Magnesium Deficiency: Signs, Symptoms & The Solution

Prior to the industrial revolution, when food was food, there were 84 organic plant-based minerals in the foods we ate and bicarbonate salts in the water we drank. It is impossible to get magnesium bicarbonate through eating food. 

Magnesium is the fourth most abundant mineral in the human body and is essential to good health. 

Some 60% of it in the human body is contained within the bones, over 25% in the muscles, and the rest in soft tissue and body fluids; only 1% is found in the blood, making it very difficult to test for a magnesium deficiency. Measuring exact amounts of magnesium in the body is complex because intracellular magnesium is what needs to be measured... and this cannot be done with routine magnesium tests. 

The implications of this widespread magnesium deficiency are frightening. 

Visual of Common Symptoms of Magnesium Deficiency

WARNING: MOST MAGNESIUM SUPPLEMENTS ARE USELESS; SOME ARE EVEN DANGEROUS! 

Over ten types of magnesium are being pawned off to the uninformed public as nutritional supplements. Magnesium Chloride is being "sold" as a bioavailable form of magnesium... I will ask you one question: do you want magnesium or chloride? 

We are already exposed to excess isolated chloride in many of our foods. Where did we come in contact with isolated Magnesium Chloride in nature? 

We didn't! When you put Magnesium Chloride on your skin, the chloride causes burning pain, and you feel a heavy tingling sensation... that is a clear sign that this is not something you want on or in your body. 

In nature, magnesium bicarbonate was absorbed with water into the bloodstream through the small intestine. Just think about this, if magnesium bicarbonate is delivered to the body in water, how can taking a metal magnesium pill or rubbing magnesium chloride on your skin be a replacement for drinking magnesium bicarbonate water? 

The majority of these supplements just pass through your body with no benefit and are excreted in the stool or urine. 

Magnesium bicarbonate is necessary for the "spark of life." The brain and the heart, which both produce lots of magneto-electrical activity, are very sensitive to your body's magnesium bicarbonate levels.

Excess inorganic calcium, sodium, potassium, phosphates, fluoride, aluminum, and many other toxic metals deplete magnesium reserves – because they bind to magnesium, which carries them together out of the body. So if we look at the toxins and metals in fertilizers, food, oral hygiene products, and water additives, almost everything we consume depletes magnesium our reserves. 

Magnesium is more important than calcium, potassium, and sodium bicarbonate as it regulates ALL of them.

If you're still reading, the importance of Magnesium bicarbonate should be getting clearer... 

Alongside iron and calcium, magnesium is one of our most essential minerals. With this miracle mineral involved in over three hundred separate biochemical reactions in your body, it may not be the mythical elixir of life... but it sure as hell deserves a starring role in your daily health protocol. 

Now that you understand what it is and how crucial of a mineral it is to optimal cellular function, let's discuss the 'whys' and 'hows' of it; we're going to take a deep dive into magnesium's complex and colorful world…

…Why it's so good for you

…The best way of getting it into your body

…The problems associated with pills and supplements        

…How properly mineralized water via PristineHydro®'s Water Revival System™ is an ideal place to start

...Why PristineHydro®'s Electrolyte Balance® is the absolute best solution to ensure you're supplying your body with what it needs to perform at optimal levels

Anyhow, make yourself comfortable, grab a bucket of magnesium-flavored popcorn, and let's begin.

Why magnesium bicarbonate should be a mandatory part of your daily health protocol.

In the words of Dr. James Pierce, Ph.D., author of Your Nutritional Key to Cardiovascular Wellness, 'Up to 50 percent of sudden heart attacks may be due to magnesium deficiency.'

What's more, according to Dr. Andrea Rosanoff, M.D., Ph.D., co-author of The Magnesium Factor, 'Once magnesium falls below a certain level, just about everything goes... The cell is not able to have a fully integrated membrane system. It just starts to get weaker and weaker. It doesn't have enough energy to do all the things it needs to do.'

Dramatic stuff. Then again, considering that magnesium helps your body create energy from food, manufactures new proteins from amino acids, and builds and repairs DNA and RNA, it's perhaps understandable. If your body could talk (which, hang on, it can), it would ask you to go out and find the mineral all the time.

In short, magnesium is essential for proper functioning, and even survival of your body's cells. Its interaction with bicarbonates and phosphates makes it a key player in the nucleic cell chemistry of all living things.

By now, you probably want to buy now, which you can... right here: 

30 Servings of Electrolyte Balance® - Liquid 

OR 

90 Servings of Electrolyte Balance® - Powder

However, continue reading because you need to share this article with your family and friends!

Magnesium offers several substantial health benefits above and beyond just keeping the day-to-day mechanics of our bodies going. 

Fighting osteoporosis

Multiple research studies suggest that calcium supplemented with magnesium improves bone mineral density. Magnesium deficiency alters our metabolism and influences the release and activity of the hormones that regulate calcium, resulting in osteoporosis. As a result, keeping up your recommended magnesium levels gives you a fighting chance of staving off this debilitating condition.

Prevention of cardiovascular disease

One of the most important benefits of magnesium is that it can lower the risk of coronary heart disease. Magnesium deficiency increases the risk of abnormal heart rhythms, which increases the risk of complications after a heart attack. More than this, dietary surveys suggest that sufficient magnesium intake may also reduce the chance of having a stroke. Magnesium is a definite 'must-have' when it comes to your cardiovascular system.

Regulating blood pressure (Hypertension)

A 2016 U.S. study involving over two thousand people found a positive correlation between magnesium consumption and a healthy reduction in blood pressure. The mineral encourages the body to produce a hormone-like substance named prostacyclin which reduces pressure in blood vessel walls. 

Treating diabetes

Studies have also shown that individuals with a magnesium deficiency have a higher risk of developing type-2 diabetes and severe diabetic retinopathy. Magnesium aids in carbohydrate metabolism and influences the release and activity of insulin, thereby controlling blood glucose levels. Some studies have shown that for every 100 milligrams increase in daily magnesium intake, there was a 15 percent decrease in the risk of developing type-2 diabetes. 

Relieving chronic stress, migraines, insomnia, & depression

The health benefits of magnesium also extend to aiding in the relief of migraines, insomnia, and symptoms of depression. Along with this, magnesium is also known to be instrumental in treating severe forms of psychiatric dysfunctions, including panic attacks, stress, anxiety, and undue agitation. Supplemental magnesium has been shown to reduce the severity of such attacks considerably and may also help in reducing recurrence rates.

Maintaining healthy kidney function

Magnesium raises the solubility of calcium in urine, helping to reduce the chance of kidney stones formation, with magnesium bicarbonate shown to be effective at preventing kidney stone recurrence. 

Treating nerve and back pain

Last but not least, clinical experience in nerve pain conditions (such as those caused by pancreatic cancer and lower back problems) has shown that magnesium can effectively treat these types of severe pain.

It's an impressive resumé for a scrap of metal, that's for sure. And if that hasn't converted you into a fan yet, bear with us — we've only just gotten started.  

The toxic age

For all its health benefits, magnesium takes on particular importance when viewed in the context of the increasingly toxin-laden environment we live in. 

Unfortunately, we live in a world that bombards us daily with heavy metals, pesticides, and a whole barrage of other nasties. When dealing with these undesirables, we have a vital detoxifying agent that enables our bodies to process these pollutants and get rid of them. This agent is called…

Glutathione

Glutathione is found in every cell in the body, where it neutralizes free radicals and prevents cellular damage. It protects us against toxic chemicals, exposure to radiation, chemotherapy, smoking, alcohol, and just about everything else. 

As well as being an antioxidant, glutathione also serves several other vital biochemical functions, including energy utilization and immune system activity. With glutathione helping the immune system fight bacteria, viruses, and fungi, can you guess what mineral glutathione needs to operate correctly? 

Magnesium! Well done, top of the class. 

Magnesium & glutathione — the dynamic duo

Magnesium is key to the body's production of glutathione. Suppose you don't consume enough of it. In that case, your body doesn't produce enough glutathione, and you're headed for trouble — low magnesium levels are associated with dramatic increases in free radical generation due to glutathione depletion. 

Without magnesium, the free radicals in your body start to run wild, causing oxidative products to build up in your heart, liver, kidneys, skeletal muscle tissues, and red blood cells. 

The accumulation of these toxins and acid residues results in tissue degradation and accelerates premature aging. That's right — if protecting your body against toxins isn't enough, magnesium helps keep you looking young (which we bet has finally caught your attention). 

Although there are a variety of other things that can place demands on glutathione — physical injuries, surgery, exposure to solvents and infectious agents to name but a few — by supporting your body with the proper nutrients including plenty of magnesium, you can create a state of balance that optimizes glutathione production over the long-term.  

Magnesium bicarbonate

So what role do bicarbonates play in the equation? 

Good question. Research shows that your body works at its best when its pH level is slightly alkaline — around pH 7.4. At this level, the body's physiological processes, including the processing of minerals, work most efficiently — and bicarbonates help balance these levels. 

Magnesium bicarbonate, in particular, has an important relationship with a couple of other bicarbonates in your body, namely, potassium bicarbonate and sodium bicarbonate — with magnesium bicarbonate being necessary for the function of the sodium/potassium pump. 

The sodium/potassium pump is an essential part of the ATP-ADP cycle — the process by which animals store and use energy. It's how cells get hydrated and involves pumping sodium bicarbonate out of a cell and pumping potassium bicarbonate in. Without magnesium bicarbonate, this pumping function is impaired, and your cells start to degenerate. 

With the sodium/potassium pump running on electricity (like pretty much every other biological process in the human body), minerals like magnesium are crucial because they're electrical conductors — hence the term 'electrolytes.' 

Although each cell may not need a great deal of magnesium to keep its electrical processes going, considering that you're made up of nearly forty trillion cells, the bill starts to add up.  

Which leads neatly to the next question…

How much magnesium do I need?

A healthy adult body contains approximately 25 gms of magnesium, with approximately 60% of it stored in the bones and the rest in the body's soft tissue.

The recommended intake is around 400–420 mg per day for adult males and about 310–320 mg per day for adult females to keep these levels up.

Some of the more common symptoms of magnesium deficiency

--> Signs that you may not be consuming enough of it...

● Loss of appetite

● Headaches

● Tingling or numbness in the hands and feet

● Nausea and vomiting

● Fatigue and weakness

● Muscle spasms

● Hyperactivity

● Insomnia

● Shaking

● Abnormal heart rhythms

Unfortunately, these symptoms can be associated with any number of conditions that can make attributing them to low magnesium challenging to determine. 

This is troubling as even though the symptoms of magnesium deficiency may not be particularly frightening, the implications of long-term magnesium deficiency most definitely are. 

Severe magnesium deficiency

As mentioned before, almost 50% of people who suffered sudden and fatal heart attacks were found to have deficient magnesium levels in their hearts. These low levels cause a spasm of the coronary arteries, affecting blood and oxygen flow to the heart and triggering the attack. 

Scary stuff. What's more, individuals who have fibromyalgia (a long-term condition that results in pain all over the body) and chronic fatigue syndrome were also commonly found to have low magnesium levels. 

Even if low magnesium levels don't end up killing you or inducing chronic fatigue and pain, you're not necessarily out of the woods. Low levels can cause calcium to build up in your cells, resulting in angina, arrhythmia, hypertension, headaches, and asthma (which is why magnesium is often referred to as nature's calcium channel blocker).

What's curious about these symptoms, however, is that one of the leading researchers in magnesium deficiency, Dr. Mildred Seelig, found that many of the symptoms of magnesium deficiency were also the side effects of drugs — indicating that drugs were either increasing the demand for magnesium in the body or depleting its magnesium levels.

Either way, as deficiencies go, it's clear that magnesium deficiency really isn't the one you want to go for. While drug use may be associated with low magnesium levels, there are several other causes that you should be aware of too…

● Poor diet 

● Extended use of diuretics

● Digestive tract issues such as Crohn's disease

● Alcoholism

● Kidney problems

● Type 2 diabetes

● Extended periods of vomiting or diarrhea

 So, we hear you ask…

How do I get magnesium into my body?

This isn't as easy to answer as it sounds.

Although magnesium is found in foods like nuts, seeds, greens, grains, and bran, even if you're the kind of health-conscious individual who eats many of these types of foods, you still may not be getting enough of it. 

That's before we even get into the section of the population who don't eat healthily. With an estimated 50% of people in the United States and Europe not consuming anywhere near their recommended daily amount, we need a convenient magnesium delivery system to keep them from keeling over. 

So what about Magnesium supplements?

We're going to start this section with a second reminder warning… 

MOST MAGNESIUM SUPPLEMENTS ARE USELESS; SOME ARE EVEN DANGEROUS.

Dramatic, but unfortunately, true.

There are over ten types of magnesium compounds currently being pawned off to the public as nutritional supplements. 

We've already discussed Magnesium Chloride above, and the picture doesn't get much more evident when it comes to taking magnesium pills. Although these supplements are often billed as 'super-pills' that can fulfill all your magnesium needs, the evidence to support this isn't there. 

A 2019 study in the Annals of Internal Medicine concluded that…

'Over half of the United States population takes supplements regularly. But it's pretty clear that supplement use has no benefit for the general population.' 

Dr. Zhang, an associate professor at the Tufts University School of Nutrition Science and Policy in Boston (the study's senior author), went on to say that it wasn't clear why supplements didn't provide the same benefits as they do when found naturally…

'Supplement forms could just have different effects than the natural form. In food, the body can regulate and limit the absorption of nutrients. In supplements, the body doesn't have the same regulatory impact.' 

That certainly makes sense to us. 

Historically, our bodies gained magnesium from water in the form of magnesium bicarbonate, with the mineral absorbed into our bodies via the small intestine. Taking concentrated magnesium in pill form might sound the same thing. However, in practice, the body can't effectively process these forms of supplement and instead excretes them in the stool or urine. 

Since we humans appeared on this Earth, our bodies have been getting its essential magnesium via water — which is why water-based magnesium bicarbonate solutions are probably the best way to go. 

The Pristine solution

Although there are plenty of minerals available to us in the water we drink, the trick is to get the same minerals in clean water. 

Unfortunately, water on Earth in the modern era is full of nasty contaminants, including lead, arsenic, and chlorine (it's a worrying fact that pollutants in water kill more people each year than all forms of violence and war combined).

In addition to this, as mentioned before, your body works best when its pH level is slightly alkaline — with the main alkaline minerals in natural water being calcium, magnesium, potassium, and sodium bicarbonate electrolyte salts (calcium and magnesium bicarbonate are complex hydrated salts that only exist in liquid form).

The problem here is that 'Alkaline Water' has become the latest marketing buzzword word for bottled water and water filtration system companies. Consumers don't understand that you can 'alkalize' dirty water by simply adding alkaline metals to it. In other words, billing water as 'alkaline' doesn't necessarily mean it's free from harmful acids and contaminants.  

At PristineHydro®, our proprietary 10-stage filtration + restoration process (Water Revival System™) eliminates contaminants and harmful acids at the outset before properly remineralizing the water.

Our high-capacity filters initially remove dust particles and rust sediments measuring over 5 microns from the water, with our carbon filters then removing chlorine, heavy metals, bacteria, pesticides, and chemicals.

Following this, the number of beneficial ions is increased in the water. This results in alkaline water that contains a low controlled level of Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) composed of magnesium bicarbonate with traces of calcium and sodium bicarbonate. 

Coconut carbon is then used to enhance the flavor and remove odors, polishing the water to perfection. This carbon filter is made from a coconut shell undergoing a steam activation process to create its activated carbon form with micro-pores. 

Finally, the water is run over lodestones and quartz crystals, simulating a living stream's properties. 

Although the process might sound complex, it's remarkably natural and straightforward, restructuring and recharging what was once damaged water into possibly the purest water on Earth since before The Industrial Revolution. 

Sound good? Of course, it does.

A healthy conclusion

There's little doubt that when it comes to consuming minerals, the closer we can get to natural forms of intake, the better. 

To this end, a healthy and varied diet of magnesium-rich foods is a necessity. Green leafy vegetables, legumes, seeds, nuts, and whole grains, are all great sources, so make sure you're eating plenty of them.  

However, suppose your diet isn't up to scratch, or you think you need increased magnesium intake for any other reason. In that case, magnesium bicarbonate enriched water is, without doubt, the way to go. 

The data indeed suggests this. Combine annual global mortality figures with the statistics regarding magnesium bicarbonate's effectiveness at preventing heart disease and stroke. Magnesium bicarbonate-rich water, such as that produced by PristineHydro®, could have a considerable impact, thus playing a role in potentially preventing some of the 4.5 million deaths annually worldwide.

PristineHydro®, your convenient source for water by nature's design, and Electrolyte Balance®, for your bio-available magnesium bicarbonate needs...!

And on that note, we wish you good health.