HEALTH: SUICIDE AND THE MAGNESIUM DEFICIT

[Guest guest]

SUICIDE AND THE MAGNESIUM DEFICIT

 

WHAT is it that makes a person jump off a bridge, swallow an overdose of

pills, turn on the gas jets, or put a gun to his temple? Whatever it is

that triggers this kind of desperate action is at the root of the most

widely misunderstood of our health and social problems. Suicide is the

most irrational of all individual actions. Most of us realize this. Yet

every 20 minutes in the United States someone takes his own life. Can

anything be done to stem this tragedy of self-destruction which accounts

for 22,000 deaths annually, which is the tenth leading cause of death in

our nation, and which among college students is the second leading cause

of death?

 

In this great big expanding world full of so many splendors, so many

opportunities for growth, enrichment, so many exciting experiences to

anticipate that one lifetime is hardly sufficient for all of them, why

would anyone want to pull down the curtain before the show is over?

Certainly it isn't that the trials and troubles are meted out more to

the suicide-prone than to those with zest for life. Haven't you seen

people with the troubles of a job manfully shouldering their packs with

never a thought of ending it all? No, it isn't the troubles. We all have

our share of those. Is it then a capacity for handling burdens--the

emotional stability that, when troubles abound, whispers in your ear,

" This too shall pass " ?

 

And what is it that gives one this emotional stability? Is this quality

in some way dependent upon your physical health which in turn is

dependent upon your nutrition?

 

According to a French scientist, it definitely is--and particularly

related to a mineral that has only recently been recognized as essential

in human nutrition, but has been so neglected that the specific daily

requirement has never been officially determined.

 

Would you believe that increasing lack in our diets of the mineral

magnesium could in some way be linked to the increasing suicide rate in

our country? Does this sound irrational, too pat, farfetched? Let's look

at the evidence and you be the judge.

 

French scientist, M. L. Robinet, in a study of suicide statistics,

discovered that " the comparison of geological maps and statistics

establishes in a striking manner the influence of the magnesium content

of the soil on the number of suicides. It is evident, " M. Robinet points

out, " that one doesn't commit suicide because the soil is poor in

magnesium. But, those who regularly absorb a good amount of magnesium

salts have a more stable equilibrium, they support adversity with more

calm and do not renounce, everything to avoid some sorrow.

 

" The use of magnesium permits one to support adversity with more

serenity, " M. Robinet concludes in the Bulletin of the Academy of

Medicine published in France (1934).

 

Apparently M. Robinet's study has been largely overlooked in this

country where the inability to " cope " is treated on the psychiatrist's

couch and not generally by improving one's nutrition.

 

And yet there are many clues in the scientific literature that lead one

to the conclusion that this mineral in plentiful supply is vital to

mental health and the innate ability to see the silver lining behind the

clouds.

 

Small Problems Loom Large

 

It would seem from experimental studies on animals that when one is low

on magnesium, small problems loom large, even overpowering. Thus animals

deprived of magnesium suffer from superexcitability to such an extent

that they become hysterical at the sound of small noises or the sight of

shadows.

 

Symptoms of magnesium depletion in man as reported by Dr. L. M. Dalderup

of the Netherlands Institute of Nutrition in the Swiss publication

Voeding (August 15, 1960) are excitability and apprehensiveness, muscle

twitchings, tremor, myoclonus--not responding to calcium

administration-confusion, and disorientation. Indeed the blood of people

suffering from extreme irritability has been found to be low in

magnesium.

 

Recently much new knowledge has been gained about the role of magnesium

in general metabolism. This mineral activates some 30 enzymes in the

body, it takes an active role in the metabolism of protein, fat, and

carbohydrate; it influences the action of some of the vitamins and

hormones.

 

Magnesium, says Dr. Lewis B. Barnett, is needed by the pituitary gland.

The pituitary, sometimes called the miracle gland, takes instructions

from the hypothalamus in the brain to which it is connected by a thin

stalk, then transmits them through the body in the form of chemical

messengers known as hormones. These hormones not only exert a direct

influence of their own, but also trigger the production of other vital

hormones elsewhere in the body. When the pituitary is not getting the

magnesium it needs, it fails in its function of exercising a sort of

thermostatic control over the adrenals which are thus allowed to

overproduce adrenaline. It is known that situations of danger incite the

activity of the adrenal glands. Troubles or worry also incite the

adrenal glands, which then pour hormones through the body that increase

heartbeat, release sugar from the liver, and contribute to a host of

problems not the least of which is hyperexcitability and an inability to

" cope. "

 

According to some startling new data presented at the meeting of the

American Societies for Experimental Biology in May, 1966 the adrenal

glands also contribute to the desire of a suicide to cut himself away

from life.

 

Scientific evidence was presented at this conference that showed how, in

the split instant of final decision to take his life, it is the glands

rather than the psyche that give that last little push. New data

indicated that " successful suicides probably had highly active adrenal

glands just before their deaths. That discovery fits neatly into other

observations that depressed patients--those most likely to commit

suicide--also have more adrenal hormone in their blood than do normal

persons, " says Earl Ubell, science editor of the Herald Tribune (May,

1966).

 

One investigation revealed that, just before attempting suicide,

depressed patients experience a rapid rise of adrenal breakdown products

in the urine. As reported in that study, a laboratory made measurements

on one woman, found an extraordinarily high hormone level, and called

her home to warn her family only to find she had already killed herself.

 

Bone Storage No Answer

 

Magnesium triggers and controls so many bodily reactions that without an

ample supply one cannot possibly enjoy a zest for living. Without an

ample supply, one courts many debilitating conditions, some of which

possibly have not yet been identified. Why is it generally ignored by

the medical profession? Because for many years it was believed that the

magnesium in the bones was a storehouse that supplied the tissues when

they were in want of it. But nutritionist Williard A.

Krehl, M.D., says in Nutrition Today (September, 1967) that magnesium

stored in the bones is not released in response to a deficit the way

calcium is, and a wide variety of clinical circumstances exists in which

magnesium deficiency may develop rapidly and profoundly. Dr. Krehl found

many nervous disorders in patients suffering from magnesium deficiency.

More than 78 percent of these patients suffered mental confusion, 83

percent were disoriented, all of them suffered hyperreflexia, the kind

of exaggerated reflexes that make people jump when they hear an

unexpected noise from behind.

 

We know that the psyche is influenced by the soma --that physical

ailments trigger mental upsets. " The most general indications of

impending suicide, " says Dr. Matthew Ross of the Harvard Medical School,

are emotional disorders that manifest themselves in some significant

change in basic biological functions and behavior that cannot be

determined by routine physical examinations. "

 

These people who are potential suicides are aware of some disturbance in

their bodies. Fifty percent of all suicides saw a physician during the

last month of their lives, says Dr. Robert E. Litman of the Los Angeles

Suicide Prevention Center.

 

Dr. Jerome A. Motto of the University of California found in a study of

attempted and completed suicides in San Francisco that one out of every

25 cases saw a physician on the same day be chose self-destruction.

 

Ironically, although physicians should be in the best position to note

warnings of an impending suicide threat and avert it, says Dr. Howard A.

Rusk, medical columnist of The New York Times (January 21, 1968), the

suicide rate among physicians is much higher than that of the general

population.

 

A study by Dr. Daniel DeSole of the Veterans Administration Hospital in

Albany showed that 26 percent of all deaths among physicians 25 to 39

years of age were suicides. This compares to a rate of 9 percent for

white males in the same age group.

 

Doctors, with a few rare exceptions, tend to preach and practice the

doctrine of " Eat a balanced diet and you will get all the nutrients you

need. "

 

In a recent 900-page book on clinical nutrition, written as a reference

book for the practicing physician and as a textbook for medical

students, the word magnesium is not mentioned or listed in the index.

The assumption is that it is unimportant because it is generously

supplied in our foods. But is it? Not only are meats, eggs, and dairy

products, the staples of the high protein diet so many Americans are

subscribing to, low in magnesium, but the more protein you consume, the

more magnesium you need to metabolize this protein.

 

A study done by Menaker and Kleiner published in Pro. Soc. Exp. Biol.

(81, 1952) of nitrogen balance in respect to magnesium content of adult

animals indicated that a high protein diet enlarged the need for

magnesium. A high protein diet could even induce acute magnesium

deficiency symptoms, because magnesium is involved in important amino

acid transformations.

 

With our country growing more affluent and people eating more meat, the

magnesium deficiency seem to be increasing year by year. This may

provide some explanation why people who seem to have so much to live for

work themselves up into emotional states in which they kill themselves.

 

It should be noted that large amounts of calcium, too, aggravate

magnesium deficiency. Milk has very little if any magnesium. People on

weight-watching diets that emphasize proteins and skimmed milk should be

careful to include plenty of magnesium. The best source of magnesium is

fresh green vegetables, but much of this heat-sensitive mineral is lost

in the cooking water. Raw wheat germ is an excellent source, but this

nutrient is lost in the flour refining process. Nuts, especially

almonds, are naturally rich in magnesium, but they lose some in the

roasting process.

 

Dr. Barnett told Prevention that, in a test he conducted on 5,000

people, 60 percent proved to be deficient in magnesium.

 

How much magnesium should one get? On the basis of his findings, Dr.

Barnett recommends 600 milligrams a day. How can you be sure of getting

that much? Make sure your diet is rich in green leafy vegetables

(uncooked), in raw nuts and seeds, and, to be on the safe side of the

mineral balance, take a dolomite supplement. Dolomite limestone supplies

a good balance, not only of calcium and magnesium, but also of many

trace minerals which, in minute quantities, play an important and often

overlooked role in human nutrition.

 

Last year a Center for Studies of Suicide Prevention was established

within the National Institute of Mental Health. It is publishing a new

periodical Bulletin of Suicidology. The center's program includes

support of suicide prevention activities, follow-up studies, research

and training grants, refinement of statistics on suicide, and training

of personnel. We wonder if all of these sophisticated and high-priced

procedures will lead ultimately to the Nutrition to Discourage Suicide.

 

We don't mean to imply that dolomite will succeed in solving the

problems that weigh on the shoulders of every potential suicide. It

won't pay gambling debts or solve your income tax underpayments or make

your mother-in-law more appreciative of your virtues. But it might just

be the element that helps put the rosy hue in your glasses. It might be

that little extra something that transforms a problem too big to support

into a challenge to be tackled with a sense of adventure, cheer, and a

twinkle in the eye. It's worth trying.

 

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