Magnesium and its Importance

Magnesium is a mineral that not many of us give any thought to. However, magnesium is very important to include in our diet and deficiencies of magnesium can be dangerous. We should all be eating a healthy and balanced diet, and it is important to know all of the vitamins and minerals we need to be getting.

All the cells in you body use magnesium. Magnesium keeps bones strong, helps maintain nerve and muscle functioning, and, perhaps most important, keeps the heart beating steadily. It's easy to see why a deficiency of this mineral is dangerous to your health. Magnesium can be found in naturally in green leafy vegetables, nuts, seed, and some whole grains.

Your body only requires a small amount of magnesium, but there is also only a minute amount of magnesium found in most of the foods listed above. This is why it is so critical to eat a balanced diet full of healthy and nutritious foods.

Magnesium deficiency is fairly uncommon but symptoms include disorientation, confusion, depression, abnormal heart beat, loss of appetite, cramps, numbness, and seizures. Magnesium is often depleted though the urine and over-consumption of alcohol has been linked to magnesium deficiencies.

You can ask your doctor or nutritionist as to what the recommended daily amount of magnesium is. Many books and websites can help you determine how much magnesium you should be consuming each day. This number varies for men, women, different age groups, pregnant women, and lactating women. A great way to prevent any deficiencies is by knowing how much magnesium you should be taking, and how much is in certain foods.

You can take magnesium supplements or multi vitamins in case you do not think you are getting enough magnesium in your diet. You probably are not getting enough of other vitamins and minerals as well in case you are not getting enough magnesium. Fresh and healthy foods is the best source for all vitamins and minerals, the next best thing is a multi vitamin.

If you find yourself relying solely on multi vitamins for your dietary needs, perhaps you should consider making some changes in your eating habits. There are some conditions that may require you to take a magnesium supplement. One example is if you have chronic malabsorption of magnesium, you may need to take a supplement to guarantee that you have enough magnesium in your diet.

Some studies have shown that high blood pressure or hypertension can be lowered by magnesium. Whether or not this is true it cannot hurt to increase the number of vegetables and fruits you eat each day. Metabolic changes that may cause heart attacks or strokes have been linked to Magnesium deficiencies. As you can see, magnesium is a very important mineral to have in your diet.

Be wary of taking too many supplements, laxatives, and antacids. There is the danger of too much magnesium. There is little risk of any overdose if you are getting magnesium through your diet. However if you take too many supplements there is the danger of magnesium toxicity. The symptoms of too much magnesium are very similar to those of magnesium deficiencies.

Magnesium is a very important mineral, and you should be very careful to make sure you are getting the proper amounts of fruits and vegetables each day. If you eat a balanced diet then you probably never need to worry about a magnesium deficiency.

Article Source: Main Articles

Frank Landrens is the webmaster for BHP Magnesium, a fantastic resource for information about magnesium, For more articles on magnesium why not visit: www.bhpmagnesium.com/articles
Get your own completely unique content version of this article.

This article may be reproduced wholly or in part without written permission provided the byline, resource area, and any hyperlinks remain in order to give proper credit to the author.

Internet search engines and directory listings are imperative to your sites existence and success. Submit Your Website to the Searchen Networks directory and search engine to achieve authoritive inbound links.

Please Rate this Article

5 out of 54 out of 53 out of 52 out of 51 out of 5