Magnesium Deficiency can cause Serious Health Problem
I have recently had a brush with magnesium deficiency and the signs and symptoms of magnesium deficiency are vast. Some are subtle, while others can cause serious health problems. Many people who have a deficiency don’t even know it, and a lot of health issues are blamed on something else or remain unexplained if a potential magnesium deficiency is overlooked. You can have a magnesium deficiency if you don’t consume enough of the nutrient if your diet or if your body doesn’t absorb enough when it goes through your system. Other things, like consuming too much alcohol and certain medication can also deplete your body’s magnesium. Magnesium plays an integral role in your body’s ability to keep your heart, kidneys, and muscles healthy. It also regulates nutrient levels, and keeps bones strong. Since this mineral is so important, it’s best to stay on top of these eleven warning signs of magnesium deficiency…
1. Fatigue : Being tired and feeling lethargic is not uncommon, and it can be easy to blame fatigue on several factors–from stress at work or a busy schedule to not sleeping well or running around with your kids. But one of the most common and early symptoms of a magnesium deficiency is fatigue
2. Muscle Spasms and Cramps: Muscle spasms and cramping can not only be uncomfortable, but also quite painful. They’re uncontrollable and unpredictable, and they’re not something you can simply ignore and get on with your day. When a magnesium deficiency worsens, muscle spasms and cramping can be a sign of the lacking nutrient. So if you suffer from regular cramping and spasms, this could be a warning sign of low magnesium levels.
3. Arrhythmia: Magnesium plays a vital role in overall heart health. It’s vital for proper muscle contraction, and a low level can affect your body’s most important muscle – your heart. Arrhythmia is an irregular heartbeat, and magnesium directly helps you maintain a normal heart rhythm
4. Dizziness: Sometimes dizziness hits you when you stand up too fast and it quickly goes away. But when you have a magnesium deficiency and you experience dizziness because of it. Low magnesium levels can give you similar feelings as vertigo, making you feel not only dizzy, but completely off balance. If you’re experiencing dizziness, it could be a warning sign of magnesium deficiency.
5. Nausea and Vomiting: Similar to vertigo, if you have a low magnesium level, you may experience nausea and even vomiting. Though these symptoms are considered an early, but not necessarily severe symptom of magnesium deficiency. For those who suffer from regular nausea and/or vomiting, it’s worth asking your doctor about other potential causes, such as magnesium deficiency. Like many other symptoms, there can be a variety of causes and your magnesium level may be overlooked.
6. Numbness: Magnesium is one of the most abundant and important minerals in your body, responsible for over 300 biochemical reactions. Since magnesium impacts your nervous system, tingling and numbness can be a warning sign of a deficiency, particularly as it worsens. Without sufficient magnesium in the body, it can prevent nerve and muscle functions to act and react properly. A lack of magnesium can also prevent your body from sending the proper signals, resulting in numbness and tingling. It’s common to feel these symptoms in your face, feet and hands.
7. Personality Changes: It might seem bizarre–and definitely not the first cause you’d jump to–but personality changes are a warning sign of a magnesium deficiency.
8. Anxiety and Panic Attacks: Everyone experiences a bout of anxiety or panic once in a while, but if you’re experiencing it regularly, it could be due to a magnesium deficiency. There are a lot of different symptoms of a panic attack, some of which include difficulty breathing, a racing heart, chest pains, and an intense rush of fear or dread, tingling in your limbs and trembling, among other uncomfortable and terrible feelings. Although they typically only last a few minutes, each second can feel like a lifetime and you end up feeling completely emotionally drained.
9. Insomnia: Having a magnesium deficiency can cause insomnia in several different ways, low levels of magnesium can result in muscle spasms. This is because the body needs a sufficient amount of magnesium in order to control electrical conduction in the neurons in the muscles which will then lead to a prolonged opening of calcium channels and increasing muscular activity. This causes conditions such as restless leg syndrome, a condition that causes the legs to move involuntarily during the night, keeping the individual awake.
10. High Blood Pressure: A study published in the American Journal of Hypertension conducted an experiment where the correlation between level of blood pressure and levels of magnesium intake were analyzed. The results were that the individuals with the healthiest the blood pressure, had the highest levels of magnesium. As a result, those with low levels of magnesium had high blood pressure.
11.Type II Diabetes: This symptom sounds strange, but when explained it actually makes a lot of sense. A study published in the Journal of Internal Medicine found that magnesium plays a significant role in metabolising sugar, and since type II diabetes is something that develops based on an individual’s diet, a lack of magnesium could play an important role in the development of this condition.
7 Magnesium-Heavy Foods You Should Be Eating Right Now
Why Drink Magnesium?
Digging into Natural Calm further, I became more and more curious. I learned that many people are deficient in magnesium today, with some reports estimating that as many as 80 percent of us aren’t getting enough of it, and few realize that the deficiency is the root of at least some of their health problems. Only 25 percent of American adults are said to be getting the recommended daily amount: 400 to 420 milligrams for men, and 310 to 320 milligrams for women, yet this macro-mineral is something required by every organ in the body. It makes sense that when you don’t get enough, you’re going to suffer one way or another.
And, not surprisingly, two of the symptoms of a lack of magnesium, I learned, are anxiety and insomnia. In fact, they’re two of the most common symptoms of a magnesium deficiency. Still, I eat healthily and avoid processed foods, so why would I be lacking this nutrient? I dug even further and found that even those of us who follow a nutritious diet may be deficient because of modern farming practices that result in less nutrient-rich foods, as well as factors like stress and drinking a lot of caffeinated beverages. Boom. That really hit the nail on the head.
Magnesium helps your brain relax so that you can fall asleep and stay asleep, and it also plays a key role in the central nervous system, so without enough, anxiety and insomnia can result.
That was enough for me – I decided to try Natural Calm, with the goal to give it a week and see if there were any noticeable changes.
The Magnesium Experiment
Natural Calm recommends that you start with a half teaspoon and slowly increase from there, because if you get too much, it can result in loose stools, which is actually one of the reasons some people take it, to cure constipation issues, but that wasn’t my problem, so I began with the half teaspoon, taken just before bedtime.
Natural Calm is an ionic form of magnesium, which improves its bioavailability. It comes in powder form and is dissolved in hot water. I watched the powder react to the water, forming a fizzy solution as I read Natural Vitality’s brochure on the product. It explains: “An ionic mineral is an element that has a charge, either positive or negative. On the molecular level, that means the element has either one too many or one too few electrons. This unstable ionic state allows the element to bond readily with water, making it possible for the body to absorb it.”
Basically, it’s easier for the body to absorb due to its liquid form and therefore more beneficial than taking magnesium by pill or capsule.
Okay, but will it actually work, or is this just marketing hype?
The Results
The body needs to rebuild its magnesium levels, and it can only absorb so much of any nutrient at one time, so depending on the level of deficiency it can take a while to build levels back up to a point where symptoms begin to noticeably diminish, so I didn’t expect to notice results overnight. The higher quality the supplement, the quicker it would work, I’ve been told, but I still wasn’t sure what that timeline would be for me.
