Magnesium: The Key to Better Moods, Sleep, and Overall Health
(Health Secrets) There’s much talk about what to do to create health, but magnesium deficiency levels rarely gets a mention. This is amazing because is magnesium is critical to over 300 biochemical and cellular metabolic processes? This is why magnesium is referred to as the master mineral! Magnesium is centrally important to a huge number of cellular functions and also controls proper body glucose balance. And magnesium is the mineral that determines whether calcium works in your best interest or works against you. This means that addressing the possibility you may have magnesium deficiency is a really good idea.
Because of poor topsoil conditions and poor eating habits, almost everyone has magnesium deficiency to some extent. As a result, most people have health that is less than optimal or much worse.
The mineral that is promoted the most for supplementation is calcium. Yet without magnesium, the calcium obtained from food and supplements cannot be synthesized into bones and teeth. Instead it can create deadly conditions in the body.
Magnesium deficiency is why many women who steadfastly take calcium and Vitamin D supplements still end up with osteoporosis, and maybe clogged arteries too.
Yes, cardiovascular and neurological issues are also prone to surface when magnesium levels are low. It’s estimated that most people have a calcium to magnesium imbalance higher than two to one, leaving excess calcium in the blood to create plaque on inner arterial walls as well as leaving bones thin and brittle.
How Do You Know If Your Magnesium Level is too Low?
All the symptoms related to magnesium deficiency can overlap with other health issues, making it difficult to determine magnesium deficiency by symptoms alone.
Weakness, inappropriate fatigue, irritability, muscle spasms or twitches, muscle aches, muscular tension, insomnia, light or sound sensitivity, chronic constipation, and “restless leg syndrome” in which either the legs or arms have weird sensations or cramps that can only be relieved by frequent changing of position, are usually directly related to magnesium deficiency. If you are awakened in the night by leg cramps, you may have magnesium deficiency.
Indirectly, diabetes, fibromyalgia, arrhythmia and other heart conditions, asthma, and hypertension can also be at least partly due to insufficient magnesium in our cells. And within the cells is where magnesium’s action takes place, as it acts as a catalyst and synthesizing agent for approximately 80% of our biochemical processes.
This is why Dr. Otis Woodward, MD, a holistic physician, recommends a red blood cell (RBC) test over a simple blood test to determine magnesium levels. Magnesium levels can look good in the blood, but if the magnesium is not entering your cells, you won’t get its benefits. RBC testing is not as good as white blood cell testing, but it is easier to obtain, less expensive, and sufficient.
Applied kinesiology or muscle testing by a holistic healer can also help determine your need for magnesium. But let’s face it, if your health can be better and your diet is not so great, and considering that almost everyone is magnesium deficient, shouldn’t you be motivated to look into increasing your magnesium intake?
Supplements to the Rescue
If your diet is high in dairy products and other calcium sources, taking a good magnesium supplement is essential.
Many supplements use magnesium oxide, a form of magnesium that is not endorsed by doctors and holistic healers because it is not easily absorbed into the body. So look for a magnesium supplement in which the magnesium is bound to amino acids, such as magnesium citrate or asporotate. Chronic stress, illness, or immune system reactions can impair magnesium absorption. If you have persistant cramps, muscle twitches, and spasms even after magnesium has been supplemented, add a choline supplement to increase the bioavailability of magnesium even more.
Holistic physicians often use magnesium injections or intravenous feeds for patients with severe deficiency problems. They will then prescribe oral magnesium supplementation along with Vitamin B6 as an adjunct. But if you add B6, it’s recommended that you include a full spectrum B complex supplement, rather than taking just B6. B vitamins are synergistic.
Maintaining Magnesium Levels though Life Style Choices
Once you’ve boosted your magnesium level, you’ll need to make sure your diet nurtures that higher level. Sugar, processed table salt and processed foods, especially those made with bleached white flour, will deplete magnesium. So avoiding or minimizing that part of your diet. You can replace processed table salt with organic sea salt or Himalayan salt to eliminate the poisons inherent in table salt and add magnesium to your diet.
Stress is a terrible destroyer of magnesium. Indulging in some humor and handling stress by being more upbeat in general will help conserve your body’s stored magnesium.
Vegetables with leafy greens, whole grains, many legumes (including peanuts), and nuts are good sources of magnesium. But conventional crops produced by big agribusiness come from magnesium depleted soil. It has been determined that organic crops can contain up to 10 times the magnesium of regular supermarket foods, despite mainstream media naysayer reports that there is no difference between organic and conventionally grown foods.
The organic label should mean that the crops are rotated and the topsoil is regenerated for optimum mineral and magnesium content. Simply not spraying with pesticides doesn’t do enough to improve the topsoil. And that’s another reason it’s wise to supplement magnesium.
Sugar cane roots go much deeper into soil than do the roots of other produce, and sugar cane roots have access to minerals not available in the topsoil. Ironically, the “waste” from processing table sugar produces a superfood for minerals known as blackstrap molasses. The unsulphered variety is the best. Mostly known for its high iron content, unsulphered blackstrap molasses is also high in magnesium.
Leafy greens contain clorophyll, and at the core of chlorophyll is magnesium. Condensed green superfoods such as chlorella and spirulina are high in magnesium as well as other leafy green nutrients. Using them is an easier, more absorbable way of making sure you’re getting enough magnesium.
Since most of us who grew up on big agribusiness non-organic foods have impaired digestive systems, it is would be wise to include some sort of digestive aid to increase the bioavailibility of the magnesium in foods and superfoods. Supplementing with enzymes is useful for improving the ability to absorb magnesium and other vital nutrients. Ultimately, good and bad health both begin in the digestive system.
If you have more time than money, you can make your own kefir or kombucha, or use sauerkraut that is home made with organic cabbage. These help restore probiotic intestinal flora.
Magnesium Needs To Be Nurtured
Awareness of your magnesium level and what you’re doing for it is more essential to good health than most realize. Magnesium is also essential to the synthesis of glutathione, which is considered the master antioxidant that controls all other antioxidants! Normalizing your magnesium level with proper supplements and nurturing that level is vital for good health.
For more information:
http://www.umm.edu/altmed/articles/magnesium-000313.htm
http://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/Magnesium-HealthProfessional/
Published with permission from AlignLife. Original article link is here.
