause dangerous hyper-excitability, calcification, cell dysfunction and even cell death. When excess calcium enters the cells because of insufficient magnesium, muscle contraction is sustained for too long, and we suffer, for example, twitches and tics in mild cases. When magnesium deficiency becomes chronic, we suffer the symptoms of heart disease such as angina pectoris, hypertension and arrhythmia, or the spasms and contractions characteristic of asthma, migraine headache or painful menstrual cramping.
Magnesium operates as a natural calcium channel blocker and is responsible for relaxation—counter to calcium’s contraction. Thus magnesium is pivotally important to the healthy functioning of our parasympathetic nervous system. It may be hard to believe, but our bodies were actually designed to operate for the most part in a calm, relaxed parasympathetic state, rather than in the heart-pounding, stress- and adrenaline-driven mode of sympathetic nervous system dominance that is nearly constant for many of us today, and which uses up great quantities of magnesium.
Magnesium is so important to so many vital body functions, and its deficiency is integrally involved in so many diseases, that more than one researcher has dubbed magnesium a miracle in its ability to resolve or improve numerous disorders. The current list of disorders with direct and confirmed relationships to chronic and acute magnesium deficiency is long, and includes many diseases whose conventional medical treatment does not commonly address magnesium insufficiency (see below). Ongoing research promises to uncover further associations between magnesium deficiency and other illnesses.
MAGNESIUM DEFICIENCY IS WIDESPREAD
Unfortunately, it is difficult to reliably supply our bodies with sufficient magnesium, even from a good, balanced whole foods diet. First of all, modern agricultural methods favor the universal use of NPK fertilizers (nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium). Both potassium and phosphorus are antagonists of magnesium in the soil, and on calcareous soils create a relative magnesium deficiency (the magnesium present is bound and therefore unavailable to the crop). On sandy or loamy soils that are slightly acid, an actual magnesium deficiency often exists, as the magnesium leaches from the soil and is also unavailable to the crop. This leaching also occurs in response to acid rain. Magnesium, in fact, is one of the most depleted minerals in farm soils. To add insult to injury, new plant hybrids are continually introduced that have been bred to survive on these mineral-depleted soils. Of course, when mineral-depleted crops are eaten by animals or by us, they will sooner or later cause disease. Even though organically raised crops should be a better bet nutritionally, this isn’t always the case, and it pays in terms of your health to learn how your farmer replenishes the minerals on his fields.
“Do you know that most of us today are suffering from certain dangerous diet deficiencies which cannot be remedied until depleted soils from which our food comes are brought back into proper mineral balance? The alarming fact is that foods (fruits, vegetables, grains) now being raised on millions of acres of land that no longer contain enough of certain minerals are starving us—no matter how much of them we eat. The truth is that our foods vary enormously in value, and some of them aren’t worth eating as food.” These words of warning are from the 74th Congress, 2nd session, Senate document number 264, of 1936. It is truly sobering to learn that the decline in soil mineral balance was a topic of serious national concern more than seventy years ago, and the deficit has been affecting us—while steadily getting worse— since our grandparents’ generation.
Magnesium and other nutrients are diminished or lost in produce after harvest, through handling, refrigeration, transport and storage, even if all these steps were done “properly.” Buying produce and then storing it for days in your own refrigerator continues the nutrient loss, whether the produce is from the supermarket or your local farmers’ market.
Food processing causes enormous loss of magnesium in foods that are commonly fairly good sources of it, such as leafy greens, nuts, seeds and whole grains. Most of the magnesium in grain— found in the bran and germ—is lost in milling whole grains for white flour, which is used nearly exclusively for hundreds of devitalized processed food items. When nuts and seeds are roasted or their oils extracted, magnesium is lost. Cooking greens causes whatever magnesium they might contain to leach into the cooking water. Foods tend to lose less calcium than magnesium through these processes, adding to a troublesome dietary calcium overload that we will discuss shortly.
Fluoride in drinking water binds with magnesium, creating a nearly insoluble mineral compound that ends up deposited in the bones, where its brittleness increases the risk of fractures. Water, in fact, could be an excellent source of magnesium—if it comes from deep wells that have magnesium at their source, or from mineral-rich glacial runoff. Urban sources of drinking water are usually from surface water, such as rivers and streams, which are low in magnesium. Even many bottled mineral waters are quite low in magnesium, or have a very high concentration of calcium, or both.
A diet of processed, synthetic foods, high sugar content, alcohol and soda drinks all “waste” magnesium, as a lot of it is required for the metabolism and detoxification of these largely fake foods. According to Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride, the body requires at least twenty-eight molecules of magnesium to metabolize a single molecule of glucose. Phosphates in carbonated drinks and processed meats (so-called “luncheon meats” and hot dogs) bind with magnesium to create the insoluble magnesium phosphate, which is unusable by the body.
Tannins, oxalates, and phytic acid all bind with magnesium, making it unavailable to the body unless extra care is taken to neutralize some of these compounds during food preparation. It is interesting to note that foods commonly containing magnesium (provided they were grown in mineral-rich soil) also contain lots of these anti-nutrients, such as spinach (oxalates) and whole grains (phytates).
Many commonly prescribed pharmaceutical drugs cause the body to lose magnesium via the urine, such as diuretics for hypertension; birth control pills; insulin; digitalis; tetracycline and some other antibiotics; and corticosteroids and bronchodilators for asthma. With the loss of magnesium, all of the symptoms being “treated” by these drugs over time inevitably become worse.
Magnesium absorption is impeded with the use of supplemental iron. If you take calcium supplements, your need for magnesium increases, and in fact calcium will not be properly absorbed or metabolized if adequate magnesium is missing, and will mostly end up dangerously deposited in soft tissues. Magnesium is responsible for converting vitamin D to the active form that allows calcium to be absorbed, and also regulates calcium’s transport to hard tissues where it belongs. Lactose is another inhibitor of magnesium absorption (and milk is not a good source of the mineral to begin with), along with excess potassium, phosphorus and sodium.
Mental and physical stress, with its related continuous flow of adrenaline, uses up magnesium rapidly, as adrenaline affects heart rate, blood pressure, vascular constriction and muscle contraction— actions that all demand steady supplies of magnesium for smooth function. The nervous system depends upon sufficient magnesium for its calming effects, including restful sleep. Hibernating animals, by the way, maintain very high levels of magnesium. Magnesium deficiency will accelerate a vicious cycle and amplify the effects of chronic stress, leading to more anxiety, irritability, fatigue and insomnia—many of the symptoms of adrenal exhaustion—as well as to hypertension and heart pains—symptoms of heart disease.
Depression is related to stress and magnesium deficiency as well. Serotonin, the “feel good” hormone, requires magnesium in its delicate balance of release and reception by cells in the brain. Only when adequate levels are present can we enjoy mental and emotional equilibrium.
For reasons not fully understood, the body does not retain magnesium very well; certainly not as well as it holds onto calcium or iron, for example. Heavy sweating from endurance sports such as marathon running or strenuous exercise workouts can dangerously deplete magnesium stores and other electrolytes—although calcium is not wasted, by the way— resulting in trembling, faintness and even seizures and death. The drenching sweats that some menopausal women suffer cause magnesium loss as well, and their diminishing magnesium levels worsen their jagged nerves, sleep disturbances, panic attacks, body aches and depression. If these women have been tempted to consume modern soy products in a misguided attempt to moderate their symptoms, they will in fact lose even more magnesium because it will be bound to the abundant phytates in these concoctions.
A healthy gut environment is necessary for proper absorption of magnesium from the diet. Irritable bowel syndrome, leaky gut, candidiasis and other gut disorders can severely limit the amount of magnesium that the body will be able to absorb. Older adults often experience decreased stomach hydrochloric acid production, which can impair mineral absorption in general. And with so many treating their “heartburn” with antacids, a healthy digestive environment is hard to maintain.
CALCIUM AND MAGNESIUM PARTNERSHIP
Both calcium and magnesium are necessary for the healthy body—in proper balance to one another, as well as to other necessary minerals. Considered biochemical antagonists, one cannot act without eliciting the opposite reaction of the other. Yet calcium and magnesium must both be present in balanced amounts for either one to function normally in the body. Some researchers suggest that the healthy ratio of calcium to magnesium in the diet should be 2:1. Others consider 1:1 to reflect ratios that we evolved with based on our diet prior to the advent of agriculture. In modern industrialized countries the ratio from diet is from 5:1 to as much as 15:1. The imbalance of these two very important minerals produces many dire consequences in the body that are often overlooked by medical practitioners when treating the disease states they cause.
Aside from the intricate electrical dance that calcium and magnesium perform together, magnesium is necessary to keep calcium in solution in the body, preventing its inappropriate deposition in soft tissues. As long as we have sufficient hydrochloric acid in our stomachs we can dissolve calcium from the foods we eat. After calcium leaves the acidic environment of the stomach and enters the alkaline milieu of the small intestine however, it is magnesium that is necessary to keep calcium soluble. Without sufficient magnesium, a whole host of physiological aberrations can occur with serious health consequences.
As Dr. Carolyn Dean, author of The Magnesium Miracle, explains, “In the large intestine it [precipitated calcium] interferes with peristalsis, which results in constipation. When calcium precipitates out in the kidneys and combines with phosphorus or oxalic acid, kidney stones are formed. Calcium can deposit in the lining of the bladder and prevent it from fully relaxing, and therefore from filling completely with urine. This leads to frequent urination problems, especially in older people. Calcium can precipitate out of the blood and deposit in the lining of the arteries, causing hardening (arteriosclerosis). . . It can coat and stiffen. . . plaque in the arteries. . . [and] can cause blood pressure to rise as well as increase the risk of heart attack and stroke. Calcium can even deposit in the brain. Many researchers are investigating it as a possible cause of dementia, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease. Calcium can deposit in the lining of the bronchial tubes and cause asthma symptoms. Calcium in extracellular fluid. . . can decrease the permeability of cell membranes. This makes it increasingly difficult for glucose (a large molecule) to pass through the cell membrane to be converted to ATP in the cells’ mitochondria. High glucose levels created by excess calcium may be misdiagnosed as diabetes.”
MAGNESIUM IS A POTENT DETOXIFIER
Magnesium is utilized by the body for all sorts of detoxification pathways and is necessary for the neutralization of toxins, overly acidic conditions that arise in the body, and for protection from heavy metals. It plays a vital role in protecting us from the onslaught of man-made chemicals all around us. Glutathione, an antioxidant normally produced by the body and a detoxifier of mercury, lead and arsenic among others, requires magnesium for its synthesis. According to Mark Sircus, in Transdermal Magnesium Therapy, a deficiency of magnesium increases free radical generation in the body and “causes glutathione loss, which is not affordable because glutathione helps to defend the body against damage from cigarette smoking, exposure to radiation, cancer chemotherapy, and toxins such as alcohol and just about everything else.”
When our bodies are replete with magnesium (and in balance with the other essential minerals) we are protected from heavy metal deposition and the development of associated neurological diseases. As Dr. Carolyn Dean explains, “Research indicates that ample magnesium will protect brain cells from the damaging effects of aluminum, beryllium, cadmium, lead, mercury and nickel. We also know that low levels of brain magnesium contribute to the deposition of heavy metals in the brain that heralds Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s. It appears that the metals compete with magnesium for entry into the brain cells. If magnesium is low, metals gain access much more readily.
“There is also competition in the small intestine for absorption of minerals. If there is enough magnesium, aluminum won’t be absorbed.”
MAGNESIUM DEFICIENCY IN TOOTH DECAY AND OSTEOPOROSIS
Ask anyone—your neighbor or even your dentist or doctor—what bones and teeth require to be strong and healthy, and you will undoubtedly hear the response, “Plenty of calcium.” Bones and teeth certainly do require calcium—as well as phosphorus and magnesium, but without adequate amounts of the latter, calcium will not be deposited in these hard tissues, and the structures will not be sound. “When you load up your system with excess calcium,” writes William Quesnell, in Minerals: the Essential Link to Health, “you shut down magnesium’s ability to activate thyrocalcitonin, a hormone that under normal circumstances would send calcium to your bones.” Instead of providing benefits to the body, the displaced calcium actually becomes toxic, causing trouble in soft tissues of the kinds we’ve already discussed.
Numerous studies, in fact, have established the fact that it is dietary magnesium, not calcium, (and certainly not fluoride) that creates glassy hard tooth enamel that resists decay, and strong and resilient bones. Regardless of the amount of calcium you consume, your teeth can only form hard enamel if magnesium is available in sufficient quantities.
According to J. I. Rodale, in Magnesium: the Nutrient that Could Change Your Life, “For years it was believed that high intakes of calcium and phosphorus inhibited decay by strengthening the enamel. Recent evidence, however, indicates that an increase in these two elements is useless unless we increase our magnesium intake at the same time. It has even been observed that dental structures beneath the surface can dissolve when additional amounts of calcium and phosphorus diffuse through the enamel at different rates. Thus milk, poor in magnesium, but high in the other two elements, not only interferes with magnesium metabolism, but also antagonizes the mineral responsible for decay prevention.”
To revisit Deaf Smith County, Texas, and the justly famous residents whose teeth refused to succumb to decay, Rodale quotes the observations of Dr. Lewis Barnett, presented in a paper before the Texas Medical Association in Dallas, 1952. Dr. Barnett, an orthopedic surgeon, remarked on the low incidence of tooth decay and rapid healing of broken bones among these residents, and offered this explanation: “[The local] water and foods have a very high magnesium and iodine content and recently we have proven that all of the trace minerals known to be essential are present in the water and foods grown in that area.” Further, Dr. Barnett had found that the magnesium bone content of the average Deaf Smith County resident was up to five times higher than that of a resident of Dallas, while the concentrations of calcium and phosphorus were about the same in both groups. His observations led him to state that “[o]ne of the most important aspects of the disease osteoporosis has been almost totally overlooked. That aspect is the role played by magnesium.”
Rodale emphasizes the fact that Dr. Barnett gave much of the credit for these health benefits to the high magnesium content of the local water, and noted many signs of superior bone development among people in the area: “Dr. Barnett makes mention of the fact that people in older years frequently have fracture of the cervical neck of the femur and these are very difficult to heal in many localities. However, he noted that this fracture rarely occurs in Deaf Smith County, whereas it was common in Dallas County, Texas, where he also practiced. When a fracture did occur in Deaf Smith, healing was easy and rapid even in people eighty to one hundred years old. In contrast, fractures in Dallas were common and very difficult to heal, if not impossible.”
Over fifty years ago Dr. Barnett tested the magnesium levels of five thousand people and found sixty percent of them to be deficient. How much more of the population is deficient today, when all of the negative conditions contributing to that deficiency have been certainly amplified?
FOOD SOURCES OF MAGNESIUM
As we’ve mentioned, if farm soils are well-mineralized, leafy green vegetables, seeds, tree nuts and whole grains are fairly good sources of magnesium. Certain wild-crafted forage foods really stand out, however, such as nettles (860 mg per 100 grams) and chickweed (529 mg per 100 grams), and add many tonic and nutritive benefits to both human and livestock diets largely due to their high mineral content. Kelp, ancient denizen of the sea, contains spectacular levels, as do most sea vegetables. Remember that they are continually bathed in a solution whose third most abundant mineral is magnesium. And authentic, unrefined sea salt is a very good source of magnesium, along with trace minerals. Utilizing bone broths on a daily basis will provide another excellent source of minerals, including magnesium, in a highly assimilable form.
STRATEGIES FOR MAGNESIUM SUPPLEMENTATION
Even with ideal digestive conditions, only a percentage of magnesium in foods will be absorbed—less when amounts in the body are adequate and more if there is a deficiency. This is also true of magnesium supplements, and there are many of them on the market to confuse you. For the average person, magnesium supplementation is safe to experiment with on your own, especially if you know you have symptoms that could be related to magnesium deficiency or are under extra stress, and so on. Excess magnesium is excreted in urine and the stool, and the most common response to too much magnesium is loose stools. Those with renal insufficiency or kidney disease, extremely slow heart rate, or bowel obstruction should avoid magnesium therapy.
General dosage recommendations range from about 3 to 10 milligrams per pound of body weight, depending upon physical condition, requirements for growth (as in children), and degree of symptoms.
Oral magnesium supplements are available in organic salt chelates, such as magnesium citrate and magnesium malate. These are fairly well absorbed, especially in powder forms to which you add water and can tailor your dosage. It is important to divide your dosage during the day so that you do not load your body with too much magnesium in any single dose. Carolyn Dean recommends taking your first dose early in the morning and another in the late afternoon—these correspond to times when magnesium levels are low in the body. Is it just a coincidence that these times of low magnesium and low energy also correspond to the cultural rituals of morning coffee and afternoon tea?
Loose stools indicate you are not absorbing the magnesium, but that it is acting as a laxative. When the magnesium travels through the intestines in less than twelve hours, it is merely excreted rather than absorbed. If you find you cannot overcome the laxative effect by varying your dosages, you may want to try an oral supplement that is chelated to an amino acid, such as magnesium taurate and magnesium glycinate, which some consider to be better absorbed than the salt forms and less likely to cause loose stools. For those who need a little help with digestion, such as young children, older adults, and anyone with reduced stomach acid or bowel dysbiosis, consider homeopathic magnesium, also referred to as tissue salts or cell salts. Magnesia phosphorica 6X is the appropriate dosage, and it works to usher magnesium into the cells where it belongs. It is also indicated as a remedy for muscle spasms and cramps of many varieties. Mag phos can help reduce and eliminate loose stools while you are supplementing with oral magnesium, giving you a positive sign that your body is indeed taking the magnesium into the cells.
Yet another option for oral magnesium supplementation is ionic magnesium in liquid form, such as that offered by Trace Minerals Research. This is a sodium-reduced concentration of sea water from the Great Salt Lake in Utah. Only about a teaspoon is needed to deliver about 400 milligrams of magnesium (along with seventy-two other trace minerals), which should be taken in divided amounts during the day. I recommend adding this to soups (made with bone-broth bases of course) as the strong mineral taste is hard to take straight. You can also add this to spring and other drinking water to up the magnesium content and use it in cooking. By “micro-dosing” your food and water in this fashion you greatly reduce any laxative effects a large dose of magnesium might elicit.
Another potential way to get more magnesium into your system is via the pleasant method of soaking in a bath of magnesium sulfate, otherwise known as Epsom salts. Commonly used to ease muscle aches and pains, magnesium sulfate also importantly helps with detoxification when sulfur is needed by the body for this purpose. When used intravenously, magnesium sulfate can save lives in such crises as acute asthma attack, onset of myocardial infarction, and eclampsia in pregnancy.
A couple of cups of Epsom salts added to a hot bath will induce sweating and detoxification; after the water cools a bit, the body will then absorb the magnesium sulfate. According to Mark Sircus in Transdermal Magnesium Therapy, the effects from a bath of Epsom salts, although pleasant, are brief as magnesium sulfate is difficult to assimilate and is rapidly lost in the urine. Magnesium chloride, which can also be used in baths, is more easily assimilated and metabolized, and so less is needed for absorption.
Finally, magnesium may be applied topically in a form commonly called magnesium “oil.” This is actually not an oil at all, but a supersaturated concentration of magnesium chloride and water. It does feel oily and slippery when applied to the skin, but it absorbs quickly, leaving a slightly tacky, “sea salt” residue that can be washed off. There are many advantages to transdermal magnesium therapy, since the gastrointestinal tract is avoided altogether and there is no laxative effect. Next to intravenous magnesium administration, transdermal therapy provides a greater amount of magnesium to be absorbed than even the best tolerated oral supplements, and can restore intracellular concentrations in a matter of weeks rather than the months required for oral supplementation.
MISSING LINK?
It is likely safe to say that most people would benefit from an increased supply of magnesium in their diets, especially in these times of so many dietary, environmental, and social stressors. Of course no single nutrient stands alone in relation to the body, and the first priority is to eat a varied diet of whole plant and animal foods from the best sources near you. Adding extra magnesium, however, might be the missing nutritional link to help us guard against heart disease, stroke, depression, osteoporosis and many other disorders. In the prevention and alleviation of these diseases, magnesium can be truly miraculous.
SIDEBARS
THE MANY EFFECTS OF MAGNESIUM DEFICIENCY
• ADD/ADHD
• Alzheimer’s
• Angina pectoris
• Anxiety disorders
• Arrhythmia
• Arthritis—rheumatoid and osteoarthritis
• Asthma
• Autism
• Auto-immune disorders
• Cerebral palsy in children of Mg deficient mothers
• Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
• Congestive Heart Failure • Constipation
• Crooked teeth/narrow jaw in children from Mg deficient mothers
• Dental caries
• Depression
• Diabetes, types I and II
• Eating disorders—bulimia and anorexia
• Fibromyalgia
• Gut disorders including peptic ulcer, Crohn’s disease, colitis
• Heart disease
• Hypertension
• Hypoglycemia
• Insomnia
• Kidney stones
• Lou Gehrig’s disease
• Migraines
• Mitral valve prolapse
• Multiple sclerosis
• Muscle cramping, weakness, fatigue
• Myopia—in children from Mg deficient mothers
• Obesity—especially associated with high carbohydrate diet
• Osteoporosis
• Parkinson’s disease
• PMS—including menstrual pain and irregularities
• PPH (Primary pulmonary hypertension)
• Reynaud’s syndrome
• SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome)
• Stroke
• Syndrome X
• Thyroid disorders
Source: Primal Body—Primal Mind, by Nora Gedgaudas.
THE MAGNESIUM CONTENT OF MILK
In general, milk is not a rich source of magnesium, but many cultures throughout the ages have depended upon dairy foods as the foundation of balanced, healthy diets that conferred strength and vitality. Weston Price, for example, investigated residents of the Swiss Alps as well as the African Maasai whose sturdy, disease-resistant individuals had little or no tooth decay. But can we replicate those diets with the same health-giving properties if we depend upon today’s industrialized food model?
The mineral composition of milk depends upon many factors, including the breed of animal, stage of lactation, frequency of milking, environmental conditions, type of pasture, soil makeup and amount of soil contamination. Grass tetany, for instance, is a serious and potentially fatal condition in cattle characterized by extremely low levels of serum magnesium. Also called “grass staggers” or “wheat pasture poisoning,” it is the result of animals grazing on fast-growing young grass in spring or fall on soil that is severely magnesium deficient, as can happen when the pastures have been fertilized with high nitrogen and potassium fertilizers. In acute poisoning, the animal can be saved by injections of magnesium sulfate; yet subclinical magnesium deficiency in the herd may go undetected.
By contrast, pastures that offer a great deal of plant diversity to grazing animals also offer diversity to the soil ecology as well as nutrient diversity to the ruminant. In a Swiss study that examined thirty plant species of alpine pastures, researchers found that “the botanical composition of an alpine pasture has a significant influence on the nutritive value of the forage…. Compared with grass species, legumes and herbs showed a lower content of cell walls but a higher content of crude protein, as well as four times the content of calcium and twice the content of magnesium.” The Swiss visited by Dr. Price grazed their cattle on alpine slopes populated by numerous plant species and watered by the mineral-rich glacial run-off—water the villagers also used in drinking and cooking.
Numerous stresses can take their nutritional toll on the dairy animal and therefore on the quality of her milk. Crowding, confinement, filth and unnatural fodder come to mind instantly as obvious offenders, but too frequent milking— more than once a day—can result in dilution of nutrients in the milk. The daily output is greater, but the nutrients are fewer by volume.
“The mineral content of milk and popular meats has fallen significantly in the past 60 years, according to a new analysis of government records of the chemical composition of everyday food,” begins an article in the Guardian about researcher David Thomas’s comparison of food tables from 1940 and 2002. The research was done for the consumer watchdog group in the UK, the Food Commission, and published in their quarterly journal, The Food Magazine. Mineral declines in dairy products showed that milk lost 60 percent of its iron, 2 percent of its calcium, and 21 percent of its magnesium. Compared to 1940, currently “[m]ost cheeses showed a fall in magnesium and calcium levels. According to the analysis, cheddar provides 9 percent less calcium today, 38 percent less magnesium and 47 percent less iron, while parmesan shows the steepest drop in nutrients, with magnesium levels down by 70 percent.”
Ignoring the declining magnesium content in foods such as dairy products may have confounded some analyses of disease etiology in large populations. Anti-animal-fat proponents tend to blame the rampant incidence of heart disease among the Finns on their high intakes of dairy products. However, according to Dr. Mildred Seelig, of New York University Medical Center, “In Finland, which has a very high death rate from IHD (ischemic heart disease), there is a clear relationship with heart disease and the amount of magnesium in the soil. In eastern and northern Finland, where the soil content is about a third of that found in southwestern Finland, the mortality from ischemic heart disease is twice as high as is that in the southwest. Ho and Khun surveyed factors that might be contributory both to the rising incidence of cardiovascular disease in Europe, and the falling levels of magnesium both in the soil and in the food supply. They commented that in Finland, which has the highest cardiovascular death rate in Europe, the dietary supply of magnesium has decreased by 1963 to a third of the intake common in 1911.”
Modern, urban Finns of course consume pasteurized dairy products, which not only have reduced magnesium levels to begin with thanks to modern farming practices, but also have less soluble calcium as a result of the denaturing of the enzyme phosphatase during pasteurization. Calcium that is not soluble precipitates out to soft tissue, such as the vascular system, and can contribute to a cascade of ominous events linked to heart disease.
We might surmise from these observations, then, that dairy products must be produced with reverence not only to the beast herself, but also to the soil that feeds the pasture that feeds her. When all nutrients are in balance with one another we can expect the food to have the power to truly nourish us.
Countless stressors in life today increase the body’s demands for magnesium—by our challenged endocrine systems, by environmental poisons that must be neutralized, by excess refined carbohydrates in our diets, to name a few. The balance of nutrients provided in the foods in the groups that Dr. Price visited was also in felicitous balance with those peoples’ physical, emotional, and social ecologies. We can only strive, both as consumers and producers of food, to achieve that equilibrium in the ecologies we inhabit.
FOOD SOURCES OF MAGNESIUM
In milligrams per 100 grams
| Kelp | 760 | Pecan | 142 | Beets | 25 |
| Wheat bran | 490 | Walnut | 131 | Broccoli | 24 |
| Wheat germ | 336 | Rye | 115 | Cauliflower | 24 |
| Almonds | 270 | Tofu curdled by Mg nigiri | 111 | Carrot | 23 |
| Cashews | 267 | Coconut meat, dried | 90 | Celery | 22 |
| Blackstrap molasses | 258 | Collard greens | 57 | Beef | 21 |
| Nutritional yeast | 231 | Shrimp | 51 | Asparagus | 20 |
| Buckwheat | 229 | Corn, sweet | 48 | Chicken | 19 |
| Brazil nuts | 225 | Avocado | 45 | Green pepper | 18 |
| Dulse | 220 | Cheddar cheese | 45 | Winter squash | 17 |
| Filberts | 184 | Parsley | 41 | Cantaloupe | 16 |
| Peanuts | 175 | Prunes | 40 | Eggplant | 16 |
| Millet | 162 | Sunflower seeds | 38 | Tomato | 14 |
| Wheat whole grain | 160 | Sweet potato | 31 | Milk | 13 |
MAGNESIUM SUPPLEMENTATION CAN BE TRICKY
Even when it seems obvious that magnesium supplementation is called for to alleviate typical deficiency symptoms such as anxiety or heart palpitations, finding the best means to raise intracellular levels can be difficult. Most often, oral supplements will cause laxative effects at levels too low to restore magnesium supplies to the cells, where it is needed. Marina, whose husband Alex was recovering from heart surgery, had to be persistent. “I noticed in the hospital that he was given intravenous magnesium during intensive care, but the doctors never mentioned it later on, when Alex was overcome with panic attacks, bouts of low energy, hypertension and arrhythmia. We were offered drugs for all of these conditions, but we both wanted to avoid the medications if at all possible, although we couldn’t at first. A couple of alternative doctors had mentioned magnesium along with other supplements that could help, but with no particular emphasis on the magnesium, so it was by trial and error that we discovered just how effective the magnesium could be. But first we had to find the best way for Alex to take it.
“Capsules of magnesium citrate and magnesium taurate both caused diarrhea at only a quarter of the recommended dose. I learned that chronic magnesium deficiency can unfortunately leave you with a much reduced capacity for intestinal absorption, and it was likely that Alex had been deficient for a long time. This was hard for me to accept at first, since he had been eating a superb diet for many years—full of mineral-rich bone broths, soups with seaweeds and nettles, and no sugar or caffeine. But his history included decades of intense stress and obvious signs of adrenal exhaustion.
“I next tried liquid ionic magnesium, which included trace minerals as found in the Great Salt Lake in Utah. I felt that magnesium in isolation might not be the best way to try to absorb it. Starting with just a few drops in his soup, Alex was able to take more magnesium over time in this fashion, although we still had to be very careful not to exceed a certain amount or the diarrhea would return. Nevertheless, we were starting to see positive results. First came better sleep. Alex had been waking every ninety minutes during the night—he’d get up to pee, come back to bed and struggle to fall asleep only to wake again in ninety minutes to repeat the process. He was certain his prostate was failing, but after about a month with the ionic magnesium, he was able to sleep uninterrupted for three-, then four-, then six-hour spans. We realized his prostate was fine, but his traumatized adrenals had been regularly firing an adrenaline rush to jolt him awake. When they began to be pacified his sleep finally became restful; he now usually only wakes once during the night and can easily return to sleep. And, dare I say, he sleeps better these days than he has for years. Also, with a good night’s sleep his daytime energy level is much improved.
“Alex still had bouts of arrhythmia which had been very frightening at times, and although his hypertension was improving with energy work and flower essences, we knew there was a nutritional component that needed to be addressed. A friend happened to suggest using homeopathic magnesium to help with absorption—she herself was starting to use magnesium supplements and was also experiencing the common problem of loose stools when this solution dawned on her. The concept was brilliant—we needed a way to gently get the cells to accept the magnesium, and so we began using the tissue salts Magnesia phosphorica in the 6X potency. After the very first dose Alex had improvement with his stool and was able to keep up the same dosage of the ionic magnesium. It was as though a key had opened a lock, and the magnesium was now entering the cells where it could do its good.
“One day Alex casually mentioned that he hadn’t had a single moment of arrhythmia in a week. This was stunning news, since he had had at least slight arrhythmia daily for months. Everyone told us this was extremely common after heart surgery and we thought we’d have to accept this fact. Encouraged by his progress, I next purchased some magnesium ‘oil’ in order to have yet another means to deliver the magnesium without involving the intestinal tract at all.
“Our current protocol includes a once-daily use of the magnesium oil. I add ionic magnesium drops to our drinking and cooking water, as well as to every pot of soup, pan of sautéed vegetables, tray of stuffed peppers. I call this ‘microdosing’ and it is in addition to using sea vegetables and plenty of bone broths. Along with the Magnesia phosphorica, Alex takes the tissue salt Kali phosphorica (potassium phosphate) which is indicated for all conditions of nervous debility; the two together make a very good heart tonic. At bedtime, Alex has a single dose of magnesium citrate with a food complexvitamin C powder. This is a relaxing evening ritual and now causes no intestinal upset.
“The only medication Alex still takes is a beta-blocker for hypertension—a small dose that we hope to be able to quit soon. If you supplement with magnesium and have hypertension you will need to pay close attention to your blood pressure. You will have to reduce your medication accordingly or your blood pressure could get too low too fast! You must do this slowly, though, to give the vascular tissue time to recondition itself and regain elasticity—as it will.
“Finally, Alex himself wanted me to add that the magnesium therapy allowed him to shift the intensity of his focus from his physical condition to his spiritual life, and sparked new creativity. He has begun to write and will be publishing the first in a series of his memoirs early next year. Truly, who would have thought so much healing could be initiated by finally replenishing this neglected mineral?”
REFERENCES
The Magnesium Miracle, by Carolyn Dean, M.D., N.D., Ballantine Books, 2007.
Transdermal Magnesium Therapy, by Mark Sircus, Ac., O.M.D., Phaelos Books, 2007.
Magnesium Therapy, by Patricia Ann Braun, M.D. http:// pbraunmd.org/magnesium.htm.
Magnesium: The Nutrient that Could Change Your Life, by J.I. Rodale http://www.mgwater.com/rod06.shtml.
Leaky gut and magnesium deficiency: http://magnesiumforlife.com/medical-application/magnesium-and-autism/.
The dangers of magnesium deficiency in endurance athletes: http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0FDL/is_4_14/ai_n24940334/.
Primal Body-Primal Mind, by Nora Gedgaudas, Primal Body-Primal Mind Publishing, 2009.
Healing Wise: Wise Woman Herbal, by Susun S. Weed, Ash Tree Publishing, 1989.
Put Your Heart in Your Mouth, by Dr. Natasha Campbell- McBride, Medinform, 2007.
This article appeared in Wise Traditions in Food, Farming and the Healing Arts, the quarterly magazine of the Weston A. Price Foundation, Fall 2010.
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Well done!
Outstanding article! Should be required reading in medical school!
I second what Sourdough Bread says 100% !!! 🙂
A Quick Question
I have been struggling to heal my hypoglycemia and was wondering what dosage per day your husband used of Magnesium Oil. I include bone broths and Concentrace Trace Mineral Drops in my diet, but I don’t know how much Magnesium Oil to use.
Go right away to the web site parathyroid.com. Chances are very high you have hyperparathyroid disease. Even if your PTH is normal or even low. My dr diagnosed me with hypercalcima because my blood calcium was a little over normal for many years but low PTH (parathyroid hormone level). Most doctors and even endocrinologist can’t recognize hypoparathyroidisum if all the ducks are not in a row. There is only 2 days I medical school devoted to hyperparathyroidisum. If you have parathyroid disease you have one or more tumors on your parathyroid glans that need to be removed before you can get better. I did have parathyroid disease and had 2 tumors removed. The surgeons told me I had them for about 10 years! My endocrinologist was wrong and misdiagnosis we me with hypercalcima.
correction
Sorry! I meant “magnesium citrate,” not *nitrate*.
Magnesium oil
I REALLY appreciated this article on magnesium. It was perfect timing, because I needed to find more info out about it because of my migraines.
That said, magnesium oil didn’t work well for me. It made my skin pretty itchy, and I had to put it on a lot of surface area to get the dose I needed. It is also messy and the salty residue rubs off on stuff making it tricky to sit anywhere while it absorbs. What I will continue doing until the bottle is empty is put it on my skin in the morning before my shower. Sorry in advance to my boyfriend for occupying the bathroom all morning!
I’m going back to oral magnesium supplements. Magnesium Nitrate seems to work the best for me.
Me too. Transdermal magnesium oil did NOT work any better than the oral kind… I hated it actually! It’s waaay too easy to overdose, and be in the bathroom like you said! I find it depletes Potassium and makes me very, very, weak! Even on one spray the stuff weakens me! Ionic Mag (I use a brand called mineral essence, taken in multiple does at different times during the day)… helps me the most!
How to tell if mag defcient
How is a person to determine if oneself is deficient in magnesium (a qualitative measurement)?
“How is a person to determine if oneself is deficient in magnesium (a qualitative measurement)?”
this will only lead you down the road of unnecessary medical testing and intervention, much of it is non-specific anyways.
amazing
Magnesium loss?
If magnesium is a mineral how is it losted during storage?
Magnesium testing, updated link.
Here is the link for the taste test kit. http://www.bodybio.com/storeproduct402.aspx
Ways to test for magnesium deficiency.
There are currently several ways to test for mineral deficiency. It is important to note that minerals do build up in the body so deficiency changes along with diet and supplements. Although not 100 percent accurate, the best way i found for testing is a Mineral Test Kit(MTK) by a company called BodyBio. Here is the link if you are interested http://www.bodybio.com/BodyBio…erals.pdf. This is a test kit, and involves some trial and error. Also, it is always recommended to seek a certified health practitioner before any regiment is started.
I am a bicycle racer. I ( and many others) have occassionally suffered from muscle cramps on races over 2 hours in length. I have found that taking Rolaids (Rolaids contain magnesium along with calcium, other antacids do not) before and during the race helps stop the cramping. No experts seem to know why. In fact when questioned about what causes cramps and what to do about them most admit that they don’t know.
Transdermal Magnesium Therapy is unproven!
I am very skeptical about the claims of transdermal magnesium. It’s unproven, and it doesn’t make sense that MgCl is readily absorbed through our skin. It’s many layers thick (highly stratified), keratinized, and has may lipids to provide waterproofing. Through what mechanism does the MgCl get through the skin? What type of ion channel are the MgCl ions supposedly flowing through? When considering the anatomy and physiology of the skin, the only thing that makes sense is that a very small, completely insignificant amount of MgCl ions may diffuse through the skin, but that’s it. Soaking in warm water like one does with Epson Salt may help a little bit, but not very much.
So, at best, MgCl appears to simply be an extremely overpriced alternative to Epson Salt. I’d love to be proven wrong, but I feel that my purchase of several bottles of Magnesium Oil has mostly been in vain. I’ll be buying ionic and angstrom magnesium in the future, and maybe some time released amino acid chelate.
wondering how things have turned out for you regarding the magnesium… i’m only just now reading this stuff
Before you jump to conclusions, Transdermal Magnesium may just not your cup of tea but it does work for many, including my wife and I as we use it regularly for muscle cramps, backaches, etc. with almost immediate resulting benefits. I wish we had known of Magnesium’s benefits years ago and the oil just recently; it could have saved us countless times of being in pain, stressful instances, etc. Dr. Carolyn Dean, ND, MD who wrote ‘The Magnesium Miracle’ has provided an immense background of knowledge in the usage and benefits of Magnesium.
A fine collection of articles on Transdermal Magnesium use can be had here: http://fullerwellness.org/Transdermal_Magnesium.html
I agree. I have been using it for the past 2wks and can’t believe what an absolute priceless discovery it is!! Finally, I’m actually pain-free after years of suffering. I had major back surgery 20yrs ago and the incisions became infected. I was forced to use intra-venous Cipro daily for weeks after, even once I came home. That, in addition to fluoridated water, high-stress, CALCIUM SUPPLEMENTS, etc. all contributed to Osteoporosis and subsequent surgeries. I was in so much pain I could barely move just a month ago. Now, after using the spray (I went thru a whole 8oz bottle in 2wks) I am able to move around comfortably for the first time in years. I fall asleep fast, stay asleep and so far, have been taking a nap in the afternoon. Hopefully, I’ll absorb enough to get balanced out, in the next week or so. The stuff is a MIRACLE–I’m wondering if that’s what made the water in Lourdes, France so healing, magnesium?
Magnesium is the most astonishing calming mineral and I can not stress enough how it has brought back my peace and joy and energy. I am high on magnesium and proud of it!
Norman Shealy (MD) did research in the early 1980’s that showed transdermal magnesium chloride was rapidly absorbed and even increased DHEA levels normalizing magnesium levels in 1-2 months while oral magnesium took 1 yer to normalize magnesium levels.
This is an excellent article- I thought I had been taking adequate magnesium (600 mg) for years, but over the last few years have been plagued with gallstones (can be caused by Mg deficiency) and adrenal fatigue. I had some serious ulcer and anemia issues a year ago, and was continued on folic acid, ferrochel iron and B12, which I was already on, But recently I discovered that Mg deficiency also causes anemia, and the site; http://integratedsupplements.t…nemia.html
and ; http://www.livestrong.com/arti…eficiency/
Both reveal the magnesium role in blood production. And continued study revealed more reasons to increase my magnesium intake- I take the citrate, which for me binds me up instead of loosening my bowel- but they said this is a sure sign of adrenal fatigue as for me the adrenal is the one doing all the electrolyte removal. For me loose bowels have been my worst sign, and worsening the loss of all my nutrients. 6000 mg of vitamin C (for the adrenals too) 4 x daily and 600 mg of Mag 4 x daily solidified the stool and normalized it. After a few weeks on this, I have been able to reduce the dose to 2-3 times a day. Similar to the case above, I had been awakened in the night by cortisol or adrenal rushes, that gave me sudden diarrhea demanding a trip to the toilet at 3 am nightly. These are lessening, and I am sleeping through the night more. To blessed 6 am. But also, through http://www.stopthethyroidmadness.com, I discovered to increase my natural thyroid also (as the adrenal and thyroid are damaged as a team)and this has helped a lot also. Here is their page on magnesium and anemia; http://www.stopthethyroidmadne…um&search=
They never said anything about magnesium’s role in anemia in nursing school and I don’t believe I heard any doctor talk about it. What an amazing discovery. And how complicated this old system is cells is. Remember this any evolutionist.
MAgnesium anemia
This is an excellent article- I thought I had been taking adequate magnesium (600 mg) for years, but over the last few years have been plagued with gallstones (can be caused by Mg deficiency) and adrenal fatigue. I had some serious ulcer and anemia issues a year ago, and was continued on folic acid, ferrochel iron and B12, which I was already on, But recently I discovered that Mg deficiency also causes anemia, and the site; http://integratedsupplements.t…nemia.html
and ; http://www.livestrong.com/arti…eficiency/
Absorbing through skin
@Michael James: I once read about a way to test absorption through the skin. Make a feet bath in which you added PLENTY of crushed garlic. In about 30 min or so you should get the garlic taste in your mouth. Whether this is true or not it’s up to you to test (I haven’t). 🙂
No doubt that skin arbsobtion is possible drugs like lsd can one with the brain damaged by skin a mere contact even ebola.
Skin Absorption
I wonder why some folks are so skeptical of the concept of magnesium absorbing through the skin. After all, many medications can be applied in patch form. We know that fat soluble vitamins absorb through the skin, and I have read studies that prove that iodine tincture can be used topically to increase iodine levels in the body. Why should magnesium be any different?
I’m an “evolutionist” and I see no conflict between that and the complexity of the human body, or any other kind of body for that matter. It’s not my view of the world that holds that each individual living thing must have been made separately from every other individual living thing. And we’ve had a very long time for things to become this complex. Sorry but if there is a God (I’m agnostic), surely He’s big enough to manage something like this, and it should be no threat to anyone’s belief in Him.
a study was conducted in England testing blood magnesium levels before
and after subjects soaked in a bath with a measured concentration of Epsom salt. The blood level increased significantly indicating that magnesium ions dissolved in water pass through the skin. Skin is only waterproof. Other substances can be absorbed through the skin. This is why so many various types of healing water spas are so popular in Europe.
Since taking Magnesium,I never have headaches. My mother used to get migraines and she was useless for days and now that she takes it,no migraines. Plus I sleep like a log and seem to have more energy. I take the citrate kind.
Magnesium is underrated
First Excellent article! The health benefits of magnesium are underrated. great job bringing awareness up.
GOOD ARTICLE …
…about the importance of magnesium.
Superb article
This is a superb article, incredibly well written and jam packed with great information on the mineral magnesium, and most importantly where we can source it from in our diets. The only thing I would like to touch on is to expand on the foods that can provide a strong dose.
Seeds are one of the easiest foods to include in the diet, whether as a quick snack or as an ingredient to a meal. You have mentioned sunflower seeds, but there are also the following:
Pumpkin/squash seeds – A 138 g cup of dried seed kernels gives you 738 mg of magnesium.
Sesame seeds – 505 mg of magnesium from a 144 g cup serving.
Flaxseed – 100 g of flaxseed gets you 393 mg.
Even in a simple morning cereal like granola you can get 175 mg from a 100 g serving. This is a fantastic way to start your day with a large dose of magnesium.
My source: http://www.calories-in-foods.com/foods-high-magnesium.php
Thank you for the info though smilies/smiley.gif
Transdermal Magnesium Therapy
I have cases that supported the above studies through Transdermal Magnesium Therapy. It is really amazing and mind boggling if you do not see the result, more so if you see it working. Michael James, it is so true. Transdermal Magnesium Therapy works. Swolen arthrits through transdermal therapy can relieve the pain and swelling gone in less than 30 min depending on the severity of the condition. So it is absorbed through the skin where I spray it. Majority of the afflictions I have proven cases. How do you do your spraying and what is your health condition?
Coach Magi
I had root caries on my last x-ray. Now I feel paranoid. People would see that I’m too strict with my diet but I’m still missing something because I still get cavities and sleep worse than the average junk food junkie. We need dental schools who train healing cavities and dental abscess and regrowing teeth. Dentistry is more advanced now. I understand that we need more research for tooth regeneration but those are the most biocompatible options. It also gives a peace of mind for those who need restorations. Sometimes we need more than composite fillings. It’s something biological dentists would be really interested in.
I’ve been taking magnesium oil and hoping that I will have zero new cavities for the rest of my life. It’s true that we should get our nutrients from food but it’s not always possible. Digestive health affects the absorption and some of us like leaky gut sufferers need supplements. It’s even natural to supplement through hard water and salt.
my mother was becoming weak lethargic slightly negative etc
tingling in hands feet, numbness also
joint pain in knees and ankle
burning sensation in forehands
dull facial skin
high bp
doctors gave anti depressants etc
which showed improvement
left anti depressant after 1.5 months and relapse happened with even more severe mental condition
looking at net and reading i narrowed down to deficiency of
vit b12, vit d, other b vitamins, and magnesium
started b12 injections, vit d tablets and magnesium supplement.
best (almost miraculous) result seen after magnesium supplement.
to my surprise in my town (in jharkhand, india) I would not find a good magnesium supplement which was low in calcium. so i had to mix 1 cap of milk of magnesia and mix with 1 lemon juice
result was a greenish color mixture (milk of magnesia is white and lemon juice is almost colorless)
we also did a few changes in food
more sprouts, curd, reduce wheat flour and increase bajra, jowar etc
use more steamed or boiled vegetables (not fried)
use more haldi, cinnamon, cloves, tulsi, cardamon etc
eat daily 1 pomegranate in morning empty stomach
some sesame seed flax seed and fish oil 4 capsules daily
****** have been using this mixture with amazing result
nerve tingling and burning and numbness gone
gradually reduced doctors prescribed anti depressives by half and mood is only getting better
knee joint and ankle pain is absent
appetite for food has improved
and wonder of wonder.. bp medicine is stopped..!!
i learned one thing, when in bad health visit your doctor BUT MORE IMPORTANT
change your food and habits.
doctors can save your life for some time BUT may turn you into zombies..
i have learned to study more and trust *most* doctors less and less. (take this line with some moderation)
(some doctors are brilliant who guide us in improving and food and supplementing)
i also started using most of the supplement mother was using and saw a lot of benefits myself in all departments.
i have tremendously benefited a lot by people who have written on internet and shared their experience and it is my obligation to write back my experience.
only more thing the b-complex medicine i started had alpha lipoic acid which also is a great thing was far as i have read and may have contributed to faster recovery.
best regards
rajeev mundra
jharkhand
india
why did you add lemon juice to the milk of magnesia?
Hello! I am having the arms hands and feet tingles but also on the tip of my tongue. Did she experience the tingles on the tongue as well. I was thinking b12 but my level is fine and I came across this posting and was curious. Thanks
Ellie, few labs or doctors are knowledgeable about b12. This is a water-soluble nutrient which ebbs and flows by the hour within our bodies, and its importance is grossly underestimated, as is the body’s requirement for it. You might want to try supplementing sublingually or even with easy to administer, easy to obtain and legal, b12 shots.
This, however, may not be the issue; I am only able to address the question of B12 in particular.
I didn’t realize how magnesium deficient I was for years. I thought the Charley horses and skipped heartbeats and hand and foot cramps were part of my life. When my then-MD recommended calcium, I began a regimen of a cal/mag supplement and wondered why I had chronic diarrhea.
After owning a health food store and starting to do some digging, I began to realize that calcium causes muscles to contract, and magnesium causes them to relax. It was the a-ha! moment I had been looking for.
Many forms of magnesium were tried. What I concluded was that the orotate, chloride, glycinate and aspartate forms are very assimilable, with other forms not so much. I now take eight magnesium choride tablets a day in divided doses. If I skip a couple of doses, or lower the dose, I get hand and foot cramps that can be quite painful.
The high levels of magnesium needed for me to be cramp-free seems high. I’m concerned that my assimilation isn’t that good, but at least I no longer have skipped heartbeats, eye tics and large muscle cramps.
I have been applying magnesium oil onto my body lately. The strangest thing happened. When I apply it to my abdomen and arms it is fine. When I apply it to my legs, my skin burns, especially around my shins and calves. How bizarre!!! Does anybody have an explanation about this????
Hi Joshua! It’s been 8 months since you posted but I thought it wouldn’t hurt to give my two cents. I can only say, however, that I’ve experienced the same thing! I just started using the Magnesium Chloride a week ago and 5 days-in my forehead broke-out with a bad case of acne…now I do get the occasional black head but no acne since my teen year—I’m 43! Now, when applied to the soles of my feet– no problem. The crown of my head– no problem. A slight tingling and burning sensation when applied to my legs. Based on what I’ve read, it could just be the symptoms of our body’s release of toxins and metals and pathogens not to mention some inner-electrical balancing. Here’s a link to another very informative blog. Hey, don’t give up…which I trust you haven’t…you’re most likely so close to the balance you’ve been seeking. In peace…
http://phaelosopher.com/2007/09/10/understanding-magnesium-replenishment-transdermally/
I had a glucose level of 124 for years, took mg citrate pills and it went to115! I then got mg citrate powder and encapsulated the mg In a nano-sized phospholipid liposome ( search homemade liposomal vitamin c for directions). These nano mg vesicles penetrate the cell wall and the blood-brain barrier with ease. My glucose level after a few days was an unbelievable 95. I stopped and it went back to120’s, restarted and back to90’s. I’ll not stop again.
Da nisam operisao kancer pre 8 godina, ne bih znao ništa o Mg. Mg je carski mineral od koga zavisi 356 procesa u organizmu. Velika edukacija naroda je važna. samo još ovo da spomenem, kako nastaje kancer. 1923 godine je otkriveno a 1931 dobijena Nobelova nagrada. A njegovo ime je Dr Otto Henrich Warburg.
Magnesium has cured so many health problems that I HAD!! I had terrible muscle spasms, chronic insomnia, asthma, and others I won’t list here. Needless to say all the RX chemical crap that my GP had me take just made me sicker and sicker. When I became wiser and smarter through all the diet research I have done in the past four years I am freed from so many “monkeys” that were on my back. I love magnesium and have learned it is essential for me to be on it daily. I sleep like a log and have gained back my strength. I had no idea that it is so important for the ATP in the cells. Thank you for this article. I wish people with FMS would all read it from beginning to end. Magnesium is part of what has GIVEN ME MY LIFE BACK!! Deb in NC djkgc
I haven been using “Calm” which is magnesium in powder form – for years. Love it and can’t be without it. I love the orange flavor.
I have been on blood pressure medication for 20+ years. 6 monthly blood pressure tests at doctors have always been around 140/80. Started Epsom Salt foot bath every other day a couple of months ago for athletes foot. Last week had blood pressure taken at doctors and couldn’t believe the result 115/78. Wow my systolic pressure had plummeted!…The only thing I can think could have caused this is magnesium sulphate in Epsom Salt.
Hi all.
This is about Vitamin C Powder and Magnesium Glycinate. Can I put Vitamin C
Powder and Magnesium Glycinate together in water? Would there be any
interaction between Vitamin C and Magnesium Glycinate?
I want to take 1-2000mg of Vitamin C Powder per hour but it is too sour to
drink it (even with 500ml water). My friend told me I can put Vitamin C
Powder and Magnesium Powder together to lower the acidity. So I open one
Magnesium Glycinate capsule and put 1000mg of Vitamin C Powder in water
together.
Here is the question…I am not sure it is okay for the combination.. (I am
afraid it would destroy the function of vitamin C and Magnesium Glycinate)
Please kindly let me know if it is okay.
Is there any advice for me? Thank you!
I don’t know about mixing Mg glycinate with Vitamin C powder. The standard issue way to get lots of good-tasting vitamin C is mixing your ascorbic acid powder with baking soda in a 2 to 1 ratio. Stir til it stops fizzing.
Then take your Mg supplement some time later is what I’d do.
Again verification of the wonders of magnesium –I have been taking ionic magnesium, now about 1/2 tsp daily for several years. 70th birthday this year and dr declared me to have lung fibrosis years ago. He prescribed steroids and I never went back.
I WISH i HAD KNOWN THIS WHEN MY HUSBAND HAD HEART SURGERY 15 years ago.
My opinion is that all magnesium supplements are not the answer as they are synthetic hence why so many people get loose stools. All synthetic ingredients and over processing is toxic to us. Look for unfermented coffee (only 5 pc in the world is unfermented & also called raw processed), white & green teas & unfermented cacao. Magnesium deficiency symptoms are so obvious we don’t need to be tested.. you will not get these if you have enough magnesium -miuscle cramps, eye twitches, sore throats, colds or flu.. or any other ailment that is unusual for you.
I’ve been taking magnesium citrate every morning for the past week, I’ve felt fine until today I can’t stop going to the toilet. I assume the frequent urination suggests that I have too much magnesium in my body and I should discontinue supplementation. I can’t find much information about this online so if any smart person could help me out that’d be cool : )
Marc I would not advise to stop taking magnesium citrate. Magnesium citrate is not the most absorbable type and will cause diarrhea in most everyone if they take enough. Also, you may have absorptive difficulties like I do. With magnesium deficiency one needs all types of magnesium including magnesium malate which helps for fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome, magnesium oil which can be made from adding water to magnesium chloride aka magnesium flakes (this can be applied topically and also ingested), chelated magnesium, ionic magnesium, & magnesium taurate. You can take these on an empty stomach with BORON. if you take them with a meal you can add a fiber supplement which helps with diarrhea. However, in any healthy individual only a small amount of any supplement is absorbed and the rest is excreted. Having loose stools with some types of magnesium is actually normal with anybody.
And sometimes my wife and I experience loose stools which is something we joke about now. We are grateful to get the heavy metals out of us.
Google Wellness Mama and magnesium deficiency. Her website is excellent too just like this one.
About 8 months ago, out of nowhere, I had onset of intense breathing/asthma issues, heart palpitations, heart attack symptoms, high anxiety, and severe brain fog (to the point I thought I might of had a stroke). My life is very low stress, I am very fit for my age (30), eat a healthy diet, and there was no reason why I should be suffering from any of these symptoms. During this time I could never take a full breathe that satiated my hunger for a good deep breathe, I would have to yawn and burp to feel like I was getting a good breathe and throughout the day I would have to manual breathe as it felt like my body was not doing it on it’s own. It was so bad that I was afraid to go to sleep in fear I was going to die during sleep. My back, where the lower part of my lungs feel like they are located, felt like I had tight knots in them. In addition, I had intense GURD & Heartburn, which I never had previously.
My friend, being adept in supplements and minerals, suggested that I start taking a Magnesium Citrate powder supplement as he believed I was severely deficient in this life sustaining mineral. Within one day of taking the magnesium citrate powder supplement, my symptoms have subsided greatly, and now on day 5, I am able to go the gym without gasping for air, play basketball again without feeling severely winded to the point I thought I might pass out, my anxiety has disappeared, my brain is clear, the knots in my back are slowly loosening, I’m able to take full gasps of air whenever I want, and now am able to sleep well again without a worry.
I hope my story is able to help someone out there that is suffering from the symptoms I had. I can’t believe that all of my symptoms have virtually disappeared because of magnesium.
Jonny, Your symptoms sound very similar to those of mold toxicity. Do you work in an office that has water damage or mold? Or have you taken any prescription medications that are fluoride based?
Magnesium has truly performed a miracle for my husband who has been a surgeon for over 30 years.
Over a year ago he developed a terrible case of dermatitis from a latex allergy that came out of nowhere. Latex free gloves were tried to no avail. Thankfully, Healing came after 6 months of severe redness, oozing and itching when he did 7 straight days of full body soaks (30 min per) with Mag Chloride
Flakes. Since that time, we both make every effort to maintain optimal levels of magnesium by taking:
Re-Mag (Dr. Carolyn Dean’s product) regularly. –Life Extensions mag blend for cardiovascular health every evening. Additionally, the mag chloride soaks apprx 2x weekly.
Dr. Marc Sircus’ and Dr. Carolyn Dean’s books have helped us greatly in our understanding of magnesium’s magnificent benefits–
Is Kefir and other fermented organic milk a good source of magnesium?
Excellent article. Surprised though that there is no mention of Magnesium Bicarbonate. Some say this form gets into the mitochondria and is highly absorbed.
Thank you very much Katherine for the magnificent presentation!
Apparently magnesium deficiency has been “formally identified” as a public health crisis only as of May 2017[1] even though the core problem of depleted minerals in our agricultural soils dates back probably close to one hundred years as of now. Given the “warning … from the 74th Congress, 2nd session, Senate document number 264, of 1936” I’d like to think that most every individual reading this presentation realizes that we can’t look to “government” for a resolution regarding the state of our soils. According to the original intent of our Organic Laws the external (and truly foreign) governments have no Lawful business concerning the people’s soil. According to our original Organic Laws our soil is the proprietary basis for the people’s self-government. This quintessential yet suppressed knowledge must be fully realized by the people once again so that we can reclaim our original Lawful jurisdiction and thereby be fully empowered to respond to the “crisis” of which magnesium may only be what is becoming most obvious.
Our original Lawful land and soil-based jurisdiction empowers us to revoke the charters extended to any and all incorporated entities that have caused injury to the people and/or bar their operations on our home lands. The personal use of any “Magnesium Therapy” may bring some relief to the discomfort of individuals (which of course is a good thing) however just doing that does not solve the figurative and literal root cause. The problem with our depleted soils needs our response. To fully address that problem we have to consider all the powers that are truly of, by, and for the people; powers that were either lawfully delegated externally or usurped and subsequently have been severely abused and now (finally) realized to be greatly to the people’s demise.
[1] According to Carolyn Dean MD ND:
https://manage.kmail-lists.com/subscriptions/web-view?a=cKfkpk&c=NMECq8&r=i4tHMcs&m=L8YUwK&k=5e9f7700c3cf4638bb00e5c5c12e6646
I have been on an intensive “Weston Price” diet of raw milk, fermented cod liver oil, butter oil, and so on, for the past 4 months.
Now, every day I would pass by the Sprouts market and I would “have” to buy a big bunch of cashews and munch on them on my way home! I kept thinking, “I wonder what is in there?” SO fascinating to find that they are one of the biggest sources of magnesium!! So that’s it. I think I have not been getting enough magnesium to go with all the calcium, and my body just kept asking for more magnesium.
Aha. Also, lots more constipation lately (since the diet), and I could not figure out what that was about.
I was just away traveling, and (cashewless) I had tons of night leg cramps. Finally someone gave me some simple magnesium tablets, and that cleared it up instantly. This got me on the trail to find this great article!
Since when do you ONLY get 38 for sunflower seeds when the NIH says it’s about TEN times more??? And what about pumpkin seeds – not mentioned – it’s over 500 according to the NIH!!!
99% of topical magnesium brands on the US market use solvent extracted, chemically treated magnesium which is a derivative of potassium mining, mostly from Asia (Tibetan exploitation). This includes your favorites that you think are good ones but they are not: Ancient, Permian, Himalayan, Now etc.. Always make sure to get it in GLASS as this contaminates the molecule as does the chemical “purification”. Without a Zechstein Inside ® logo it is most likely fake Zechstein. Check out theheartoftradition.com, or see Tom Cowans website for the best quality here. For 900 processes in the human body, dont sleep on this detail.
Other substances can be absorbed through the skin. This is why so many various types of healing water spas are so popular in Europe.
When I apply it to my legs, my skin burns, especially around my shins and calves. How bizarre!!!
what is the best urine loading test for magnesium? w/without creatine, taking mag before? or is there another? Is there an opinion on the best tests for potassium…is the blood test defective in potassium like it is for magnesium?