Magnesium is among the several minerals that make up an essential part of your diet. Magnesium aids in muscle function, makes up a component of the mineralized tissue within your bones and teeth, and helps generate chemical energy to fuel your body. Some underlying conditions can lead to clinical magnesium deficiency and negatively affect your health.
Symptoms of Magnesium Deficiency
Individuals suffering from magnesium deficiency may develop a number of symptoms. The deficiency can affect your cardiovascular system, causing an irregular heart beat or abnormally low blood pressure. It also may lead to digestive upset and cause nausea and vomiting, according to the University of Maryland Medical Center. Magnesium deficiency can also affect your brain and nervous system, causing irritability, anxiety and serious neurological conditions like seizures.
Those at Risk of Deficiency
A number of disease can affect your body's ability to absorb magnesium, prevent magnesium activity or eliminate magnesium from your body -- all leading to symptoms of magnesium deficiency. The Linus Pauling Institute at Oregon State University says that kidney disease, like diabetic nephropathy, can decrease the levels of magnesium in your body. In addition, disease of the digestive tract, like Crohn's disease, may prevent your cells from absorbing the magnesium from your diet. Individuals suffering from alcoholism also often develop magnesium deficiency, and even healthy individuals face an increased risk of the deficiency as they age.
Treatment for Deficiency
If you suffer from a magnesium deficiency, you can help treat the disorder by consuming supplemental calcium. The Merck Manuals Online Medical Library Home Edition indicates that many patients with magnesium deficiency take magnesium tablets by mouth, while those with more severe magnesium deficiency my require magnesium injections. Individuals with an underlying, chronic disorder causing the deficiency, such as those with Crohn's disease, may also require treatment to control the underlying disorder, in addition to magnesium supplements.
Considerations
If you think you might suffer from a magnesium deficiency, seek medical attention to investigate, diagnose and treat the disorder. Do not take magnesium supplements without prior approval from a medical professional, and do not try to correct a magnesium deficiency with large doses of magnesium unless instructed by your doctor. Taking too much magnesium can cause diarrhea and more severe symptoms, such as low blood pressure or decreased kidney function in some cases, says the Linus Pauling Institute.
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