Is Magnesium Good For Gut Health? Research Revealed Amazing Facts 2022

The body requires the mineral magnesium to remain healthy. Magnesium is essential for numerous body functions, such as controlling blood pressure, blood sugar levels, muscle, and neuron function, and producing DNA, protein, and bone. A mineral called magnesium controls several bodily functions.

The mineral is crucial for helping more than 300 enzymes carry out a variety of chemical processes in the body, including the synthesis of proteins and strong bones and the control of blood sugar, blood pressure, and muscle and nerve functioning. Is Magnesium Good For Gut Health? Let’s explore it below.

What Exactly Does Magnesium Do?

Your smooth muscles, which make up some of your organs like your heart and intestines or gut, as well as your skeletal muscles, which help you walk, run, and leap, may all be relaxed and contracted with the aid of magnesium.

Athletes know that taking additional magnesium supplements can help them recover faster from long races or strenuous training sessions. Magnesium is also quickly depleted by children who run and jump nonstop throughout the day, and they may have painful muscle cramps that are occasionally misinterpreted as growing pains.

What is Gut Health, and Why is it Important?

In this context, two facets of a healthy gastrointestinal system are referred to as “gut health” in this context. Digestive health comes first. Better digestion, which becomes more complex as people age, results from a healthy GI tract.

Food is broken down into nutrients and waste by the digestive system’s enzymes. Irritable bowel syndrome and inflammatory colitis can be brought on by low levels of those enzymes or by problems with any component of the digestive system.

The gut’s ability to support the body’s beneficial bacteria, collectively called the gut microbiome, is its other critical job.

Amazingly, the human body is thought to contain 40 trillion beneficial bacteria, most of which are concentrated in the length of the intestines. A variety of autoimmune disorders, including Crohn’s disease, which is characterized by persistent bowel inflammation, may result from an unbalanced “intestinal flora,” including various inflammatory bowel diseases.

Is Magnesium Good For Gut Health?

The peristaltic action, which propels food through your gut as it is digested, depends on magnesium, which is also essential. Your digestion slows down, you become constipated, and you may even experience excruciating stomach cramps if you have low magnesium levels. Constipation is frequently caused by magnesium insufficiency, a simple condition to address.

Treat the cause of constipation, which could be a lack of fiber and water in the diet, a lack of magnesium, or an abnormal gut flora, instead of giving yourself or your child laxatives that could have harmful side effects (like making it harder for your body to absorb nutrients from food).

Due to their high fiber, magnesium content, and ability to support a healthy gut flora, eating more veggies, nuts, seeds, and legumes can address all of those problems at once (in part due to the insoluble fiber that acts as a prebiotic, or food for beneficial gut bacteria).

The Link Between Magnesium and Gut Health

Scientists can now assess the effects of certain nutrients like magnesium on our microbial composition as they continue to discover more about the significance of our gut microbiome to our overall physical and mental health.

According to one study, mice fed a diet low in magnesium had reduced quantities of the benevolent bacteria Bifidobacteria in their digestive tracts.

And in other studies, mice with dietary magnesium deficiency exhibited depressive and anxious behavior, leading researchers to understand that a lack of this crucial mineral results in an imbalance in the microbiota-gut-brain axis, in which our gut bacteria work to control our mood and mental state.

What exactly does this all mean? Magnesium not only plays a vital role in nearly all of our body’s regulating and life-sustaining processes (and its deficiency is unquestionably a contributor to almost every health problem), but it also directly benefits our friendly flora.

Health Benefits of Magnesium

No single organ or system doesn’t depend on magnesium to function at its best because of the critical intracellular work it performs. Magnesium is essential to our physical, mental, and emotional health and well-being. The following are a few of the top advantages of magnesium:

Reduces excessive blood pressure

You may believe that stress, a lack of exercise, being overweight, or a salt intake that is too high is the causes of high blood pressure. The problem already in your arteries and partly brought on by a mineral shortage may be made worse by these, though.

To control your blood pressure, magnesium is crucial. The “smooth muscle” cells in your veins and arteries are relaxed, preventing blood flow restrictions. It also maintains the delicate sodium-potassium balance, controls other minerals essential to blood pressure, and aids calcium absorption (and not be deposited in arteries). Consequently, magnesium affects the risks of high blood pressure directly and indirectly.

To determine if magnesium lowers risks, a 2013 study looked at the amount of magnesium people consumed and how much was absorbed by their systems. Researchers looked at more than 5,500 individuals between the ages of 28 and 75. They discovered that “absorbed magnesium” was linked to a 21% decreased incidence of hypertension even after considering other factors such as nutrition and lifestyle.

Magnesium was also found to lower the risk of high blood pressure in a 2017 clinical evaluation encompassing 180,566 individuals and 119 occurrences of hypertension. There was a 5% reduction even with just 100 mg of magnesium supplementation daily.

Heart protection

Magnesium is crucial for muscles, as any athlete reading this is aware. The most significant muscle in your body is now up for discussion. Heart disease risks increase when you consume less magnesium in your diet. This is due to magnesium’s role in supplying energy to the heart, safeguarding the heart’s pump, preventing heart attacks, and promoting blood vessels and heart flexibility.

According to a 2016 study, magnesium lowers the amount of calcium that builds up in your heart and arteries (called coronary artery calcification). This is an indicator of atherosclerosis and a predictor of death from cardiovascular causes.

Comparing those with the greatest and lowest levels of serum magnesium, those with the highest magnesium had a 42% decreased risk of coronary artery calcification. Additionally, they had a probability of hypertension of 48 percent and myotonic dystrophy of 69 percent, which was both lower (a muscle-wasting disease affecting many muscles, including the heart).

Combats Asthma

When you have asthma symptoms, you may tell because of your difficulty breathing, tightness in your chest, and difficulty falling or staying asleep due to coughing or wheezing. For life-threatening asthma, magnesium is frequently utilized as therapy in hospitals.

Magnesium can prevent bronchial muscular spasms, which can narrow the tubes bringing air to the lungs and making it easier for your lungs to breathe, so if you go to the ER with a severe attack, you might get that medication. This is done to treat the symptoms, but low magnesium levels could also contribute to the condition’s onset.

There is proof that those who consume foods richer in nutrients that shield cells from harm, such as vitamins C and E, beta-carotene, flavonoids, selenium, and magnesium, have lower asthma rates.

Magnesium supplements can also be taken daily by both adults and children to assist control of non-extreme forms of the condition. Even if you are not experiencing an episode, magnesium causes bronchial muscles to relax (bronchodilation).

According to studies, either calcium is blocked by magnesium, which can limit dilatation, or adenylyl cyclase, an essential enzyme for cell function, is critically connected to magnesium.

Releases Insomnia

not enough time with the Sandman? Many of us have sleep problems. In fact, insomnia affects about 50% of older persons, characterized by difficulties falling asleep, early awakenings, or a lack of wake-up energy from a lack of restful sleep.

Your circadian rhythms and lifestyle variables are partly to blame, but a lack of nourishment is also a contributing issue. Magnesium is said to aid in sleep, as you may have heard. To obtain a decent night’s rest, it’s a crucial nutrient for sleep that must be consumed or taken in supplement form.

Through muscle relaxation, magnesium gets your body ready for sleep. It also aids in “shutting off” your mind and soothes your nerves by controlling two neurotransmitters that work as your brain’s messengers and keep you alert.

A healthy “biological clock” and sleep cycle require magnesium to function correctly. A sufficient intake of this mineral aids in the reduction and prevention of sleep disturbances.

Supplemental magnesium was found to be quite effective in older persons at extending sleep duration, increasing sleep quality, and reducing morning awakenings.

Restless? The condition known as restless leg syndrome, which can cause some people to lose sleep, may be avoided with magnesium. In addition to calming muscles, magnesium reduces inflammation and produces glutathione and melatonin, two of your body’s vital sleep-inducing substances.

Supplements containing both magnesium and melatonin are influential allies. According to a 2011 study, seniors with insomnia who took melatonin and magnesium found it easier to fall asleep and stay asleep. They slept for more extended periods with better quality sleep. They also woke up the next morning feeling more alert.

Bone and Tooth Health

At least as vital as calcium, magnesium is required to develop strong bones and healthy teeth. A nutritious, mineral-rich diet starting in childhood can stop osteoporosis, which is on the rise.

Strengthening your bones through weight-bearing exercise is another crucial factor. Teenagers who are very active and athletic have a lot more chance than their couch-potato peers to have strong bones as adults.

Magnesium helps the body regulate its temperature. Magnesium deficiency may be the cause of your persistent cold hands and feet. By enhancing blood flow through the tiny vessels in your fingers and toes, try upping your Mg intake and see if it helps.

Since all arteries and veins contain muscles, magnesium impacts blood flow in every one of them. Blood flow stops when they are contracted; it resumes when they are relaxed. Also, the heart is affected by this. Magnesium is necessary for the heart’s ability to beat and for blood flow through the coronary arteries, which feed and oxygenate the heart.

Children who don’t get enough sleep are among the most prevalent problems I encounter. Many people have trouble falling asleep, experience anxiety and nightmares, wake up during the night, or are restless and move around the bed all night.

Sleep-deprived parents are the result of a sleep-deprived child. It has been my experience that Mg deficiency can contribute to sleep issues and that when Mg levels are adequate, both children’s sleep and parents’ happiness improve.

Reduces symptoms of constipation and enhances digestion

Pay attention to your intuition. Prevent a digestive issue from becoming chronic by fixing it. Your body isn’t correctly processing the food you eat if you experience acid reflux, constipation, gas, bloating, or indigestion. This makes it harder for you to absorb the nutrients it contains, which can have a negative impact on your health over the long term.

You may not be aware, but magnesium is essential for food digestion. A deficiency may bring on your digestive issues.

Without magnesium, your body is unable to carry out the “mechanics” of digestion, produce hydrochloric acid (stomach acid), produce the enzymes needed to break down carbohydrates, proteins, and fats, repair and protect your digestive organs, and many other functions (esophagus, stomach, intestines, pancreas, colon).

Magnesium becomes active as soon as food enters your mouth. This aids in the production of salivary enzymes that aid in the digestion of food by dissolving it into smaller pieces. Without magnesium, you cannot digest food because the hormones that instruct your stomach to produce digestive acid are made from magnesium.

Food enters your intestines from your stomach, where it is broken down further by additional pancreatic enzymes so that it can be absorbed as nutrients. These essential enzymes are produced by the pancreas and require magnesium. A healthy pancreas helps fend off pancreatitis and pancreatic cancer because magnesium maintains health.

Contrary to popular belief, low stomach acid is associated with several common conditions, including acid reflux (heartburn) and GERD. Magnesium deficiency has an impact on all of these conditions as well.

How?

An unresponsive esophageal sphincter is what causes GERD and acid reflux. This could occur due to an overgrowth of bacteria from low stomach acid levels. Magnesium helps to make stomach acid, which lowers the number of harmful bacteria in the gut.

Low flow? Poor digestion frequently has the most common aftereffect of all these problems: constipation. Constipation is one sign of low magnesium levels.

According to the American Gastroenterological Association, 16% of adults (including a third of those over 60) have chronic constipation, which means they have three or fewer bowel movements per week. Discover how to treat constipation and its typical causes of it.

Prevents Diabetic Stroke

Do you feel teetering? If you have prediabetes, you might be wondering what precautions you should take to ensure that type 2 diabetes never develops in your body. A natural path to health is to make sure you get enough magnesium.

Insulin sensitivity is a result of magnesium. Therefore, it is unsurprising that metabolic diseases like type 2 diabetes and insulin resistance frequently have a magnesium deficiency.

The “acute phase response” is thought to be what causes type 2 diabetes, according to 2014 research, and magnesium deficiency is linked to it.

Prediabetic individuals with low magnesium levels who appeared healthy were given supplements. They saw a decrease in C-reactive protein after taking magnesium supplements; when a person develops diabetes, their C-reactive protein level increases.

Magnesium deficiency has also been connected to poor glycemic control, diabetic retinopathy, nephropathy, neuropathy, foot ulcerations, and kidney damage leading to renal failure in people with type 2 diabetes. As a result of the rise in these conditions among type 2 diabetics, scientists highly advise taking a magnesium supplement.

A type 1 diabetic, are you? For people with insulin-dependent diabetes, the American Diabetes Association advocates magnesium supplementation to improve their overall health. It shows that type 1 diabetic patients who took magnesium had better metabolic control, higher levels of good (HDL) cholesterol, and lower triglycerides, all of which lower the risk of heart problems.

Magnesium Improves Sleep

Your gut health can be significantly impacted by interrupted or insufficient sleep, which could then result in more difficulty falling asleep. Sleep for a minimum of 7-8 hours each night in a comfortable environment.

Magnesium may be of assistance if you have trouble sleeping. Similar to how it can help you reduce stress, getting enough magnesium helps you sleep by encouraging the production of GABA.

This neurotransmitter is crucial for getting a good night’s rest and lowering cortisol. Magnesium, GABA, and other sleep-inducing substances like melatonin are all included in Natural Calm’s Calmful Sleep formula.

How to Boost Magnesium Levels Effortlessly?

Always begin with the same action. Start consuming nutrient-dense foods regularly, just as you would with any deficiency. Set a goal to include as many of these foods as possible in a high-potency meal plan.

Do you need to know which foods contain magnesium? Observe our in-depth article on foods high in magnesium.

However, a therapeutic dose of any nutrient can only occasionally be obtained from meals alone if your body is already in a deficit state, according to most research. You can only make up your deficit through supplementation.

Take it as you want: You know that taking a magnesium supplement alone won’t help. Since the absorption and metabolism of calcium and magnesium are interdependent, it is first necessary to correct the ratio or balance of its close companion, calcium.

Calcium to magnesium is best suited in a ratio of 2:1. (Adverse side effects such as diarrhea, nausea, weakened muscles, and irregular heartbeat can result from taking too much magnesium without calcium.)

To benefit bones, muscles, the heart, and other processes, magnesium and calcium also need “cofactors,” or coworkers. Boron, vitamin K2, vitamin D3, and trace minerals must all be in sufficient amounts.

For instance, the mineral boron aids in preventing the urine excretion of calcium and magnesium, and silicon aids in the body’s absorption of calcium and magnesium. These boosting nutrients are, therefore, essential to any successful bone-building and illness-prevention plan.

Side Effects

Despite the fact that the majority of the population considers magnesium to be safe, taking a supplement—especially too much of it—can have negative side effects.

Keep your daily intake below 350 mg unless you’re under a doctor’s care to prevent side effects. The most frequent adverse reactions to taking magnesium supplements can be:

• Nausea
• Mild diarrhea
• Reaction to allergens
• Stomach cramps

A food or supplement may contain other ingredients, including magnesium, which can cause an allergic reaction. Itching, breathing difficulties, rash or hives, and other symptoms are all possible indications of an allergic reaction.

Concluding Now! Is Magnesium Good For Gut Health?

Magnesium is the ultimate multitasker; it gives our daily lives a spark of life and a calm sense of peace and relaxation. It can significantly impact every aspect of our health and happiness. Spend time learning about and appreciating this powerful mineral; you won’t be sorry.

According to research, magnesium might be your body’s new best friend when it comes to getting the most nutritional value for your money.

FAQs about Magnesium and Gut Health Effects

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