The Miracle That is Magnesium

Everyone loves the Fourth of July! Our fabulous Independence Day is one of my favorites, and what would it be without fireworks?  But as we enjoy the metallic flash of patriotic pyrotechnics, we are also witnessing the power of magnesium, a silvery white powder that burns with extreme heat and  glowing intensity.

But magnesium does a great deal more than put the oomph in our greatest national holiday, it's an essential mineral in the human diet and it's effects there are even more spectacular.

In many ways you could consider magnesium a miracle.  It protects against heart disease, fights Epstein-Barr, lowers blood pressure, keeps muscles smooth, supple and strong,  helps prevent kidney stones and slows bone loss.  As if this wasn't enough for one little mineral to achieve, it also may help to prevent diabetes!

Scientists now acknowledge that magnesium plays a leading role in keeping your arteries open and your blood flowing.  So it's very useful in the fight against atherosclerosis, that narrowing of the arteries that leads to heart attacks and strokes.  It works with companion calcium to keep your blood pressure in check, also protecting against these twin killers.

According to Prevention magazine, when given intravenously to patients who had suffered heart attacks, only a little over 3 percent of those died, whilst an amazing 8.2 percent of those who didn't, passed from the attacks. 

That's quite a shocking statistic. Magnesium is also Mother Nature's muscle relaxant. It's used to stave off contractions in premature labor as well as in heart attacks. "Magnesium when it spasms" was taught to us in Naturopathic Medical School as a helpful rule of thumb. If you suffer from leg cramps, muscular back pain or any kind of cramping muscle pain, 250 to 500 milligrams of magnesium taken every four to six hours brings serious, blessed and non-narcotic relief in minutes. 

Sometimes one dose is enough to solve the problem entirely. With so many people suffering from back pain and taking dangerous and addictive drugs, wouldn't it be a better idea to try magnesium first? Magnesium helps prevent kidney stones by binding to oxalate, the main ingredient in stone formation.  In diabetes, it improves glucose tolerance, a factor in the development of that disease. 

Researchers in Italy found that using large doses daily for four weeks improved glucose tolerance in elderly patients, but please don't do this unless you discuss it with your physician. Remember this was a supervised study with controls.  

Women in menopause and after can help to decrease bone loss simply by doubling the RDA of magnesium daily or 700 mgs. For men, the RDA is 350 mgs. You can add magnesium to your daily menu by increasing dark green leafy vegetables, whole grains, nuts and seeds, as well as in supplement form.  You can also get too much magnesium. 

When I have a patient who suffers from persistent diarrhea and is otherwise in good health, I always check for an excess of magnesium. Sometimes folks who take too many multi-nutrients as well as antacids and even some pain relievers  are getting far too much magnesium. An hourly appointment with the loo can result. Patients who suffer from impaired kidneys should use these over the counter remedies with caution or avoid them entirely as they can do further damage.  

On the whole, magnesium is not just a necessary part of your daily diet, it's an explosive miracle of good health.

Note to my readers: I'm going on vacation for the month of August, but I'll be back in September with brand-new articles, more series on Natural Healers and more information on which remedies work and which are a waste of your hard earned cash.  Enjoy the rest of summer and blessings to you all!  Thank you for being my faithful readers.  Dr. Boots