Are You Getting Enough Magnesium?

Today’s topic is about an often-overlooked mineral which makes a significant contribution to your health. Magnesium is a vital part of over three hundred biochemical reactions occurring every second in your body. However, many people are unaware they aren’t getting enough. In fact, some estimates suggest as many as 70% of the UK population aren’t obtaining sufficient magnesium from their diet.

This article explores the functions of magnesium in your body and looks at signs and symptoms indicating you may be deficient. Finally, you’ll discover some foods rich in magnesium.

Why is Magnesium Important?

Some of the functions dependent on magnesium include making proteins, the building blocks for your body; and producing and storing energy – vital for everything you do. If that wasn’t enough, magnesium is essential for both nerve and muscle function. Few substances are as crucial to health as magnesium.

Low levels of magnesium are linked to many chronic diseases, including Alzheimer’s, cardiovascular disease, and Type 2 diabetes (1).

Let’s have a closer look at some of the many functions of magnesium.

Energy Production

Your cells’ energy-producing factories, the mitochondria, need magnesium to produce ATP, your body’s energy currency.

Nerves

Magnesium is necessary for nerve transmission, and for nerves to stop firing when they’re no longer needed. In this way, it helps guard against excessive nerve excitation.

Muscles

Magnesium plays a crucial role in balanced muscle function. If you’re low in magnesium, muscles can’t properly relax, and you may experience cramping.

Cardiovascular Health

Magnesium is especially important for the heart muscle and for regulating heartbeat. Insufficient magnesium is linked to palpitations and arrhythmia.

Blood Pressure Regulation

The muscles allowing your blood vessel walls to relax depend on sufficient magnesium. If these muscles remain contracted, blood vessel diameter will decrease, pushing up blood pressure. Magnesium is also needed for nitric oxide production, an substance essential for blood pressure control.

Headache and Migraine

Low intake of magnesium is often seen with migraines. This is due to blood vessels in the head constricting inappropriately. It’s no surprise, then, that many migraine sufferers are deficient in magnesium (2).

Sleep

Magnesium’s role in allowing muscles and nerves to relax means if you don’t have enough magnesium, you may experience sleep problems. In particular, you might find it hard to drop off to sleep. Restless legs are another byproduct of magnesium deficiency.

In studies, magnesium supplementation successfully reduced insomnia (3).

Bone Health

The majority of your body’s magnesium is stored in your bones. Magnesium works alongside calcium, vitamin D, and vitamin K to help keep bones strong. In fact, your body needs magnesium to metabolise vitamin D.

Mood

Neurotransmitters carrying messages from one brain cell to another rely on sufficient magnesium, because it helps regulate their release. Insufficient magnesium is linked with low mood and depression.

Brain Function

It appears magnesium can help protect brain cells from age-related decline, as well as promote neuroplasticity. This is the term used for your brain’s ability to heal and adapt by forming new connections between neurones.

Gut Health

Magnesium helps keep you regular by regulating the amount of water in your colon. In addition, it relaxes the muscles in the gut wall, preventing constipation.

Blood Sugar Control

Magnesium plays a role in the activity of insulin, helping to maintain a steady level of glucose in the blood. Poor blood sugar control is a precursor to Type 2 diabetes (4).

PMS

In research, magnesium supplementation reduced symptoms of PMS, including bloating and breast tenderness (5).

What are the Symptoms of Magnesium Deficiency?

Because magnesium is necessary for so many functions around your body, signs you might be deficient in the mineral are widespread.

You might suspect magnesium deficiency if you suffer from migraines, muscle cramps, hormone imbalances, period pain, fatigue, anxiety and depression, heart irregularities, or high blood pressure.

Which Foods Contain Magnesium?

Think leafy green vegetables like spinach and Swiss chard, seeds including flax, chia, pumpkin, and sunflower seeds, and nuts like almonds, Brazil nuts and cashews. Magnesium is rich in beans, especially black beans and edamame beans, salmon, chicken, and finally good quality dark chocolate.

Why Is Magnesium Deficiency So Widespread?

Sadly, modern diets are often high in processed foods. These have been stripped of nutrients, especially magnesium. Not only this, but most crops nowadays grow in soil which has, over the years, become depleted in magnesium and other minerals. This is because modern farming relies on high-yield crops, and uses fertilisers that don’t replace magnesium lost from the soil.

Many commonly prescribed medicines like antacids and diuretics interfere with mineral absorption, including magnesium. Drinking alcohol not only reduces the amount of magnesium absorbed from your food but can increase the rate it’s lost from your body in your urine.

Finally, chronic stress depletes magnesium from your body.

Are Magnesium Supplements a Good Idea?

Because it’s so easy to be deficient in magnesium, natural health practitioners often recommend a magnesium supplement to support optimal health. However, it’s important to remember not all supplements are equally easy for your body to absorb and use. Cheaper supplements are often complexed to salts, for example oxide, making the magnesium less accessible to your body, and meaning you won’t feel the benefit. A Functional Nutritional Therapist can advise on the best form of magnesium supplement to take for your particular circumstances.

Help and Support Towards Optimal Health

If you suspect you might be deficient in magnesium or any other essential nutrient, we recommend your first step to be an Integrative Health Assessment. As part of this, we will check your baseline levels of nutrients, including magnesium, as well as taking a thorough health and symptom history. This information will inform your personalised health plan.

If you’d rather check your nutrient levels yourself, we now offer convenient at-home tests to assess a range of nutrients, including magnesium, vitamin D and iron, by simply using a few drops of blood. These are available without the need for a prior consultation.

Whichever route you choose, why not start your journey towards optimal health today?