Magnesium Deficiency Causes

by Herbert C. Mansmann, Jr. M.D.

The diet of high income Americans only contains 120 mg of Mg per 1,000 calories. The Food and Nutrition Board of the Institute of Medicine has set Recommended Daily Allowance (RDA) at 350 mg of elemental Mg per day. Who do you know that eats at least 3,000 calories per day? Over time this low daily intake of Mg leads to a low Total Body Mg Content.

This explains, in part, the high frequency of constipation, hypertension, migraine, muscle cramps, osteoporosis and PMS in the United States population. Everyone reading this knows someone, a grandparent, a mother, an aunt, a wife and/or a daughter with one or more of the conditions in this table.

Causes of Magnesium Deficiency

 Associated Medical Conditions
 
Reduced intake  
  1. Mg poor foods
 Aging, alcoholism, elderly, maturity, multiple sclerosis
  1. Dieting; starvation
  
  1. Infusion of intravenous fluids
  
  1. Vomiting
  
  1. Other
 Irritable Bowel Syndrone
 

Reduced Intestinal Absorption

  
  1. Chronic diarrhea
  
  1. Starvation diarrhea
  
  1. Gastrointestinal problems
 Calcium, constipation, hypocalcaemia, malnutrition
  1. Intake of substances that bind Mg (e.g., phosphates in sodas, oxalates)
 Miscellaneous; allergy, Bartter’s syndrome, drug reaction, Gitelman’s syndrome, irregular heart beat, Sudden Infant Death, Torsades des pointes, and zinc.
 
Redistribution  
  1. Stress, acute or chronic, and pain
 Adrenaline, amenorrhea, angina, asthma, arrhythmia, arteriosclerosis, atherosclerosis, brain injury, burning feet (erythromelalgia), catecholamine, many chronic diseases, coronary artery disease, depression, hardening of arteries, head injury, heart attack, hypertension during labor (eclampsia), menopause, migraine, mitral valve prolapse, myocardial infarction, oligonemorrhoria, osteoporosis, premenstrual syndrome (dysmenorrheal), PMS, type A personality, vulvodynia
  1. Increased catecholamine release
 Anxiety, panic attack
  1. Increased serum free fatty acids
  
  1. Hypoalbuminemia
  
 
Increased excretion  
  1. Multiple medications: diuretics, furosemide, chlorothiazides; aspartame, caffeine, sodium lactate, sodium bicarbonate, pentamidine, theophylline,
Urinary Mg wasting

Calcinosis
  1. Citrate containing blood products
  
  1. Hyperglycemia
 Diabetes, diabetic neuropathy, Metabolic syndrome X, peripheral vascular disease
  1. Alcoholism or as little as 2 oz/day
 Delirium tremens
 
Miscellaneous  
 

Allergy, Bartter’s syndrome, drug reaction, Gitelman’s syndrome, irregular heart beat, Sudden Infant Death, Torsades des pointes, and zinc

June 8, 2008 · Filed Under Articles by Dr Mansmann, Magnesium

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