Magnesium benefits can include reduced symptoms from conditions such as chronic pain, fatigue and insomnia. Magnesium benefits may also include protection from a number of chronic diseases, especially those associated with aging and stress.
In addition to exercise and eating right, the role magnesium plays was recently re-discovered as an overlooked key to good health. A number of medical researchers know the benefits of taking magnesium and are recommending increases to the RDA for magnesium — sometimes suggesting as much as double the current recommendations — to ensure protection from diseases such as osteoporosis and hypertension.
Is magnesium good for you? Essential to life, necessary for good health, and a vital component within our cells, magnesium’s benefits help our bodies maintain balance, avoid illness, perform well under stress, and maintain a general state of good health.
What Does Magnesium Do for the Body?
Magnesium is known to reduce muscle tension, lessen pain associated with migraine headaches, improve sleep, and address neurological disorders such as anxiety and depression.
Conditions linked to magnesium levels include:
Pain:
Mental Health and Sleep:
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Other Conditions:
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Magnesium works within our cells — the powerhouses, factories and regulators of the body’s systems.
Because it is a necessary part of hundreds of biochemical reactions occurring constantly inside our cells, magnesium’s presence or absence affects the brain, the muscles, and the heart and blood vessels.
Is Magnesium Good for You?
While many are aware of the importance of calcium, the parallel and in some ways even more crucial role of another essential mineral — magnesium — is less widely known. As a result, adequate magnesium intake is rare, especially in the U.S., leaving a larger portion of people with less than normal magnesium levels. Many are unaware of the role magnesium plays to provide better overall nutrition and prevent the negative impact of insufficient levels of magnesium—this is the case for men, women, and children.
There are fifteen essential minerals required by our bodies to function properly. These can be divided into “trace minerals”, those required in very small amounts, and “macro-minerals” or “major minerals”, those required in larger amounts.
Other than essential vitamins, there are six major minerals required in excess of 250 mg per day include:
- Calcium
- Magnesium
- Potassium
- Phosphorous
- Sodium
- Chloride
The body needs these minerals on a regular basis as it cannot manufacture them. Four percent of the body’s weight is made up of minerals, but their function as regulators and magnesium benefits are vast.
What is magnesium good for? Magnesium impacts and supports nearly all of systems of the body due to its cellular and molecular function. As a fundamental ion in the body (a charged particle soluble in water) magnesium is utilized in key chemical reactions on a microscopic level throughout the body’s cells, including its vital role as a co-factor to over 300 enzyme functions, and its role in DNA and RNA stability. 1 2
Magnesium’s effect on the body can be as intense as that of many prescription medicine, because magnesium functions as a regulator of electrolyte balance, metabolism, and other biochemical reactions. The addition of a higher magnesium intake is essential and can lead to an improve life experience.
Unlike prescription drugs, however, magnesium is recognized as an essential component of the body, not a foreign element. When supplied sufficiently, magnesium is actually conserved by the body for future use. Medications, on the other hand, tend to treat only one symptom or disease, and are flushed out of the body as toxins, thus taxing the liver and the body’s detoxification systems.
Magnesium Uses:
- Magnesium is an important factor in muscle relaxation and heart health
- Allows nerves to send messages in the brain and nervous system
- Aids and regulates the body’s use of calcium and other minerals
- Assists in bone and teeth formation
- Regulates the metabolism of nutrients such as protein, nucleic acids, fats and carbohydrates
- Regulates cholesterol production and helps modulate insulin sensitivity 3
- Assists in energy production, DNA transcription and protein synthesis4
- Maintains the structural health of cell membranes throughout the body
Why take magnesium? Healthy magnesium levels have been linked to lowered blood pressure, reduced incidence of type II diabetes, reduced heart disease, emergency migraine treatment, reduced symptoms of asthma, and improved memory.
Magnesium is also a healthy part of bone and a necessary element in healthy calcium regulation. Increased magnesium has been linked to reduced bone loss in older adults.
Why Do We Need Magnesium?
Magnesium is distinguished as being not only one of the most vital and essential enzyme co-factors, regulating more reactions than any other mineral, but it is also responsible for two of the most important cellular functions: energy production and cellular reproduction.
When we don’t take in adequate magnesium, our bodies will either remove magnesium from our bones or function in deficiency.Magnesium and other minerals absorbed into the body are utilized as “ions” and circulated throughout the body via the blood. There, magnesium is used by our cells in order to perform routine functions such as creating energy, building hormones, maintaining cells, and bodily movement. Once circulated through the body, magnesium is filtered by our kidneys and excreted on a regular basis.
Magnesium must be continually supplied to the body as it is needed on an ongoing daily basis. When we don’t take in adequate magnesium daily, our bodies will either remove magnesium from our bones, where it is needed, or function in deficiency.
Though some amount of magnesium is stored within the bones and can be accessed for future use, magnesium turnover tends to contribute to unhealthy bone loss and the release of calcium from the bone into the blood stream.
Operating in magnesium deficiency disrupts the balance of not only magnesium but other minerals in the body, causing problems that reverberate throughout the body’s systems.
Low magnesium intake has been linked to risk factors for:
- Osteoporosis
- High blood pressure
- Issues of heart health
- Diabetes
- Asthma
Symptoms of magnesium deficiency include muscle cramps or tremors, irregular heart beat, fatigue, confusion, and irritability.
Can You Get Magnesium From Foods?
Nutrient rich foods that contain magnesium include certain nuts, seeds, beans, and grains. Magnesium can be found in dark leafy greens, like spinach. Read our full article about magnesium food sources for a complete overview.
Who Should Supplement Magnesium?
Magnesium has been linked to reduced incidence of common conditions such as high blood pressure, diabetes, and metabolic syndrome in large peer-reviewed, long-term studies. 5 6 7 8 9 10 Studies today focus on whether active magnesium supplementation may be one of the missing links to preventing these diseases, as well as several disorders affecting the brain, muscles and skin.
With an estimated three-quarters of Americans taking in insufficient magnesium, 11 the number of people at risk for chronic deficiency is high. This is especially so among older people, as the ability to absorb adequate amounts magnesium slowly declines with age.
The U.S. Department of Health has placed magnesium on its short list of nutrients of concern 12, and many experts actually recommend increases to magnesium’s Recommended Daily Allowance (RDA).
Magnesium Benefits for Women
As you’ve read, magnesium has countless benefits for everyone, but can be particularly supportive for certain health concerns that arise for women. Magnesium deficiencies have been linked to bone fragility leading to osteoporosis. 13 This can also be attributed to the little know fact that the body needs magnesium to properly metabolize calcium. It’s important to also supplement with magnesium, when supplementing with calcium, for this very reason. 14
Magnesium is also involved in hormone regulation. Researchers hypothesize that magnesium influences different ion levels of estrogen and progesterone in the body, and this may be why it helps with PMS, and bloating. More stabilized hormones means increased serotonin, and a better overall mood. A significant reduction of anxiety-related premenstrual symptoms (nervous tension, mood swings, irritability, and anxiety) has been noted with magnesium supplementation. 15
Magnesium Benefits for Men
As much as magnesium assists with female hormones, there is also evidence that magnesium plays a fundamental role in testosterone levels and physical function in males. 16
A study in 2010, revealed that supplementation with magnesium increases free and total testosterone values in both sedentary males and in athletes. Also concluding that increases were higher in those who exercise. 17
The good news is that magnesium supplementation is a safe and effective way for most people to ensure they are getting enough magnesium to stay healthy, before deficiencies arise.