Let’s Talk About Magnesium!

“Once thought to be relatively rare, magnesium deficiency is more common than most physicians believe. Here’s why:

• Soil depletion, genetically modified organisms (GMOs) and the chemicals in our food have created a recipe for disaster. As minerals are removed, stripped away or no longer available in the soil, the percentage of magnesium present in food has decreased.
• Digestive diseases, like leaky gut, can cause malabsorption of minerals, including magnesium. Today, there are hundreds of millions of people who aren’t absorbing their nutrients. Also, as we age, our mineral absorption tends to decrease, so the probability of having a deficiency increases across the board.
• Chronic disease and medication use is at an all-time high. Most chronic illness is associated with magnesium deficiency and lack of mineral absorption. Medications damage the gut, which is responsible for absorbing magnesium from our food.
• When you follow certain restrictive diets, even if you’re drinking a lot of water, you will lose a lot of water weight and also flush essential electrolytes out of our system, including magnesium, potassium or sodium. This especially occurs in the beginning, so having magnesium-rich drinks like bone broth can help.

Should you worry about magnesium deficiency? It all depends on your risk factors and presenting symptoms. Also, approximately 80 percent of people have low levels of magnesium, so the chances are that you’re probably deficient.

Take note: Only 1 percent of magnesium in your body is in your bloodstream, so often you can have a deficiency, and it would not even be discovered by a common blood test.”