DID YOU KNOW?

Few people realize just how important the mineral magnesium is to their overall health and well-being. Did you know that magnesium influences many bodily processes, including digestion, energy production, muscle function, bone formation, creation of new cells, activation of B vitamins and relaxation of muscles, as well as assisting in the functions of the heart, kidneys, adrenals, brain and nervous system? The fact is that lack of sufficient available magnesium in the body can interfere with any or all of these processes. The National Institutes of Health, Office of Dietary Supplements, reports that there is an increased interest in the role of magnesium in preventing and managing disorders such as hypertension, cardiovascular disease and diabetes.

A healthy magnesium level

Diets of the industrialized world, with their processed foods and use of refined sugar and flour, are commonly quite low in magnesium. The result? A significant percentage of the population have below healthy magnesium levels, including many who already use magnesium. Why? First, the amount of magnesium required by the body is greater than people think. Second, most magnesium capsules and tablets are not completely absorbed by the body.

Symptoms of magnesium depletion

Millions suffer daily from symptoms that can result from a lack of magnesium. Because magnesium is required for hundreds of enzymatic reactions (enzymes are protein molecules that stimulate every chemical reaction in the body), deficiency can cause a wide variety of symptoms, such as

Low energy
Fatigue
Weakness
PMS and hormonal imbalances
Inability to sleep
Weakening bones
Muscle tension, spasms & cramps
Abnormal heart rhythms
Headaches
Anxiousness
Nervousness
Irritability
What depletes magnesium?

Magnesium deficiency can be caused by a number of things, including-but not limited to-lack of adequate dietary magnesium, emotional stress, some drugs (diuretics, antibiotics, birth control pills, insulin, cortisone), heavy exercise, diabetes, gastrointestinal disorders and excessive calcium in the diet.

Your overall health

This data is vital for everyone to know as it affects your overall health. It may also bring new hope to those who feel hopeless about improving their health. Using this information has changed the lives of many and may change your own as well.

The conditions and symptoms listed above are correctable.

Let's look at some of the impacts low levels of magnesium can have on the body.

Calcium & magnesium

Calcium and magnesium are two different sides of a coin. Calcium excites nerves while magnesium calms them down. Calcium makes muscles contract. Magnesium is necessary for muscles to relax. Calcium is needed for blood clotting but magnesium keeps the blood flowing freely.

It is easy to see that it is vital to keep these minerals in balance and that too little magnesium to balance calcium could be both uncomfortable and unhealthy.

THE ANATOMY OF STRESS

When stress becomes constant in our lives-be it mental, emotional, environmental or physical-the continual state of hypervigilence of our bodies and cells can be detrimental to our health. This is especially true when one is low in magnesium-often the case in today's diet of highly processed foods.

Going through a stressful period without sufficient magnesium can set up a deficit that, if not corrected, can linger, causing more stress and further health problems (see symptoms above).

Without sufficient magnesium, the nerve cells cannot give or receive messages and become excitable and reactive. This causes a person to become stressed, highly sensitive and nervous. Feelings of nervousness, irritability and being unable to relax are signs of needing magnesium.

The stress response involves the influx of calcium into cells, resulting in a drastic change in the cells' internal magnesium-to-calcium ratio.

Normal cells contain 10,000 times more magnesium than calcium ions. If the amount of cellular magnesium falls, however, calcium ions flow into the cell. With such an imbalance, calcium puts the cell into a hyperactive state. This can cause muscle contraction and lead to painful cramping. The muscles need magnesium in order to relax.

Low magnesium/high calcium levels can cause cells to physically change. High calcium makes bones stiff and hard, which is good, but in soft tissues it becomes a problem of calcification. This stiffness in artery and heart cells can hamper proper function and can be a factor in heart disease.

Excess calcium is a very widespread problem. Excess calcium depletes magnesium in the body and, as a result, brings about the symptoms of magnesium depletion mentioned on page one.

Noted author and researcher, Mildred S. Seelig, MD, explains "Calcium is an important essential nutrient, but it must be guarded and controlled, and balanced by adequate magnesium if it is not to cause damage to the cells and the body as a whole."

For these exact reasons excess calcium can become a real problem, while excess magnesium, on the other hand, is not a concern. Unlike calcium, magnesium does not build up in the body-excess amounts are simply flushed out.

OSTEOPOROSIS

Consider the following: What country has the highest rate of pasteurized milk consumption? That's right! America. Now, what country has the highest calcium supplement consumption? Correct again! America. So, America must have the lowest occurrence of osteoporosis, calcium loss and bone fragility. Right? Wrong! We have the highest rate! Why? Excess calcium combined with low magnesium. Taking more calcium will rarely remedy a calcium deficiency. This is clearly evident from recent research studies. One study concludes that neither milk nor a high-calcium diet appears to reduce the rise of osteoporotic hip fractures in postmenopausal women.1 Another study concluded that findings "do not support the hypothesis that higher consumption of milk or other food sources of calcium by adult women protect against hip or forearm fractures."2

It is magnesium that will handle the calcium deficiency as well as the lack of adequate magnesium, and it will dissolve excess calcium from the body while helping any needed calcium to assimilate.

Today we have diets dangerously low in magnesium. Factor in the recent addition of nutritional calcium via supplements and food fortifications that are meant to stave off osteoporosis, and many of us are getting inadequate magnesium plus too much calcium.

Weakening bones

Magnesium is crucial to increasing bone mass, as it is magnesium that allows calcium to assimilate. People taking supplemental calcium should accompany their calcium with the magnesium necessary for absorption.

We recommend Peter Gillham's Natural Calm Plus CalciumTM, which is formulated with three parts magnesium to two parts calcium-along with other ingredients for superior calcium absorption. This formulation will prevent a surplus of calcium and avoid symptoms associated with depleted magnesium levels.

Women taking calcium supplements to ward off osteoporosis, without adequate magnesium nutrition, can further exacerbate the effects of a magnesium deficit. (Calcium supplements taken without sufficient magnesium can actually LOWER the bone mineralization process.)

Magnesium is as important as calcium in the prevention of osteoporosis and is vital to increasing bone mass.

Muscle disorders

Muscle spasms, cramps, jerks, tics and hiccups can all be caused by a lack of magnesium. Take sufficient water-soluble magnesium and they will disappear.

Magnesium and calcium work together to control muscle action; an imbalance of either will cause tension and cramps. Magnesium relaxes the muscles. With insufficient magnesium the muscles stay tense, causing cramping. This can happen when you have too much calcium and too little magnesium. The same thing happens in the heart, which is a muscle. The heart goes into a spasm and can't relax, so it "freezes" and can't function normally. Taking magnesium will instantly allow the heart to relax and continue beating normally.

The heart connection

According to Dr. Seelig, "Most modern heart disease is caused by magnesium deficiency. A vast and convincing body of research, largely ignored, has convinced us and many of our colleagues of this fact. The diet of the industrial world is short on magnesium, and this is causing an epidemic of heart disease in the modern world." Dr. Seelig goes on to state, "Studies have linked low magnesium with many of the major risk factors for heart disease. Other studies show that the average Western processed-food diet is lower in magnesium than is commonly acknowledged. While several essential nutrients are imperative for heart and blood vessel health, the vast research on low magnesium and its impact on heart health has gone unheeded, so much so that much of the heart disease seen today is a direct result of low magnesium consumption."

The most important risk factor for impending heart disease is a low magnesium-to-calcium ratio in the cells. All the usual factors such as high cholesterol, active type 2 diabetes and hypertension can be the result of a low magnesium status.

Fati