7 Surprising Magnesium Benefits You Don't Know

Dr. Berg’s Healthy Keto and Intermittent Fasting Podcast

Dr. Eric Berg

Health & Fitness

4.7 • 1.7K Ratings

🗓️ 17 October 2023

⏱️ 6 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Let's talk about the health benefits of magnesium.

Magnesium is a fascinating and important mineral that's involved in over 350 enzymes in the body. Enzymes speed up the chemical reactions in the body, and they don't deplete their energy in the process.

Well-known benefits of magnesium:

• It supports the heart

• It may help with muscle cramping

• It supports sleep

• It may help reduce anxiety

• It may help promote relaxation

• It supports the flexibility of the arteries

• It may help with headaches

• It may help with problems related to the nerves and muscles

Surprising benefits of magnesium:

1. It may help regulate LDL cholesterol and triglycerides and increase HDL

2. It helps make ATP (energy in the body)

3. It helps regulate adrenaline, cortisol, and ACTH—and counters oxidative stress from these hormones

4. It's involved in enzymes related to lecithin (the antidote to cholesterol)

5. It's a natural calcium channel blocker, beta blocker, and antithrombotic

6. It helps regulate blood sugar levels

7. It's involved in making DNA

Many people don't consume enough magnesium, which can cause a magnesium deficiency and lead to various health issues.

Magnesium-rich foods:

• Foods high in chlorophyll (dark leafy green vegetables)

• Nuts and pumpkin seeds

• Dark chocolate (sugar-free)

• Sea kelp

• Avocado

• Low-sodium sea salt

Here are the top things that can cause you to become magnesium deficient:

• Refined sugar and refined carbs

• Alcohol

• Diuretics

• Diarrhea

• Low stomach acid

• Certain gene variations

The type of magnesium supplement I would take, if needed, is magnesium glycinate.

Transcript

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0:00.0	magnesium is a fascinating mineral. It's involved in over 350 different enzymes in the body.
0:06.2	And we may find that it's involved in a lot more. But what's interesting about enzymes
0:11.8	is that they speed up the chemical reactions in the body of a factor of like a hundred million
0:18.1	times faster than if you didn't have that enzyme. There's definitely
0:21.9	things that you know. It helps with heart disease. It helps with cramping at night. If you have
0:27.3	those cramps in your calves, it helps you sleep. It's involved in helping you reduce anxiety.
0:32.9	It makes you more relaxed. It actually makes your arteries less stiff, and that's going to help you lower
0:39.0	blood pressure. You probably also know that magnesium works with calcium. It's kind of like a teeter-totter
0:44.0	effect. The more calcium you have, the less magnesium you're going to have, and vice versa. So you need
0:48.7	calcium and magnesium in the right ratios, especially involved in the muscle contraction and relaxation. So where calcium tends
0:57.6	to be involved in contraction, magnesium is all about relaxation. And this is why you have all
1:03.0	sorts of muscle problems if you have a deficiency in magnesium, like a cramp, like twitching,
1:10.4	like tetany. A lot of times people take magnesium
1:12.7	because they have headaches. So magnesium is good for headaches. And so if there's any
1:17.3	problem involving with the nerve and muscle, irritation, or even arrhythmias in the heart,
1:25.1	think magnesium. But let's talk about the things that you probably
1:28.3	have never heard about that are quite interesting. There's an enzyme that helps you regulate
1:33.9	cholesterol. It's called HMG-CoA reductase. This is the enzyme that statins work on. And it just so
1:43.3	happens that magnesium parallels the effects that statins work on. And it just so happens that magnesium parallels the
1:46.7	effects of statin. So it can help you regulate LDL and increase HDL and help you regulate your
1:55.3	triglycerides as well. Magnesium is also involved in enzymes related to lecithin, which is like the antidote to cholesterol.
2:06.3	And so without magnesium, you're going to have a lot of issues with cholesterol and the ratios,
	...

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