False headlines & the truth about vitamins and minerals, Magnesium....

Today's Post:  Tuesday, 5-22-2012

Most doctors know little about supplements including vitamins and minerals and are too busy to find out more unless they somehow get updated by their patients or other doctors who know more. 

Some doctors have studied supplements and find they can get superior results with patients by using the indicated supplements.  Since the supplements cost less than drugs and have virtually no side effects that harm quality of life, far more of their patients actually take the supplements than take many drugs.

The drug companies don’t like the competition from those supplements that do work but have none of the side effects most of their drugs do and the supplements cost less.

 (Some drugs do important things and do them fast that supplements cannot do.  And, for some things the drugs are the better choice. Then too some supplements may not be that effective.

But the drug companies appear to be deliberately misinforming doctors and the media and thus many of the rest of us about supplements that do work.)

So you may have seen headlines like “Vitamins are a waste of money or dangerous” AND “Vitamin E causes Prostate Cancer.”

But the truth is far different.  Very different!

1.  Most vitamins and minerals are beneficial and some are spectacularly beneficial. 

There are a few vitamins and minerals that do have side effects in doses that are too large.  But if you know what level is safe on those few, those same vitamins and minerals can benefit you.

This makes the headline, “Vitamins are a waste of money or dangerous” false & I think deliberately misleading.

2.  We know 4 things about vitamin E and prostate cancer.  The headline as quoted, “Vitamin E causes Prostate Cancer" is completely false.  And the other 3 things help prevent prostate cancer!  (The study did not test real vitamin E but a poor artificial copy that was not real vitamin E!)

We covered vitamin E the first week in this series, on Tuesday, 3-13-2012.

We covered vitamin D3, on Tuesday, 3-20-2012.

We covered vitamin B3, niacin, on Tuesday, 3-27-2012.

We covered the other B complex vitamins last week on Tuesday, 4-3-2012.

We covered vitamin C on Thursday, 4-12

On Tuesday, 4-17, we covered vitamin A & carotenes and related compounds.

On Tuesday, 4-24, we covered calcium.

Last week, on Tuesday, 5-1, we covered chromium.

Last week, on Thursday, 5-10, we covered Selenium.

Last week we covered Zinc & Copper.

This week we cover magnesium.

A.  Simply put if you want to feel good, have strong bones, a healthy heart, and avoid unnecessary pains, it’s important to take magnesium.  It also helps prevent or reduce asthma.

Adults should get about 400 mg a day of magnesium and a bit more is OK.  Since most people get about 100 to 200 mg a day in their food, taking 200 mg a day of magnesium is OK but not great.  Taking 400 mg a day is better.

And, if you take heartburn or reflux drugs which reduce your uptake of magnesium by reducing your stomach acid, you should take 800 mg a day.  I take 200 mg four times a day but 400 mg twice a day would also work.  Magnesium citrate is more bioavailable than magnesium oxide.

B.  Here are some specifics. Knowing this information is very important to keeping yourself healthy.

1.  Wikipedia has this:  “Magnesium is a vital component of a healthy human diet.

Human magnesium deficiency (including conditions that show few overt symptoms) is relatively rare[18] although only 32% of the United States meet the RDA-DRI;[19]

…low levels of magnesium in the body has been associated with the development of a number of human illnesses such as asthma, diabetes, and osteoporosis.

Taken in the proper amount magnesium plays a role in preventing both stroke and heart attack.

The symptoms of people with fibromyalgia, migraines, and girls going through their premenstrual syndrome are less severe (if they take magnesium) and magnesium can shorten the length of …migraine symptoms.”

2.  Whole Health MD has this:

“Magnesium plays a variety of roles in the body. Not only is it critical for energy production and proper nerve function, it also promotes muscle relaxation and helps the body produce and use insulin. .... magnesium is involved in the formation of bones and teeth, the clotting of blood, and the regulation of heart rhythm. Magnesium....is often used to treat such ailments as back pain, high blood pressure, depression, anxiety and panic, muscle cramps, and migraine headache

….taking enough magnesium helps lower high blood pressure and prevent angina & irregular heartbeat (arrhythmia).”

Magnesium works as a catalyst with vitamin D and the calcium in your diet to renew and strengthen your bones.

Magnesium helps reduce the risk of diabetes and to prevent diabetes complications. It apparently helps reduce or prevent insulin resistance.

Taking magnesium can "...reduce emotional irritability in chronic depression, anxiety, and panic disorder. Magnesium and vitamin B6 are needed for the body to produce Serotonin,

Because deficiencies in magnesium have been found in many women suffering from PMS, taking magnesium supplements may help this problem.”

Whole Health MD also noted that people doing vigorous exercise had less soreness and pains and fewer muscle cramps if they took magnesium.

3.  Carolyn Dean, MD, ND, an expert on magnesium, said this:  “….magnesium helps the body to absorb and metabolize calcium. Unfortunately, American diet and supplementation practices lead to overconsumption of calcium, and soil depletion and processing of foods lead to underconsumption of magnesium.

The problem with this is that excess calcium intake can cause problems in the body. The National Institutes of Health Office of Dietary Supplements reports that less than half of calcium people ingest is actually absorbed in the gut. The rest may be excreted, or it can linger in the body to form kidney stones or cause calcification (hardening) in soft tissues.

In addition, numerous studies have shown that magnesium converts vitamin D into its active form so it can aid calcium absorption. Magnesium also stimulates the hormone calcitonin, which helps preserve bone structure and draws calcium out of the blood and soft tissues back into the bones, lowering the likelihood of osteoporosis, some forms of arthritis, heart attack and kidney stones.

A growing amount of scientific evidence, including a 2004 study published in the British Medical Journal, points to high calcium/low magnesium intake leading to calcification, or hardening, of arteries (also known as atherosclerosis, which can cause heart disease, the leading cause of death in the U.S.), osteoporosis and osteoporotic bone fractures.”

“The key to calcium-magnesium balance is at the cellular level. Calcium’s effectiveness and benefits with respect to bone health and the prevention of osteoporosis are enormously impaired unless the body maintains adequate magnesium levels. Unfortunately, it is difficult to get enough magnesium through diet to even meet the minimum RDA requirements because it has been farmed out of the soil and eliminated from most processed foods.

I recommend monitoring dietary calcium intake, supplementing with vitamin D3, getting the minimum daily requirement of magnesium and aiming for a 1:2 or at least a 1:1 calcium-magnesium ratio.”

Eating foods high in calcium and taking just a bit of it in your multivitamin plus taking 400 to 800 mg a day of magnesium plus taking at least 3,000 iu a day of vitamin D3 and eating foods like nuts if you aren’t allergic and organic greens and nonstarchy green vegetables which have some magnesium will do the job she is recommending.

4.  Two last points.

First, You can avoid constipation by doing 3 things. 

a) Get some exercise, at least a few minutes of vigorous exercise or some longer session of moderate exercise such as walking most days of every week.

b) Eat enough fiber by eating lots of nonstarchy vegetables and beans, lentils, and black-eyed peas and for people who are in good health and not too fat or allergic some 100 % whole grain foods. 

The vegetables are essential. Most people are OK with the beans, lentils, and black-eyed peas.  And some people are OK with some 100 % whole grain foods.

And drink plenty of water.

c) Take 400 to 800 mg a day of magnesium.

The exercise helps your body move things along while the fiber, water, and magnesium keep everything soft enough to flow through.

Second, Some people who have taken magnesium AND taken a lot of Milk of Magnesia too get diarrhea and even have dangerous symptoms because they have overdosed on magnesium.

Taking magnesium and the other things make Milk of Magnesia less needed.  But if you take magnesium, go easy on the Milk of Magnesia!