Magnesium is one of those minerals that most people don’t think of as an important part of a healthy lifestyle. Calcium is always pushed to prevent osteoporosis, but have you thought about how magnesium can affect that?
Eating a lot of sugar can be a risk factor for diabetes, but did you know that magnesium deficiency can be as well? Eating fatty foods can be associated with almost all versions of cardiovascular disease, but so can magnesium deficiency.
The list goes on and on…hypertension, asthma, chronic stress, depression, kidney stones, muscle cramps, weakness and poor memory. Every one of these conditions can be linked to a cellular magnesium deficiency (or a deficiency of magnesium within your cells of your body).
What does magnesium do that is so important? It is essential to activate over 300 different enzymes in your body…which is more than any other mineral. Enzymes are the catalyst for the processes in your body. In other words, the less enzymes you have working in your body, the less optimal you will be functioning.
Magnesium is also essential in the process of creating ATP which is the energy your body runs on. It also has a key function in regulating your hormones. Magnesium is literally the mineral that sustains life. It is the center of the chlorophyll molecule, without which plant life would not exist and so neither would the oxygen of our atmosphere-nor would we. In other words, magnesium is essential.
What are we doing wrong? Current research shows that all of our refined foods and cooking methods are the major killers of magnesium. Boiling vegetables causes a loss of 50% of the magnesium and brown rice loses 80% of its original magnesium content when refined into white rice. Magnesium is rarely added back into the soil in modern farming lowering the initial content of magnesium in foods. Basically, anyone eating the typical high meat, high sugar, white flour North American diet is likely to have low dietary magnesium intake.
The best ways to increase your magnesium intake:
– Eat nuts and seeds, bran, black and white beans and dark green vegetables
– Taking an oral supplement in the form of: magnesium – citrate, succinate, aspartate, lactate or taurinate (As with any supplement, be sure to consult your doctor or a medical professional for advice)
– Do not take your supplement with fatty foods or pop as they inhibit magnesium’s absorption
– Spread out your supplement throughout the day if you find you are getting any loose stool
– Take your supplement at a different time from calcium as they can interfere with each other’s absorption…in other words don’t take it with a cup of milk
When increasing your magnesium intake, do not expect instant results. It can take anywhere from 6 weeks to 6 months to replenish a body’s stores depending on how depleted they were. Just keep up with it and you will start to feel better. As with any supplement, be sure to consult your doctor or a medical professional before making any changes.
Keep Well…Kristy
