What is the buzz about magnesium? What are the signs of magnesium deficiency? Where do you find magnesium in food?
Observational studies state that patients with migraine are found to have lower serum and brain magnesium. Dietary magnesium intervention is shown to have improvement in lung function in asthma and bronchitis patients
What are the benefits of taking magnesium?
Magnesium is needed for over 600 life processes and 300 enzymatic reactions
Popularly known as nature's tranquilizer, magnesium is essential to put you to sleep as it aids in lowering stress in the body and boosting serotonin levels. It works like an antidepressant by raising levels of calming hormone serotonin and lowering stress, anxiety, and depression.
This mighty mineral is known to help muscle development, boost energy, promote heart health, balance hormones, promote sleep.
"Did you know magnesium is an essential mineral to aid in vitamin D absorption in the body?"
Magnesium plays an important role in preventing several medical conditions, including osteoporosis, diabetes, migraine, bronchial asthma, and cardiovascular diseases.
Well, magnesium is an essential mineral for
- healthy bones and muscles
- nerves
- appetite
- blood sugar management
- cardiovascular health
Magnesium is essential to make proteins. It is crucial to the formation of bone and DNA or genetic material.
The essential mineral facilitates the supply of potassium and calcium ions across cell membranes. This action is crucial for muscle contraction, nerve impulses, heart rhytm, and maintaining relaxation and contraction of blood vessels.
Research finds,
Critically ill patients, who are also deficient in magnesium, are at a high risk of morbidity.
What is the recommended dosage of magnesium?
Magnesium is essential for carbohydrate metabolism in the body.
The United States Food and Nutrition Board recommends 420 mg of magnesium for adult males. On the other hand, it is slightly lower for women. Adult females should take no less than 320 mg of this essential mineral.
"Not many are aware that 10% of the daily dose comes from water. "
What are the signs of magnesium deficiency?
People with magnesium deficiency are prone to diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure, migraine, and osteoporosis.
The lack of magnesium puts you at a high risk of disease, including:
- abnormal heart rhythm
- heart attack
- stroke
- osteoporosis
- poor cardiovascular health
- muscular cramps, muscle spasms, tremors
- nerve tingling and numbness
- mouth ulcers and sores
- diabetes
- seizures
- fatigue
- nausea/vomiting /low appetite
"Magnesium deficiency appears to lower intracellular potassium and to increase intracellular sodium and calcium concentrations. Therefore, magnesium is essential to avoid cardiovascular diseases (acute myocardial infarction, arrhythmias, hypertension) and to restore cellular potassium concentrations.
Magnesium deficiency causes
Poor dietary choices put you at a high risk of magnesium deficiency. You get a high amount of this mineral from whole grains, bran, and cereals. But if your diet is unhealthy and you make poor dietary choices, you could be magnesium deficient.
Besides, some prescription medicines for stomach ulcers or acid reflux can interfere with magnesium absorption in the body. So you could easily become mg deficient.
Another cause of deficiency of magnesium is the intake of certain diuretics that can affect the levels of this mineral.
Not only this, if you take zinc supplements, this may put you at a risk of magnesium deficiency as high doses of zinc can interfere with your magnesium absorption.
Apart from this, impaired gastrointestinal absorption of magnesium is another cause of the deficiency. The reasons could be celiac disease, gut syndrome, pancreatic insufficiency, chronic diarrhea, IBS, and chronic alcoholism.
Besides, demineralized water intake, consumption of processed foods, and bad agricultural practices that use soil deficient in magnesium contribute to magnesium deficiency among the world's population.
So the focus should be on a balanced diet.
"Low serum magnesium has been demonstrated to be associated with low bone density in pre- and postmenopausal women," according to a research paper.
What are top Magnesium Rich foods?
- whole grains
- green vegetables
- legumes
- nuts & seeds
Let's break this down further
- cashews
- figs
- almonds
- peanuts
- walnuts
- red lentils
- chia seeds
- pumpkin seeds
- banana
- dark chocolate
- oats
- spinach
- dried beans (black beans - highest)
- tofu
- avocado
- cultured yogurt
- chickpeas (115mg/100gram)
- flaxseeds (392 mg /100 gr)
- pumpkin seeds (535 mg/100gram)
- chia seeds (335mg/100g)
- sesame seeds (340 mg/100gr)
How much magnesium is in the following nuts:
- Aalmonds have 80 mg per ounce,
- Cashews 74 mg per ounce
- 100 grams of walnuts have 158 mg of magnesium
- 2 tablespoons of peanut butter have 49 mg
- Hazelnuts 160 mg/ounce
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