Chronic or severe stress is a known risk factor for metabolic syndrome, diabetes, obesity and heart disease, because stress is the biggest contributor to magnesium loss and deficiency. Magnesium deficiency leads to metabolic syndrome, which progresses to diabetes and cardiovascular disease.
The haemoglobin of red blood cells requires magnesium to help it take up oxygen from lungs and deliver that oxygen to tissue cells in other parts of the body. Researchers believe this is because, as part of the ATP energy currency, magnesium is vital to membrane integrity of red blood cells. The heme protein (containing iron) in these cells needs to ‘attract’ oxygen molecules from lung sacs as blood passes by. The oxygen molecules need to pass through the red blood cell (RBC) membrane – to get ‘onboard’ the train so to speak.
Magnesium chloride flakes (magnesium chloride hexahydrate) are natural mineral salts that are completely water soluble and able to be absorbed by cells without further digestion. Adding these salts to your bath is a natural way to boost your magnesium uptake and provides much more magnesium to your muscles and bone cells than oral tablets and powders. Magnesium chloride flakes derive from ocean, salt lakes or dried up salt pockets sandwiched in rock strata.
There is a great variation of magnesium status in the population, however the overall deficiency levels are growing in line with growth in chronic stress exposures. It’s not so much a question of whether we are magnesium deficient these days, but more a question of by what amount.
Ionic Magnesium is the dissolved salt form of magnesium. Many people in our modern industrialised societies are realising just how much they need to add extra magnesium to their diets, as it is lost excessively under stress. A plentiful supply of magnesium helps to defend against the ravages of stress, to calm and relax the nervous and vascular systems, to alleviate cramps and restless legs, to support digestion, metabolism and energy supply, to detoxify, to strengthen the immune system and to build new cells.