According to the National Institutes of Health, magnesium is the fourth most abundant mineral found in the body. 50 percent of the body's magnesium content is located in the skeletal system. By comparison, less than one percent of magnesium is found in the blood. Magnesium aids in the normal functioning of muscles and nerves, and helps maintain normal hearth rhythm. It also helps to regulate blood sugar and maintain normal blood pressure. Low magnesium or hypomagnesemia is an electrolyte imbalance that can pose many serious threats to health.
Gastrointestinal Effects
When dietary magnesium is inadequate, magnesium deficiency can occur. According to the National Institutes of Health or NIH, dietary magnesium is most likely to be deficient among the elderly and all racial and ethnic groups in America. Gastrointestinal disorders such as Crohn's Disease, and kidney disease can adversely affect the body's ability to absorb and conserve magnesium.
Poor appetite, nausea, vomiting, fatigue, and weakness some of the early signs of magnesium deficiency. Approximately 30 to 50 percent of magnesium in the diet is absorbed by the gastrointestinal tract. The early symptoms of low magnesium make it difficult to obtain adequate dietary magnesium.
Hypocalcemia
Severely depressed magnesium levels can result in low serum calcium levels. Calcium is an essential element for the health of bones, teeth, muscles and blood vessels. Calcium facilitates multiple biochemical processes in the body, and is essential for normal cellular functioning. Low calcium can become clinically evident through tooth loss, bone weakness and osteoporosis.
Arrhythmia
Magnesium deficiency can cause disturbances in heart rhythm and coronary spasms. People with congestive heart failure may have low magnesium. According to the University of Maryland Medical Center, some doctors give magnesium supplements as a preventive measure to patients with congestive heart failure.
Hypokalemia
Hypomagnesemia is also associated with low potassium or hypokalemia. Low potassium can cause fatal cardiac arrhythmia. Other symptoms of hypokalemia include: muscle weakness, cramping and limpness, severe thirst and confusion. Hypokalemia secondary to hypomagnesemia can be aggravated by medications such as thiazide diuretics which increase potassium excretion from the kidney. Pre-existing kidney disease increases the risk of hypokalemia.
Seizures
Severe hypomagnesemia can cause seizures. According to Epilepsy.com "any change in feeling or behavior that results from an uncontrolled discharge of electricity in the brain is a seizure." A seizure can present as a numbness or tingling in a thumb, strange abdominal sensations or "going blank" for a brief period of time. Grand-mal seizures, where there is loss of consciousness and strong jerking movements of the body, can also occur with severe magnesium deficiency.
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