Benefits of Magnesium and Top Magnesium Foods
Magnesium is one of the minerals that can be found in bigger quantities on our body, and it’s an essential nutrient. It participates in more than 600 reactions that occur in our body, like energy production, carbohydrate metabolism or DNA and protein synthesis. In addition, it’s necessary for the synthesis and activation of vitamin D, so much so that a deficiency can inhibit the benefits of supplementation with this vitamin.
What will you find?
Top Foods High in Magnesium
After reading how important this mineral is, you may ask yourself which foods contain it, what you can do to avoid its deficiency or which are the top foods high in magnesium.
It can be found in green leaf vegetables, nuts and seeds, legumes and whole grains. However, in developing countries, western diets include a high amount of processed and refined foods, so they lack the necessary amount of magnesium. Because of this, nutritional requirements of this mineral are rarely met. Even if your diet is based on the above mentioned foods, it usually isn’t enough. Since the 1940s, the micronutrient density (the amount of vitamins and minerals) in all foods has significantly decreased. Vegetables have lost more than 20% of their magnesium contents, and dairy products have lost up to 70%. Many people have a diet based on cereals, sugar and starch, but what they don’t know is that those foods are missing between an 80% and a 99% of the micronutrients that they used to provide.
So, even if you consume foods that are “high” in magnesium, it’s very likely that your deficiency will persist, making supplementation necessary in most cases. It’s estimated that its daily consumption in the general population has halved, causing an imbalance in its proportion with other minerals, such as calcium or phosphorus.
Benefits of Magnesium
As mentioned earlier, magnesium is an abundant mineral in the body, and it’s necessary for hundreds of biochemical processes, giving it multiple benefits.
Some of its possible benefits are improvements in blood pressure, glucose control when fasting, and decrease of certain inflammation markers, such as C-reactive protein. If you are asking yourself what the benefits of magnesium might be, we can tell you about its usefulness with patients with hypertension, diabetes, resistance to insulin, Inflammatory Bowel Disease or autoimmune diseases.
On the contrary, we know that a magnesium deficiency increases blood tension and reduces sensitivity to insulin. As a consequence, low magnesium levels are associated to diseases like type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, obesity, metabolic syndrome, hypertension and osteoporosis.
Magnesium deficiency may also cause an excessive neuronal excitation. For this reason, its functions in the nervous system are particularly noteworthy. It has beneficial properties for the treatment of migraines, inflammation regulation, and oxidative stress (antioxidant function). It has even proven to be useful in the treatment of depressive disorders. Patients with a deficiency respond very well to supplementation. So much so that studies have shown that this mineral has a “potentially antidepressant effect”. It has also been discovered that people with insomnia or who have a worse quality of sleep also have lower levels of magnesium.
Types of Magnesium
There are different types of magnesium, because it can be formed in different salts. We must pay attention to their absorption to maximize their benefits without compromising intestinal function. Some of them are:
Magnesium carbonate
It has a higher percentage of magnesium, but its absorption is very low.
Magnesium chloride
It has a little more absorption than carbonate, but it’s still low.
Magnesium citrate
It has a higher absorption than chloride, so it’s considered intermediate absorption.
Magnesium malate
It has a fast intestinal absorption. It’s an organic salt, same as magnesium citrate, so that’s the reason why it has a higher absorption. It’s well-known for its use in fibromyalgia treatments.
Magnesium bisglycinate
It’s absorbed quickly in the first portion of the small intestine, making it highly effective even in patients with bowel resection.
Magnesium taurate / Magnesium acetyl taurate dihydrate (ATA Mg)
It also has excellent absorption and has the particularity of reaching the highest concentration in brain tissue. That’s why it’s used specifically in cases of anxiety, migraines, cataracts and brain damage.
Choosing magnesium salts that have a higher percentage but low absorption may cause intestinal discomfort and diarrhoea. For this reason, it’s vital to choose a magnesium supplement with good absorption and consulting a health care professional who can prescribe you the necessary dosage for you.
Imbalances and Magnesium Deficiency
In order to determine whether we should take supplements, it’s important to highlight that the deficiency of this mineral is often undiagnosed. Its deficiency is common worldwide, but its manifestation may not present symptoms until the deficiency has persisted for a considerable amount of time (which could have much more severe consequences), so even health care professionals may not detect it. Measuring it on blood tests is not a good marker of a possible deficiency either, as only 1% of magnesium is found free. This means that when blood magnesium levels are low, it’s because there is a pre-existing deficiency that has persisted over time. Even if there are no obvious symptoms, signs or tests that indicate it, it is very likely that we may need to take magnesium supplements.
This long-term deficiency is associated with multiple pathologies:
- 84% of women with osteoporosis
- 80% of patients with hypertension
- 75% of patients with type 2 diabetes
- Up to 65% of patients who are admitted to the ICU after surgery
- 11.6% of patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease
Magnesium deficiency is very common in athletes. Exhausting physical activity may decrease magnesium levels rapidly (2-3 months) until it causes a deficiency. More than 40% of athletes between the ages 15 and 18 have a magnesium deficiency, and that impacts their performance deeply.
Who Are at Risk of Deficiency?
There are people at a higher risk of suffering from a magnesium deficiency: patients with kidney disease, alcohol consumption, malabsorption (common in cases of SIBO), inflammatory bowel disease, irritable bowel syndrome, coeliac disease, metabolic syndrome, type 1 and 2 diabetes, people under stress, pregnant individuals and cases of resistance to insulin.
It’s also important to highlight that certain supplements, such as calcium, compete with magnesium for absorption, as well as the consumption of caffeine, antacids, diuretics, laxatives and “stomach protectors”.
Possible Side Effects
Side effects are minimal, because your body only absorbs what it needs. High doses of magnesium salts (especially hydroxide, oxide and citrate) are used as laxatives, so the may cause diarrhoea or upset stomach. Patients with kidney failure should be supervised by a specialist.
We advise you to consult a health care professional before taking any supplements.