MAGNESIUM DRAINS…
In Parts 1 and 2 of my Magnesium Primer, you learned why Magnesium is one of the most vitally important nutrients for your health (#1 in my opinion), and also why it is very unlikely that you can obtain all of the Magnesium your body needs simply through diet alone, even if you are eating an organic diet that includes and abundance of Magnesium-rich foods.
Now I want to share with you some of the most common factors that all of us are exposed to that can severely deplete your body’s Magnesium stores. Lets’ start with the one that is most pervasive—stress!
“Stress!” and Magnesium Loss
If you only remember one thing from this article, let it be this:
The more “Stress!” you are under, the Mo’ Maggie you need!
This one fact, if you act on it by increasing your intake of Magnesium, both through foods and through Magnesium supplements, will change your health for the better. I guarantee it!
Here’s what you need to know about stress to understand how and why it is such a major Magnesium drain:
All of us experience stress to some degree or another each and every day. When we do, our body releases substances known as catecholamines and corticosteroids. In plain English, we know these substances as “stress hormones.” The release of stress hormones is part of our bodies’ built-in survival mechanism that dates back to the time of our ancient ancestors, when the flood of these hormones helped them to quickly react and protect themselves when their lives were threatened. Under such circumstances, these hormones furnished them with a temporary burst of energy and enhanced cardiac and musculoskeletal performance so that they could escape danger. Once the danger passed, their bodies dissipated the hormones and life went on as before. This biochemical reaction is today known as the “fight or flight” response.
The “fight or flight” response is also a built-in part of our bodies’ evolutionary design. However, unlike the days of our ancestors, today the response is triggered not only when we may be frightened or in danger, but also whenever we experience or perceive “Stress!” for any reason. In addition, today stress is increasingly chronic, meaning that it affects us on an ongoing basis, unlike the temporary exposures to danger that our ancestors faced. And today’s stresses are often due to unresolved emotional or mental issues, not just physical threats to our overall well-being. Whether you are angry, depressed, or being chased down the street by a mugger, the levels and types of stress hormones that our body releases under each of these circumstances remain the same.
Chronic stress results in the chronic release of stress hormones, and that’s where the problem lies, especially with regard to metabolic marvel, Maggie! You see, every time our bodies release stress hormones they draw upon and deplete our Magnesium stores and this inactivates Magnesium’s potential in the body, thereby preventing this most important mineral from performing its thousands of vital tasks.
During times of fleeting stress, this may not be problematic, but since chronic stress is hardly rare these days, it becomes a major drain of Magnesium.
But that’s not all. Researchers and physicians have shown since the late 1800s that stress hormones can and do cause the cells of our heart to die. This condition is known as Acute Catecholamine-induced Myocardial Necrosis, aka Cardiac Necrosis, or, in layperson terms, heart cell death.
You’ve probably guessed that the underlying mechanism behind heart cell death is the depletion of Magnesium that the release of stress hormones causes.
Here’s how it happens: First, stress hormones deplete Magnesium. Then, without the regulatory effect of Magnesium, electrolytes (compounds in your body that help regulate the amount of water in your body, electrical potential of cell membranes, blood pH, muscle and nerve function, and other important processes) start to malfunction.
This, in turn, results in impaired or a complete stoppage of the production of ATP (our body’s main source of cellular energy) in the heart cells, causing them to die. When this happens often enough, the heart muscle tissue becomes compromised.
Left unchecked, this process of heart muscle cell starvation leads to our nation’s # 1 health problem and killer—heart disease. And I’m here to tell you that it is this sequence of events—stress, stress hormones, Maggie depletion, electrolyte dysfunction, heart cell death, inflammation, then fibrosis (calcification)—that is the true cause of heart disease, not elevated cholesterol levels and the other associated risk factors that cardiologists emphasize instead of checking their patients’ ability to create energy for heart muscle function, primarily Magnesium status.
This simple but vitally important and altogether overlooked fact is all you need to know to protect yourself and your loved ones from our nation’s most common killer. Providing that you act upon it, of course!
The solution to heart disease is simple: Manage your stress levels and take Mo’ Maggie!
This simple formula will also help protect you from many other diseases, as well, since the risk of heart disease is only one of the many serious conditions for which risk dramatically increases in the face of stress and Magnesium-depletion.
Now let’s take a look at another far too common robber of Magnesium.
Fluoride—Another Major Magnesium Drain
It’s a well-known fact among chemists that certain compounds inactivate the properties of other compounds. This is certainly the case with fluoride in relation to Magnesium. Not only do fluorides deplete Magnesium in the body, they also negate the body’s ability to absorb, and therefore make use of Magnesium, even when we eat Magnesium-rich foods and take Magnesium supplements.
Unfortunately, the presence of fluorides in our environment is substantial, as various fluorides are used in many industrial activities, commercial farming, as well as food processing. Fluoride is also a common ingredient in most brands of toothpaste sold in the US, as well as certain mouthwashes, and, unlike other Western nations, is an additive in many municipal drinking water supplies across the country. I consider this to be a public health risk of the highest order, because fluoride, despite claims to the contrary, is a non-degradable poison that accumulates in soil, plants, and in the tissues, organs and bones of both animals and humans.
Here is what you must understand about fluoride:
Not only is it poisonous, it also prevents Magnesium from performing its multitude of important functions in the body!
Therefore, I recommend that you avoid anything that adds to the buildup of fluoride in your body. This can be challenging but is not impossible. Today there are a growing number of fluoride-free toothpaste and mouthwash products on the market, and with the ongoing rise of organic farms across the US, it’s becoming easier to obtain foods that are grown and harvested without the use of fluoride.
Unless you live in one of the few municipalities in the US that don’t add fluoride to their water supplies (you can find a list of such communities here: http://www.fluoridealert.org/content/communities), drinking and bathing in tap water is more problematic. You can filter your tap water, of course, but few water filtration systems filter out fluoride to any measurable extent.
That’s why I recommend a healthy diet that is rich in foods that both contain lots of Maggie, as well as a variety of other nutrients that support your body’s organs of detoxification. The bottom line is that we live in a poisoned planet and we cannot escape exposure to toxins completely no matter how hard we try. But we can improve our resistance to them, and, again, that starts with increasing your uptake of Maggie!
Oh, and there’s one other major source of fluoride that I haven’t mentioned yet…
Pharmaceutical Drugs
Given how important Maggie is to your health, you would think that all doctors would test their patients for Magnesium deficiencies and educate them about their need to daily supplement with Maggie. Unfortunately, they don’t.
And they compound this problem by regularly prescribing pharmaceutical drugs that—you guessed it!—seriously deplete Magnesium stores.
For example, did you know that one of the primary active ingredients in approximately 55 percent of all pharmaceutical drugs sold in the US is fluoride? I bet you didn’t, and I’m willing to bet that many doctors are unaware of this fact, as well.
If you are taking these drugs, you are robbing your body of Magnesium. That is not a good way to regain your health. Not unless you think bailing water with a sieve is a good way to cope with flooding!
But fluoride-based drugs are not the only problem. Other types of drugs drain Maggie, as well. They include certain antibiotics and antifungal drugs, asthma drugs, blood pressure medications, corticosteroid drugs, diuretics, heart medications, and drugs containing estrogen, such as birth control pills and synthetic hormone replacement drugs.
For a more in-depth list of pharmaceutical drugs, I highly recommend you read the article 14 Drugs That Deplete Your Body of Magnesium by “America’s Most Trusted Pharmacist,” Suzy Cohen, R.Ph. You can find it here: http://www.jigsawhealth.com/resources/drug-muggers-suzy-cohen-magnesium.
Conclusion
The above three factors are three of the most serious reasons our nation is suffering from a severe epidemic of Magnesium-deficiencies. But they are far from the only ones. Next time I will tell you about things that are also robbing you of Magnesium.
Till then, as always, stay healthy by taking more Maggie!
EATING HEALTHY IS IMPORTANT, BUT NOT ENOUGH!
Last time (https://therootcauseprotocol.com/a-magnesium-primer-part-1/) I introduced you to Magnesium, which I consider to be the most important nutrient for health, and one that is being completely ignored by mainstream media and conventional medicine. I also discussed some of the many important roles it plays in the body and shared some of its significant health benefits. (There are many more, and I’ll be sharing others in future articles).
Now let’s discuss the importance of diet when it comes to obtaining adequate levels of Magnesium—each and every day. Just as importantly, I want to show you why diet alone, no matter how healthily you eat, is simply not enough to meet all of your body’s Magnesium needs.
This is a crucial point to understand, so let me repeat it: In today’s world, a healthy diet is not enough for you to achieve and maintain optimal health!
But a healthy diet of real, nutrient-dense food still remains a critical baseline.
Healthy Eating Guidelines for Obtaining Magnesium
One of the primary cornerstones to good health is a healthy diet. Everybody knows this, but in our society today very few people truly take it to heart, or even know where to begin. In fact, recent research has shown that “nearly the entire U.S. population” fails to meet the Recommended Daily Allowances (RDAs) for our body’s nutritional needs. (1) And the RDAs themselves are wholly inadequate to rely upon for optimal health, since they only measure the minimum amount of each nutrient needed to prevent disease, not the amounts that are necessary to create and maintain optimal health!
Obviously, to obtain Magnesium from our diet, we need to eat foods that contain it, especially those foods in which Magnesium is most concentrated. As I mentioned last time, Magnesium is a key component of chlorophyll, the equivalent in plants to blood in humans. Therefore, chlorophyll-rich, green foods are also good sources of Magnesium, especially foods like Swiss chard, collard greens, mustard greens, beet greens, kale, parsley, spinach asparagus, and broccoli.
Not all Magnesium-rich foods are green foods, of course. Here’s a list of other foods that are also high in magnesium:
Almonds
Almond butter
Avocado
Barley
Black beans
Blackstrap molasses
Brazil nuts
Beets and beet greens
Brown rice
Cauliflower
Chives
Cocoa
Cashews
Halibut
Kidney beans
Leeks
Lima beans
Millet
Navy beans
Onions
Pinto beans
Quinoa
Rice bran
Salmon
Scallops
Shrimp
Shallots
Tomatoes
Tuna
Various seeds, such as flaxseed, pumpkin, sesame and sunflower seeds, are also very rich in Magnesium, as are certain spices, including coriander, cumin, fennel, and parsley. Seaweed is among the best sources of Magnesium on the Planet. The Magnesium content of these foods and spices actually exceeds that of many of the green foods listed above.
It’s Not What You Eat That Counts, It’s What Your Body Is Able To Use (Absorb)
You might think that simply adding more of the above foods to your diet and eating them more regularly would be sufficient to ensure you are getting enough Magnesium. Unfortunately, it’s not that simple.
For one thing, research shows that most people suffer from some level of impaired digestion due to various factors ranging from digestive enzyme deficiencies, lack of sufficient stomach acid, insufficient diversity of gut flora, food allergies, and other gastrointestinal conditions. That means that your body is most likely unable to completely absorb and utilize the Magnesium (as well as other nutrients) it obtains from the foods you eat.
In fact, many people only absorb 25% or less of the nutrients that their diet supplies, and on average the absorption rate is not much better, ranging only from 40-60%. The remaining percentage of Magnesium and other nutrients that isn’t absorbed properly cannot be used by the body. Instead, the nutrients are eliminated each time that you go to the bathroom.
Other dietary factors can also significantly reduce how much Magnesium you obtain from your diet, even when you make it a point to eat well.
One of the most common is overcooking. Even a few minutes of lightly steaming vegetables can reduce the Magnesium content of vegetables, while other cooking methods, such as boiling and roasting, can destroy Magnesium content altogether. That’s why it is always a good idea to eat at least a portion of your vegetables uncooked.
Then there is the problem of various chemical substances that are also found in various Magnesium-rich foods. Two of the most troublesome are the classes of compounds known as phytates and oxalates. Both of these types of compounds are naturally-occurring in many vegetables, nuts, grains, and legumes (beans). But not everything found within nature is good for you.
That is certainly true of these two chemical groups. Both phytates, which are found in grains and legumes, and oxalates, which are found in certain types of fruits and vegetables, bind up with Magnesium and other mineral nutrients, and, in the case of phytates, form toxic substances. This not only prevents Magnesium from being absorbed, but can also cause health problems and deplete your body’s energy levels as it is forced to divert some of its energy resources to eliminate the toxins these compounds form.
And, remember, as I also explained last time, without enough Magnesium, your body cannot produce enough Mg-ATP to fuel mitochondria, the energy factories to run all 100 trillion cells of our body. Fortunately, soaking grains and legumes overnight can minimize the harmful effects phytates can cause, but few people take the time to do that before they cook.
In some people, oxalates can build up as deposits in the kidney, causing kidney stones, kidney infection and other problems. Therefore, people who are prone to kidney stones are often advised to avoid or minimize eating foods high in oxalates, which include spinach, Swiss chard, beet greens, and collard greens, as well as quinoa, cocoa and dark chocolate. Referring back to the food list above, you see that these foods are also high in magnesium.
Magnesium deficiency, coupled with a lack of Vitamin B6, is a known cause of kidney stone formation. Given that oxalates bind Magnesium and prevent it from being used by our bodies, you can see why regularly consuming foods rich in both Magnesium and oxalates can be a double-edged sword.
Both low- and high-protein diets, both of which are popular in the US today, can also interfere with your body’s ability to utilize Magnesium. Too little protein interferes with Magnesium absorption, while excess protein consumption causes your body’s Magnesium stores to be excreted.
Similarly, primarily consuming foods that are acid-forming, such as meats, poultry, fish, starches, sugars, simple carbs, and processed foods, as well as acidifying beverages like alcohol, soda and coffee, also depletes your body’s
Magnesium stores, since Magnesium, along with calcium and potassium, and the primary minerals your body uses to neutralize excess acid and prevent pH imbalance. The standard American diet is the epitome of a highly acidifying and unhealthy diet.
Other factors that interfere with Magnesium absorption are high salt and high fat intake, both of which are also quite common in the US.
Our Nation’s Food Production Method Is Also A Major Issue
Perhaps the biggest factor that explains why even the most conscientious eaters fail to obtain enough Magnesium, no matter how healthy they try to eat is this:
Thanks to nearly a century of commercial farming methods, the mineral content of our nation’s soil crops has been all but destroyed, and we are also being poisoned by the commercial meat, poultry, fish and dairy industries!
Modern day farming methods have severely depleted our soil’s mineral content, both by abandoning the centuries-old practice of spreading rock dust, crop rotation from growing season to growing season, and most especially by dumping untold tons of chemical fertilizers, pesticides, and other unnatural substances into the soil to boost production. As if that isn’t enough, by the time fruits and vegetables reach the marketplace, they are usually laced with preservatives and other synthetic additives.
The steady decline of the nutritional value of US farmland has steadily declined since the early 20th century. This fact was confirmed by researchers at the University of Texas at Austin, who investigated the effects of modern farming methods on the nutritional values of over 40 vegetables, along with melons and strawberries. By examining data of the crops grown in 1950 compared to the same crops grown in 1999, they found that overall the nutritional content of the 1950s foods were as much as 38 percent higher than that of the 1999 crops.
Commenting on the study, lead investigator Dr. Donald Davis wrote, “We conclude that the most likely explanation was changes in cultivated varieties used today compared to fifty years ago…Perhaps more worrisome, would be declines in nutrients we could not study because they were not reported in 1950—magnesium, zinc, vitamin B6, vitamin E, and dietary fiber, not to mention phytochemicals [emphasis added].” (2) Overall, the mineral content of today’s US farmland is estimated to be one-sixth of what it was in the 1950s, due almost entirely due to commercial farming methods. (3)
The important point to remember about this is:
Depleted mineral supplies in cropland means reduced levels of all nutrients in the crops that are grown on that land.
Similar problems exist in the commercial meat, poultry, and dairy industries, as well. The foods produced by these industries are derived animals that are given unhealthy injections of growth hormones, as well as antibiotics to counteract the very unsanitary conditions in which the animals are raised. And once the animals are slaughtered, the foods are often irradiated. Antibiotics, along with food dyes, are also used in the harvesting of “farm-raised” fish. All of these practices are extremely unhealthy, despite industry claims to the contrary, and is today being further exacerbated by the growing use of genetically modified “Frankenfoods,” for which no long-term human safety studies have ever been conducted.
Fortunately, there is a growing trend towards organic farming and healthier methods for producing meats, poultry, fish and dairy foods.
Remember, we are what we eat, eats!
But as a nation we still have a long way to go before we can expect to have foods available to us that are as nutrient-rich as the foods are ancestors ate.
Conclusion
All of the above facts should make clear to you why, important though it most certainly is, a healthy diet alone is not enough to ensure that your body is getting enough Magnesium each and every day. And, believe it or not, there are a number of other common factors that deplete Magnesium and which most certainly affect you on a regular basis, including another biggie—stress! Check back soon as I talk about that and tell you what you can do about it.
In the meantime, be sure to supplement your diet with Magnesium supplements each and every day! I’ll share more about how to use them soon, as well.
To your health! – Morley
References
Krebs-Smith. SM. Americans do not meet federal dietary recommendations. J of Nutr., Vol. 140, 2010 Oct (140):1832. doi:10.3945/jn.110.124826
Davis DR, et al. Changes in USDA Food Composition Data for 43 Garden Crops, 1950 to 1999. J Amer Coll Nutr. 2004 Dec; 23(6): 669-682.
3
Trivieri, Larry Jr. The American Holistic Medical Association Guide to Holistic Health. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1999; p.43.
“Living without adequate levels of Magnesium is like trying to operate a machine with the power off.” ~ Christiane Northrup, MD
“Without enough Magnesium, cells simply don’t work.” ~ Lawrence M. Resnick, MD (Former Prof. of Medicine at Weill Cornell Medical School)
Given the quotations above, as well as the many studies that prove how central Magnesium (Mg) is to our health and well-being, you’d think that all doctors would be telling their patients about this amazing nutrient, as well as testing them to determine if they are Magnesium-deficient. If they did, they would soon find that nearly all of their patients are, because Magnesium deficiency is epidemic today, and a root cause of so many of the serious diseases that comprise our nation’s health crisis. Sadly, very few doctors have been trained in Magnesium metabolism and you won’t hear about Magnesium on the news, either.
I’m on a mission to change that.
Let’s take a look at what Magnesium is and why I consider it to be the key to solving our most serious health problems. First, a few facts:
Magnesium is named after the ancient Greek city Magnesia, which was famed for its fertile cropland. It was later discovered that the cropland contained large deposits of Magnesium carbonate which were responsible for the highly regarded produce it yielded year after year.
Magnesium is sometimes referred to as the “iron of the plant world,” for just as iron is found in hemoglobin, a primary component of human blood, Magnesium is a primary element of the central atom that makes up chlorophyll, the “blood” of plants. In fact the only chemical difference between human blood and chlorophyll is that blood contains iron, while chlorophyll contains Magnesium. All of the other elements that comprise both substances are essentially the same.
Magnesium is the fourth most abundant mineral in the human body, but the second most abundant mineral inside each of our cells.
For the past four decades, an average of 2,000 scientific studies per year about the health benefits of Magnesium have been published in medical journals around the globe. Sadly, however, for the most part, these studies continue to go unnoticed by the medical community, given their primary focus on the use of pharmaceutical drugs to manage their patients’ symptoms.
Most recently, a breakthrough study published at the end of 2012 reported that Magnesium binding sites have been detected on 3,751 human proteins. This finding proves that Magnesium’s role in maintaining health and preventing disease is far greater than previously thought. (1)
Yet, despite its metabolic and regulatory importance, at least 80 percent of all Americans unknowingly suffer from chronic Magnesium deficiency. (And that’s a conservative estimate, in my opinion!)
Now let’s look at some of the numerous important roles Magnesium plays in the body.
This mighty mineral, primarily acting within our cells, is responsible for the proper functioning of approximately 80 percent of the body’s metabolic processes. It does this by activating more than a thousand (at least 1,300 and very likely many more) metabolic pathways in the body, including those responsible for protein, carbohydrate, and fat metabolism. Magnesium also plays a vital role in energy metabolism because it is essential for the production and functioning of adenosine triphosphate (ATP), the energy currency of the cells. Magnesium is essential for the production and storage of energy inside each of our 100 trillion cells. That’s a lot of ATP, which requires a lot of Magnesium, as well.
Mg-ATP is the primary fuel for your cells’ mitochondria, which the energy factories inside our body’s cells. Magnesium is also the essential nutrient for muscles, playing a vital role in their proper functioning and, most importantly, their relaxation. As Mildred S. Seelig, MD, the worlds authority on Magnesium once noted, “Magnesium is the mineral of motion,” meaning that without it your muscles literally could not operate the way nature intended.
Given the above roles and Mg-related activities, it may come as no surprise that Magnesium is also absolutely vital for proper heart function. It plays a recognized role in protecting against heart disease, including heart attacks, stroke and hypertension (high blood pressure), which is clearly documented in hundreds of research studies each and every year. This fact seems to be completely unknown to cardiologists, much to the detriment of their patients, and helps to explain why heart disease remains so prevalent in our society—the number one cause of death in America for the past 90 years. A comprehensive meta-analysis published in 2012 by the American Journal for Clinical Nutrition brought this point home. The analysis examined previous studies involving more than 241,000 participants and found a “statistically significant inverse association between Magnesium intake and risk of stroke.” In other words, the less Magnesium in our body, the greater the risk for stroke. (2)
Additional research has also shown that patients with low Magnesium levels have a higher risk of dying from heart disease compared to patients with higher Magnesium levels. Such studies are hardly surprising once you begin to read through the extensive database of research on Magnesium, as I continue to do. For example, researchers in Finland reported more than 20 years ago that low Magnesium levels was predictive of death by heart attack, as well as overall mortality, up to five years before the deaths occurred. (3)
The potential life-saving benefits that Magnesium offers the heart are a result of its multiple mechanisms of action. Research shows that it acts as a natural calcium channel blocker, but without any of the health risks posed by calcium channel blocker drugs (4), and also helps to prevent the formation of dangerous blood clots (5). Adequate levels of Magnesium also help to regulate blood pressure levels and prevent high blood pressure (6), and to protect against spasms in the arteries. And, of course, its role in Mg-ATP production is also essential for protecting the heart, since heart muscle cells contain very high concentrations of mitochondria that depend on ATP to do their extraordinary work of the Heart.
What follows are some of the other important functions Magnesium performs:
Dilates blood vessels, making it easier for the heart to pump blood and more effectively transmit nutrients and oxygen to the body’s cells, tissues and organs.
Acts as a “gatekeeper” for the cells by modulating the electrical potential across cell membranes, allowing nutrients to enter into cells and cellular waste products to be excreted. One of the important ways in which Magnesium helps to accomplish this task is by regulating the cells’ sodium/potassium pump, an active transport system that is responsible for ensuring that cells contain relatively high concentrations of potassium ions but low concentrations of sodium ions. (When this ratio of high potassium to low sodium ions within the cells, and high sodium to low potassium ions outside the cells is disturbed, the stage is set for disease to occur at the cellular level of the body.)
Enhances immune function and helps protect against infection.
Copies and repairs DNA (lack of Magnesium can cause genetic errors, thereby increasing the risk of cancer), and aids in proper cell division, cell maintenance and cell repair.
Aids in detoxification and protects against the accumulation of environmental toxins in the cells and tissues, including heavy metals such as lead and mercury. Also plays a vital role in the synthesis of glutathione, a powerful antioxidant that protects against free radical damage and toxicity.
Helps to activate and regulate hormones, including helping to maintain proper functioning of the thyroid gland and other endocrine organs. http://www.ithyroid.com/magnesium.htm
Regulates nerve function.
Essential for healthy bones and teeth.
Prevents unhealthy calcium buildup (calcification), including inside the kidneys, thus helping to prevent the formation of calcium oxalate kidney stones (the most common type).
Regulates blood sugar levels, helping to prevent both hypo- and hyperglycemia (low and high blood sugar).
Impressive as all of these benefits are, this article barely scratches the surface of all the important reasons why you not only need to know more about Magnesium, but, far more importantly, need to ensure that you are obtaining enough of it daily so that your body has an optimal supply of it to maintain optimal health in our ever increasingly toxic world. The first step to this, end, is to regularly consume Magnesium-rich foods, but unfortunately that is not enough. Taking a daily Magnesium supplement is also vitally important.
Next time, I’ll share with you some of the best Magnesium-rich foods you can incorporate into your diet, examine why you are almost certainly deficient in Magnesium, and discuss why neither our doctors nor our media is talking about the powerful difference Magnesium can make in your health. Stay tuned.
To your good health! – Morley
References
Piovesan D, et al. 3,751 Magnesium binding sites have been detected on human protein. BMC Bioinformatics. 2012; 13 Suppl 14:S10 Epub 2012 Sep 7. PMID: 23095498.
Larsson S, et al. Dietary Magnesium intake and risk of stroke: a meta-analysis of prospective studies. Am J Clin Nutr 2012; 95(2): 269-270.)
Reffellman T, Ittermann T, et al. Low serum Magnesium concentrations predict cardiovascular and all-cause mortality. Atherosclerosis 2011 Nov; 219(1): 280-284.
Rosanoff A, Seelig MS. Comparison of mechanism and functional effects of Magnesium and statin pharmaceuticals. J Am Coll Nutr. 2004 Oct;23(5):501S-505S. PMID: 15466951
Sheu JR, Hsiao G, et al. Antithrombotic effects of Magnesium sulfate in in vivo experiments. Int J Hematol. 2003 May;77(4):414-9. PMID: 12774935
Guerrero-Romero F, Rodríguez-Morán M. Oral Magnesium supplementation with MgCl significantly reduces blood pressure in diabetic hypertensive adults with hypomagnesaemia. J Hum Hypertens. 2009 Apr;23(4):245-51. Epub 2008 Nov 20. PMID: 19020533
Or, “THE MAGNESIUM ANSWER TO OUR NATION’S HEALTH CRISIS”
Let’s face it. America’s health crisis is only getting worse. As a nation, we are sick and getting sicker, and it’s becoming increasingly obvious that our institutions that we rely upon to meet our health care needs—doctors, hospitals, insurance companies, and the various state and federal agencies charged with overseeing our well-being—are simply not up to the task. Let’s be blunt. The fact of the matter is that they are failing miserably! But it isn’t my intention to place blame. My focus is on helping you reclaim your health despite the all-too dire circumstances our nation is in. And they are very dire, indeed. Consider the grim statistics about only one aspect of our current health care crisis, our nation’s number 1 killer—heart disease. According to the American Heart Association’s Heart Disease and Stroke Statistics—2012 Update:
More than 2,200 Americans die of heart disease each and every day. That’s one death every 39 seconds.
An average of 150,000 Americans who die of heart disease each year are younger than 65 years of age, which is well below the average life expectancy of 77.9 years, while 33 percent of all deaths caused by heart disease occur before the age of 75 years.
Each year, an estimated 785,000 Americans have a heart attack, and 470,000 more have a repeat attack.
Approximately 195,000 Americans experience a silent (unnoticed or undiagnosed) first myocardial infarction each year. It’s interesting to note that 75% of these people have normal Cholesterol levels.
Approximately every 25 seconds, an American will have a coronary event, and approximately 39 seconds someone will die of one.
More than 1,100,000 inpatient angioplasty procedures are performed in the US each year, along with 416,000 inpatient bypass procedures, more than 1,000,000 inpatient diagnostic cardiac catheterizations, 116,000 inpatient implantable defibrillator procedures, and 397,000 pacemaker procedures. Though mortality rates caused by heart disease have started to decline over the past decade, the overall toll continues to rise, both in terms of impaired health and financial cost. All told, heart disease annually accounts for direct and indirect costs of more than $190.3 billion, and the AHA forecasts that these costs will increase by a minimum of 200 percent over the next 20 years. And that does not include the additional tens of billions of dollars that are spent each year to manage risk factors associated with heart disease, such as the $19 billion spent annually on statin drugs to treat elevated cholesterol levels. Certainly there would be no reason to object to these staggering financial costs if the procedures and medications used to treat heart disease truly did their job. But all too often they do not. Studies show that far too common surgical procedures such as angioplasty and bypass are of questionable value in terms of long-term health outcomes, and can even make patients conditions worse due to doctor error. Additional studies are also now calling into question the use of statin drugs because of the serious risks associated with them (including depleting Magnesium!).
In short, although the overall incidence of death caused by heart disease is at last beginning to show signs of decline, the cost involved in treating and preventing it continues to rise at an alarming rate, and many patients continue to suffer declining quality of life issues due to the procedures and medications they receive. And this is only one part of a much larger epidemic of overall disease in America today. When you add in other equally serious conditions such as cancer and diabetes, not to mention obesity, there is simply no way that our health care system (which is actually is not a health care system at all, but a symptom management system!), which is already stretched to its limits, can possibly resolve the growing incidence of disease our nation faces. Nor can it possibly be expected to continue to meet the ever growing costs associated with it. Surely there has to be a better way to tackle this terrible problem so that it is not only checked and reversed, but also, and just as importantly, stopped from being passed onto to our children and their offspring. I’m here to tell you that there is a better way! And it starts with one very simple but extremely powerful step: Boosting our Magnesium levels! “What a minute? Are you telling me that much of our nation’s health crisis could be reversed simply by increasing our Magnesium intake?” Yes, that is precisely what I’m telling you. And this is not a hypothesis on my part. It’s confirmed in the literally thousands of medical studies about Magnesium and Magnesium deficiency that are published every year. Studies which I continue to pore through every day, and which have convinced me, without a doubt, that Magnesium deficiency is at the heart of nearly all health complaints and disease conditions that now plague our country. Here’s a sampling of what the studies reveal: Magnesium Deficiency Symptoms The following is a list of symptoms that are directly related to Magnesium deficiency according to the scientific literature of the past hundred years. (The earliest Journal article that I’ve read on Magnesium was from American Journal of Physiology 1905: 14:173. Mild Daily Challenge (Stage 1)
Endothelial dysfunction (dysfunction of lining of blood vessels)
Failure to thrive
Heart arrhythmias
Hormonal imbalance
Hyperparathyroid
Hypothyroid
Kidney disease
Liver disease
Metabolic Syndrome
Miscarriage
Mitral valve prolapse (Calcified mitral valve)
Multiple sclerosis
Obesity, severe
Osteoporosis
Pancreatitis
Pre-eclampsia
Staph infections
TIAs (transient ischemic attack; a temporary stroke-like blockage of blood flow to the brain)
Tooth decay
Uterine fibroids
Life Threatening Challenge (Stage 4)
Alcoholism
ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease)
Alzheimer’s
Cancer (breast, colon, prostate)
Cardiac afibrillation
Congestive heart failure
Eclampsia
Emphysema (COPD)
Myocardial infarction
Obesity
Parkinson’s disease
Renal failure
SIDS
Starvation
Stroke
Sudden cardiac death
Ventricular fibrillation
If you only remember one thing from this article, make it this: The risk of every single one of the above conditions can be dramatically reduced, and in many cases eliminated altogether, simply by increasing your intake of Magnesium in your daily life! That means both increasing the amounts of Magnesium-rich foods you eat each day and taking a good quality Magnesium supplement each day, as well. To get started today, please take the steps I’ve outlined here: https://therootcauseprotocol.com/how-to-restore-magnesium/ DON’T ASK YOUR DOCTORS ABOUT MAGNESIUM, TELL THEM! THEY NEED TO KNOW!
My mission, and the purpose of this MAG website, is to restore Magnesium to its proper place at the top of the nutritional pantheon. Why have I taken on this task? Because the medical community for far too long has ignored Magnesium with devastating consequences to our health. In fact, today many medical textbooks used to trained medical, nursing and allied health professional students are completely devoid of any mention of Magnesium. This is not surprising, when you consider how little training doctors today receive in diet and nutrition (on average only 25 hours during their entire eight years of medical school!), coupled with the fact that modern medicine today remains myopically and dangerously focused only on treating symptoms with drugs or surgery, both of which deplete Magnesium stores in the body! As a result, doctors also fail to check their patients’ Magnesium levels, something that I feel should be done whenever your doctor checks your cholesterol level, your C-reactive protein (CRP) level, your blood glucose level, your hemoglobin A1c level, your triglyceride level or your vitamin-D levels—particularly since they ALL have a direct relationship with Magnesium status. So, instead of following the lead of the drug commercials on TV that suggest you ask your doctor about the drugs being advertised, be proactive and tell your doctor that you want your Magnesium levels checked. This is something she or he can easily and inexpensively do by ordering a Mag RBC blood test. (You can also order the test on your own by visiting: http://requestatest.com/magnesium-rbc-testing.)
Finally, I ask that you please share the ongoing information about Magnesium that I will continue to share here on this website. (Be sure to sign up for my email notifications to be notified each time a new article is posted. You can do so by subscribing to our mailing list at the right of this page.) My goal is to make 2013 The Year of Magnesium! Please join me in helping to make that happen. Because the sooner more people start to supply their bodies with all of the Magnesium it needs, the sooner we as a nation will begin to solve our health care crisis. It really is that simple. And it really is that important! To your health! Morley
The following is a guest post from Larry Trivieri Jr., a leading lay expert and author in the field of self-care healing methods and holistic, integrative medicine. Full bio at the end of this article. -Morley
I’ve been writing about health for more than 25 years, usually with an emphasis on proven self-care steps we can take to create and maintain improved levels of health and well-being. During that time, I’ve been privileged to meet, interview, and learn from literally hundreds of the most acclaimed health experts in the all-encompassing field of holistic, integrative medicine, including such luminaries as Drs. Norm Shealy, Bernie Siegel, Jeffrey Bland, Richard Kunin, Alan Gaby, Robert Cathcart III, and Abram Hoffer, as well as two-time Nobel laureate Linus Pauling, PhD, who devoted much of his life to the study of nutrients, especially vitamin C and niacin (vitamin B3). All of them have graciously shared with me their key recommendations for ensuring better health. Invariably, of course, they always included the importance of a healthy diet and proper nutrition.
As a result, thanks to what I’ve learned from them, I know more than most people about a wide variety of nutrients, such as vitamin C, niacin, vitamin B12, CoQ10, probiotics, digestive and proteolytic enzymes, essential fatty acids, amino acids, and many others. By incorporating such nutritional supplements into my daily lifestyle, as needed, along with health eating and a modicum of exercise, I have been able to maintain a good state of health and rarely spend any time or money on doctor visits. All told, I thought I was doing all of the essential things I needed to do to live a healthy life in our increasingly toxic world.
Until a few months ago, that is.
That’s when I first met Morley Robbins. When I did, the proverbial scales fell off my eyes about one of the most important elements that I was neglecting for my health:
Magnesium.
Until Morley began sharing his vast knowledge about Magnesium and all of the many vital health benefits it provides, I’d always assumed I was getting enough Magnesium from my diet, given that I regularly consume a lot of vegetables. Probably not, Morley explained, pointing out the mineral deficiencies in our nation’s crop soil (I knew this), the various ways that stress can deplete our bodies’ mineral stores (I knew that too), how nearly all pharmaceutical drugs act as Magnesium drains because of their fluoride content (I didn’t know that, but thankfully do not take any type of conventional medications), and how ignored Magnesium is by conventional and integrative physicians alike (with a few notable exceptions among the latter, such as Dr. Carolyn Dean) despite the fact that an average of 2,000 published studies about it have been published annually in medical journals around the world for decades (I didn’t know this either).
But what really made me sit up and pay attention to Morley was when he told me, “Magnesium is now a recognized component of 3,751 proteins in the human body, and is essential for 1,400 metabolic pathways, and 350 enzymes. There is no other mineral or nutrient that even approaches 10% of that level of functioning. And 100% of our cells, more than 100 trillion of them, MUST have Mg-ATP to run their myriad functions. Every single one of them!”
No other health expert had ever told me that before.
The more I listened to all that Morley shared with me about Magnesium (or Maggie, as he likes to refer to it), the more I realized that I was most likely deficient in Magnesium, just as nearly 90 percent of all other people in the United States are. And so I immediately started to supplement with Magnesium on a daily basis. Given that I was already reasonably healthy, so far I haven’t noticed any dramatic changes, but that’s not the point. Because of all I’ve learned from Morley, I now know that my daily supplementation with Maggie is helping to ensure that my body has enough of this miraculous mineral to meet all of its needs each and every day. Soon, at Morley’s suggestion, I will also have my Magnesium levels determined by Mag RBC testing, a simple and inexpensive blood test. (Learn more about Mag RBC testing.)
The more that Morley shared with me all that he knows about Maggie (it’s with good reason he’s known as Magnesium Man!), the more I began to ask myself why none of the other health experts I’ve met over the years had never told me what Morley did. Many of them, after all, emphasize diet and nutrition as a primary component to the way they treat their patients.
After a bit of reflection, the answer became obvious. Simply put, no matter how deep and extensive their expertise may be, no expert knows everything there is to know about health. In addition, even among those who focus solely on nutrition, most health experts tend to emphasize a balance all essential nutrients in one’s diet rather than any single nutrient by itself. This makes very good sense, since our bodies are designed to function on a full array of vitamins, minerals, healthy fats, etc.
But Maggie may be the exception to this rule. At the very least, thanks to Morley, I now know that it is far more important than most doctors realize, let alone the general public. Certainly, it is the most overlooked nutrient, and its lack in most people’s diet in and of itself goes a long way to explaining the ever mounting health crisis that our nation is facing.
As Morley also pointed out to me, “Today’s allopathic field of medicine runs on the rail of Magnesium deficiency and, regrettably, most doctors have not even been trained in the most basic elements of minerals and vitamins.”
Morley has made it his mission to change all of that. In the process, he has studied the reams of published research on Magnesium and distilled out from it a comprehensive understanding of how and why Magnesium deficiency is at the root of most of the serious debilitating and life threatening diseases we as a nation are now struggling with. His discoveries, in this regard, are truly important and something that all people need to know about. Especially with regard to heart disease, which remains our nation’s number one killer, yet in the vast majority of cases, could completely be prevented and reversed if only doctors understood—as Morley does—its underlying cause, which is—you guessed it!—a lack of Magnesium.
In the weeks and month’s ahead, Morley will explain to you how Magnesium deficiency underlies all of the risk factors that cardiologists mistakenly consider to be the causes of heart disease, including elevated cholesterol levels, inflammation, and endothelial dysfunction, and more.
I consider Morley’s synthesis of all the research he has uncovered about Magnesium to be both revolutionary and vitally important. Though he is not a doctor, if his message about the importance of Magnesium gets through to the public at large, I truly believe that he will have done more to advance the cause of health in this country than the entire medical community combined.
That may sound like hyperbole to you, but consider this fact. Throughout history, many of the world’s seemingly set-in-stone systems eventually were toppled by discoveries made by those who were on the outside of those systems. This isn’t surprising, when you think about it, since most everyone within those systems has a vested interest in seeing the status quo maintained. Change to any system is almost always initially resisted and rejected because of the threat it appears to be to that status quo.
When it comes to the field of medicine, Morley is indeed the type of innovative outsider whose work could lead to a massive and very positive “sea change” in the way doctors and patients alike think about health. That’s why I have decided to help him get his message out any way that I can.
Put “Maggie” To Work For You
In the meantime, you don’t have to wait for this hoped for sea change to occur. All you have to do is follow Morley’s advice. Get to know Maggie and supplement with her each and every day. And do your best to educate your own doctor by asking him or her to check your Magnesium levels. Most likely he or she will tell you that isn’t necessary. If so, insist that you be checked anyway and tell your doctor about Morley!
Most importantly, since you too are almost certainly Magnesium-deficient, take action today to restore your Magnesium levels. To learn how to do so easily and effectively, follow Morley’s suggestions: How To Restore Magnesium In 3 Steps. In addition, I also encourage you to join the Magnesium Advocacy Group’s Facebook community, where you can ask questions, share your experiences, and be kept abreast of Morley’s ongoing research.
Health & Blessings,
Larry
Larry Trivieri Jr is a leading lay expert and author in the field of self-care healing methods and holistic, integrative medicine. In addition to being the editor and principal writer of the landmark health encyclopedia Alternative Medicine: The Definitive Guide, he is also the author or co-author of more than a dozen books about health, including The Acid-Alkaline Food Guide; The American Holistic Medical Association Guide to Holistic Health; Health On the Edge:Visionary Views of Healing in the New Millennium; and Juice Alive. He has also written feature articles for a variety of national magazines, including Alternative Medicine, Natural Health, Natural Solutions and Yoga Journal, and was the founder and publisher of The Health Plus Letter, an online newsletter read by readers in more than 30 countries.
