4 Ways Magnesium Intake Impacts Your Body

One critical aspect of your life you need to take good care of is your health. Having a healthy mind and body allows you to perform various activities without any problems and prevent your risk of developing severe complications.

In some cases, it’s easy to overlook the things that help keep your body in optimal condition. For instance, like many other nutrients, magnesium plays a vital role in preserving your health. It’s an essential part of more than 600 cellular functions throughout your biological system. Here’s how it can impact your body:

 

1.   Maintains Your Heart Health

Your heart is responsible for transporting blood and many vital nutrients throughout your body. If it’s not working efficiently, you may experience problems with your everyday life and feel discomfort as well.

Magnesium relaxes your heart every time it contracts. It works by countering the effect of calcium on your heart muscles. A healthy level of this nutrient in your body ensures that your heartbeat is stable. On the other hand, if there’s an imbalance of those two essential nutrients within your system, you may experience rapid or irregular heartbeat.

If you wish to take care of your cardiovascular health, it’s important to prioritize consuming products rich in magnesium and other essential vitamins and minerals. Besides eating nutritious foods, you can take supplements to improve your magnesium levels. For instance, you can try a magnesium water recipe and incorporate it into your meals. It’s an effective and easy way to prevent a deficiency and ensure that your overall health is in good condition.

 

2.   Regulates Your Mental Health

A study on the relationship of magnesium intake and depression suggests a link between low chemical levels and the prevalence of symptoms in adults. Magnesium is responsible for your brain functions and mood regulation. This could mean that a deficiency may negatively impact your mental health.

Regular magnesium intake may help your condition if you’re suffering from a mental health illness like depression. A research paper published in 2006 suggests that taking magnesium supplements regularly could help combat the symptoms of your mental illness. Since those are highly accessible medications, it’s easy for those who wish to alleviate their condition to purchase them.

Magnesium supplements are often sold in varying formulations. For instance, you can buy magnesium citrate or magnesium oxide as an over-the-counter (OTC) drug. If you want to include a supplement in your routine to ease your health problem, it’s best to consult your doctor first. This way, you can ensure that the medicine you’ll take will help manage your depression or other mental illness.

 

3.   Helps Improve Your Physical Performance

If you engage in an active lifestyle or have a physically demanding job, you may benefit from an adequate intake of magnesium. After all, it’s involved in your muscle function and health, and it helps regulate your muscle movement.

If you have a deficiency, you may feel frequent or severe cramps and spasms. This can be due to the excess amount of calcium in your muscle tissues that causes the contractions. Since there’s a lack of a relaxing agent present in your muscles, your body is more prone to cramps. This can impair your daily life and make it challenging for you to perform various strenuous activities.

Fortunately, there are ways to increase your magnesium levels. For one, you can consume foods rich in magnesium, such as beans, spinach, and nuts. Those contain various essential nutrients that’ll improve your overall health. Including them in your meals may also reduce your risk of developing a nutrient deficiency and experiencing muscle cramps and spasms.

 

4.   Aids In Blood Sugar Control

If you have type 2 diabetes and find it challenging to manage your blood sugar levels, you may benefit from regular magnesium intake. Those who are suffering from this health complication often have low magnesium levels in their body. As a result, the cell receptors responsible for utilizing insulin can’t function properly. This can lead to high blood sugar levels, which might worsen their condition.

Including magnesium in your medications may help you control your blood sugar and keep it within the normal range. Having enough nutrients in your system makes it easier for your cells to move sugar out of your blood and store it. However, it’s important to remember that the positive effects of magnesium intake on diabetes have only been recorded in short-term research. So if you wish to take this medication as part of your routine to ease your condition, it’s best to ask your physician whether it’s safe for you or not.

 

How To Determine If You Have Magnesium Deficiency

In some cases, maintaining a healthy level of magnesium in the body is easy. A nutritious diet and lifestyle may be enough to ensure you won’t suffer from any nutrient deficiency. However, if you’ve been experiencing the following symptoms, it’s advisable to book an appointment with a doctor to determine whether the cause of your health problem is low magnesium levels:

Numbness Or Cramps: If you’ve been experiencing unexplained numbness in some parts of your body like your hands or feet, it may be best to visit a doctor as soon as you can. Some of your brain functions need magnesium to work efficiently. Thus, a lack of this nutrient can result in poor transmission between your neurotransmitters, causing numbness or twitching.

Additionally, if you’re not getting enough magnesium, you may experience cramps frequently even if you don’t put a lot of stress on your muscles. This can be due to the imbalance of the relaxing and contracting chemicals stimulating your muscle tissues.

Fatigue Or Weakness: Another common symptom of a nutrient deficiency that you should look out for is unexplainable fatigue or muscle weakness. Although it’s normal for you to feel tired after a strenuous day, you shouldn’t have much difficulty bouncing back after getting enough rest. However, if you’ve been feeling under the weather for no apparent reason, it may be best to check if the root of your problem is low magnesium levels.

Other signs of hypomagnesemia or low magnesium include irregular heartbeat, high blood pressure, frequent headaches or migraines, and some mental health disorders. Since other illnesses can also cause these symptoms, it’s best to undergo a checkup to determine whether your magnesium intake is responsible for the discomfort you’re experiencing.

 

Final Thoughts

Just like many other essential nutrients, magnesium plays a critical role in your overall health. It regulates your heartbeat and cardiovascular performance and also ensures that your muscles and nerves work properly. If you want to lessen your risk of having a nutrient deficiency, it’s best to incorporate foods rich in magnesium into your diet or take supplements to meet your recommended daily intake.

 

 

 

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HealthStatus has been operating since 1998 providing the best interactive health tools on the Internet, millions of visitors have used our health risk assessment, body fat and calories burned calculators. The HealthStatus editorial team has continued that commitment to excellence by providing our visitors with easy to understand high quality health content for many years.

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Written by HealthStatus
Medical Writer & Editor

HealthStatus has been operating since 1998 providing the best interactive health tools on the Internet, millions of visitors have used our health risk assessment, body fat and calories burned calculators. The HealthStatus editorial team has continued that commitment to excellence by providing our visitors with easy to understand high quality health content for many years.

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