A Growing Body of Evidence Suggests that Magnesium Plays a Pivotal Role in Reducing Cardiovascular Risks and may Be Involved in the Pathogenesis of Diabetes itself
When Dr. Jerry Nadler of the Gonda Diabetes Center at the City of Hope Medical Center in Duarte, California and his colleagues placed 16 healthy people on magnesium-deficient diets, their insulin became less effective at getting sugar from their blood into their cells where it’s burned or stored as fuel. In other words, they became less insulin sensitive, or what is called “insulin resistant.” And that’s the first step on the road to both diabetes and heart disease.
A new study published in the journal Clinical Nutrition from a team of Brazilian researchers has found that low levels of magnesium worsens the symptoms of type 2 diabetes, as this often results in low levels of insulin and elevated blood sugar. The research indicates that a diabetic's ability to control blood sugar levels is closely tied to their magnesium levels, as the mineral plays an important role in insulin receptor cells.
Another study published in the journal Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolism found that taking oral magnesium supplements helps individuals who have become insulin resistant avoid developing type 2 diabetes. These are just the latest in a long string of studies that the medical establishment and mainstream diabetes organizations continue to ignore. We know this because they continue to refuse to prescribe magnesium supplementation or treatments that can make all the difference in a diabetic's life.
Magnesium improves and helps correct insulin sensitivity, which is the fundamental defect that characterizes pre-diabetes, metabolic syndrome and even full-blown diabetes and heart disease. An intracellular enzyme called tyrosine kinase requires magnesium to allow insulin to exert its blood-sugar-lowering effects. In several studies, daily oral magnesium supplementation substantially improved insulin sensitivity by 10 percent and reduced blood sugar by a huge 37 percent.
Improved insulin sensitivity from magnesium replacement can markedly reduce triglyceride levels. Reduced triglyceride availability, in turn, reduces triglyceride-rich particles, such as very-low-density lipoprotein (VLDL) and small low-density lipoprotein (small LDL), both of which are powerful contributors to heart disease. Magnesium supplementation can also raise levels of beneficial high-density lipoprotein (HDL).
Diabetes mellitus is positively associated with magnesium depletion, which in turn contributes to metabolic complications of diabetes including vascular disease and osteoporosis. Intracellular depletion is directly connected to the impaired ability of insulin to increase intracellular magnesium during insulin deficiency or insulin resistance.
