The body is a finely tuned ecosystem of hundreds of vitamins and nutrients and whenever anything gets slightly out of kilter it can have real affects on your overall health and how you feel in yourself. Sometimes it is a genetic issue that may mean that you body can’t take in certain nutrients as well as others (this is often the case with anaemia and iron deficiencies) and other times it is simply because your diet isn’t giving you enough of the nutrients you need. This can either be because of a poor diet or because of a specialist diet, for example, vegans tend to have to work harder to get vitamin B and often have to take vitamins with B12 in to supplement something that they tend to lack in their diet.

In this article we’re going to take a more in detail look at Magnesium and what important functions it helps with in the body as well as some symptoms that might help you diagnose if you have a Magnesium deficiency.

What is Magnesium used for in the body?

Magnesium is the 4th most common mineral in your body and it is estimated that 68% of people don’t have a sufficient Magnesium intake from their diet on a daily basis. It helps with everything from helping your muscles contract to making DNA and ensuring healthy brain function. It helps to relay signals between your brain and body by ensuring your NMDA receptors are functioning correctly, it sits inside them and ensures that they are stopped from triggering by weak signals that might stimulate your nerve cells unnecessarily. If your NMDA nerve receptors aren’t functioning properly then it can cause over use of the nerve cells which can kill them and eventually lead to brain damage.

Magnesium is also essential in regulating your heartbeat, it works alongside calcium to help your heart muscles contract and relax. Calcium stimulates your heart muscles and makes then contract where are Magnesium has the opposite effect and helps them relax, so if you can imagine your heart beating, both of these are essential to ensure it is effective.

Some studies have also been done in to Magnesium levels alongside things like high blood pressure, heart disease and type 2 diabetes. It has been shown (in certain studies, not completely verified) that sufficient Magnesium levels has a positive impact on reducing blood pressure, stopping heart disease and easing type 2 diabetes symptoms.

What are the symptoms of Magnesium deficiency?

The most common symptoms include weakness, depression, high blood pressure, heart disease, migraines, high blood pressure, erratic blood sugar levels and poor sleep. If you think that you may have a lack of Magnesium in your diet consider Magnesium supplements to ensure you get it back up to a healthy level. You can take tests that will flag up any vitamins or minerals that you are lacking in your diet so that you can create a plan to ensure your body is working in perfect harmony.