Regular Retail: $13.50Magnesium (Mg) is one of seven macrominerals considered essential for human health; the others are sodium, potassium, calcium, phosphorus, chlorine and sulfur. Magnesium contributes significantly to bone formation and mineralization, helping to strengthen the bones and the teeth. It plays a role in the regulation of muscle and nerve activity through influencing cell membrane permeability, and functions as an electrolyte, helping maintain the charge balance in the body fluids. The adult human body contains 20-28 grams of magnesium. Of this total amount, about 40% is found in the muscle and soft tissues, about 1% in the extracellular fluid, and the remainder in the skeleton. Surveys over recent years suggest that as much as 40% of the U.S. population may be deficient in magnesium.
In solution, magnesium ions have two positive charges (Mg++), and magnesium as an electrolyte is critical in the electrical activity of nerve, muscle, and other tissues. More than 300 enzymes are known to be activated by magnesium, and as a consequence numerous biochemical pathways require magnesium. Calcium is also required for a variety of pathways and processes, and these two macrominerals are normally maintained in a “yin-yang” balance, in which either can synergize or antagonize the action of the other. Magnesium is also important for the homeostatic regulation of the two other major electrolytes in the body, potassium and sodium. Magnesium plays a role in the cardiovascular and GI systems, peripheral vascular function, energy production, and the heart, brain, kidney and liver. For instance, magnesium is involved in the body’s homeostatic maintenance of blood pressure and heart rhythm. Frank magnesium deficiency can result in nausea, loss of muscle tonicity and strength, electromyographic abnormalities, irritability and mental derangement.
Athletes and laborers can become low in magnesium, because perspiring and the use of large muscles tend to deplete it. Lactating women require higher magnesium intake, as do adolescents. In a healthy person, half of the ingested magnesium is typically absorbed. But many lifestyle, environmental, and dietary factors can lower the availability of magnesium, including missed meals, the use of diuretics for weight loss, fast and high-fat foods, alcohol, and soft drinks, which are high in phosphates that leach magnesium from the body. Additionally, acid rain washes magnesium out of the soil, fluoridation depletes it from drinking water, and the processing of grains and other foods lowers their magnesium content. A 1988 U.S. Government study concluded that the Standard American Diet (SAD) only provided 40% of the daily requirement of magnesium.
Testing for magnesium Deficiency - Serum magnesium may not be an accurate measure of body magnesium status, since such a small percentage of the body’s magnesium is found in the serum. In response, Dr. Sherry Rogers and her colleagues developed a loading test. Its rationale is as follows: if people with enough magnesium are given more, they will pass it out with the urine, whereas if they are deficient in magnesium, the loading dose will be partially retained. A baseline magnesium excretion is determined from a 24-hour urine, then a load of magnesium chloride is given, and the 24-hour urine repeated. If urine magnesium excretion is high, deficiency is unlikely; if excretion is low, deficiency is possible.
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