[Effects of Magnesium] Natural Sedative, 3 Benefits of Magnesium

Hello, I am Jinny, a pharmacist.

What do you think is the thing we need to pay the most attention to in our lives? Recently, while talking about this topic with a close teacher in Department of Family Medicine, I heard an interesting answer. It was ‘stress and fatigue’. After listening to it, I thought that it is truly an inseparable part of our lives today.

It is known that approximately 24% of patients visiting local hospitals complain of fatigue as their main symptom [1]. Fatigue is difficult to define simply because it can occur from various aspects such as mental, physical, and social factors, but generally refers to a condition in which the feeling of being tired continues for no particular reason or the person has no energy, making it difficult to make continuous efforts or concentrate.

Because so many different factors affect it, in order to find the cause of fatigue, it is necessary to closely observe the various physical phenomena that accompany the feeling of ‘fatigue.’ If you feel tired for no apparent reason, your eyes are shaking, your limbs are cramping easily, your heart is pounding, or your nerves are tense, you may be lacking the nutrients we are introducing today.

This nutrient is a cofactor for more than 300 types of biological enzymes and is a very important mineral that regulates the transmission of nerve impulses and muscle relaxation. It is also used as an anticonvulsant because it stabilizes the nerves and relaxes muscle tension [2]. Today, we will look at magnesium, a nutrient that you should pay attention to when your whole body is sensitive and tired.

[1] Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency, National Health Information Portal Medical Information

[2] Ministry of Food and Drug Safety, functional raw material for health functional foods

As mentioned earlier, magnesium plays a role in regulating nerve impulse transmission and muscle relaxation in our body. For this reason, if you lack magnesium, your , your muscles become tense. This can lead to muscle spasms, high blood pressure, and spasms of coronary and cerebral blood vessels. Although it sounds scary, it is actually experienced as physical symptoms such as cramps in the limbs and migraines.

It is widely known that twitching around the eyes is a symptom of magnesium deficiency, but it may seem strange that migraines are related to magnesium. This is something that has been continuously studied in academia, and in 2016, a research paper was published that comprehensively reviewed the research results reported in academia.

In this study, which synthesized a total of 21 studies and evaluated the effect of magnesium intake on the administration of intravenous magnesium to 948 patients with acute migraine symptoms and the prevention of migraine in 789 people, a reduction in intensity and frequency of migraines following magnesium supplementation was reported.

I mentioned earlier that magnesium plays a role in controlling the transmission of nerve impulses and muscle relaxation in our body. Research to date shows that magnesium stabilizes the nerves and reduces muscle tension by reducing the secretion of acetylcholine, a neurotransmitter.

Since acetylcholine is a neurotransmitter that causes contraction of the digestive system and skeletal muscles, awakening, and REM sleep, magnesium supplementation is bound to be related to sleep. In this context, Abbasi, B, and researchers (2012) conducted a human application test on 46 subjects suffering from primary insomnia (insomnia without a specific cause) and found that the intake of magnesium affected sleep efficiency, sleep time, and a meaningful increase in serum melatonin concentration.

Nerve and muscle abnormalities that occur when there is a lack of magnesium affect the eyes, brain, sleep, as well as the heart and blood vessels. For this reason, patients with acute myocardial infarction are sometimes treated with intravenous magnesium injections, and epidemiological evidence that magnesium deficiency adversely affects the health of the coronary arteries that supply blood to the heart muscle has been investigated for over 30 years.

Already in 2000, Shechter, M, and researchers evaluated the effect of magnesium supplementation on 50 patients with coronary artery disease. In this study, a significant improvement in arterial endothelial function was observed following 6 months of magnesium supplementation.

Today we learned about magnesium, an essential nutrient that is important for the relaxation of our body's nerves and muscles. Although we have not been able to accurately confirm the data on magnesium intake in Korea, according to a survey by the National Institutes of Health, 48% of Americans are consuming insufficient magnesium, so you should keep in mind the possibility that you are not getting enough supplement in today's typical diet.

Especially, in my experience, when recommended to those suspected of having a magnesium deficiency, it is a nutrient that shows rapid and accurate improvement in physical response after consumption. If magnesium is lacking, fatigue, muscle cramps, headaches, heart palpitations, nerve sensitivity, etc. As it is a nutrient that causes various physical reactions, it would be a good idea to consider supplementation if you feel this type of physical reaction.

I hope you have a healthy day both physically and mentally. This was Jinny.