Mainstream medicine often asks stupid questions and says ridiculous things. “We need adequate amounts of magnesium for healthy muscle, nerve, and cardiovascular system function.” (Of this, there is no doubt) “Most people get enough of it in their everyday diet.” (This is not true at all.) Most people are deficient in magnesium, and this is more than true for anyone with a chronic illness.
“Some uses of magnesium are strongly supported by scientific evidence, while others are not.” There is a century, a mountain range of scientific evidence supporting magnesium as one of the main supports of life both for plants and humans. Magnesium is a perfect, necessary medicine, offering a first line of defense against almost everything.
“If you’re struggling to sleep, try trusted sleep hygiene methods, such as maintaining a consistent bedtime and reducing screen time and caffeine, before turning to magnesium supplements. If you want to try magnesium as a sleep aid, stay as close as you can to about 300 milligrams per day, which is a little less than the recommended daily intake for adults.” Some sound advice mixed with some terrible advice. There is a world of difference, medically speaking, between taking magnesium as a supplement and taking it as a medicine.
“There is also limited evidence that magnesium can improve cardiovascular health.” It is practically a crime to say this. It is a violent untruth with grave consequences. There is so much evidence it becomes a tragedy that cardiologists rarely prescribe magnesium. I recently saw five cardiologists, and none said anything about magnesium. (I am just beginning to edit Curing Cardiovascular Disease with Natural Cardiology. This week, we will announce an extraordinary discovery: how to pull cholesterol from plaque in the arteries.)
“The risk of taking magnesium supplements is low.” (The risks are nonexistent.) Side effects mainly include diarrhea, and there are no known long-term effects of taking magnesium supplements.
Magnesium is an essential mineral used for hundreds of biochemical reactions, making it crucial for health. Massive magnesium deficiencies in the general population have led to a tidal wave of sudden coronary deaths, diabetes, strokes, and cancer. Even a mild deficiency of magnesium can cause increased sensitivity to noise, nervousness, irritability, mental depression, confusion, twitching, trembling, apprehension, and insomnia.
The modern diet, with an overabundance of refined grains, processed foods, and sugars, contains very little magnesium. Even the magnesium inside whole grains and fresh vegetables has been declining steadily in recent years because of the depletion of minerals in our soils, making magnesium supplementation necessary for most people.
Magnesium and Cancer
An inverse relationship between cancer prevalence and the magnesium content of water and soil is reported in studies starting more than 50 years ago. A Russian report showed that stomach cancer is four times more common in the Ukraine, where the magnesium content of soil and drinking water is low than it is in Armenia, where the magnesium content is more than twice as high. A more recent morphologic and statistical analysis of neoplastic deaths in two Polish communities disclosed a nearly three-fold higher death rate in the community with Mg-poor soil than in the one with Mg-rich soil (10%).
Magnesium is fundamental to cancer treatment and its avoidance. Several studies have shown an increased cancer rate in regions with low magnesium levels in soil and drinking water. In Egypt, the cancer rate was only about 10% of that in Europe and America. In the rural fellah, it was practically nonexistent. The main difference was an extremely high magnesium intake of 2.5-3 g in these cancer-free populations, ten times more than in most Western countries.
Magnesium is a Medicine
Dr. Hymen writes, “I remember using magnesium when I worked in the emergency room. It was a critical “medication” on the crash cart. If someone was dying of a life-threatening arrhythmia (or irregular heartbeat), we used intravenous magnesium. If someone was constipated or needed to prepare for a colonoscopy, we gave them milk of magnesia or a green bottle of liquid magnesium citrate, which emptied their bowels. If pregnant women came in with pre-term labor, or high blood pressure of pregnancy (pre-eclampsia) or seizures, we gave them continuous high doses of intravenous magnesium.”
The standard you will read: Oral magnesium supplementation is safe in adults when used in dosages below the upper intake level of 350 mg per day (elemental magnesium). However, higher dosages have been studied and may be used.
Magnesium supplementation is safe in adults when used at almost any dose. Unless one has advanced kidney disease, the kidneys will clear excess magnesium from the blood. For most people, the worst that can happen is that one will get diarrhea, which will have the effect of cleaning out the colon, which is not a bad thing in and of itself, especially if one’s tendency is toward constipation.
It does seem like they are teaching something other than medicine in medical schools. Magnesium is to humans as oil is to a properly functioning car. It could not be any simpler.
Magnesium Ignorance at Harvard Medical School
Magnesium ignorance (deficiency) causes a lot of pain and suffering. Since doctors will not address magnesium deficiencies in any profound way, it is up to us to save ourselves. Harvard Medical School writes, “If you’re concerned about low magnesium, ask your doctor for a blood test. It’s best to get this mineral from food, especially high-fiber foods such as dark green leafy vegetables, unrefined grains, and beans, to maintain a healthy magnesium level. The recommended dietary allowance (RDA) of magnesium for adults is 420 milligrams (mg) per day.”
It is impossible to eat one’s way out of a magnesium deficiency.
If Harvard is ignorant about magnesium, imagine the rest of the world of medicine. The first thing to know about magnesium is that blood tests tell us almost nothing about a person’s magnesium status because the blood will rob the cells blind of magnesium in a desperate attempt to keep blood levels stable so a person does not have a heart attack.
Harvard Medical’s second line of advice suggests getting magnesium from food is best. It is best to get magnesium from water. Think magnesium bicarbonate water. With the nutritional values of food deteriorating dramatically over the last five decades, it is tough to eat enough dark leafy vegetables, unrefined grains, and beans to get enough magnesium.
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