HEALTH: THE NATIONAL MAGNESIUM DEFICIENCY

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Book: Magnesium, The Nutrient That Could Change Your Life

 

THE NATIONAL MAGNESIUM DEFICIENCY

 

Under the date of June, 1964, the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition

published a 50-page article by Mildred S. Seelig, M.D., entitled " The

Requirement of Magnesium by the Normal Adult, " which points up serious

deficiencies of magnesium in the nutrition and the bodies of American

people. We will skim through the article for you, our comments being in

parentheses.

 

" Magnesium has been accepted as an essential nutrient for the rat since

1932. "

 

(In France it was known as an essential nutrient before 1910.)

 

" A deficiency of magnesium is dangerous for the nervous system, heart

and kidneys.

 

" Haury and Hirschfelder correlated low plasma levels of magnesium with

several clinical conditions in which hyper-irritability or convulsions

are presenting signs, among which were epilepsy, eclampsia [convulsive

seizures] and renal [kidney] insufficiency.... Grass staggers of cattle,

and the convulsions of calves fed only whole milk, were similarly found

to be associated with low blood magnesium levels, and to be preventable

by feeding magnesium supplements.

 

" Neuromuscular and mental symptoms, ranging from tremor, nervousness,

and clouded sensorium through delirium, hallucinations and convulsions,

were often most severe in patients with the lowest plasma magnesium

levels . . .

 

" Patients lose a great deal of magnesium after operations.

 

" Hanna and MacIntyre have found mental depression and muscle weakness as

a result of low magnesium in the body.

 

" Contrary to the consensus, the customary diet in Occidental [Western]

countries cannot be relied upon to provide sufficient magnesium to

maintain equilibrium. Magnesium requirements should be reconsidered in

the light of findings that indicate the likely development of negative

balance on magnesium intakes below 6 mg. per kg. per day. "

 

(Six milligram of magnesium per kilogram of body weight per day. This is

approximately 385 milligrams of magnesium in the diet per day.)

 

" Additional work should be carried out to ascertain, with more

certainty, the optimal daily intake of magnesium . . . A prolonged

dietary insufficiency of magnesium may contribute to the development of

chronic disease.

 

" On the basis of 105 balance periods in men and 146 in women, totaling

658 and 781 days respectively, it appears that negative balances are

likely to develop in either sex on magnesium intakes under 4 milligrams

per kilogram per day. "

 

(This is 256 milligrams of magnesium per day.)

 

(A large number of pages are devoted to tables and to technical

description of the processes leading to the measurements.)

 

" At intakes of 10 mg. per kg. daily and above, markedly positive

magnesium balances were found in both long-and-short-term studies

leading to retention of as much as 444 milligrams of magnesium per day .

.. . "

 

(10 mg. per kg. per day is about 640 milligrams.)

 

(Data is then given to show that men excrete more magnesium than women,

and that a too-high calcium intake can cause a magnesium deficiency.)

 

(Since taking nine dolomite tablets a day, I have reduced my bone meal

intake from six to three a day. Dolomite tablets contain 100 milligrams

of calcium to 46 of magnesium.)

 

(The following is something which we believe to be extremely important:)

 

" Magnesium seems to be absorbed more poorly from diets which are rich in

phytates, such as brown bread, brown rice or oatmeal, or from refined

bread to which phytate has been added. "

 

(The phytate is in the wheat germ portion of the wheat, and acts to

prevent magnesium from being absorbed. I would not stop taking wheat

germ, as it has great advantages, but I would compensate for the phytate

by taking liberal quantities of dolomite.)

 

(In the concluding part of the article are a few interesting items).

 

" Since the foods which constitute the major portion of the Occidental

diet provide relatively little magnesium, it is not surprising that

analyses of typical American and British dietaries . . . reveal that the

customary diet often falls short of providing even 5 mg. per kg. per

day. Finnish subjects on diets of similar caloric value ingested

approximately 3 times as much magnesium as did the American subjects. "

 

(Perhaps the food of the Finns is grown along more primitive lines, with

less artificial fertilizers and poisonous insecticides, and more organic

matter. I have recently concluded an experiment on our farm, with two

groups of chickens, fed since they were a day old. One group was fed

with organically produced food grown on our farm. The other was fed on

purchased mash. Later on, some eggs laid by each group were analyzed by

a reputable laboratory (La Wall and Harrison of Philadelphia), and it

was found that the eggs laid by the organic group had 100 percent more

magnesium than the other chickens. If all the farms in the U.S. were run

on an organic basis, it probably would cure the national magnesium

deficiency.)

 

" In the East, where soybeans, vegetables and rice are the main dietary

constituents, calcium intake is likely to be low, and fish plays a small

but more important role than meat in the diet, the daily magnesium

intake falls below 6 mg. per kg. only infrequently and may surpass 10

mg. per kg. Coullumbine and associates in their study of Ceylonese

medical students on a control diet corresponding to their customary

intake found that the daily magnesium intake ranged from 351 to 641 mg.,

or 5.7 to 11.5 mg. per kg. per day.

 

" Indian men on their diets had a daily magnesium intake of from 6.1 to

10.6 mg. per kg. while in healthy young Chinese men and women from the

upper classes it was from 6.5 to 10.6. "

 

(In the U.S. the average is less than five mg per kg. per day.)

 

(Dr. Seelig, the author, tells about a patient described by Petersen,

who had a persistently low plasma calcium level which rose on correction

of the magnesium deficit, and showed improvement of previously

intractable tetany.)

 

(The rest of this article is the summary by Dr. Seelig, and explains

itself:)

 

" The widespread assumption that the average daily intake of magnesium is

sufficient to maintain equilibrium in the normal adult has been

questioned. Analysis of published metabolic data indicates that the

minimal daily requirement is not 220 to 300 mg. per day, as has been

reiterated, or even 5 mg. per kg. per day as has also been suggested,

but probably at least 6 mg per kg. per day.

 

" The available clinical metabolic data provide evidence that at intakes

below 6 mg. per kg. per day, negative magnesium balance is likely to

develop, particularly in men. Women seem to retain more magnesium than

men at low and marginal magnesium intakes. At intakes above 10 mg. per

kg. per day, strong positive magnesium balances develop, which probably

reflect repletion of suboptimal tissue stores. High protein, calcium and

vitamin D intakes, and alcohol function to impede retention or to

increase the requirement of magnesium, particularly in those on low

magnesium intakes. On magnesium intakes above 6 mg. per kg. per day,

little interference with magnesium retention by calcium, protein or

vitamin D has been reported.

 

" The diet in the Orient apparently provides 6 to 10 mg. per kg. per day.

The Occidental diet, however, provides an average of 250 to 300 mg. of

magnesium daily, or less than 5 mg. per kg. per day for most adults.

Because the Western diet is often also rich in protein, calcium and

vitamin D, and alcohol ingestion is common, it is suggested that the

optimal daily intake of magnesium should be 7 to 10 mg. per kg. per day.

 

" The existence of subacute or chronic magnesium deficiency is difficult

to diagnose. Because the tissues damaged by magnesium depletion are

those of the cardiovascular, renal and the neuromuscular systems, early

damage is not readily detectable. It is postulated that long-term

suboptimal intakes of magnesium may participate in the pathogenesis of

chronic disease of these systems. "

 

Yet it is only recently that some scientists have come to accept the

existence of magnesium deficiency in man. For years, medical reports

stated that a person could obtain enough magnesium from food to keep his

bones and cells healthy. Yet the more researchers learned about this

mineral, the more they have come to realize that much ill health is due

to existing deficiencies. Furthermore, they now know that since most

people never eat enough of the magnesium-rich foods (nuts, seed foods,

and green vegetables), the deficiency may well be universal.

 

Without magnesium the actions of nerves and muscles are impaired.

Convulsions, dizziness, muscular weakness, weak teeth and bones, and

nervous irritability have all been cited as features of magnesium

deficiency. There are other conditions where magnesium deficiency may

also be present, yet difficult to detect because the overt symptoms are

missing or masked. One such ailment is kwashiorkor, a protein-calorie

deficiency disease.

 

Associated Diseases

 

A study by C. G. Linder and associates has been published in Pediatrics

(Vol. 33, 1963). Linder found that children suffering from kwashiorkor

also had severe magnesium depletion. Less than half the normal quantity

of the mineral was present throughout the body. When the children were

given curative diets, a positive balance of magnesium appeared.

 

Chronic alcoholics also tend to show low magnesium levels, particularly

those patients with delirium tremens. Magnesium therapy often helps

control delirium tremens, although there is still some question as to

whether alcoholism actually causes magnesium deficiency or is perhaps

partially caused by it. It is suggested by many researchers that it may

well be the nonnutritious diet of the alcoholic that leads to magnesium

deficiency.

 

Low magnesium levels have been reported in cases of steatorrhea, an

illness marked by intestinal disturbances and loose fatty stools. I.

MacIntyre and his colleagues report in Clinical Science (Vol. 20, 1961)

that as an accompaniment to this disease, muscle content and exchange

levels of magnesium were reduced to two-thirds of the normal figure,

although bone content was unchanged. This may mean that bone cells

conserve magnesium at the expense of other tissues, or perhaps that

magnesium-containing bone is so tough it cannot readily be broken down.

 

In steatorrhea, the magnesium deficiency is primarily due to fecal loss

of the mineral. The researchers, however, also noted that a high calcium

intake aggravated the deficiency. A number of other studies have also

noted this effect of calcium. Magnesium and calcium have a great

affinity for each other. If one is deficient, however, an excess of the

other creates the danger that still more of the deficient element will

be carried out of the body.

 

Additionally, when magnesium is absent from the diet, calcium is not

absorbed, but instead forms deposits upon vital tissues, including,

skeletal, heart, and stomach muscle, lungs, kidneys, and trachea. The

obvious solution is to make certain you consume enough of both these

essential minerals.

 

 

Antagonistic Drugs

 

Some hormones used as drugs can upset magnesium metabolism and produce a

local deficiency. Cortisone, claimed to reduce inflammation caused by

arthritis and allergies, has also been found to have the side effect of

producing diabetes. And in some studies it has been shown to reduce

magnesium concentrations in the blood.

 

In his well-documented book, The Role of Magnesium in Biologic

Processes, J. K. Aikawa, M.D., of the University of Colorado, writes

that cortisone also increases magnesium uptake by the appendix, heart,

and muscle. He states: " These results suggest that cortisone produces

subtle changes in the distribution of magnesium in the body, which

cannot be attributed to its diabetogenic or anti-inflammatory effect. "

 

Dr. Aikawa mentions that tetracycline, an antibiotic, also interferes

with magnesium metabolism by disrupting the chain of events in which

energy is released in mitochondria. Testosterone, thyroxin and digitoxin

suppress magnesium activity, but one of the more dangerous therapeutic

tools seems to be the X-ray.

 

Suspecting that irradiation would destroy certain cellular processes,

Dr. Aikawa subjected male rabbits to total X-ray exposure to note the

effect on magnesium. He found that " the bone cortex, kidney, and

heart-tissues previously considered radioresistant- are as

radiosensitive as the appendix, stomach, and testis. " After six days, he

found a " significantly decreased turnover of stable magnesium. "

 

Certainly, it is apparent that without magnesium the system can hardly

be expected to carry on the processes that are necessary to good health.

Currently, magnesium deficiency is suspected to be a factor in causing

heart trouble, thyroid disorders, tooth decay, and eosinophilia, a

condition in which there is an abnormal increase in the amount of

microorganisms circulating in the blood.

 

We still need to dispel the fallacy that says we can get enough

magnesium from ordinary food and that it is dangerous to take in too

much magnesium. Both claims have now been disproved. Indeed, the

American habits of eating such high amounts of refined and processed

foods would make a sufficiency of magnesium extremely rare.

 

We can be sure that the sooner these widespread fallacies are

eliminated, the sooner will the fantastically poor health level of our

country be improved. Now that science has proved that magnesium

deficiency is a reality, perhaps the goal of achieving better health

will become a reality, too.

 

 

***

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Patterson, CA 95363

 

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