Magnesium is an important chemical element that has a huge impact on the full functioning of the human body. Lack of magnesium causes serious health problems. But an excessive amount can harm the body. The article provides information on what deviations can occur against the background of a deficiency or overabundance of magnesium in the body, as well as about the extent to which the norm is.
Why do we need this trace element
It is very difficult to overestimate the role of magnesium, since it has a number of important useful properties. Due to a lack of magnesium, dangerous organ defects can develop that require tedious and expensive treatment. When blood magnesium levels are normal, a person feels alert, active and healthy. The main healing properties of magnesium:
- Reduces excitability in nerve and muscle fibers. The muscles of a person are completely relaxed a few minutes after entering medications containing a key element.
- Makes the walls of blood vessels more durable, increasing their resistance to various adverse effects.
- It activates the metabolism of protein fats and carbohydrates, and this is an excellent prevention of the appearance of pathogenic mutations in DNA.
- Accelerates the processing of nutrients.
- Stimulates the human skeletal system.
- Lowers blood pressure, which helps to avoid hypertension.
- It removes signs of irritation and imbalance, making it an excellent remedy for stress.
- Harmonizes all processes in the nervous system, thereby increasing the quality and duration of sleep.
- It alleviates the symptoms of asthma, bronchitis and emphysema, improving the general condition of the patient.
- Prevents mutations and pathologies in the musculoskeletal system, providing a strengthening and healing effect.
- It allows you to get rid of nervousness and groundless aggression during PMS in women, and also reduces discomfort during menstruation.
- Helps reduce the negative effects of chemotherapy and laser radiation.
- Helps strengthen gums and tooth enamel.
- It is an excellent prevention of calcium deposits in the internal organs, which is often the case in older people. Most often, the liver and kidneys suffer from this.
- Allows you to delay the arrival of a menstrual pause.
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Why do children need it
As we see from the list above, it is impossible to overestimate the role of magnesium in the human body. It is especially important to monitor the norm of this indicator in young children. Their body is still very weak and needs its basic building material. If the parent observes any discomfort in the child, it is important to undergo a full examination with doctors to identify the root causes. If there is a shortage of magnesium in childhood, this can lead to weak and brittle bones during adulthood, which can lead to a restriction in sports and a narrow choice of professional activity.
Deficit
Another name is hypomagnesemia. This ailment can develop in both women and men for a number of reasons, which we will consider below:
- Disturbed exchange of magnesium in the blood.
- Weak resistance to stress.
- Abuse of diuretic teas that remove the necessary macronutrients.
- Violations in the production of insulin.
- Taking antibiotics for a long time without the supervision of a doctor.
- Intestinal dysbiosis.
- Any kind of nutrition based on injection into a vein.
- Macroelement processing dysfunction.
Signs
If the magnesium content in the blood to the norm is not enough, then various symptoms and conditions may develop:
- Redness, discomfort, and scabies.
- Partial or complete numbness of the arms and legs.
- Convulsive condition.
- Short temper.
- Complete indifference to what is happening.
- Fast fatiguability.
- Neurasthenia.
- Loss of appetite.
- Insomnia.
- Unreasonable mood swings.
- High pressure.
- Hard bowel movement.
- Impaired adrenal glands.
- The appearance of urolithiasis or gallstone diseases.
- Diabetes.
- Weakness of the immune system.
- Precancerous condition.
Above is a complete list of abnormalities that may occur as a result of magnesium deficiency in the body. Symptoms in women appear in the same way as in men, but against the background of the menstrual cycle or menopause, all changes can be much more intense, which creates an additional threat to the woman’s health. From this it follows that magnesium is one of the most important elements that the human body needs. But the golden mean is important in everything, since an overabundance also causes some problems.
It should be noted that a lack of magnesium in a pregnant woman threatens the development of toxicosis in the late stages, early childbirth or miscarriage. That is why you should react very seriously to any ailments. Also, the lack of this element can lead to heart ailments, nervous breakdowns and gastrointestinal diseases, which will adversely affect the process of gestation.
Oversupply
Elevated levels of magnesium in the blood are called hypermagnesemia. This situation is not as dangerous as a deficiency of this macrocell, but you should consult a doctor. It is important to know that according to medical statistics such deviations never end in death.
In a healthy body, as a rule, the normal content of magnesium in the blood is observed. That is why we consider the factors that in one way or another affect the deviations from it:
- Arthritis.
- Psoriasis.
- Failure of magnesium metabolism.
- The abundance of medicines and foods saturated with magnesium.
- Hyperthyroidism.
- Dyslexia.
Symptoms
How to determine before a blood test whether there are signs of oversupply? To do this, you should carefully consider your body, since evidence of hypermagnesemia can be:
- Increased drowsiness.
- Apathy.
- Fatigue.
- General lethargy.
- A sharp decrease in performance.
- Impotence, accompanied by acute headaches and dizziness.
To prevent this situation, it is important to be very attentive to your health and check with your doctors what drugs they prescribe for you. You should never engage in self-medication, because you can develop additional complications, which will be even more difficult to treat.
The role of magnesium in the body of a woman
We found out what the deviation from the norm leads to, and especially the deficiency of magnesium in the body. Symptoms in women are similar to those in the male population, but the importance of magnesium for the fairer sex is much higher. This follows from the fact that magnesium in a woman has an important function - it normalizes the hormonal background, which guarantees a systematic menstrual cycle. This allows ovulation to come on time, and get the opportunity to conceive a child.
The magnesium content in the blood is the most important indicator for a lady preparing to become a mother. A woman, when bearing a fetus, loses many useful substances, therefore, she needs thorough support. Since all the vitamins come to the baby from the mother’s body, the woman needs to nourish the body from external sources. At the moment, magnesium is very popular in tablets. It is absolutely harmless, but without the supervision of a doctor, it should not be taken.
It is important to note that the lack of this trace element in the mother can affect the condition of the baby. That is why the attending physician very often prescribes magnesium to the expectant mothers in tablets. However, all this is done only after a blood test is received. A girl should know that she needs to give up diuretic teas so that she can not contribute to the withdrawal of magnesium.
What to eat
If for some reason you need to consume a significant amount of liquid, you should take care to replenish the Mg supply in a timely manner. This can be done by eating foods in which the magnesium content is high:
- Buckwheat porridge.
- Beans
- Cashew nuts.
- Almond.
- Peanut.
- Hazelnut.
- Sea kale.
- Pistachios.
- Oatmeal.
- Walnut.
- Peas.
- Millet.
The listed products should be consumed 30-60 minutes before a meal in order to get the best effect. You can drink medicines with water. Standard treatment lasts about 2 months. It should also be borne in mind that magnesium in tablets, like other medicines, can cause side effects. Most often, they are manifested by allergies and pathologies of the stomach.
How to prepare for blood donation
As we already know, the role of magnesium is very large. To obtain information, the patient is sent for a blood test for magnesium. The biomaterial is taken on an empty stomach in the morning. Blood is taken from a vein. To get the most reliable results, you should prepare your body. Remember that in the morning you can’t eat. It is better to go to bed before midnight on the day of collecting the biomaterial.
It is also worth the day before completely stop playing sports and not do hard work. Even if you are a heavy smoker, try to live without tobacco for two hours before the procedure. Also, for a week you must completely forbid yourself alcoholic beverages and not take medications, which include magnesium.
Normative indicators
The norm of magnesium for an adult is presented in the table:
Age years | Norm, mmol / l |
20-60 | 0.67-1.06 |
61-90 | 0.67-0.98 |
over 91 | 0.7-0.96 |
It should be noted that the norm of this element in both sexes is approximately equal, however, pregnant girls always have increased magnesium in the blood. Note that their daily requirement for this macrocell is 300-500 mg.
For children
In children, the norm is completely different.
Age | Norm, mmol / l |
1 day - 6 months | 0.62-0.91 |
up to 6 years | 0.7-0.95 |
6-11 years old | 0.7-0.86 |
12-20 years old | 0.7-0.91 |
No need to be afraid and postpone the trip to the hospital. It is easy to deal with deviations from the norm, the main thing is to detect this problem at the very beginning. Do not resort to self-medication and listen to the advice of strangers, as well as those who claim to know better than a doctor. Especially beware of those who allegedly had such a problem and will gladly help you solve it.
Very often they operate with complex terms - paresthesia and tetany, which are very scary for people not related to medicine. In fact, there is nothing terrible in these terms. The first means a violation of sensitivity, which is manifested by tingling, itching, goosebumps, numbness, coolness. We talked about all these symptoms above. They indicate a lack of magnesium. Tetania is a pathology that is manifested by convulsive syndrome and excessive neuromuscular irritability. Do not trust unverified information and value your time. Remember that the role of magnesium in the human body is really very large.
You can replenish the reserves of this important element by adjusting your diet. It should be rich in those foods that contain a lot of magnesium.