According to Burton M. Altura, Ph.D., professor of physiology and pharmacology at SUNY Downstate Medical Center in Brooklyn, New York, we are in “pretty bad shape” when it comes to getting enough magnesium. “We have a gigantic deficit.”
Altura says our lack of magnesium—even more severe among the elderly—could cause health issues, such as high cholesterol, atherosclerosis, high blood pressure, heart attacks, strokes, kidney problems, inflammatory conditions, and nervous disorders. “Magnesium is a gatekeeper and without it,” he says, “you upset the energy cycle within your body. We used to say that magnesium regulates more than 300 enzymes in the body. We've realized it's more like 600 or more.”
Altura recommends improving your diet by drinking bottled water rich in magnesium, consuming less alcohol (a magnesium depletor), and eating foods like dark chocolate, unprocessed wheat an, wheat germ, almonds and other nuts, molasses, tofu, own rice, soybeans, and seafood such as oysters, sardines, and scallops. He also advocates soaking in Epsom salts.
--Sarah Hagerty
