Every body needs all essential nutrients, including vitamins and trace elements, in order to develop properly. A lack of some of these can lead to many diseases. Long-term magnesium deficiencies result in problems with concentration and memory, lowered mood, but also heart rhythm disturbances and even cardiac ischaemia. How to correct magnesium deficiency?
Symptoms of magnesium deficiency
One of the most noticeable magnesium deficiencies is involuntary muscle cramps, most often noticed at night when leg cramps make it impossible to fall asleep. However, there are many other signals with which the body alerts a person to a deficiency occurring. Other symptoms include frequent headaches, fatigue despite sleeping for at least seven hours, brittle nails and weak hair with split ends. Nausea and a rapid heartbeat may also occur. These symptoms clearly indicate that the body is suffering from magnesium deficiency. If magnesium deficiencies are suspected in the body, blood tests can be carried out to confirm the concerns and show precisely the level of magnesium in the human body. The body needs around 300 mg of magnesium per day. Care should be taken to ensure that it is supplied. How to supplement magnesium deficiencies? If you have a lifestyle that prevents you from getting an adequate dose of this nutrient, you can opt for supplementation.
How to supplement magnesium?
The best solution for supplementing magnesium deficiencies is to ensure that you eat foods rich in it. However, not everyone can afford to arrange their menu according to their micronutrient and vitamin requirements. Unfortunately, many dietary supplements that are supposed to supplement magnesium deficiencies only have the recommended dose of magnesium on the leaflet. Most manufacturers do not provide more detailed information on how to supplement magnesium deficiencies. As a result, many people make mistakes and the magnesium consumed is not absorbed properly. Magnesium supplements should be combined with preparations containing vitamin B6, as this increases its absorption by up to 40%. Some preparations contain this vitamin in their composition, so additional intake of this vitamin is not always necessary. Depending on the manufacturer, magnesium can come in different forms. One of these is magnesium oxide, but this is one of its least absorbable forms. Other forms of it available are carbonate, citrate, chloride, lactate and aspartate. In the carbonate form, magnesium is also very poorly absorbed. It is recommended to take magnesium aspartate or magnesium chloride. These two forms guarantee high absorption. Magnesium, due to its alkaline nature, must be drunk with plenty of water, as the stomach should have an acidic environment. Magnesium, on the other hand, can cause deacidification.
How can magnesium deficiencies be remedied without supplementation?
By following a well-balanced diet, it is easy to maintain adequate magnesium levels in the body. It is found in:
- buckwheat groats
- almonds
- oatmeal
- pistachios
- pumpkin seeds
- bitter cocoa
- peas
- Wheat bran
- apples
- Highly mineralised water
- chickpeas
Even magnesium taken in with food needs vitamin B6 for proper absorption. For this reason, it is advisable to combine products containing magnesium and vitamin B6 in one meal. This can be found in foods such as brown rice, carrots, potatoes, all green vegetables and barley groats. You can also check how many mg of magnesium are found in the foods you eat. You can easily find tables of information on this on the internet. Magnesium should not be overdosed, i.e. taken in more than 600 mg per day. Therefore, if sufficient magnesium is contained in the diet, additional supplementation may prove dangerous for the body. The condition of magnesium overdose is extremely rare, although it can lead to weakness, hypotension, cardiac arrest and even coma and death.
