Source: Mercola
Dr. Mercola
January 14, 2017
Internationally renowned natural health physician and Mercola.com founder Dr. Joseph Mercola explains why it is important to take a high-quality magnesium supplement.
Tag: Magnesium Deficiency
20 Top Health Tips From 2016
Source: Mercola.com
Dr. Mercola
January 1, 2017
It’s that time again — time to embrace a new year and a fresh start in our continued journey toward a healthier, happier life. With a nod to our upcoming 20th anniversary in 2017, I’ve selected 20 tips from my 20 most popular articles of 2016.
If you haven’t yet read them all, you’re in for a treat, as they cover a wide variety of health topics.
Implementing some or all of these could help protect your health and well-being in the years to come. And be sure to stay tuned to the newsletter for more empowering health wisdom as 2017 unfolds.
The heading of each section is a hyperlink and if you click on it you will go to the article that has far more details.
We’re now starting to realize that mitochondrial dysfunction is at the core of virtually all diseases, and support for nutritional ketosis is growing by leaps and bounds. 2016 was a breakthrough year for this kind of information.
For over 80 years, nutritional ketosis has been the standard of care for intractable seizures in children.
Now we’re finding it can benefit a wide array of other diseases, including neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s, obesity, diabetes, heart failure, heart disease, arthritis and more.
One of the reasons it works so well is because it drives your inflammation down to very low levels. When inflammation disappears, your body can heal. It also takes the proverbial foot off the gas pedal of aging. My next book, “Fat for Fuel,” scheduled for release in May, 2017, will explain it all in detail.
Without this information, people will continue to die prematurely. At present, the cancer industry is focusing on the downstream effects of the problem, which is why the “war on cancer” has been such a miserable failure.
When you view cancer as a metabolic disease, you can actually target and manage the disease without creating systemic toxicity. You do this primarily by targeting the fuels the cancer cells use (primarily glucose).
Without the appropriate fuel, the cancer cells cannot grow and multiply. Five strategies that will help optimize your mitochondrial function include:
- Peak Fasting and other types of fasting
- Eating foods low in net carbs and protein and high in healthy fats
- Optimize your iron levels by getting ferritin to 60 ng/mL
- Exercise
- Reduce mitochondrial ROS production by avoiding food for at least three hours before bedtime
- Get sensible sun exposure, as a majority of the energy your body needs to maintain systemic equilibrium comes from environmental infrared light exposure, and avoid light-emitting diode (LED) lighting (see next section)
The importance of near-infrared light exposure to health and the adverse effects of LED lighting, as explained by Dr. Alexander Wunsch, a world class expert on photobiology, was another breakthrough health revelation of 2016.
LED lighting may actually be one of the most damaging, non-native EMF radiation exposures you have on a daily basis. You cannot feel near-infrared as heat, and you cannot see it, but it’ has a major beneficial impact in terms of health.
Near-infrared frequencies are what is missing in non-thermal artificial light sources like LEDs and fluorescents. Importantly, it appears to promote age-related macular degeneration (AMD), which is the leading cause of blindness.
The primarily blue light emitted by LEDs also generates excessive amounts of reactive oxygen species (ROS), thereby exacerbating health problems rooted in mitochondrial dysfunction, which run the gamut from metabolic disorder to cancer.
The healthiest indoor lighting includes clear incandescent light bulbs (a 2,700 K incandescent, thermal analog light source), low-voltage halogen lights operated on DC (not AC, which generates dirty electricity), and/or fragrance-free candles.
Be particularly mindful to only use incandescents at night. After sunset, consider it is best to put on a pair of blue-blocking glasses.
One lifestyle factor that appears to be driving obesity and many chronic disease processes is the fact that we eat too frequently. When you eat throughout the day and never skip a meal, your body adapts to burning sugar as its primary fuel, which down regulates enzymes that utilize and burn stored fat.
Many biological repair and rejuvenation processes also take place when your body is not busy processing food. Mounting research suggests your body was designed to cycle through periods of feast and famine, and without periods of fasting, your health suffers.
Intermittent fasting, which mimics the eating habits of our ancestors, helps restore your body to a more natural state that allows a whole host of biochemical benefits to occur.
“Peak fasting” involves fasting for 13 to 18 hours each day and eating all of your meals within the remaining window of 6 to 11 hours. To make this schedule work, you need to skip either breakfast or dinner. However, if you chose to eat dinner, be sure to do so at least three hours before bedtime.
When sleeping, your body needs the least amount of energy. Eating at a time when energy is not needed ends up creating a situation in which your mitochondria create excessive amounts of damaging free radicals.
This is another important factor that can help optimize your mitochondrial function and limit cellular damage that drives aging and disease.
Iron overload is incredibly common and likely as dangerous to your health as vitamin D deficiency. Elevated iron creates excessive free radicals that damage your mitochondrial DNA, cell membranes and electron transport proteins.
If left untreated, it can damage your organs and contribute to cancer, heart disease, diabetes, neurodegenerative diseases and many other disorders.
The serum ferritin test measures your stored iron. I strongly recommend all adults to get this test done on an annual basis.
Ideally, your serum ferritin should be between 20 and 80 nanograms per milliliter (ng/mL); somewhere between 40 and 60 ng/mL is the sweet spot for adult men and non-menstruating women.
If your ferritin level is above 80 ng/mL, the solution is to donate your blood. If it’s over 200 ng/mL, a more aggressive phlebotomy schedule is recommended.
The term autophagy means “self-eating,” and refers to the processes by which your body cleans out various debris, including toxins, and recycles damaged cell components.
By boosting your body’s autophagy process, you dampen inflammation, slow down the aging process, and optimize biological function. Here are four strategies to boost your body’s autophagy process:
- Exercise. The amount of exercise required to stimulate autophagy in humans is still unknown; however, it is believed that intense exercise is more effective than mild exercise.
Research shows the “Goldilocks zone” in which exercise produces the greatest benefit for longevity is between 150 to 450 minutes of moderate exercise per week, lowering your risk of early death by 31 and 39 percent respectively.
Spending at least 30 percent of your workout on high-intensity exercises further boosts longevity by about 13 percent, compared to exercising at a consistently moderate pace. Following these general guidelines will likely put you in the most advantageous position for maximizing autophagy.
- Avoid excessive protein. One of the quickest ways to shut down autophagy is to eat large amounts of protein, as this stimulates mTOR, and IGF-1, both of which are potent inhibitors of autophagy.
To avoid this, limit your protein to 1 gram of protein for every kilogram of lean body mass, or one-half gram of protein per pound of lean body mass.
- Fasting is another biological stressor that produces many beneficial results, including autophagy. In fact, some of the benefits associated with fasting — such as a reduced risk of diabetes and heart disease — can at least in part be attributed to this process.
- Nutritional ketogenesis is a fourth strategy that will help boost autophagy, and to accomplish that, you need to cut down on the non-fiber carbs and increase the amount of healthy fat in your diet, along with a moderate amount of protein.
- Implement Nutritional Ketosis
Nutritional ketosis is an effective way to improve your health, and can be used both for the prevention and treatment of chronic disease, including cancer and diseases rooted in toxicity. If your mitochondria are functioning well, they will efficiently metabolize fat. If they don’t, it suggests you’re primarily burning carbohydrates as a primary fuel.
Nutritional ketosis involves removing sugars and processed carbohydrates, replacing the lost calories with healthy fats and a moderate amount of high-quality protein. Doing so will shift your body into a metabolic state in which your body burns fat rather than glucose as its primary fuel.
As a general rule, you’ll want at least 50 to 75 percent of your total calories (some may benefit from as much as 85 percent) from healthy fats, such as olives, avocados, coconut oil, MCT oil, organic pastured butter, cacao butter, raw nuts such as macadamia and pecans, seeds such as black sesame, cumin, pumpkin and hemp seeds, organic pastured eggs, grass-fed meats, lard and tallow.
A tool that will radically improve your ability to understand what you’re eating and follow a ketogenic diet is a nutrient tracker. There are a number of them available, but the most accurate one is Cronometer.com/Mercola. That’s our revision of the basic tracker, and it’s already set up for nutritional ketosis.
The disastrous “low-fat diet” dogma of the last half century has led to a devastating drop in most people’s intake of healthy saturated fats, including MCTs. Besides coconuts, coconut oil and palm kernel oil, small amounts of MCT can be found in butter and other high-fat dairy products from grass-fed cows and goats.
MCTs can be divided into four groups based on their carbon length, which ranges from six to 12 carbons.1 As a general rule, the shorter the carbon chain, the more efficiently the MCT will be turned into ketones, which are an excellent source of energy for your body — far preferable to glucose, as ketones produce far less ROS when they are metabolized to produce ATP.
My personal preference is straight caprylic acid (C8), as it converts to ketones far more rapidly than the more common C8 and C10 mixtures. Since MCT oil, and especially caprylic acid (C8) oil, is a far more concentrated source than coconut oil, it’s often appropriate for clinical uses, which include:2
- Appetite reduction and weight loss3,4
- Improved cognitive and neurological function with possible implications in neurodegenerative diseases
- Increased energy levels and improved athletic performance
- Improved mitochondrial function and subsequent reduced risk for diseases such as atherosclerosis, diabetes, cancer, cardiovascular disease, autoimmune diseases and epilepsy5
- Prevention of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD)6
The common belief is that if you want to build muscle, you need to eat lots of protein and carbohydrates because carbs fuel your muscles and protein builds them up. However, carb- and protein-loading can have significant drawbacks in terms of long-term health, and mounting evidence suggests you don’t need either in excessive amounts to build muscle.
One particularly intriguing finding is that your body has a mechanism that allows it to build muscle even when deprived of food. Certain amino acids — most notably branched chain amino acids like leucine — signal muscle genes to grow and to build protein, and they do that even during times of food deprivation as long as these amino acids are circulating through your blood stream.
Including the following foods in your cooking as often as possible will provide you with leucine and other nutrients that play important roles in muscle building and maintenance. Just be careful to limit whey protein to days that you are strength training.
| Wild-caught Alaskan salmon | Avocado | Spinach |
| Coconut oil | MCT oil | Kale |
| Sprouts | Berries | Bananas |
| Watermelon | Grapefruit | Papaya |
| Raw nuts | Grass-fed beef | Mushrooms |
| Authentic virgin olive oil | Whey protein | Broccoli |
As a general rule, I recommend getting the bulk of your nutrition from eating real food. That said, in some cases, taking specific nutrients may be therapeutically valuable or necessary, and can be far less toxic and less expensive than drug treatments. Moreover, in my view there are certain supplements that most people will benefit from taking.
Vitamin D3 (unless you’re able to get sufficient amounts of sun exposure year-round) is at the top of that list, along with vitamin K2. Animal-based omega-3 fat, such as the fat found in krill oil, is another nutrient that most people simply don’t get enough of.
If you still have not shifted away from processed foods, vitamin C may be worth considering, as processed foods will not provide you much of this vitamin. If you’re not eating traditionally fermented foods, you’d also be wise to take a high quality probiotic supplement, and at the very least consider increasing your consumption of fresh vegetables, as the fiber provides important nourishment for beneficial bacteria in your gut that help calibrate your immune system.
When selecting a high-quality dietary supplement, be sure it is as close as possible to its natural (whole food) form and follows industry standards for quality assurance including ISO 9001, ISO 17025, and Good Manufacturing Processes (GMP) certifications.
Kidney stones can be truly agonizing. Fortunately, there are ways to prevent them from ever occurring. Recent research shows that an extract of a compound called hydroxycitrate from the Asian garcinia cambogia fruit, also known as Malabar tamarind, has the power to inhibit the growth of kidney stones. It can even be used to dissolve them after a stone has been generated.
If all goes as hoped, hydroxycitrate would be the most dramatic advance in treating kidney stones in three decades. However, rigorous trials in humans have not yet begun, so it’s still too early to justify its use. In the meantime, to prevent keep your kidneys healthy and prevent kidney stones:
- Drink plenty of water to avoid dehydration
- Limit your protein intake to one-half gram of protein per pound of lean body mass
- Avoid foods high in oxalate, such as Swiss chard, beets, tea, sweet potatoes, rhubarb, chocolate, okra, almonds and spinach if you’re at high risk for kidney stones
- Make sure you’re getting enough magnesium (especially if you avoid the high-oxalate foods above, which are also high in magnesium)
Magnesium is vitally important for biological function and optimal health. If you’re lacking in cellular magnesium, it can lead to the deterioration of your cellular metabolic function, which in turn can snowball into more serious health problems. Importantly, magnesium is vital for the optimization of your mitochondria.
Eating plenty of organic unprocessed foods tend to be your best bet, but since most soils have become severely depleted of nutrients, some magnesium experts believe virtually everyone needs to take supplemental magnesium.
The recommended daily allowance (RDA) is around 310 to 420 milligrams (mg) per day depending on your age and sex, although some researchers believe we may need as much as 600 to 900 mg/day for optimal health. One way to identify your ideal dose is to use your intestinal reaction as a marker. Start out by taking 200 mg of oral magnesium citrate per day, and gradually increase your dose until you develop slightly loose stools.
When your body has too much magnesium it flushes it out, so in this way you can determine your own individual cutoff point. (Be sure to use magnesium citrate, as it’s known for having a laxative effect.)
When it comes to magnesium supplements, my personal preference is magnesium threonate, as it seems to be most efficient at penetrating cell membranes, including your mitochondria, which can help boost your energy level. It also penetrates your blood-brain barrier and may help improve memory.
Most vegetables are very low in net carbs while being high in healthy fiber and the valuable vitamins and minerals your body needs for optimal health. However, some are more beneficial than others. Among the top performers are:
- Sprouts, especially watercress, broccoli sprouts and sunflower seeds
- Cruciferous vegetables such as cauliflower and broccoli
- Leafy greens such as kale, beet greens, arugula, spinach, Swiss chard and collard greens
- Peppers, such as bell peppers, banana peppers, Poblano and chili peppers
- Certain root vegetables, specifically ginger, turmeric and onions
As much as 40 percent of U.S. health care expenditures are for diseases directly related to the overconsumption of sugar.7 One of the key mechanisms by which sugar promotes cancer and other chronic disease is by causing mitochondrial dysfunction. As mentioned earlier, sugar is not an ideal fuel as it creates far more ROS than fat. This generates free radicals, which in turn causes mitochondrial and nuclear DNA damage along with cell membrane and protein impairment.
I recommend reducing your total fructose intake to a maximum of 25 grams per day from all sources, including fruit. If you are insulin resistant, you’d do well to make your upper limit 15 grams per day. Cancer patients would likely be best served by even stricter limits. Moreover, I personally believe that most would benefit from reducing all non-fiber carbs (total carbs minus fiber), not just fructose, to less than 100 grams per day.
The easiest way to dramatically cut down on your sugar and fructose consumption is to switch to REAL foods, as most of the added sugar you end up with comes from processed foods. Other ways to cut down includes:
- Cutting back on the amount of sugar you add to your food and drink
- Using Stevia or Lo Han instead of sugar and/or artificial sweeteners. You can learn more about the best and worst of sugar substitutes in my previous article, “Sugar Substitutes — What’s Safe and What’s Not“
- Using fresh fruit in lieu of canned fruit or sugar for meals or recipes calling for a bit of sweetness
- Using spices instead of sugar to add flavor to your meal
Your hair color comes from pigment called melanin. With age, melanin is reduced, which is why your hair turns gray and, ultimately, white once there’s no melanin left. In 2016, researchers discovered a gene that accounts for about 30 percent of hair graying. The other 70 percent is likely due to factors such as age, toxic exposures, nutritional deficiencies and stress. To limit the grays:
- Avoid smoking
- Minimize oxidative stress by avoiding pollution and stress
- Eat a healthy antioxidant-rich diet
- Increase your vitamin B12 intake
- Normalize your weight
Mounting research confirms that many people experience adverse reactions to gluten even if they test negative for celiac disease — an autoimmune disorder in which gluten must be avoided at all cost. This suggests gluten-sensitivity is a real problem,8 and that gluten-free diets may benefit many, not just those with celiac. In one recent study,9,10 people who reacted to gluten despite not having celiac disease were found to have leaky gut, which is likely what caused the immune activation.
The obvious treatment for celiac disease and gluten intolerance is a gluten-free diet, which means abstaining from any food that contains gluten.
This is largely because most is contaminated with Roundup used in the drying process, which tends to damage your intestinal cellular connections. However, keep in mind that while gluten-free has many advantages, just because a food is gluten-free does not automatically make it healthy. There are plenty of gluten-free junk foods out there, so be mindful of your choices.
If you have osteoarthritis — a degenerative form of arthritic joint disease — exercise is absolutely crucial to your well-being. The notion that exercise is detrimental to your joints is a misconception; there is no evidence to support this belief. Importantly, exercise can help reduce joint pain and make it easier for you to perform daily tasks.
That said, people with arthritis should be careful to avoid activities that aggravate joint pain, and any exercise that strains a significantly unstable joint. Aside from that, you can include a range of activities in your exercise program, just as any other exerciser would.
Weight training, high-intensity cardio, stretching and core work can all be integrated into your routine according to your ability. The featured article also includes a series of flexibility exercises that will help strengthen your hips, which are suitable for those with hip osteoarthritis.
This year’s presidential election has unleashed an avalanche of anxiety and emotional distress, with more than 8 in 10 voters reporting feeling “repulsed” by the campaign.11 Sadly, many have fallen into victim mentality, forgetting that the power of the individual is still alive and well even in this deeply flawed system.
It becomes yours by stepping OUTSIDE of the system with every decision and purchase you make. With every action you take, you also set the example for others to follow, thereby making you a change-agent within your own small circle of family, friends and acquaintances. In the end, our collective actions will create the changes that are so desperately needed.
If you don’t like the state of the nation (or the world), stop eating processed and ultra-processed junk foods. Some may initially think this decision would have nothing to do with anything that is wrong in the world, but if you really give it some thought, you’ll realize that the more independence you gain with your food, the more independence you will create in other areas as well.
Workout intensity and workout volume are inversely proportional, so the greater the intensity, the less time you spend working out, and the less frequently you need to exercise. High intensity interval training (HIIT) can significantly reduce the amount of exercise you need to do, cutting your hour-long workouts down to 15 minutes once a week or less.
Moreover, as intensity goes up, you also need longer recovery times in between sessions, so the frequency of your workouts also goes down. At most, you might be able to do HIIT three times a week. You can perform HIIT using a recumbent bicycle, a treadmill, or by sprinting, for example.
Or you can use weights — a technique known as SuperSlow weight training. A sample workout routine is given in the featured article. In terms of health effects, HIIT may help improve a number of biomarkers associated with improved metabolic activity and good health, including:
- Improved insulin sensitivity and reversal of type 2 diabetes
- Normalized cholesterol, eliminating the need for statin drugs
- Reversal of bone mineral loss and reversal of osteoporosis
- Improved C-reactive protein levels (marker for inflammation)
Research clearly shows that proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) are severely overprescribed and misused, and do far more harm than good in the long run.12 If you suffer from frequent heartburn, there are many alternative treatment strategies that can help you eliminate this problem without the serious side effects associated with PPIs, which include kidney disease, pneumonia, osteoporosis, hip fractures, dementia, and an increased risk for heart disease13 and heart attacks.14
The long-term answer to heartburn and acid indigestion is to restore your natural gastric balance and function. The most important step is to eat real food, as processed foods and sugars are a surefire way to exacerbate acid reflux. Reseeding your gut with beneficial bacteria, either from traditionally fermented foods or a high quality probiotic supplement is also important. Other drug-free treatment strategies include the use of:
| Raw, unfiltered apple cider vinegar | Baking soda | Aloe Vera juice | Ginger root | Vitamin D |
| Astaxanthin | Slippery elm | Glutamine | Folate (vitamin B9) and other B vitamins | Betaine |
Contrary to popular belief, chiropractic can be used to optimize wellness, not just treat pain. Research suggests chiropractic treatments can help prevent progressive spinal degeneration, i.e. osteoarthritis or disc disease.
Your spinal column, the vertebrae, and the discs, protect your most delicate and important system — your nervous system — and impingements can contribute to a number of health problems and ailments. Hence protecting and nurturing spine will promote greater expression of nerve intelligence and more vibrant health.
Granted, some chiropractors focus primarily on pain and injuries, and do not have the full skill set required to address issues like allergies or disease. So make sure the chiropractor you choose has the appropriate vitalistic philosophy.
Wishing You and Your Loved Ones a Happy and Healthy New Year!
We remain committed to helping you take control of your health. Together, with your help, we have made it easier for millions to make informed health choices, and we hope that with our continuous service, you will stay motivated to take control of your health this year, and well into the future.
I also want to express my sincere thanks. Time and time again, your participation has allowed this valuable work to be accomplished. Truly, it is through your participation and engagement in important issues that change is being manifested.
You are the ones changing the world — one Facebook post, Twitter share, petition signature and donation at a time. So, from the Mercola.com family to yours, may 2017 be a year when you take the reins of your life firmly in hand to manifest the highest level of health and happiness possible.
One of the Most Prescribed Drugs Provides No Benefit for Most People
Source: iHealthTube
April 14, 2016
Dr. Michael Murray discusses one of the most popular classes of prescription drugs. He says the close to 80 to 90 percent of these drugs provides no health benefit to it’s patients, yet it leaves them open to the many side effects, which can often lead to other drugs. Are you on one of the most prescribed drugs that likely provides no benefit?
Inflammation & Pain Management With Magnesium
Inflammation plays a pivotal role in all stages of atherosclerosis, which is the progressive narrowing and hardening of the arteries over time.
Source: DrSircus.com
Dr. Sircus
December 8, 2009
Inflammation is the activation of the immune system in response to infection, irritation, or injury. Characterized by an influx of white blood cells, redness, heat, swelling, pain, and dysfunction of the organs involved, inflammation has different names when it appears in different parts of the body. Most allergy and asthma sufferers are familiar with rhinitis (inflammation of the nose), sinusitis (inflammation of the sinuses), and asthma (inflammation of the airways), but inflammation is also behind arthritis (inflammation of the joints), dermatitis (inflammation of the skin), and so on.
The inflammatory response can be acute or chronic. Acute inflammation typically lasts only a few days. This response usually promotes healing but, if uncontrolled, may become harmful.
The primary objective of acute inflammation is to localize and eradicate the irritant and repair the surrounding tissue but this completely changes in chronic low-grade inflammatory states. Chronic low-grade inflammation is one of the characteristics of the metabolic syndrome and interferes with insulin physiology. Ignorance has prevailed over the interrelationship between muscular lipid accumulation, chronic inflammation and insulin resistance because the central mediating factor is magnesium. It is magnesium that modulates cellular events involved in inflammation.
There are many factors that trigger inflammation. They are found in both our internal and external environments and include excessive levels of the hormone insulin (insulin resistance), emotional stress, environmental toxins (heavy metals), free-radical damage, viral, bacterial, fungal other pathogenic infections, obesity, overconsumption of hydrogenated oils, periodontal disease, radiation exposure, smoking, spirochetes such as the Borrelia that causes Lyme disease, and certain pharmacological drugs. Problems with insulin metabolism are a major contributor to cardiovascular disease. It results in the inability to properly store magnesium, causing blood vessels to constrict, elevated blood pressure, and coronary arterial spasm, all of which can result in a heart attack.
Excess insulin causes retention of sodium, fluid retention, elevated blood pressure and congestive heart failure.[1]– Dr. Ron Rosedale
Inflammatory reactions in the body are a valuable predictor of impending heart attack. Dr. Robert Genko, editor of the American Academy of Periodontal Journal, claims that persons with gingival disease (which is an inflammatory disorder) are 27 times more likely to suffer a heart attack than are persons with healthy gums. An American Heart Association paper disclosed that 85% of heart attack victims had gum disease compared to 29% of healthy similar patients.
When magnesium levels fall researchers note a profound increase of inflammatory cytokines present, along with increased levels of histamine.[2]
Magnesium deficiency causes and underpins chronic inflammatory build ups. This concept is intriguing because it suggests a fundamentally simpler way of warding off disease. Instead of different treatments for heart disease, Alzheimer’s and colon cancer, we apply a single, inflammation-reducing remedy that would prevent or treat these and other deadly diseases. The key words here are ‘prevent’ or ‘treat’ but please notice the word is not cure. Though magnesium is a cure for many of our ailments full treatment protocols are recommended with magnesium chloride as the top protocol item. It is a protocol of basic items like magnesium, iodine, Alpha Lipoic Acid, sodium bicarbonate, sodium thiosulfate, whole food vitamin C, natural vitamin D from the sun, spirulina and some other important items like purified water that will make a difference in a host of chronic diseases.
Continue Reading At: DrSircus.com
Why 80% of Us Are Deficient In Magnesium
GreenMedInfo
Dr. Mark Sircus
Magnesium deficiency is often misdiagnosed because it does not show up in blood tests – only 1% of the body’s magnesium is stored in the blood.
Most doctors and laboratories don’t even include magnesium status in routine blood tests. Thus, most doctors don’t know when their patients are deficient in magnesium, even though studies show that the majority of Americans are deficient in magnesium.
Consider Dr. Norman Shealy’s statements, “Every known illness is associated with a magnesium deficiency” and that, “magnesium is the most critical mineral required for electrical stability of every cell in the body. A magnesium deficiency may be responsible for more diseases than any other nutrient.” The truth he states exposes a gapping hole in modern medicine that explains a good deal about iatrogenic death and disease. Because magnesium deficiency is largely overlooked, millions of Americans suffer needlessly or are having their symptoms treated with expensive drugs when they could be cured with magnesium supplementation.
One has to recognize the signs of magnesium thirst or hunger on their own since allopathic medicine is lost in this regard. It is really something much more subtle then hunger or thirst but it is comparable. In a world though where doctors and patients alike do not even pay attention to thirst and important issues of hydration, it is not hopeful that we will find many recognizing and paying attention to magnesium thirst and hunger, which is a dramatic way of expressing the concept of magnesium deficiency.
Few people are aware of the enormous role magnesium plays in our bodies. Magnesium is by far the most important mineral in the body. After oxygen, water, and basic food, magnesium may be the most important element needed by our bodies; vitally important, yet hardly known. It is more important than calcium, potassium or sodium and regulates all three of them. Millions suffer daily from magnesium deficiency without even knowing it.
In fact, there happens to be a relationship between what we perceive as thirst and deficiencies in electrolytes. I remember a person asking, “Why am I dehydrated and thirsty when I drink so much water?” Thirst can mean not only lack of water but it can also mean that one is not getting enough nutrients and electrolytes. Magnesium, Potassium, Bicarbonate, Chloride and Sodium are some principle examples and that is one of the reasons magnesium chloride is so useful.
Magnesium Torment (Deficiency)
You know all those years, when doctors used to tell their patients ‘its all in your heads,’ were years the medical profession was showing its ignorance. It is a torment to be magnesium deficient on one level or another. Even if it’s for the enthusiastic sport person whose athletic performance is down, magnesium deficiency will disturb sleep and background stress levels and a host of other things that reflect on the quality of life. Doctors have not been using the appropriate test for magnesium – their serum blood tests just distort their perceptions. Magnesium has been off their radar screens through the decades that magnesium deficiencies have snowballed.
Symptoms of Magnesium Deficiency
The first symptoms of deficiency can be subtle – as most magnesium is stored in the tissues, leg cramps, foot pain, or muscle ‘twitches’ can be the first sign. Other early signs of deficiency include loss of appetite, nausea, vomiting, fatigue, and weakness. As magnesium deficiency worsens, numbness, tingling, seizures, personality changes, abnormal heart rhythms, and coronary spasms can occur.
A full outline of magnesium deficiency was beautifully presented in a recent article by Dr. Sidney Baker. “Magnesium deficiency can affect virtually every organ system of the body. With regard to skeletal muscle, one may experience twitches, cramps, muscle tension, muscle soreness, including back aches, neck pain, tension headaches and jaw joint (or TMJ) dysfunction. Also, one may experience chest tightness or a peculiar sensation that he can’t take a deep breath. Sometimes a person may sigh a lot.”
“Symptoms involving impaired contraction of smooth muscles include constipation; urinary spasms; menstrual cramps; difficulty swallowing or a lump in the throat-especially provoked by eating sugar; photophobia, especially difficulty adjusting to oncoming bright headlights in the absence of eye disease; and loud noise sensitivity from stapedius muscle tension in the ear.”
“Other symptoms and signs of magnesium deficiency and discuss laboratory testing for this common condition. Continuing with the symptoms of magnesium deficiency, the central nervous system is markedly affected. Symptoms include insomnia, anxiety, hyperactivity and restlessness with constant movement, panic attacks, agoraphobia, and premenstrual irritability. Magnesium deficiency symptoms involving the peripheral nervous system include numbness, tingling, and other abnormal sensations, such as zips, zaps and vibratory sensations.”
“Symptoms or signs of the cardiovascular system include palpitations, heart arrhythmias, and angina due to spasms of the coronary arteries, high blood pressure and mitral valve prolapse. Be aware that not all of the symptoms need to be present to presume magnesium deficiency; but, many of them often occur together. For example, people with mitral valve prolapse frequently have palpitations, anxiety, panic attacks and premenstrual symptoms. People with magnesium deficiency often seem to be “uptight.” Other general symptoms include a salt craving, both carbohydrate craving and carbohydrate intolerance, especially of chocolate, and breast tenderness.”
Magnesium is needed by every cell in the body including those of the brain. It is one of the most important minerals when considering supplementation because of its vital role in hundreds of enzyme systems and functions related to reactions in cell metabolism, as well as being essential for the synthesis of proteins, for the utilization of fats and carbohydrates. Magnesium is needed not only for the production of specific detoxification enzymes but is also important for energy production related to cell detoxification. A magnesium deficiency can affect virtually every system of the body.
Like water we need magnesium everyday. There is an
eternal need for magnesium as well as water and when
magnesium is present in water life and health are enhanced.
One of the principle reason doctors write millions of prescriptions for tranquilizers each year is the nervousness, irritability, and jitters largely brought on by inadequate diets lacking magnesium. Persons only slightly deficient in magnesium become irritable, highly-strung, and sensitive to noise, hyper-excitable, apprehensive and belligerent. If the deficiency is more severe or prolonged, they may develop twitching, tremors, irregular pulse, insomnia, muscle weakness, jerkiness and leg and foot cramps.
If magnesium is severely deficient, the brain is particularly affected. Clouded thinking, confusion, disorientation, marked depression and even the terrifying hallucinations of delirium tremens are largely brought on by a lack of this nutrient and remedied when magnesium is given. Because large amounts of calcium are lost in the urine when magnesium is under supplied, the lack of this nutrient indirectly becomes responsible for much rampant tooth decay, poor bone development, osteoporosis and slow healing of broken bones and fractures. With vitamin B6 (pyridoxine), magnesium helps to reduce and dissolve calcium phosphate kidney stones.
Magnesium deficiency may be a common factor associated with insulin resistance. Symptoms of MS that are also symptoms of magnesium deficiency include muscle spasms, weakness, twitching, muscle atrophy, an inability to control the bladder, nystagmus (rapid eye movements), hearing loss, and osteoporosis. People with MS have higher rates of epilepsy than controls. Epilepsy has also been linked to magnesium deficiencies.[1]
Another good list of early warning symptoms suggestive of magnesium insufficiency:
- Physical and mental fatigue
- Persistent under-eye twitch
- Tension in the upper back, shoulders and neck
- Headaches
- Pre-menstrual fluid retention and/or breast tenderness
Possible manifestations of magnesium deficiency include:
- Low energy
- Fatigue
- Weakness
- Confusion
- Nervousness
- Anxiousness
- Irritability
- Seizures (and tantrums)
- Poor digestion
- PMS and hormonal imbalances
- Inability to sleep
- Muscle tension, spasm and cramps
- Calcification of organs
- Weakening of the bones
- Abnormal heart rhythm
Severe magnesium deficiency can result in low levels of calcium in the blood (hypocalcemia). Magnesium deficiency is also associated with low levels of potassium in the blood (hypokalemia). Magnesium levels drop at night, leading to poor REM (Rapid Eye Movement) sleep cycles and unrefreshed sleep. Headaches, blurred vision, mouth ulcers, fatigue and anxiety are also early signs of depletion.
We hear all the time about how heart disease is the number one health crisis in the country, about how high blood pressure is the “silent killer”, and about how ever increasing numbers of our citizens are having their lives and the lives of their families destroyed by diabetes, Alzheimer’s disease, and a host of other chronic diseases.
Signs of severe magnesium deficiency include:
- Extreme thirst
- Extreme hunger
- Frequent urination
- Sores or bruises that heal slowly
- Dry, itchy skin
- Unexplained weight loss
- Blurry vision that changes from day to day
- Unusual tiredness or drowsiness
- Tingling or numbness in the hands or feet
- Frequent or recurring skin, gum, bladder or vaginal yeast infections
But wait a minute, aren’t those the same symptoms for diabetes? Many people have diabetes for about 5 years before they show strong symptoms. By that time, some people already have eye, kidney, gum or nerve damage caused by the deteriorating condition of their cells due to insulin resistance and magnesium deficiency. Dump some mercury and arsenic on the mixture of etiologies and pronto we have the disease condition we call diabetes.
Magnesium deficiency is synonymous with diabetes and is at the root of many if not all cardiovascular problems.
Magnesium deficiency is a predictor of diabetes and heart disease both; diabetics both need more magnesium and lose more magnesium than most people. In two new studies, in both men and women, those who consumed the most magnesium in their diet were least likely to develop type 2 diabetes, according to a report in the January 2006 issue of the journal Diabetes Care. Until now, very few large studies have directly examined the long-term effects of dietary magnesium on diabetes. Dr. Simin Liu of the Harvard Medical School and School of Public Health in Boston says, “Our studies provided some direct evidence that greater intake of dietary magnesium may have a long-term protective effect on lowering risk,” said Liu, who was involved in both studies.
Magnesium — A Key Nutrient for Health and Disease Prevention
S0urce:Mercola.com
Dr. Mercola
December 28, 2015
Magnesium is the fourth most abundant mineral in your body. More than 3,750 magnesium-binding sites have been detected on human proteins,1 and it’s required for more than 300 different enzymes in your body.
In short, magnesium plays an important role in a wide variety of biochemical processes, including the following:
| Creation of ATP2,3 (adenosine triphospate), the energy molecules of your body | Action of your heart muscle | Proper formation of bones and teeth |
| Relaxation of blood vessels | Regulation of blood sugar levels | Activating muscles and nerves |
| Helping digest proteins, carbohydrates, and fats | Serving as a cofactor for RNA and DNA | It’s also a catalyst for neurotransmitters like serotonin |
As is the case with vitamin D, if you don’t have enough magnesium, your body simply cannot function optimally, and insufficient cellular magnesium levels set the stage for deterioration of metabolic function that can snowball into more serious health problems.
For starters, magnesium is critical for the optimization of your mitochondria, which have enormous potential to influence your health, especially the prevention of cancer.
In fact, optimizing mitochondrial metabolism may be at the core of effective cancer treatment. But your mitochondrial function is also crucial for overall good health, energy, and athletic performance.
Optimizing Mitochondrial Function with Magnesium
Mitochondria are tiny organelles, originally thought to be derived from bacteria. Most cells have anywhere from 1 to 2,000 of them. Your organs need energy to function properly, and that energy is produced by the mitochondria in each cell.
Since mitochondrial function is at the very heart of everything that occurs in your body, optimizing mitochondrial function (and preventing mitochondrial dysfunction) by making sure you get all the right nutrients and precursors your mitochondria need is extremely important for health and disease prevention.
As explained by Rhonda Patrick, Ph.D., in the video above, magnesium plays an important role. Patrick has done extensive research on the link between mitochondrial metabolism, apoptosis and cancer, and on the effects of hyperthermic conditioning on muscle growth.
High-intensity interval training helps optimize athletic performance by increasing your oxidative capacity, meaning the ability of your muscle cells to consume oxygen. Your oxidative capacity relies on your mitochondria’s ability to produce ATP by consuming that oxygen inside the cell.
As noted by Patrick, “You want your ATP production to exceed your ATP consumption, in order to enhance or maximize your performance and avoid muscle fatigue.”
You can increase your oxidative capacity in two ways:
- Increasing the total number of mitochondria in your cells by engaging in high intensity interval exercises. However, in order for new mitochondria to be created, you must have sufficient amounts of magnesium.
- Increasing the efficiency of your mitochondria to repair damage and produce ATP. This process also requires magnesium as a co-factor.
Common Causes for Magnesium Deficiency
A century ago, we were getting an estimated 500 milligrams (mg) of magnesium from the food we ate, courtesy of the nutrient-rich soil in which it was grown. Today, estimates suggest we’re only getting 150 to 300 mg a day from our food supply.
As noted by Patrick, eating a diet rich in calories and poor in micronutrients (read processed foods) is a primary risk factor for magnesium deficiency, for the simple reason that magnesium resides at the center of the chlorophyll molecule.
Chlorophyll, as you may know, is what gives plants their green color. Most Americans eat far too few fruits and vegetables, which may explain why more than half of the American public is deficient in magnesium.
In addition to not getting sufficient amounts from your diet, magnesium is also lost through stress, lack of sleep, alcohol consumption, and prescription drug use (especially diuretics, statins, fluoride and fluoride-containing drugs such as fluoroquinolone antibiotics).
Magnesium levels can also decline in the presence of certain hormones, such as estrogen. If you have elevated insulin levels — which an estimated 80 percent of Americans do — you’re quite likely to have low magnesium levels.4
Increasing your magnesium intake may actually go a long way toward improving your condition, or warding off insulin resistance and diabetes in the first place. In one study,5 prediabetics with the highest magnesium intake reduced their risk for blood sugar and metabolic problems by 71 percent.
A second study6 also found that higher magnesium intake reduces the risk of impaired glucose and insulin metabolism and slows progression from pre-diabetes to diabetes.
According to the authors, “Magnesium intake may be particularly beneficial in offsetting your risk of developing diabetes, if you are high risk.” The mechanism by which magnesium controls glucose and insulin homeostasis appears to involve two genes responsible for magnesium homeostasis.7
Magnesium is also required to activate tyrosine kinase, an enzyme that functions as an “on” or “off” switch in many cellular functions and is required for the proper function of your insulin receptors. Last but not least, digestive problems such as Crohn’s disease and leaky gut impair your body’s ability to absorb magnesium, which is yet another cause of inadequate magnesium levels.
As noted by Dr. Dean, it’s quite possible that magnesium insufficiency is part of why health problems such as heart disease, diabetes, and high blood pressure are so prevalent these days. It may also play a role in fibromyalgia,8 magnesium deficiency is a well-recognized factor in migraines.9
Why 80% of Us Are Deficient In Magnesium
GreenMedInfo.com
Dr. Mark Sircus
Magnesium deficiency is often misdiagnosed because it does not show up in blood tests – only 1% of the body’s magnesium is stored in the blood.
Most doctors and laboratories don’t even include magnesium status in routine blood tests. Thus, most doctors don’t know when their patients are deficient in magnesium, even though studies show that the majority of Americans are deficient in magnesium.
Consider Dr. Norman Shealy’s statements, “Every known illness is associated with a magnesium deficiency” and that, “magnesium is the most critical mineral required for electrical stability of every cell in the body. A magnesium deficiency may be responsible for more diseases than any other nutrient.” The truth he states exposes a gapping hole in modern medicine that explains a good deal about iatrogenic death and disease. Because magnesium deficiency is largely overlooked, millions of Americans suffer needlessly or are having their symptoms treated with expensive drugs when they could be cured with magnesium supplementation.
One has to recognize the signs of magnesium thirst or hunger on their own since allopathic medicine is lost in this regard. It is really something much more subtle then hunger or thirst but it is comparable. In a world though where doctors and patients alike do not even pay attention to thirst and important issues of hydration, it is not hopeful that we will find many recognizing and paying attention to magnesium thirst and hunger, which is a dramatic way of expressing the concept of magnesium deficiency.
Few people are aware of the enormous role magnesium plays in our bodies. Magnesium is by far the most important mineral in the body. After oxygen, water, and basic food, magnesium may be the most important element needed by our bodies; vitally important, yet hardly known. It is more important than calcium, potassium or sodium and regulates all three of them. Millions suffer daily from magnesium deficiency without even knowing it
You know all those years, when doctors used to tell their patients ‘its all in your heads,’ were years the medical profession was showing its ignorance. It is a torment to be magnesium deficient on one level or another. Even if it’s for the enthusiastic sport person whose athletic performance is down, magnesium deficiency will disturb sleep and background stress levels and a host of other things that reflect on the quality of life. Doctors have not been using the appropriate test for magnesium – their serum blood tests just distort their perceptions. Magnesium has been off their radar screens through the decades that magnesium deficiencies have snowballed.
Symptoms of Magnesium Deficiency
The first symptoms of deficiency can be subtle – as most magnesium is stored in the tissues, leg cramps, foot pain, or muscle ‘twitches’ can be the first sign. Other early signs of deficiency include loss of appetite, nausea, vomiting, fatigue, and weakness. As magnesium deficiency worsens, numbness, tingling, seizures, personality changes, abnormal heart rhythms, and coronary spasms can occur.
A full outline of magnesium deficiency was beautifully presented in a recent article by Dr. Sidney Baker. “Magnesium deficiency can affect virtually every organ system of the body. With regard to skeletal muscle, one may experience twitches, cramps, muscle tension, muscle soreness, including back aches, neck pain, tension headaches and jaw joint (or TMJ) dysfunction. Also, one may experience chest tightness or a peculiar sensation that he can’t take a deep breath. Sometimes a person may sigh a lot.”
“Symptoms involving impaired contraction of smooth muscles include constipation; urinary spasms; menstrual cramps; difficulty swallowing or a lump in the throat-especially provoked by eating sugar; photophobia, especially difficulty adjusting to oncoming bright headlights in the absence of eye disease; and loud noise sensitivity from stapedius muscle tension in the ear.”
“Other symptoms and signs of magnesium deficiency and discuss laboratory testing for this common condition. Continuing with the symptoms of magnesium deficiency, the central nervous system is markedly affected. Symptoms include insomnia, anxiety, hyperactivity and restlessness with constant movement, panic attacks, agoraphobia, and premenstrual irritability. Magnesium deficiency symptoms involving the peripheral nervous system include numbness, tingling, and other abnormal sensations, such as zips, zaps and vibratory sensations.”
“Symptoms or signs of the cardiovascular system include palpitations, heart arrhythmias, and angina due to spasms of the coronary arteries, high blood pressure and mitral valve prolapse. Be aware that not all of the symptoms need to be present to presume magnesium deficiency; but, many of them often occur together. For example, people with mitral valve prolapse frequently have palpitations, anxiety, panic attacks and premenstrual symptoms. People with magnesium deficiency often seem to be “uptight.” Other general symptoms include a salt craving, both carbohydrate craving and carbohydrate intolerance, especially of chocolate, and breast tenderness.”
Magnesium is needed by every cell in the body including those of the brain. It is one of the most important minerals when considering supplementation because of its vital role in hundreds of enzyme systems and functions related to reactions in cell metabolism, as well as being essential for the synthesis of proteins, for the utilization of fats and carbohydrates. Magnesium is needed not only for the production of specific detoxification enzymes but is also important for energy production related to cell detoxification. A magnesium deficiency can affect virtually every system of the body.
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