23 Symptoms That May Indicate You Are Magnesium Deficient

Please note that I am not a medical professional and have had no medical training. This post is based on my own experiences and research and is shared purely as a means of disseminating information for consideration by others.  Please seek the advice of a health professional, as I have, if you believe you are deficient in Magnesium.

 

Something a little different from me today but still well within my interest area of health and wellbeing.

It’s amazing the things you find out when you’re unwell and begin researching, learning and discovering ways and means to feel better! One of the most incredible discoveries I have made is our very essential need for Magnesium and the fact that most of us have no idea how vitally important it is for us OR that many of us could very well be deficient in it-  and according to my research – many of us are and I was one of them!

23 SYMPTOMS THAT MAY INDICATE YOU ARE MAGNESIUM DEFICIENT

Muscle Tightness   Fatigue   Poor Circulation / Restless Legs   High blood pressure   Irritable Bladder   Heart Palpitations   Constipation   Moodiness   Headaches   Facial Eye Twitching   Stress and Anxiety   Poor Sleep   Muscle Cramps   Aches and Pains   Fibromyalgia   Sore Joints   Brain Fog   Weight Gain   Seizures   Nausea   Hormone Problems   Kidney Stones   Thyroid Problems

HOW DO YOU KNOW IF YOU ARE MAGNESIUM DEFICIENT?

Here’s the thing – it is mostly diagnosed based on your symptoms.  There’s not much point in having a blood test to check your magnesium levels.   Blood tests for magnesium levels will only show up gross deficiencies of magnesium and are not a true indicator of the total amount of magnesium in your body. This is because the vast amount of magnesium (99%) in your body is not stored in your blood; it is stored in your bones and inside your muscle cells. If the magnesium in the blood (1%) drops just a little bit, you’re going to have a heart attack. So to prevent this, the body will rob all of its cells, tissues, and bones of magnesium in order to keep the blood levels constant. If you do a blood test for magnesium, the cells could be completely empty while your blood levels remain constant.

WHY DO WE NEED MAGNESIUM?

Magnesium is an incredibly versatile and important nutrient that many doctors, nutritionists, and researchers believe is the single most important nutrient for human health. It is essential for over 300 different chemical reactions in the body, including maintaining your energy level, helping you relax, and sustaining the health of your heart and blood vessels. It helps maintain normal muscle and nerve function. It keeps your heart beating steadily and it helps to build a healthy immune system.

Magnesium is a crucial element that your body needs to function at even the most basic levels – making it crucially important to get enough of this essential mineral on a daily basis. Our cardiovascular system, digestive system, nervous system, muscles, kidneys, liver, hormone-secreting glands and brain all rely on the mineral to accomplish even the most basic tasks. Unfortunately, our bodies can’t produce Magnesium, so it is vitally important that we eat enough magnesium-rich foods on a daily basis to remain healthy. If that isn’t happening, then we need to consider other ways to ensure we are getting enough Magnesium into our systems.

Some specific benefits from magnesium include:

• fantastic for anyone suffering with insomnia – Magnesium is vital for the function of GABA receptors, which exist across all areas of the brain and nervous system. GABA is a calming neurotransmitter that the brain requires to switch off; without it, we remain tense, our thoughts race and we lie in bed staring at the ceiling.
• alleviating constipation (you may recognize it as the active ingredient in well-known over-the-counter laxative medicines).
• it’s a natural calcium-channel blocker – many integrative medicine practitioners have used magnesium supplements to help lower blood pressure and maintain healthy blood pressure
• aside from Calcium, magnesium is the other key mineral for healthy teeth and bones
• the most important nutrient for that energy powerhouse, the human heart; it helps the heart muscle itself function better. Magnesium also helps protect blood vessels, which is where most of what we call heart disease actually happens. Magnesium is also a natural blood thinner, much like aspirin, so many doctors and researchers believe that it may help prevent heart attacks and strokes.
• Perhaps the area where magnesium could have the biggest impact is in the prevention of diabetes
• Relieves pain
• Protects the brain
• Reduces Tinnitis
• Improves mood – provides relief to those who suffer with anxiety and/or depression and relieves stress
• Alleviates PMS
• Reduces Asthma attacks

Based on the fact that I had been suffering with many of the 23 symptoms listed above, and on the advice of a medical practitioner and nutritionist who I have been consulting with, I now take a Magnesium supplement – THIS ONE – one teaspoon mixed in a glass of water, every night before bed and I have felt an enormous improvement in my overall sense of well-being and I sleep much better!

I have read some articles that recommend a topical application of Magnesium because unlike internal doses of magnesium, topical magnesium does not have to pass through the digestive system and kidneys and can apparently then more quickly enter the blood and tissues of the body. This is newly discovered information for me, so I will need to research and read more before I can comment one way or another.  In the meantime, if you use a topical application of Magnesium, please do let me know what you use and what you think of it!

WHY HAVE SO MANY OF US BECOME MAGNESIUM DEFICIENT?

We have become deficient in Magnesium for various reasons, including:

• The food we’re eating – much of it is poisoning us!
• Stress – stress hormone production requires high levels of magnesium which results in depletion
• Too much sugar – magnesium is required to process it
• Too much consumption of coffee (sorry folks!) – depletes magnesium stores
• Modern farming techniques deplete the magnesium stores in our food
• Certain Pharmaceutical drugs (including diuretics, antibiotics, and antineo-plastic medications for cancer) and oestrogen compounds can deplete our magnesium levels

WHAT ARE THE BEST SOURCES OF MAGNESIUM?

√ Foods that are high in Magnesium:

• SEEDS: Sunflower Seeds, Roasted Pumpkin Seeds, Sesame Seeds, Flaxseeds
• WHOLE GRAINS: including Brown Rice, Bran
• NUTS: Almonds, Cashews
• FISH: those fish that are high in Omega 3 fatty acids are also high in magnesium
• LEAFY GREENS: including Spinach & Chard
• LEGUMES: including Beans (especially soy)
• FRUITS:  Figs, Banana’s
• Avocado
• Yoghurt or Kefir
• Dark chocolate!

√ Taking a magnesium supplement. I take THIS ONE but I encourage you to do your own research and make your own decisions.

√ Having a bath in Epsom salts is apparently another way to increase your Magnesium levels.

Want to know more?  Here’s a You Tube video I found by Dr Josh Axe called ‘8 Warning Signs of Magnesium Deficiency‘.  He is American and though the statistics he quotes are for the USA, it would generally be much the same here in Australia.  He says that 80% of American’s are Magnesium deficient – just an indication of how widespread this actually is.

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There’s been a lot in the on-line space on Magnesium lately, so maybe this is not news to you, or maybe it is!  Regardless, I felt it important and necessary to share what I’ve learned here on the blog and hopefully do my bit to help increase awareness.  I’m sure that there are many, many people out there who like me had no idea that they were deficient in Magnesium.  I hope my post can reach even just one of them and help change their life!

How many of those 23 symptoms ring a bell with you?  Have you ever considered taking a Magnesium supplement?  Did you know how important Magnesium was to the healthy functioning of our bodies?  Know of any other health benefits from Magnesium that you could share?

Ciao for now,

[I had planned a photography session and to use my own image for this post but ran out of time.  Therefore I needed to source an image from elsewhere and the image used for this post is not one of my own. It has been hyperlinked to its source on the image and again here]

Linking up with One Mother Hen for #openslather