5 Major Benefits of magnesium Most People Don’t Know!

May 24, 2020 0 Comments

Today we are going to talk about a mineral you probably have heard of, but not know that it has incredible benefits and that is magnesium. Magnesium is mainly an intracellular cation and it has over 300 different cellular functions in the body. It’s also one of the body’s main electrolytes. It’s essential to our overall health so, out of these different functions we will discuss some of them here.

1. Essential for calcium

Magnesium plays a very important role in the homeostasis of calcium in our bodies. PTH, an important regulator of calcium requires magnesium to get secreted. If there is a deficiency of magnesium PTH will not be released thus calcium will not be absorbed and you will eventually see the signs of hypocalcemia like tetany, weak bones, and weak muscular contractions

2. Relieves insomnia

Many of us during this crucial time of COVID-19 have lost sleep due to messed up sleeping patterns or anxiety from the news which is not letting our mind relax. Magnesium can prove very beneficial to let you have a goodnight's sleep. It does all of this by keeping our biological clock or circadian rhythm in check and by influencing certain neurotransmitters in our brain called glutathione and melatonin.

3. Muscle relaxation

Magnesium is also essential for muscle relaxation. It acts as a natural calcium channel blocker, calcium has to bind to proteins troponin C and myosin to cause the muscle to contract, what magnesium does is it competes with calcium for attachment to these proteins and this why people with hypomagnesemia experience muscle spasm and cramps. A medical condition called restless leg syndrome in which lower leg continuously contract thus interfering with your daily life activities and even your sleep, magnesium has proven to be very fruitful in this condition as it just not only relaxes muscle it increases glutathione and melatonin for better sleep.

4. Protects your heart

Magnesium has a very beneficial effect on heart muscles too. Magnesium stops calcium deposition in vessels if not stopped it will calcify vessels narrowing the lumen thus reducing blood flow to the target organ, depriving them of oxygen and other essential nutrients eventually leading to the death of those muscles and when this happens in the heart, it is called a heart attack. Along with this magnesium is a key component in ATP formation. ATP is the energy currency of the body, as the heart has to pump continuously to meet the energy requirement of the body it has to consume a lot of ATPs too and low magnesium can be a hurdle in this.

5. Combats asthma

As stated above magnesium competes with calcium to stop unnecessary contraction it also plays a pivotal role in combating asthma too. by competing with calcium in the lungs, magnesium prevents bronchial constriction helping in maintaining a widely open bronchial pathway. Magnesium is given as part of the treatment protocol in life-threatening asthma conditions. Many studies have proved that people who consume a diet in high magnesium have a very low risk of getting an asthmatic attack.