MAGNESIUM FOR STRESS RELEASE- PART 1
One of, if not the most important mineral you can focus on in times of stress, is magnesium. When the body is in a state of stress, magnesium is released to help cope. In fact, The link between magnesium and anxiety is so strong that researchers can actually induce anxiety in lab animals at will, simply by depriving them of magnesium. So it may not be news to you that magnesium can help you to cope with stress. There’s even a supplement called “Natural Calm” that markets itself as being an anti-stress drink, and it’s just a basic magnesium citrate powder. As the fourth most abundant mineral in your body, magnesium functions in a wide variety of capacities. It’s necessary for enzyme creation, calcium uptake, muscle relaxation, anxiety control, glycolysis & the citric ccid cycle, regulating sugar metabolism, allowing for cell membrane permeability so other nutrients can get into and out of the cells, reducing inflammation, and a host of other processes. Some of these processes are deemed more important than others in the body, so even an insufficiency can cause issues and low-grade, chronic inflammation.
Detecting a magnesium deficiency in laboratory testing is difficult, because most magnesium in the body is stored in the skeletal and other tissues. Only 1% is actually in the blood, so plasma levels are a very unreliable indicator. What this means is a “normal” magnesium blood level may exist despite a serious magnesium deficit. This is the main reason Jade uses HTMA testing in her practice- hair is a soft tissue, and can give us a much better idea of magnesium and most other mineral levels in the body than a blood test can.
The highest concentration of magnesium are found in skeletal muscles, the liver, the heart and the pancreas. For anyone who’s ever experienced muscle cramping this might make sense- magnesium’s job in the skeletal muscles is to allow them to relax, while calcium allows them to contract, and one imbalance we often see in minerals is too much calcium with too little magnesium, leading to a chronic mild contraction or tension of the muscles. It’s not just muscles though- magnesium is key in preventing your nerves from becoming overstimulated. It works synergistically in both muscles and nerves with calcium- magnesium acts a sort of chemical block in many of our cells, and this helps to oppose the action of calcium getting in to the cell too quickly and overstimulating the nerves. This is actually something seen almost across the board when helping clients to reverse their Fibromyalgia.
Some other conditions and symptoms often seen alongside magnesium deficiency are ADHD, osteo-arthritis, osteoporosis, depression, PMS and PMDD, cardiovascular disease, noise sensitivity, adrenal insufficiency- which can be hyper or hypofunction, or even going back and forth between the two- hypertension, hypothyroidism, chronic anxiety, hyperactivity, tremors, muscle twitches- especially in the face or around the eyes- excessive sweating, and in extreme cases it can even be a factor in convulsions and epilepsy.
Magnesium is also sometimes referred to as the heart mineral- for good reason too- studies have shown that events like heart attacks and high blood pressure are often accompanied by magnesium deficiency.
Stress aside, the health of your digestive system and kidneys has a lot to do with magnesium levels. Magnesium is absorbed primarily in the intestines -though it can be absorbed trans dermally as well-and is then transported through the blood to cells and tissues. Your body only utilizes about one-third to one-half of the magnesium you take in, and the rest is passed through sweat and urination. This is one more reason you should be optimizing your gut health and kidney function in order to increase the uptake of magnesium. If you have any gut related diagnoses like IBS or IBD, Crohn’s, or Ulcerative Colitis, your mineral absorption will already be impaired and you’ll want to be supplementing with magnesium.
Over 200 different medications block magnesium absorption. Considering that 70% of Americans take one or more prescription medications, this affects a lot of people. The worst of the worst when it comes to magnesium depletion are acid blockers, laxatives, diuretics, and blood pressure medications.
So what if your gut health is great, you’re not on medications, and you’re taking in a sufficient dose for a fairly non stressed individual, yet you’re chronically plagued with stress? Make sure you head over to Magnesium for Stress Release- Part 2 to find out how this is depleting your magnesium levels on the daily.