Overview

Magnesium deficiency is associated with a number of medical conditions, including [Starr2005, pg 188]:

  • Irritability of skeletal and cardiac muscle.
  • Rapid and irregular heartbeats, especially during thyroid hormone supplementation.
  • Cofactor of various enzymes.

Please see conventional, complementary, and alternative medical treatments for important background information regarding the different types of medical treatments discussed on this page. Naturopathic, Complementary, and Alternative treatments that may be considered include:

Diagnosis

See [Rogers].

According to [Starr2005, pg 188] the standard blood test for magnesium is not reliable because it does not reflect intracellular levels.

Differential Diagnosis

Treatment

600 to 1000mg/day is typical, but oral amount may be limited by bowel tolerance. IV pushes can increase the daily dose. Also consider magnesium oil [Starr2005, pg 188].

Hypotheses

Dr. Weyrich suggests that heavy metal toxicity (e.g. mercury may be mitigated by increasing supplementation with magnesium. This is because both Mg and Hg can exist as +2 charged ions, and Le Chatelier's Law of Mass Action suggests that increasing the concentration of Mg+2 will displace Hg+2 from binding sites that it may be blocking on enzymes. Clinical evidence to support this follows from the observation that the side effects reported by [Starr2005, pg 188] during thyroid hormone supplementation in the presence of magnesium deficiency are similar to the side effects observed in the presence of mercury toxicity (rapid, irregular heartbeat).

References