Magnesium has been called the "master mineral" because it is involved with over 300 metabolic functions within our bodies. Yet, everyone who relies on commercially farmed, depleted topsoil crops is magnesium deficient. Organic crops have considerably more magnesium content than what Big Ag can offer.
As a supplement, magnesium is also vastly underrated. It seems the manic thrust for calcium supplementation exceeds the mild interest toward magnesium. But excessive calcium supplementation leads to a lot of health issues, including bone problems.
Calcium is also lost without magnesium to help guide it. Free floating calcium in the blood and calcifying soft tissue, such as inner arterial walls and heart chambers, instead of accumulating in bone matter. Recent studies indicate excess calcium consumption causes cardiac issues.
Health practitioner and author, Mark Sircus, OMD, puts it this way: "Inside chlorophyll is the lamp of life and that lamp is magnesium. The capture of light energy from the sun is magnesium dependent." Foods grown in decent topsoil and superfoods high in chlorophyl are good sources of magnesium.
After examining a few reasons why your magnesium level needs to be high, some methods of supplementing magnesium will be reviewed.
Six areas of health that cannot do without magnesium
(1) Magnesium helps control heart beat rhythms. Low magnesium leads to arrhythmia, palpitations, atrial fibrillation, or even sudden cardiac arrest. It also acts as a calcium channel blocker for the heart and protects against heart muscle spasms.(2) Magnesium deficiency can affect the nervous system beyond improperly timed heart muscle stimulation. Mental irritability and muscular tension can consume someone who's lacking sufficient magnesium.
(3) Magnesium is essential to glutathione production in the body from properly provided precursors, such as NAC. The master mineral magnesium helps provide the master antioxidant glutathione.
Glutathione is able to revitalize all other antioxidants that have scavenged their fill of electron radicals and recycle them back into doing their business again. Very vital for overall immunity.
(4) Research has uncovered a common thread among fibromyalgia sufferers, they are usually very low in magnesium.
(5) Magnesium deficiency is also common amongst Type II diabetes sufferers. With heavy magnesium supplementing, diabetes peripheral neuropathy symptoms and coronary artery disease improve. Insulin sensitivity improves and fasting glucose levels decline when magnesium is supplemented.
(6) Twitches, spasms, convulsions, restless leg syndrome, sensitivity to light or sound, hypertension, and a multitude of nervous system symptoms that can be attributed to other diseases may all be from magnesium deficiency. Magnesium affects the brain and nervous system in many unimagined ways.
Supplementing magnesium
Magnesium from supplements is tricky, but usually necessary. The problem is magnesium supplements are not so easy to assimilate and absorb where needed. This issue has given rise to transdermal magnesium oil (magnesium chloride), which is applied topically and absorbed into the blood through the skin.It's actually not an oil. It just feels like it; slippery stuff. Magnesium oil is a high concentration of magnesium from ancient sea beds that are often underground. It can be sprayed or rubbed onto the skin wherever it's comfortable. It irritates a few people's skins. So it's wise to sample a small amount before buying a gallon or less.
A cheaper transdermal method for taking in magnesium is through Epsom salt baths. Some use it orally on occasion to ease muscular tension and restlessness upon retiring. But Epsom salt's magnesium is packaged with some impurities, so use with caution.
GreenMedInfo.com recommends magnesium glycinate as a highly bio-available oral magnesium supplement. Pricier oral solutions for immediate magnesium absorption that advances rapid relaxation come with various magnesium citrate formulas, such as Natural Calm, A to B Calm, and Cal-Mag.
