As most of my patients know by now, I am a big fan of magnesium supplementation as a key step in rebuilding ones health. In 2017 this article was published entitled "Subclinical magnesium deficiency: a principal driver of cardiovascular disease and a public healthcrisis" I thought I would share a few highlights with you as it affirms much of what Dr. Carolyn Dean and Acupuncturist Mark Sircus have written about in their books "The Magnesium Miracle", and "Trans-dermal Magnesium Therapy".
A key point I continually tell my patients is that the magnesium levels your family doctor is checking is extra cellular and "accounts for only ∼1% of total body magnesium". It is difficult to get good magnesium tests and thus difficult to diagnose. As Dr. Carolyn Dean suggests, it is easier to work at rebuilding your levels and then see what symptoms improve.
Patients often ask me why it would be deficient if they eat allot of green leafy vegetables like the spinach above. The article explains. " An excess of heavy metals due to soil contamination and a lack of minerals due to soil erosion also may predispose to micro-nutrient deficits. The importance of the mineral content of soil and water, once greatly appreciated, think low iodine levels in soil and the increased prevalence of goitre, has all but been forgotten. Furthermore, refined foods are depleted of magnesium during their processing. In order to prevent chronic diseases, we need to change our mindset away from exclusively treating acute illness and instead focus more on treating the underlying causes of chronic diseases, such as magnesium deficiency "
Another point that does echo the title is that "the literature suggests that subclinical magnesium deficiency is rampant and one of the leading causes of chronic diseases including cardiovascular disease and early mortality around the globe, and should be consid-ered a public health crisis."