For a Healthy Heart, Put a Premium on Magnesium
Study:Â Low Levels of Magnesium Increases Stroke Risk
Spinach is a rich source of heart-healthy magnesium.
If you’re familiar with my latest book, The Blood Pressure Miracle, then you know about a triumvirate of minerals that are highly beneficial to maintaining a healthy blood pressure: potassium, calcium and magnesium.
Well a new study published in the American Journal of Epidemiology backs up my claims, as its results indicate that low magnesium levels heighten the risk of stroke.
Now, to me, this isn’t a big surprise, as my book is packed with information supported by scientific studies. But there are still a number of people out there too stubborn to believe that natural health is bupkus, that the only real way to turn one’s health around is through prescription drugs. Here’s just one example of why they’re wrong.
Before I get into the details of the study, you may be wondering how blood pressure is tied with stroke. Well, to make it as simple as possible, when someone has high blood pressure, blood is not flowing to and from the heart (and throughout the body) as it normally should due to build-up or narrowing of the arteries. And if blood and oxygen is not flowing throughout the body properly, the risk of stroke (where oxygen is not reaching the brain due to artery blockage) increases tremendously. Some estimates indicate that 70 percent of stroke incidents can be directly linked back to high blood pressure!
That said, how does having low magnesium increase one’s risk for developing the country’s third leading cause of death? For that answer, we go to the study’s researchers.
I suppose their answer doesn’t tell us much, but they say that magnesium has an “anti-hypertensive mechanism” built into it. What this “anti-hypertensive mechanism” is, not even they know, but what they do know is that the lower the 14,000 men and women’s magnesium levels were that were studied, the higher their risk for stroke. And in the approximately 600 cases of stroke incidents over the 15-year study period, those who had diabetes and high blood pressure were the most common stroke victims.
The researchers, unsurprisingly, are loath to advocate using magnesium supplements as a method in which to staunch the risk of stroke, but at least one researcher, who came away with similar results with respect to magnesium and diabetes prevention, said that consuming a magnesium-rich diet would at least be “prudent.”
Well, there’s a ringing endorsement.
I’m grateful for these researchers and their work that supports what I and many others have long been telling you with regards to minerals and avoiding life-robbing diseases and conditions, but I wish they’d be straight with the people and make a definitive statement: Magnesium is one of the three great minerals that diminish the risk of stroke.
In the meantime, you can increase your intake of magnesium through supplements (400 to 800 milligrams per day), or through the regular consumption of magnesium-rich foods, like halibut, beans, whole grains, and spinach.
To keep your heart functioning magnificently, put a premium on magnesium.
Sources:
About.com
Nutraingredients-usa.com
American Heart Association
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- Oatmeal and your Heart Health
 
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Posted: April 27th, 2009 under Magnesium.
Tags: stroke risk
