Magnesium. Are you getting enough?

When I take a moment to look at what magnesium does, it reminds meonce again of the complexity and brilliance of the human body. And like all great and complexmachines, it reminds me of the importance of ‘tuning’ it and giving it what it needs to carry outall those mindboggling daily tasks that support another day in our life.

Magnesium is the central element in chlorophyll and the basis of early life on the planet. It’sbeen around for ages and I think we can safely say that it’s here to stay. Which is a good thingwhen you consider all of the amazing things it does for us every day:

Magnesium ions manage more than 300 biochemical reactions in the body through their role asenzyme co-factors

It’s essential in the replication and repair of DNA for new cell growthIt’s vital in the generation and use of the energy that makes our cells functionIt’s also vital to relaxation – without it, our muscles would be in a constant state ofcontraction (no rest time!)About 2/3 is stored in our bones, where it plays two different roles – giving the bonephysical strength and structure, and sticking around on the surface of the bone so it canbe tapped into when things get lean.

So how do you know if you’re deficient?

It’s tricky to test for magnesium because only 1% of your body’s stores are found in the blood,and even less in blood serum, so blood testing may not detect a deficiency.

If that’s the case, the following questions might help you work out if you’re at risk:

1. Do you drink lots of fizzy drinks?

The average consumption of sweet fizzy drinks is more than 10 times what it was sixty yearsago , and most dark-coloured carbonated drinks contain phosphates which bind withmagnesium inside the digestive tract, making it unavailable to the body.

2. Do you eat a lot of sweets, pastries, cakes or desserts?

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Refined sugar is all take no give – not only does it take up vital energy just to be ‘managed’, italso causes the body to excrete magnesium through the kidneys.

Are you stressed a lot of the time? Do you get anxious or hyperactive? Have troublefalling asleep or staying there?

All of these things can be signs of low magnesium, and low magnesium can make them worse.Studies have investigated the adrenaline and cortisol hormones, which are associated withstress and anxiety, and found a link with decreased magnesium [2].

Do you drink a lot of coffee, tea, alcohol or caffeinated ‘energy’ drinks?

The kidneys play an important role in controlling magnesium levels in the body, but things likecaffeine cause them to release extra magnesium regardless of whatever else is happening.Over time, this can result in magnesium deficiency. Medications for asthma and estrogenreplacements, as well as diuretics and birth control pills, can also create this problem.

Do you get painful muscle spasms, cramps, facial tics or eye twitches?

These are well-known signs of magnesium deficiency. Remember that magnesium is requiredfor muscle relaxation, and calcium is needed for muscle contraction. The two need to be in astate of balance to function effectively.

Are you over 55?

As we age, we need more magnesium – but our diets don’t always take this into account.

There are lots of delicious magnesium-rich foods you can get into including apples, apricots,avocadoes, artichokes, almonds, brazil nuts, cashews, pine nuts, pumpkin seeds, spinach,buckwheat flour, barley, green leafy vegetables, garlic, peas and beans.

Bear in mind that if you take calcium supplements, it’s important to balance them with the samedose of magnesium because calcium supplementation can reduce magnesium absorption andretention if magnesium intake is low . Plus, magnesium supplementation improves the body’suse of calcium anyway.

From our point of view we are very happy to be handling the new magnesium-basedAlkaStream water system. It’s fundamentally different to our electronic systems that onlyconcentrate the alkaline minerals that happen to be in the input water. If your water is low incalcium or magnesium you’ll only get what is there, concentrated in the alkaline stream. TheAlkaStream, however, takes different approach. It first removes as many minerals as it canfrom the tap water entering it, then releases magnesium and calcium ions into the output water.In this way it’s supplying a constant level of ionized magnesium to you in every glass.

For me, my self-diagnosis for possible magnesium deficiency (I’m 65 in about 2 weeks) iswatching for muscle spasms andcramps. It’s been an easy method that responds quickly to a

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few more glasses of water. That’s my ‘manifestation of magnesium defieciency but yours maybe different. take another look at the symptom list above.

Magnesium, to me, is the easy life mineral, It just makes everything work better!

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