20. 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.
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.
This page was first uploaded to The Magnesium Web Site on
January 3, 2001
http://www.mgwater.com/
Healthy Water
Association--USA