Magnesium Deficiency & Seizures

Your body needs magnesium, one of the essential minerals, to support more than 300 biochemical reactions that occur throughout the body to sustain life. Magnesium also functions as an electrolyte by conducting the tiny electrical impulses produced by nerves. Magnesium plays a vital role in maintaining a normal heartbeat, regulating blood pressure and promoting a healthy nervous system. A magnesium deficiency also affects the levels of other minerals and causes a disruption in the electrical activity in the brain that can lead to a seizure.

Deficiency Cause

The Institute of Medicine sets the recommended dietary intake of magnesium at 420 mg per day for men over the age of 30 and 320 mg per day for women over the age of 30. Although the majority of people in the United States fail to intake the recommended amount of magnesium per day, few suffer from the symptoms of a magnesium deficiency due to a dietary deficiency alone, according to the National Institutes of Health Office of Dietary Supplements. Because the body absorbs magnesium through the digestive tract, digestive diseases that interfere with absorption can cause a magnesium deficiency. The kidneys help regulate the amount of magnesium in the body, so kidney diseases also can cause a deficiency. Acute and chronic alcoholism also can cause a magnesium deficiency.

Magnesium and Electrical Activity

Many of the essential minerals function as electrolytes, including sodium, potassium, calcium and magnesium. Each of these minerals conducts the electrical impulses and plays a role in transporting ions across cell membranes. Approximately 27 percent of the magnesium in your body can be found in muscle cells, according to the Linus Pauling Institute. The magnesium remains in the fluid portion of the cell while calcium enters the tiny structure in the cell known as the sarcoplasmic reticulum. Electrical impulses trigger the release of calcium ions into the fluid portion of the cell, which stimulates muscles to contract. Magnesium ions generate a positive charge that propels the calcium back into the cell structure, which allows the muscle to relax. Magnesium and calcium must maintain a delicate balance to facilitate normal muscle contractions. This becomes especially important in the heart because a deficiency can lead to an irregular heartbeat.

Symptoms

The early symptoms of a magnesium deficiency, including loss of appetite, nausea, vomiting, fatigue and weakness, resemble the symptoms of a variety of diseases. As the deficiency becomes worse it increasingly affects the nervous system and muscle function, causing numbness and tingling in the extremities, abnormal muscle contractions and muscle cramps. A lack of magnesium interrupts normal conduction of electrical impulses, which can change the electrical activity in the brain and lead to a seizure.

Associated Deficiencies

A low level of magnesium, known as hypomagnesemia, also affects the levels of other electrolytes. Patients who suffer from a magnesium deficiency also show signs of hypokalemi, a deficiency in potassium. In addition, research published in "The Clinical Biochemist Reviews" reports that approximately one-third of patients with hypomagnesemia also develop hypocalcemia, a low level of calcium in the blood. Doctors and scientists do not yet understand the exact mechanism of action to explain why these three deficiencies often occur hand in hand, but their effect on the electrical impulses in the body might lead to seizures.