Beware, Magnesium Deficiency Can Be Dangerous. What are the symptoms?

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Magnesium is one of the most important minerals the body needs to maintain health. Magnesium is stored a lot in the bones and a small part in the bloodstream. Its function is to keep the muscles and nerves to work normally and maintain a heartbeat rhythm. In addition, magnesium can also keep bones stronger. If you are healthy, but have a low food intake, the kidneys can help maintain magnesium by limiting the amount of magnesium lost in the urine. However, if your magnesium consumption is low for a long period of time, then this condition can cause magnesium deficiency. This condition is also called hypomagnesemia.

Symptoms of hypomagnesemia

Magnesium deficiency symptoms include loss of appetite, nausea, vomiting, fatigue, and weakness. Severe magnesium deficiency can cause numbness, tingling, muscle cramps, convulsions, personality changes, and abnormal heart rhythms.

Because these symptoms can also be symptoms of other diseases, contact your doctor immediately if you experience any of these symptoms.

What are the causes of hypomagnesemia?

Low magnesium is usually caused by a decrease in magnesium absorption in the intestine or an increase in magnesium excretion in the urine. Low magnesium levels in healthy people is not unusual. This happens because most magnesium levels are controlled by the kidneys. The kidneys can increase or decrease magnesium excretion based on what the body needs.

Hypomagnesemia is also more common in people who are hospitalized. This may be due to an illness, carrying out certain operations, or taking certain types of drugs. Very low magnesium levels are associated with patients who are seriously ill and hospitalized. Conditions that increase the risk of hypomagnesemia include gastrointestinal (GI), elderly, type 2 diabetes, use of diuretic drugs (such as furosemide), treatment with chemotherapy, and a history of alcohol dependence.

When are you said to be deficient in magnesium?

Hypomagnesemia is diagnosed based on physical examination, symptoms, medical history, and blood tests. Magnesium levels in the blood do not tell you the amount of magnesium stored in your bones and muscle tissue. However, it helps to show whether you have hypomagnesemia. The doctor may also check the levels of calcium and potassium in your blood.

Normal blood magnesium levels are 1.8 to 2.2 milligrams per deciliter (mg / dL). If blood magnesium is lower than 1.8 mg / dL then it is considered low. Magnesium levels below 1.25 mg / dL include very severe hypomagnesemia.

How to treat hypomagnesemia?

Magnesium deficiency is usually treated with oral magnesium supplements and increased magnesium intake from food. About two percent of the general population worldwide has hypomagnesemia. This percentage is much higher in people who are hospitalized. One study estimated that nearly half of all Americans, with 70 to 80 percent of them over the age of 70, did not meet the recommended daily magnesium requirement.

Getting magnesium from food is the best way. Examples of magnesium-rich foods are spinach, almonds, cashews, other nuts, whole-grain cereals, soy milk, black beans, whole wheat bread, avocados, bananas, salmon and potatoes with their skin.

If the hypomagnesaemia you have is severe and has symptoms such as seizures, you may receive magnesium by IV.

Possible complications

If the condition of magnesium deficiency is not treated and the cause is ignored, this can worsen the condition. Severe magnesium deficiency can lead to complications such as seizures, cardiac arrhythmias (abnormal heart rhythms), coronary artery vasospasm, to sudden death.

Beware, Magnesium Deficiency Can Be Dangerous. What are the symptoms?
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