pressure can inhibit net magnesium reabsorption. (Bianchetti & Bettinelli, 2008). Other medications that can in-duce magnesium loss and hypomagne-semia are anti-diabetic medications such as insulin and insulin mimicking drugs, antimicrobial drugs, beta-adr-energic agonists, bisphosphonates, cardiac glycosides, and chemothera-peutic agents (Gröber, 2019). Besides medications, some other nutrients and nutraceuticals can con-tribute to increasing the excretion of magnesium if not careful. Supplement-ing calcium as a way to prevent osteo-porosis can affect magnesium levels (DiNicolantonio, O’Keefe & Wilson, 2018). Calcium and magnesium com-pete for the same transporter in the ascending Loop of Henle (DiNicolan-tonio, O’Keefe & Wilson, 2018). More calcium will be delivered to the loop; the ensuing rise in calcium reabsorp-tion will diminish that of magnesium. Individuals with concurrent chronic diseases can be more predisposed to excreting more magnesium which can be problematic if not properly cor-rected. Those living with diabetes have increased urinary magnesium excre-tion, especially those with poorly con-trolled diabetes (Griffin, 2003). Inter-estingly enough, hypomagnesemia is a common feature in Type 2 Diabetes patients (Maula, Sarkar, Zahid, Ahmed & Aktar, 2013), and magnesium defi-ciency has been proposed as a risk factor for T2DM patients (Maula, Sarkar, Zahid, Ahmed & Aktar, 2013). Magnesium is also essential for the metabolism of Vitamin D (Reddy & Edwards, 2019). Therefore, taking large doses of vitamin D can likely in-duce magnesium depletion (Reddy & Edwards, 2019). Besides being beneficial for cardiovascular health, magnesium plays a pivotal role in pain and pain management. glands (Blaszczyk & Duda-Chodak, 2013). Insufficient magnesium intake may also significantly affect the devel-opment and exacerbation of attention deficit symptoms in children (Blaszczyk & Duda-Chodak, 2013). Pain: Besides being beneficial for cardiovascular health, magnesium plays a pivotal role in pain and pain management. As an antagonist to the NMDA receptor, magnesium can de-sensitize and attenuates pre-existing pain hypersensitivity (Shin, Na & Do, 2020). Magnesium supplementation has also been reported in patients with neuropathic pain, such as diabetic neuropathy, postherpetic neuralgia, and chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy. In addition, magnesium treatment is reportedly able to alleviate fibromyalgia, dysmenorrhea, head-aches, and acute migraine attacks (Shin, Na & Do, 2020). Another relation to pain and many other chronic illnesses comes from underlying chronic inflammation. In a study by Nielsen, Johnson & Zeng (2010), magnesium supplementation vs. placebo decreased plasma CRP in participants with baseline values > 3.0 mg/L. The findings show that many individuals have a low magnesium status associated with increased chronic inflammatory stress that could be alleviated by increased magnesium intake (Nielsen, Johnson & Zeng, 2010). Mental Health: Magnesium status, though preliminary in robust evidence, is correlated to subjective anxiety. A systematic review by Boyle, Lawton & Dye (2017) observed positive effects of magnesium on subjective anxiety out-comes, but not on post-partum anxiety. In a randomized control trial study where 23 older adults received either magnesium or imipramine for the treatment of depression, the findings suggest that magnesium is as effective in the treatment of depressed elderly type 2 diabetics with hypomagnesemia as imipramine 50 mg daily (Bar-ragán-Rodríguez, Rodríguez-Morán & Guerrero-Romero, 2008). Cognition: There is a significant connection between our need for mag-nesium and our cognitive health. In a study done by Wang et al. (2008), there have been correlations between levels of several trace minerals (iron, Mg2+, potassium and zinc) in the hair of ad-olescent girls and their academic re-cord. There was evidence that some trace minerals correlated more highly with increased academic performance. Specifically, it was found that Mg2+ and zinc demonstrated a strong posi-tive correlation with academic perfor-mance (Wang et al., 2008). Magnesium depletion, particularly in the hippocampus, represents a critical pathogenic factor in Alzheimer’s Dis-ease (Durlach, 1990). In animal stud-ies, a chronic reduction in dietary magnesium appears to impair memory (Bardgett et al., 2005), and the treat-ment of dementia patients with nutri-tional magnesium improves memory (Glick, 1990). There are definitely many more fac-tors and connections with magnesium than I can write in this article. The hope is to bring to light how numerous these factors are and to provide inspi-ration on how complex our bodies are. HOW MAGNESIUM IS LINKED IN OUR BODIES TESTING Cardiovascular health: Magnesium deficiency may lead to many disorders of the human body; for instance, mag-nesium depletion is believed to play an essential role in cardiovascular disease (including thrombosis, atherosclerosis, ischemic heart disease, myocardial in-farction, hypertension, arrhythmias and congestive heart failure in human), as well as diabetes mellitus, gastroin-testinal tract disease, liver cirrhosis and diseases of the thyroid and parathyroid In order to understand our magnesium levels, laboratory testing is an essential component in objectively assessing patients in their nutrient status. The most common test in conventional labs for magnesium is serum magnesium. However, there are some arguments regarding serum magnesium to con-sider. Does serum magnesium level reflect total body magnesium status? The majority of our total body magnesium (more than 99%) lies intracellularly www.Cndoctor.ca 18 Chiropractic and Naturopathic Doctor July/August 2021
Chiropractic + Naturopathic Doctor July/August 2021: Page 18
