BLOG

Magical Magnesium?

Well, I wouldn’t go to the trouble of calling the properties of Magnesium, my favourite mineral, “magical”. However, considering it has more than 300 applications within the human body, it is pretty impressive.

Let’s talk about pain.

Magnesium is well known for helping relax muscles and improve muscle function. Many people have used magnesium as a treatment for leg cramps. In this case, it is more likely that a magnesium deficiency, brought on by low levels of magnesium in your diet or possibly a drug induced nutrient depletion related to a prescription you may be taking, is what lead to the muscle cramps in the first place. By bringing magnesium back up to optimal levels in your body, you will reduce the symptoms of deficiency (cramps). But wait there’s more!

Without getting too technical, there is a pain transmission pathway in your nervous system that happens to have a number of receptors for a number of minerals. One of those receptors is for magnesium. If you have enough magnesium in your system, it will attach to the receptor in this pathway and prevent a pain transmission, unlike the other receptors which facilitate the transmission of pain. In this instance, magnesium stops pain!

So not only does magnesium help your muscles work better, it manages pain too.

Of course, those are just a couple of the 300+ things magnesium does. Later on I’ll get to how magnesium helps you sleep and how it improves your sensitivity to insulin.

If you don’t want to wait for the articles, come in and speak to the Live Well team at Pharmasave Summerland about how supplementing with magnesium will help you.

Dan Cassidy, Nutritional Product Adviser (Registered)