Hi I'm Urvi Shah hematologist and oncologist on the myeloma service at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. Lately there's been a lot of interest in the supplement magnesium and understanding this mineral. And, what I wanted to talk about was why it's so important. So magnesium is important in a lot of enzymatic reactions in our body. Over 300. And so it's important in the functioning of our body overall.
Foods that are rich in magnesium include fiber rich foods like, legumes, green leafy vegetables, soybeans, nuts, seeds, pumpkin seeds, things like that. What we do know is that about 50% of the population doesn't get enough magnesium in their diet. And this is quite consistent with what we see is that 50% of the population doesn't get enough fiber in their diet or, and or more than 50%, actually.
But, so the foods that increase our fiber and plant foods tend to also be rich in magnesium. What we know is that, patients on proton pump inhibitors for acid reflux or heartburn, sometimes with steroid use, also this is prescribed, can lead to loss of magnesium in and decreased absorption. So they are much higher risk for magnesium deficiency.
Uncontrolled or poorly controlled diabetes can also increase risk for deficiency as well as chronic diarrhea. So one way to check for deficiency is looking at magnesium levels in the blood. However, the levels are not very accurate in predicting because that's when you're looking at the plasma levels. But magnesium is also stored in the bones, and we don't see that in the blood marker reflection.
So I think it's just important to be aware of eating magnesium rich foods. And in some patients, supplements may be necessary if they have really low levels and things that could be associated with lower levels are things like muscle cramps, headaches, just not feeling too well. Sleep issues, also anxiety, high heart rate. So sometimes the symptoms are really nonspecific chronic diarrhea.
So it's hard to always know, whether it's necessary or not. But I think that magnesium, for people with anxiety, as some people have found like supplementation of that could help with anxiety or sleep and things like that. Generally the organic, supplements things like magnesium, glycinate are associated with better absorption and less diarrhea. Compared to the inorganic like magnesium oxide.
It's important to always discuss taking supplements with your doctor because sometimes it can interact with drugs. I think that magnesium, for the most part, can be safe, but in patients, especially with like renal failure or dysfunction, there may be risk of accumulation or patients who have had GI surgeries where the absorption is altered, they may absorb too much rapidly.
And high levels can also be dangerous. So you want to be very careful about not taking overdoing it or overdosing with that. And that would be something to discuss with your doctor.
HealthTree • December 13, 2024