Are you Magnesium deficient?
Magnesium is one of seven essential minerals that the body needs in significant amounts to function and maintain good health. While most people understand the value of certain vitamins and other supplements, magnesium is frequently overlooked by consumers as an important nutrient. It is responsible for helping with over 300 processes within the body. Magnesium helps muscles and nerves work efficiently, helps to regulate blood sugar levels, assists in keeping bones strong and helps your body maintain a steady heart rate.
1. Headaches or Migraines
If you suffer from chronic headaches or migraines, low magnesium may be playing a role in keeping your head pounding. Some studies have shown that people who get migraines tend to have lower levels of magnesium in their bodies. According to the National Institutes of Health, low magnesium is thought to contribute to headaches and migraines because of its role in supporting healthy neurological function and neurotransmitter production.
2. Muscle Cramps and Spasms
This is how I found out I was deficient! I had charley horse cramps in my calves in the middle of the night. They were so painful!!!
Magnesium is essential for good muscle function and relieves tight, cramped muscles. It also relaxes the muscles and can be vital in the treatment of back pain and cramps by calming back muscles, kidney stress and muscular tension.
3. Cognition Problems
A deficiency in magnesium in older adults can result in a number of cognitive difficulties, such as brain fog, memory problems and difficulty concentrating. This is because magnesium plays a vital role in helping your mitochondria function. Mitochondria are structures within the body’s cells that are responsible for producing energy. Without enough magnesium, the mitochondria in brain cells have difficulty producing enough energy to power thinking processes.
MIT researchers found that magnesium plays a pivotal role in regulating brain receptors needed for learning and memory function, and that supplementing with magnesium helped clear so-called “brain fog.”
People who are stressed will normally have low magnesium levels and the low magnesium levels themselves can even increase susceptibility to stress.
4. Anxiety and Stress
Because of its important role in the production of neurotransmitters, low magnesium can leave you feeling anxious, stressed and irritable. Neurotransmitters are chemicals found in the brain that help your nerves communicate with each other so anxiety is one of the biggest big magnesium deficiency symptoms.
They help your body regulate a variety of behaviors, such as sleep, thought patterns, moods and more. Low magnesium can result in a variety of mood disorders, including anxiety, depression, irritability and confusion. Getting your magnesium in can have a calming and relaxing effect on body systems.
5. Insomnia
If you suffer from sleepless nights, you may be low in magnesium. The neurotransmitter gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) plays a role in helping the body to relax. GABA is the neurotransmitter responsible for quieting down nerve activity and magnesium plays an important role in helping GABA production in the brain.
Being low in magnesium can lead to low GABA production. And, without proper amounts of GABA, getting a good night’s sleep can be difficult. By helping to quiet the nervous system and promote GABA production, magnesium may help prepare your body and mind for sleep.
Taking magnesium citrate two hours before sleeping may help you get good and efficient sleep. Magnesium citrate has been shown to relieve leg cramps and calm the nerves. This helps calm your nerves making you relax and have better sleep.
Lack of sleep may also be a result of stress, so submerging yourself in a bath mixed with magnesium sulfate (epsom salts) may relieve your nerves and make you calm and give you a good night’s sleep.
6. Constipation
Low magnesium levels can often lead to bouts of constipation. Magnesium citrate works to keep you regular in a couple of ways. By helping to draw water into the intestines, magnesium plays a role in keeping stools soft for more efficient elimination. It also helps by keeping the muscle contractions of the intestinal track regulated and working optimally.
We don’t eat enough magnesium-rich foods here in the United States. Plus things like chronic stress, too much caffeine and sugar and toxic overload often deplete magnesium levels and can make you constipated.
7. Osteoporosis
Magnesium contributes to increased bone density and helps prevent bone loss. Magnesium deficiency contributes to osteoporosis directly by acting on crystal formation and on bone cells and indirectly by impacting on the secretion and the activity of parathyroid hormone and by promoting low grade inflammation. Sixty percent of the body’s magnesium is present in the bones, and 30% is constantly exchanged with the blood to maintain normal serum magnesium levels. High dietary magnesium intakes are associated with increased bone mineral density and reduced fracture risk.
In conclusion, try to eat more magnesium-rich foods. You may also look into taking a magnesium supplement. Your health depends on this nutrient.
Adrienne
xo
p.s. I have many foods with magnesium in my cookbook – Nourish Your Way to Health.
Great content! Thanks!