Besides Its Favorable Effects on Migraines, Daily Supplementation of Magnesium Decreases the Risk of All-Cause Mortality
Like a best-kept secret, not everyone knows the importance of magnesium to good health and longevity.
What is all-cause mortality? The word mortality means death. Simply stated, all-cause mortality means the death from any cause, disease, accidents, disasters, etc. But with respect to medical terms, it means mortality from any disease, infection, or medical condition.
Risk Factors
A risk factor is a condition or behavior that is known to increase vulnerability to a particular outcome disease. While mortality can be random, patterns can often be found that result from particular behaviors. Many studies aim to assess which risk factors lead to specific illnesses such as heart disease, diabetes, or cancer.
What This Means for You
It may not be obvious at first exactly why certain good habits help you to avoid a broad spectrum of diseases and conditions, however; as the evidence builds over time, scientists can determine which behaviors increase good health and longevity the most such as staying active and maintaining a healthy weight. For this reason, when a study references all-cause mortality, it’s a good idea to pay attention to the advice given.
Just some of the serious diseases that shorten life span include; heart attack, atherosclerosis, stroke, cancer, hypertension, diabetes II and inflammation. Inflammation is now generally regarded as being the start of many of the diseases we contract. Other illnesses and conditions can cause stress which leads to many of the diseases just mentioned. They included migraines, fibromyalgia, depression, osteoporosis, kidney stones, angina, asthma, insomnia, and many others, too numerous to list. Stress is the biggest depleter of Mg and unfortunately, we are all under different types of stress including physical stress like exercise and working out. A disease or condition also causes daily stress and daily depletion of magnesium.
The above diseases and conditions above have one thing in common. They can be caused and/or exacerbated by the lack of magnesium.
Many of our readers know the benefits of magnesium when it comes to preventing chronic migraines, but the benefits do not stop with migraines. Other very important reasons you need to consume enough magnesium on a daily basis are:
• Helps to maintain healthy blood sugar levels
• Helps to maintain healthy blood pressure levels
• Helps to prevent heart attacks
• Helps keep the heart beating regularly
• The citrate form along with potassium helps to prevent kidney stones
• Helps with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder
• Reduces risk of heart pains (angina)
• Helps prevent spasms of breathing pathway in asthma
• Helps protect the bones against osteoporosis (may be more important than calcium)
• Helps to prevent the symptoms of PMS (Premenstrual Syndrome)
• Helps to reduce urinary urgency in women
• Helps to reduce or eliminate leg cramps
• Helps to prevent constipation
STUDY: Magnesium and All-Cause Mortality
A study, completed in Germany, indicates that low magnesium levels are associated with thickening of the left ventricle of the heart which can lead to cardiac dysfunction and death.
In addition, low levels of magnesium lead to increases in all-cause mortality, not just heart-related deaths.
It was found that all-cause mortality was 7 times higher in the low magnesium group and cardiovascular mortality was almost 2.5 times higher than in the higher magnesium group.
Seeds, nuts, halibut, cooked spinach, milk products, fruits, and leafy vegetables are just a few good sources of magnesium.
Taking a good multi-vitamin that contains at least 350 mg of magnesium would also help to prevent any dietary deficiencies and reduce your risk for illnesses and disease.
To the Best of Health,
Curt Hendrix, M.S., C.C.N., C.N.S.
