A study just published in Neurology by the MEGASTROKE project of the International Stroke Genetics Consortium found that “genetically higher serum magnesium concentrations are associated with a reduced risk of cardioembolic stroke…” It is an open access article, so you can download the full text. The study looked at 34,217 cases of strokes and 404,630 noncases, which makes the data highly reliable.
Here are some quotes (some modified) from the paper.
Several observational prospective studies have reported that low circulating magnesium concentrations and low magnesium intake are associated with increased risk of stroke. In the Nurses’ Health Study, low plasma magnesium concentrations were associated with an approximately 70% to 80% increased risk of embolic and thrombotic stroke.
Magnesium may in part reduce the risk of cardioembolic stroke through its antiarrhythmic effects and via atrial fibrillation. Low serum magnesium concentrations are associated with increased risk of atrial fibrillation, which is a strong risk factor for cardioembolic stroke. (My recent post mentioned that the increased risk of strokes in patients with migraines with aura is possibly related to the higher incidence of atrial fibrillation) Two of the magnesium-associated SNPs (genetic variants) were significantly associated with atrial fibrillation, with higher serum magnesium concentrations being associated with lower risk of atrial fibrillation.
Magnesium also has anticoagulant and antiplatelet properties (platelet aggregation is also implicated in migraine). Magnesium is considered to be nature’s calcium blocker as it suppresses many of the physiologic actions of calcium. For example, calcium promotes blood coagulation, whereas magnesium suppresses blood clotting and thrombus formation and reduces platelet aggregation. Antithrombotic effects may lead to reduction in risk of both cardioembolic and large artery stroke.
Other possible mechanisms whereby high serum magnesium concentrations may reduce ischemic stroke risk include improvement of endothelial function and reduction in blood pressure, atherosclerotic calcification, arterial stiffness, oxidative stress, fasting glucose concentration, insulin resistance, and risk of type 2 diabetes. Some of those beneficial e?ects may also lead to a reduction in small vessel stroke, which was not observed in this study.
Magnesium also reduces the size of a hemorrhagic stroke (bleeding into the brain), according a another recent study.
Magnesium has been my main area of research and because I never tire of promoting the role of magnesium in the treatment of migraines some colleagues call me Dr. Magnesium. The evidence is overwhelming – many studies have shown that magnesium deficiency is common in migraine sufferers and that taking magnesium can help. The American Academy of Neurology and the American Headache Society guidelines for the treatment of migraines include magnesium, but it is still underappreciated and underutilized. This is in part because there have been no large-scale (i.e. expensive) trials of magnesium which are done by pharmaceutical companies for new drugs. Another reason is that the trials that have been conducted supplemented migraine patient regardless of their magnesium status – both deficient and non-deficient patients were given magnesium, thus obscuring the great benefit obtained by the deficient cohort.
As mentioned in several previous posts, magnesium also helps asthma, palpitations, feeling cold or having cold hands and feet, muscle twitching, cramps or diffuse muscle aches (fibromyalgia), premenstrual symptoms (PMS), brain fog, and many other symptoms. If you have any of these symptoms you may want to have a blood test for magnesium. And even if you don’t have symptoms, the next time you have any kind of a routine blood test, ask your doctor to add a test for “RBC magnesium”, which is more accurate than the usual “serum magnesium”.
If you have any of the above symptoms, you can also just start taking 400 mg of magnesium glycinate, which is the daily recommended allowance for magnesium. If oral magnesium does not help and the RBC magnesium level is low we usually give monthly infusions of magnesium. They take 10 minutes to do, have no side effects and are covered by most insurance plans.
