Posts Tagged ‘cardiac’
Magnesium and Inflammation
January 11th, 2010 | 
Author: Dr. Michael Eades has this to say about Magnesium and inflammation:
The lipid hypothesis of heart disease is rapidly being supplanted by the inflammatory hypothesis, which, for my money, is much more on the mark. The researchers who have spent their careers doing cholesterol research are not going down without a fight, however. Whereas most of the speakers at medical conferences always used to show graphs demonstrating that as cholesterol levels went up, so did the risk for heart disease. Now most speakers are showing graphs demonstrating that elevated cholesterol in combination with an elevated C-reactive protein (a measure of inflammation) is a better gauge of heart disease risk. I predict that over the next few years, the cholesterol part of these graphs will slowly disappear.
As the inflammatory hypothesis becomes more accepted, more and more physicians will be checking C-reactive protein levels along with a few other inflammatory yardsticks to determine the inflammatory status of their patients. If the C-reactive protein level is found to be elevated, then steps can be taken, not just to reduce the C-reactive protein, but to treat the underlying inflammation so that the C-reactive protein a marker of this underlying inflammation will normalize.
One easy step in the inflammation reduction process is to make sure magnesium intake is high. (emphasis mine)
Magnesium, Homoeostasis, and Ageing
| Author(s) : Mario Barbagallo, Mario Belvedere, Ligia J Dominguez | |
| Summary : Aging is very often associated with magnesium (Mg) deficit. Total plasma magnesium concentrations are remarkably constant in healthy subjects throughout life, while total body Mg and Mg in the intracellular compartment tend to decrease with age. Dietary Mg deficiencies are common in the elderly population. Other frequent causes of Mg deficits in the elderly include reduced Mg intestinal absorption, reduced Mg bone stores, and excess urinary loss. Secondary Mg deficit in aging may result from different conditions and diseases often observed in the elderly (i.e. insulin resistance and/or type 2 diabetes mellitus) and drugs (i.e. use of hypermagnesuric diuretics). Chronic Mg deficits have been linked to an increased risk of numerous preclinical and clinical outcomes, mostly observed in the elderly population, including hypertension, stroke, atherosclerosis, ischemic heart disease, cardiac arrhythmias, glucose intolerance, insulin resistance, type 2 diabetes mellitus, endothelial dysfunction, vascular remodeling, alterations in lipid metabolism, platelet aggregation/thrombosis, inflammation, oxidative stress, cardiovascular mortality, asthma, chronic fatigue, as well as depression and other neuropsychiatric disorders. Both aging and Mg deficiency have been associated to excessive production of oxygen-derived free radicals and low-grade inflammation. Chronic inflammation and oxidative stress are also present in several age-related diseases, such as many vascular and metabolic conditions, as well as frailty, muscle loss and sarcopenia, and altered immune responses, among others. Mg deficit associated to aging may be at least one of the pathophysiological links that may help to explain the interactions between inflammation and oxidative stress with the aging process and many age-related diseases. | |
Posted in Uncategorized | 
Tags: Ageing, Aging, asthma, cardiac, depression, stroke, thrombosis | 
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Magnesium benefits male hearts, but not women’s
Magnesium has been heralded as an ingredient to watch for 2010. The new review is therefore a timely appraisal of the cardiovascular benefits of the mineral.
Indeed, a recent report from The Freedonia Group reported that global demand for nutrients and minerals will reach $12.6bn by 2013; a 6.4 per cent increase on last year’s level.
The report, World Nutraceutical Ingredients, highlighted magnesium as one of the minerals with fastest growth, along with calcium. Other fact growing ingredients included soy proteins and isoflavones, psyllium and resistant maltodextrin fibres, omega-3 fatty acids, probiotics, and carotenoids.
Note from Tim: A good article, but I disagree with the idea that oral supplementation is the way to go.