Magnesium The Magician of Minerals
‘Your Health – Vitamins and Minerals’ by Russell Frank Atkinson, 1982, Doubleday Australia, Lane Cove, NSW, gives results of research which put magnesium at the top of the list of life-supporting minerals.
Russell Atkinson states: “One researcher, Dr Harry Rubin, Professor of Molecular Biology at Berkeley, believes that magnesium is the central control of cellular life because it integrates all the processes.”
Magnesium, like calcium, works as an antispasmodic which can be used as a sedative. It has a soothing effect on the tissues. Because of its tranquillizing effects, it is sometimes used to treat delirium tremens, epilepsy, and convulsions, according to Russell Atkinson in 1982.
Magnesium is important for the heart and the nervous system. Russell Atkinson says that low magnesium levels cause cardiac necrosis and heart failure. If you observe this list of ailments caused by lack of magnesium, you will understand why magnesium is so important for helping to prevent that heart attack: Lack of magnesium can result in anxiety, muscle twitching, heart palpitations, tachycardia, spasmodic jerking of muscles at night while drifting off to sleep, called ‘myclonian jerk’, confusion and lack of coherent speech, and, in severe cases, delirium with hallucinations, convulsions and coma.
Why Too Much Salt is Bad For The Heart: Magnesium assimilation in the body is spoiled by the presence of sodium, which is why too much salt in the diet is a bad thing. Too much sodium will produce a magnesium deficiency. This is why we should be moderate with our salt intake, and why people at risk of heart attack must have very little salt.
Deficiency of magnesium: Magnesium is important for the growth of bones and in maintaining healthy teeth. Deficiency of magnesium can result in bones becoming brittle, as well as the teeth. Hair can begin to fall out with lack of magnesium. This is because magnesium is an integral mineral for digestion. If you are deficient in magnesium, then you begin to suffer deficiencies of other vitamins and minerals as well, as well as suffering poor digestion.
Deficiency of magnesium can result in too much calcium being taken up in the kidney tissues, resulting in kidney stones.
Processed Food Contains Little Magnesium, which is a good reason to avoid processed food.
Artificial Fertilizers Affect Magnesium Levels in Plants: Plants grown on soils where artificial fertilizers containing potassium are used will have a reduced level of magnesium than when these fertilizers are not used. This is not the case where organic fertilizers are used: Organic, bio-dynamic fertilizers do not interfere with the body’s natural processing of vitamins and minerals. Organic fertilizers will feed the soil with the very minerals and vitamins which nature intended for it.
Research Shows Magnesium Is Helpful For Heart Disease: Dr Hans Selye, who used ‘parenteral magnesium sulphate therapy’, is quoted in the 1958 ‘South American Journal’ with this message:
“The value of parenteral magnesium therapy in acute and chronic heart disease has once again been affirmed. 125 cases of angina have been treated by five workers with 66% remission of pain….
64% of acute coronary thrombosis or acute coronary insufficiency have been treated. Of these, only one died in a heart attack.”
Russell Atkinson ends his section on Magnesium with the statement that, since magnesium can alleviate and prevent so many common disorders, it appears strange that magnesium is not used more widely in medicine.
It seems not a lot has changed since 1982: Preventative medicine where diet, herbs, minerals and vitamins, and homeopathy, are all effectively used to both prevent and treat certain diseases, still comes second to prescription medicine in popularity. This is because drug companies have resisted the truth – that there is no need for the majority of us to suffer long standing sickness in life.