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Is it possible to be dehydrated, but not feel thirsty?
YES. People can be dehydrated without even realising it. The thirst mechanism may not be working properly to alert us to this state. It usually gets less effective at alerting us to dehydration the older we get. Dehydration, or less than optimal levels of water in cells, can cause many health problems, including anxiety and mental stress, hypertension (high blood pressure), muscle spasms and cramps, heart arrhythmia, skin disorders and premature ageing, weakness and dizziness.
When the body is dehydrated it can also cause oedema, a pooling of fluids around the ankles or puffiness around the eyes. The reason for fluid retention is usually because the body cannot properly eliminate wastes when there is not enough free water flowing through the system. In order to protect the vital organs the body holds back and pools water in regions where the toxicity needs to be diluted most (eg. sites of inflammation or acidity). Waste products can also pool up and cause swelling in the lymph system - the body's protein waste disposal system. This is another case where toxic residues need to be diluted with more water. In other words, dehydration and the consequent toxic build-up, tends to cause blockages in the tubular networks of our body, acidosis and low-oxygen, low-energy states.
How do we Diagnose Dehydration?
Actually, according to a recent study review, no gold standard biochemical hydration index exists for accurate medical diagnosis. Doctors mainly use clinical biomarkers in blood and urine, blood pressure assessment and symptoms like eye dryness and mouth mucous wetness to diagnose dehydration. You can use the 'dry eyes', 'no spit' or dark smelly urine biomarkers to give you clues too. There are other indicators as well, such as headaches, brain fog or dizzyness, and heart palpitations. Even anxiety can be a symptom of dehydration.
What causes dehydration?
- NOT DRINKING ENOUGH WATER - OR DRINKING DE-MINERALIZED WATER (NOT ENOUGH ELECTROLYTES)
- STRESS. The more stress we experience (of any kind) the more magnesium and water are lost by cells due to changes in the cell membrane.
- EXCESSIVE PERSPIRATION
- PROCESSED FOODS, sugar, coffee, alcohol. Beverages are liquid foods and require extra work to digest to use the water they contain. Some beverages like coffee and alcohol actually remove more free water from the body than they donate in the liquid!
- CHEMICALS, HEAVY METALS AND PESTICIDES LIKE GLYPHOSATE
- MEDICATIONS, particularly diuretics.
The brain needs a lot of water to function
The availability of free water in the body is essential for electrical conductivity and cell signaling. The brain uses huge amounts of water for its electrical activity and processing. About 80% of the brain is made of water. You can't think properly if you are dehydrated, and many people won't even realise that this could be the cause of their forgetfulness or feelings of anxiety.
Only water does what water does to enable waste removal, cell energy production and conductivity. If anyone says to you they don't need to drink water because they drink other liquids, it should be a health concern.
You need water to make stomach acid
Digestion requires extra water over and above the water contained in the food, in order to make enough stomach acid. It is best to have a glass of water about half an hour before a meal to give it time to pass through. If you drink during a meal you can dilute your stomach acid, which can then lead to reflux and symptoms of IBS.
Stress hormones like cortisol and adrenaline have a dehydrating effect, and dehydration produces more stress hormones, which then cause more dehydration
Dr Batmanghelidj M.D. said in his book, The Body's Many Cries for Water;
"Stress translates in the body into dehydration; in other words, every time you feel stressed, that translates to dehydration, and the reason is that every time you’re stressed you secrete a lot of hormones that break up new material and mop up the free water from the circulation, and all of a sudden you are short of free water... In stress-management you get these hormones—vasopressin, endorphins, prolactin, cortisone-release-factor, and angiotensin, which is activated both at the brain level and at the kidney level. Vasopressin is subordinate to histamine, as a water regulator, and vasopressin itself is a very strong cortisone release factor. When there is dehydration, and you have histamine release, you also have vasopressin release, and you also have tissue breakdown as a result of cortisone release factor." Read More...
Vasopressin is what causes the smooth muscle cells of the cardiovascular system to contract in order to push more water up into the brain because the brain needs more water than the other organs of the body. The brain will always take priority for the water supply in the body. If there is not enough to go around, the cardiovascular system gets squeezed.
For smooth wall muscle fibres to squeeze together in vascular constriction, cells have to depolarise to allow calcium to flood in because calcium is a contracting mineral. It is magnesium that then releases the grip of the calcium which then allows the muscle to relax again, re-inflating with with magnesium and water.
This kind of ion channel switching normally happens very fast. We quickly tense when we have to do something energetic and in a hurry, and we then relax when the urgency is over. But as magnesium gets lower it gets harder to release tension, and muscles can remain 'locked up', with the vascular walls becoming more rigid as calcium accumulates, leading to hypertension (high blood pressure). Over time ligaments, tendons and joints can also become harder and more calcified as a consequence of low magnesium and dehydration.
Electrolytes, such as magnesium in water, improve the pH and hydration capacity of water
The main intracellular electrolytes associated with 'juicy' youthful cells are potassium and magnesium (which work together like partners), while the extracellular dominant electrolytes are sodium and calcium. Chloride is the most abundant mineral electrolyte and represents about 70% of the body's total negative ion content. It is present both in intracellular and extracellular spaces. Chloride is a by-product of the reaction between chlorine and an electrolyte such as potassium, magnesium, or sodium, which are essential for human metabolism. This compounding (sharing electrons in the outer shell) allows the electrolytes to become fully water soluble, ionised and able to be absorbed. Chloride salts are essential for sustaining cell conductivity and human metabolism.
Drinking a balanced electrolyte water works quickly to re-hydrate cells and our cardio-vascular system. However, care must be taken with certain electrolytes because sodium can steal water and exacerbate dehydration, making blood thicker and more voluminous. Excessive sodium pushes up blood pressure. Sodium is of course vital, but it must be balanced with enough magnesium. Magnesium has an affinity with water molecules and helps to structure them in hexagonal liquid crystaline configurations so that the water becomes more hydrating for cells.
In other words, with magnesium more water can get into cells for transport and energy production. It also improves the fluidity of the cardiovascular system. Electrolyte balance is essential. Usually we get more than enough sodium salts from our diet, but its magnesium that is in short supply. It's low in soils and foods, and then we also lose it excessively under stress. However, if you are a very active person and perspire a lot, then you may need to add some extra sodium to your electrolyte water. Some prefer their sodium in the form of sodium bicarbonate which is very alkalizing.
For more information and videos about how to make electrolyte drinking water see our Magnesium Chloride Flakes page.
Sugar is dehydrating - and ageing!
Interestingly, the higher the magnesium levels, the lower the sugar sensitivity. The lower the magnesium levels the higher the sugar sensitivity. It's like a see-saw. Sugar metabolism causes acid by-products and free radicals that, if not buffered by enough electrolytes and antioxidants, lead to a positive charge that depolarises the cell membrane. This makes the cell membrane channels looser and more prone to water loss. Acidosis is a state of dehydration and low oxygen, which means low energy. This kind of acid overload is how proteins like collagen break down. It causes premature ageing.
Membrane electrical potential depends on magnesium
The outside of the cell attracts positive charges, and the inside is electrically negative. This tug-o-war creates a membrane electrical potential holding cell contents in, and keeping extra-cellular elements out. The opening and closing of the channels is also used for signaling and cell communications. Magnesium and water are dominant in controlling this balance.
Scientists Mildred Seelig and Andrea Rosanoff in their book the Magnesium Factor established that magnesium is the key electrolyte responsible for membrane charge and integrity. Cell membranes are made up of a phospholipid bi-layer held together by magnesium ions. If the magnesium level gets too low the membrane can depolarise and lose its charge, thereby becoming 'leaky'. If the membrane becomes too loose you can also lose too much potassium, which can cause a heart attack.
"Virtually all eukaryotic cells (including cells from animals, plants, and fungi) maintain a non-zero transmembrane potential, usually with a negative voltage in the cell interior as compared to the cell exterior... The membrane potential has two basic functions. First, it allows a cell to function as a battery, providing power to operate a variety of "molecular devices" embedded in the membrane. Second, in electrically excitable cells such as neurons and muscle cells, it is used for transmitting signals between different parts of a cell. Signals are generated by opening or closing of ion channels at one point in the membrane, producing a local change in the membrane potential." Read More
With an alkaline structured water (cytoplasm) the water molecules line up their poles like train tracks with tighter spaces in between, thereby not allowing the larger molecules of sodium and calcium inside (during rest phase). When action is required in the sympathetic mode, stress hormones cause magnesium to come out and calcium to move into the calcium channels. When it's time to relax and go back to the parasympathetic mode, calcium comes back out and magnesium moves back into the channels to control the membrane. Read more about water's electrical charge separation in the research of Professor Gerald Pollack.
Magnesium's charge thus helps to hold the water in and keep the cell well hydrated for normal functioning. If the cell loses too much magnesium the membrane loses its integrity and gets ‘leaky’, thereby unable to maintain proper hydration for detox flushing, cell signalling, transport and mitochondrial energy production.
Make drinking water more hydrating with magnesium
Adding Elektra Magnesium chloride flakes to filtered rain water or reverse osmosis filtered water remineralizes, alkalizes and charges up the water to make it more hydrating. The magnesium flakes also contain additional naturally occuring sea trace minerals that provide extra synergistic mineral support.
One pinch (about half a gram) per litre of filtered water makes a beautiful drinking mineral water and adds about 80mg of elemental magnesium to simulate a quality spring water. You can drink more water this way without peeing so often because the water travels through the body more slowly, thereby more thoroughly accessing the tissue cells, rather than quickly transiting the digestive system as with demineralised water. Water without the electrolytes tends to go through the digestive system very quickly, so we don't get the full value from the water. Try magnesium in water for better cellular hydration.
If you want something more convenient to add in your drinking water, try Elektra Magnesium Mineral Supplement for Drinking Water, a purified liquified magnesium chloride concentrate in an easy-to-use bottle. Just count in the drops.
Studies have found that drinking magnesium mineral water every day provides an equivalent amount of magnesium compared to a pharmaceutical supplement.
The recommended average daily water consumption for an adult is 3 litres per 24 hours and more if there is excessive perspiration or chemical and medical interventions which cause dehydration. If you add 80mg of elemental magnesium in water (equivalent to one pinch of magnesium flakes), then 3 litres would equate to 240mg of elemental magnesium. It's still not all that you need, but goes a good way towards overall requirements. Some people can need 1,000mg of magnesium daily if they have high-end needs. In this case they can add transdermal magnesium to make up shortfalls.
Beware of chemicalised tap water, which can impair the digestive system. If you were using tap water in Germany, Switzerland or Austria where they ozonate the water coming from the European Alps full of minerals, you would be fine. This tap water is beautiful to drink, without any bad after-taste. It also has natural magnesium in water that comes down from the mountains.
In some cities in Australia, USA and other western countries however, they add chlorine and industrial grade fluoride which contains heavy metal contaminants. Both of these chemicals kill beneficial gut bacteria like antibiotics, thus interfering with proper digestion and causing IBS symptoms and leaky gut. Fluoride also binds up magnesium. Ingesting both fluoride and magnesium together is like driving with the brakes on. All the good things that magnesium does - like support enzyme activity and metabolism - is the opposite for fluoride. Fluoride inhibits enzyme activity and slows down metabolism. It also promotes acidity. Fluorine is the most tightly binding element on the periodical table of elements. It's like dumping resin into your cells, impeding cell energy production, and making them run more slowly and inefficiently.
It is well known that fluoride suppresses the thyroid by displacing iodine, which is one of the main reasons we now have a thyroid epidemic in Australia, USA and UK (in those cities that fluoridate).
"Lack of iodine shuts down production of thyroxine, the thyroid prohormone that controls metabolism, and, in one way or another, impacts every aspect of health. The resulting hypothyroidism causes weight gain, cold intolerance, dry and prematurely aged skin, depression, constipation, hair loss, memory loss, irritability, increased cholesterol levels, heart disease and loss of libido." Read more:
Iodine is not only important to the thyroid, but also to breast tissue as the breast competes with the thyroid for available iodine. Low iodine leads to fibrocystic tissue cells and higher risk of breast cancer.
Get a good water filter if you are going to drink the tap water: Cheap filters do not get the fluoride out. Make sure to check with the manufacturer of the filter to make sure it gets over 90% of the fluoride out. Boiling tap water may evaporate the chlorine out of it, but the water that's left ends up with a higher concentration of fluoride because it doesn't evaporate or dissipate with the boiling. That means all the tap water you use for cooking will have more concentrated amounts of fluoride.
You also need to watch for manufactured beverages and processed foods because much of it also uses fluoride water in the processing. It is accumulative in cells over time, so older people are carrying a lot more fluoride in their bones and pineal gland than younger people. Fluoride is also a neurotoxin and affects the speed of processing of brain neurons. In other words, it slows down thinking and fogs the brain due to its inhibition of iodine and magnesium.
There will be exposures to fluoride in the environment you won't know about, but if you can manage to avoid the fluoridated drinking water, that is the major part. With extra magnesium in your diet, and magnesium in water, it will help to protect your cells from fluoride toxicity. Magnesium supports your detoxification enzymes to eliminate the chemicals and heavy metals that shouldn't be there.
Apart from a good supply of magnesium in water, another nutritious beverage is a green smoothie or vegetable juice with greens. This 'green' part is chlorophyll and is alkalysing for cells. Magnesium is the centre of the chlorophyll molecule, so it's really magnesium in water coloured green! Adding more green vegetables to your diet means adding more magnesium.
Transdermal Magnesium
Transdermal magnesium is another way to get more magnesium into your body if you have high-end needs. In this way the body can absorb higher amounts compared with oral supplements. Magnesium tablets and powders are harder to digest and absorb because high concentrations of magnesium attract a lot of water and are quickly expelled out the back end! This amount of magnesium in water is way too high, (unless you intend to use it as a laxative). In this case the magnesium is expelled too quickly, but good for bowel elimination. Only amounts that are similar to what is naturally occuring in spring water and foods transits easily across the gut wall to the interior of the body withouot causing a bowel purge.
In addition to soaking with Magnesium Flakes, you can also apply Magnesium Cream and Magnesium Charge Lotion for skin care and muscle massage, and Magnesium Oil Spritz for added magnesium and high end needs. You will still need to drink magnesium in water for optimal hydration of cells and cardiovascular system, but transdermal magnesium gives you a big boost when you need it.
by Sandy Sanderson © 2016-2022
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All stress causes excessive loss of magnesium via urine, but we tend to feel feet stress more due to their extensive enervation. Feet are very sensitive parts of our body! The lower the magnesium in cells the more likely feet stress can cause oedema, referred pain, headaches, migraines, sleep problems and anxiety – as well as cramps, muscle twitches, and restless legs.
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We can use the skin to deliver large amounts of magnesium very safely and effectively in order to avoid crisis and maintain optimum magnesium status. The skin, being the largest organ of the body and part of the integumentary system (skin, hair, nails, bones, teeth), can act as a reservoir to store magnesium where the body may draw from it what it needs in a self-regulating manner.
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As neuropathic pain is strongly correlated with magnesium deficiency and the associated hyper-inflammatory state, researchers have discovered that supplementary magnesium can directly affect the nerve recovery process to alleviate peripheral neuropathy.
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Irritating skin conditions like eczema, psoriasis and dermatitis can become very debilitating for some people, with inflamed itchy skin tormenting them year after year. If you are in this category and have been shunted from pillar to post trying a multitude of creams, ointments and pills without success, then you may be very interested in some nutritional solutions that work.
The health of the skin is a window to what is happening on the inside of the body, and is just as dependent on gut health, as it is on the care of skin. Optimal results occur when you can work both ends towards the middle.
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A magnesium bath using epsom salts (magnesium sulphate) is better than nothing, but over time the sulphate strips out too much oil from the skin, leaving it feeling dry and itchy (like a detergent does). Magnesium sulphate also only has 9% elemental magnesium, but our magnesium chloride flakes have 15-16%. Magnesium chloride is also kinder to skin. Overall, magnesium chloride is more effective and offers better value.
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As magnesium is an essential component of the electrical nervous system, it’s like running out of spark plugs so there is nothing to ignite the engine to burn the fuel and perform tasks. It’s like unplugging your battery power. If you don’t have enough electrical ‘juice’ running through your system, it will slow down accordingly.
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Magnesium tablets and oral supplements may not be able to deliver the magnesium to your cells that you really need. Most people don’t realise how hard they are to digest and absorb, and that most of the magnesium ends up going down the toilet. Our nutritional needs are increasing, as can be seen by the increase in magnesium deficiency symptoms. This is because of depletion in the food supply, drug interactions and chemical exposures, as well as loss of magnesium due to stressful conditions, via perspiration or urination (hypermagnesuria).
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Long Covid seems to present with stronger, more acute inflammatory symptoms. It commonly affects the lungs, brain, heart, gastro-intestinal system, and the kidneys. Patients can experience hair loss, fatigue, muscular weakness, joint pain (arthralgia), followed by dyspnea (labored breathing) or cough, and chest pain and palpitation. Neurological symptoms also occur frequently, such as headache, sleep disorders, anxiety and depression, and cognitive disturbances including lack of concentration or ‘brain fog’.
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If children are sugar sensitive they can become hyperactive with only small amounts of sugar. That gives you another clue as to possible magnesium deficiency because as magnesium becomes more deficient in the body, sugar sensitivity increases. In contrast, as magnesium stores go higher, it dampens down the sugar sensitivity and hyperactivity. This relationship has a see-saw effect.
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Lemon is an important medicinal plant of the family Rutaceae. Studies have found lemon peel is full of nutrients including Vitamin C, potassium, calcium, magnesium and pectin. Pectin is a soluble fibre which is great for gut health, weight loss and the cardiovascular system. It brings more hydration to the bowel, which supports colon health and the microbiome. Lemon peel may even have several anti-cancer properties because it works to detox and neutralise acidic waste products and free radicals, which supports pH balance.
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Kidney (renal) disease can also cause magnesium deficiency as the tubules become stiffer with ageing and don’t recycle magnesium as well as they used to. If your kidneys lose too many alkalising minerals, it gets harder to control pH balance and the acids take over.
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Neuropathic pain is the type of pain you feel if your nervous system has been damaged or isn’t working correctly. The pain comes from the various levels of the nervous system, which include the peripheral nerves, the spinal cord and the brain. People often describe it as a shooting or burning pain, but it can also be felt as tingling or numbness. Neuropathic pain sometimes goes away on its own, but often it’s a chronic condition that persists, particularly in the senior years when arthritis sets in, or after injuries. For some people, it can be severe and unrelenting and for others, it comes and goes like a phantom. What can you do to allevaite the symptoms naturally?
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Hormones greatly influence our growth and development, health, behaviours, metabolism, sex life and fertility. Pretty well everything we do and experience in life is governed by the chemical messages of hormones. As we get into our more mature and senior years, or are young but chronically stressed, our energy and hormone production can become out of balance, acidic, oxygen-deprived and dehydrated. In this article I will focus on magnesium's effect on catecholamines (stress hormones), including cortisol, adrenaline and aldosterone, which are produced by the adrenal glands and directly affect the cardiovascular system.
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One hormone of note is the neurotransmitter oxytocin, which is a happy 'feel-good' hormone with similar pain-relieving properties to endorphins (opiate chemicals). It is released in the body when we interact with others in a loving and caring way. An oxytocin deficiency is also associated with stress sensitivity, anxiety and depression, lack of motivation and a dark outlook on life. You need enough magnesium to make oxytocin in the body.
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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.
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Many people have become obsessed with the notion that lack of calcium causes osteoporosis. Yes, calcium and osteoporosis are related, however the bones are made up of a myriad of different minerals that come together to make healthy and strong bones. We have been collectively 'taught' by dairy industry advertising since last century that calcium is the mineral that prevents osteoporosis. This is simply not true. What bones need is good balance of minerals , with the presence of calcium in the right proportion. In fact, if you overdose on calcium you can create serious complications and side effects - namely the suppression of magnesium.
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The pineal gland produces melatonin at night during deep sleep, which works as a potent neuro-protective antioxidant that helps to detox the cerebrospinal fluid of the brain. It has even been shown to have anti-viral effects. When we don’t get a restful deep sleep, which produces enough melatonin, we wake up with leftover pollution and waste products in the brain. We need magnesium to help get a restful deep sleep so melatonin can be produced, and melatonin is a hormone which the body makes using magnesium.
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Many people mistakenly think of fluoride as a mineral, and many a politician promoting fluoridation has referred to it as, “the magic mineral.” However, this is not true. Fluorine in its pure form is a gas which is the most toxic of four main halogens; chlorine, bromine and iodine. Fluorine happens to be the most tightly binding element on the periodic table, so it is mostly found as a compound clinging to something else. Fluoride binds up magnesium, and so steals it from your body. The symptoms of fluoride toxicity are the same as magnesium deficiency.
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Both magnesium and massage therapy have important health benefits for blood circulation, waste clearance and muscle recovery, as well as alleviation of anxiety and stress. Magnesium massage supercharges health benefits by promoting pain relief, stress relief, faster recovery from injury, bolstering the immune system, and prevention of premature ageing.
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Clotting disorders are more prevalent in those with cardiovascular disease, metabolic syndrome and diabetic acidosis. These metabolic issues are also strongly associated with chronic magnesium deficiency.
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Did you know heavy metals disrupt your body’s mineral balance causing many negative side effects? People who are chronically ill may not realise that it can be the harmful accumulated toxic metals in their tissue cells that are a big part of their problem..
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It is now well-known that dogs need all the essential vitamins and minerals that humans do. One of these key nutrients is magnesium because it’s needed for energy production at the cellular level. Magnesium deficiency in dogs can lead to a diverse set of symptoms. Every time your pet moves a muscle, experiences a heartbeat or has a thought, magnesium is needed to help them achieve this.
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Increasing your magnesium levels also supercharges the cleansing process. This is because magnesium supports detoxification by energising the detox enzymes such as glutathione and superoxide dismutase. These are powerful antioxidants, which neutralise free radicals and help to restore pH balance and energy production. This will give your metabolism a great boost - especially if you have been feeling sluggish and foggy, if the weight is piling on when it shouldn't be, or if you are battling with IBS and debilitating gut issues.
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Without the relaxation and antioxidant support of magnesium, the stress and tension increases acidity, weakens the immune system and microbiome balance, which promotes inflammation and headache. These symptoms are common during influenza or coronavirus infections because they increase the stress and toxic load, thereby depleting more magnesium.
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The microbial balance of our gut directly influences our Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Adrenal (HPA) axis, the production of hormones and neurotransmitters, and our immune system's regulation. Stress is very debilitating and causes depletion of magnesium because of excessive magnesium loss via the kidneys. Magnesium deficiency causes energy depletion and acidosis, which triggers inflammatory states, resulting in moods swings, hormone imbalance, mental illnesses, fatigue, irritability, pain symptoms, and a weaker immune system. Magnesium deficiency also directly affects the beneficial bacteria, which thus leads to depressive-like behaviours.
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Magnesium is an essential mineral which performs some very important functions when you're pregnant. It’s used to maintain healthy blood sugar levels in the body (see study) and it helps build healthy teeth and bones by working in partnership with calcium. It also regulates cholesterol and irregular heartbeat.
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Magnesium deficiency or antagonism (blockage) can cause any one of these steps to malfunction, causing overdose of stress hormones and inability to relax enough to sleep deeply.
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It's almost impossible for you to get a toxic magnesium dose or overdose, unless magnesium is given at high dose intravenously, where there is no magnesium deficiency or the person has kidney problems and can’t excrete excess salts.
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We can become addicted to more than just pharmaceutical drugs or alcohol. Researchers are now noticing symptoms of addiction also to excessive exercise. Does excessive exercise or over-training have negative side effects? Could it harm health and cause premature ageing? The research indicates yes, mainly because of increasing magnesium deficiency.
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Magnesium deficiency weakens performance, stamina and increases risk of injury
When you push your muscles hard your brain is telling your body to ‘squeeze’ and act. Adrenalin and cortisol increase, and that helps push the calcium into the calcium channels of the muscle fibre cells, which makes them contract. Magnesium is temporarily pushed out of these channels during the contractions. When we relax, calcium comes out and magnesium moves back into the channels to relax the muscles again.
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I was over 50 when menopause set in, accompanied by an autoimmune disorder called Hashimotos Hypothyroidism, severe heart arrhythmia, and the emerging white patches on my skin. This form of autoimmune hypothyroidism is thought to be prevalent in about 5% of the world’s population, however I believe the numbers are growing as people become more chemically sensitive to pollutants that stress the thyroid.
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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.
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Note that dehydrated states can cause feelings of anxiety where we just don’t know the reason for our fear or agitation, but the feeling persists. Re-hydrating the body with ample water and magnesium can calm down these sensations because magnesium has a dampening effect on adrenaline and cortisol. When the brain has ample water and magnesium we can think more clearly and make better decisions. This is especially important during crises because our magnesium reserves can become dangerously low.
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Magnesium is so important to cardiovascular function, its scarcity being correlated with the development of cardiovascular disease, that it has become the focus of intense scientific study and review over recent years. A meta-analysis review of epidemiological studies published in 2017 concluded that magnesium intake is associated with lower risk of major cardiovascular risk factors such as metabolic syndrome, diabetes and hypertension, as well as incidence of stroke and total cardiovascular disease. Higher levels of circulating magnesium are also associated with lower risk of heart disease, mainly ischemic and coronary heart disease.
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You may not realise it, but cramps and restless legs are quite easy to fix and you can do it without drugs. All you need is enough magnesium (and water) to get to where it is needed in the muscles for recovery and performance.
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As magnesium drops lower from excessive stress, there is less control over adrenaline and cortisol release, so that these catecholamines (stress hormones) escalate and chronically flood the system in a fight or flight (sympathetic) mode. We can get stuck in that mode, unable to relax and move back to rest and recover grazing (parasympathetic) mode. The stress hormones prompt glutamine to overstimulate neurons causing rapid and incessant calcium firing. Without enough magnesium to control the calcium and switch off the catecholamine release, we can’t relax.
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It’s been coined the master mineral and deemed as critical as water. But how exactly does it correlate to the process of ageing? The ways are numerous, but we’ll highlight a few of our standouts. From menopause to migraines, bone health to beautiful skin, you’ll be eager to lather up in magnesium cream by the time you’ve finished reading this. And remember, even if you’ve had a blood test that did not show up a deficiency in magnesium, only a small portion of magnesium stores actually sit in the blood. There are other areas more likely to be depleted that won’t be detected so simply.
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Optimal nutrition for our children means they will have the best opportunity to realise their fullest genetic potential to be well balanced, healthy and happy into adulthood. We all want our children to be ‘upgrades’ from ourselves. We want to pass on our seeds to future generations, but what about the quality of those seeds when magnesium is low? Can ‘magnesium kids’ offer a better hope for optimal health over a lifetime?
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Healthy cells need lipid protection, magnesium charge and ample hydration to support mitochondrial energy metabolism of Mg-ATP ‘batteries’. This energy is then used to assemble amino acids into the various proteins we need to build collagen structures. It is also used to manufacture hormones, enzymes, neurotransmitters and other chemical messengers.
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The review goes on to explain glyphosate’s mechanism of toxic action. Firstly, it is a strong chelating agent, creating complexes that immobilize the mineral micronutrients of the soil, such as magnesium, calcium, iron, manganese, nickel and zinc, making them unavailable to plants. This means that the food supply is robbed of vital mineral nutrients. We eat the food, it fills a void, but it doesn’t supply valuable nutrition. The end result is that we keep eating more and more empty carbs until obesity and other metabolic diseases such as hypertension, diabetes, senile dementia, inflammatory bowel disease, renal failure, thyroid or liver cancer develop.
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Inflammation and pain can be part of a healing crisis, but if your magnesium status is healthy you will heal and recover relatively quickly because the metabolism can perform the way it should. The lower the cellular magnesium levels get however, the slower it becomes to recover from the stresses and the more painful and amplified are the symptoms.
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Premature ageing is usually marked by excessive weight gain (especially adipose tissue around the middle), exaggerated dehydration, hypercalcemia, joint stiffening, acidosis and inflammation. In other words, getting overweight, dry and stiff with creaky and brittle bones before our time. Skin can also get very dry and saggy looking. As we need magnesium to synthesise collagen proteins and elastin fibres, which are the structures that hold us together as skin, bone, ligaments, sinew, smooth muscle walls in arteries etc, low magnesium means those structures lose their integrity. [6] Thus magnesium helps us to stay more hydrated, flexible and stretchy longer!
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Did you know that our gut microbiome needs a good supply of magnesium for energy to do all their jobs properly? Beneficial gut bacteria are extremely important to good health. Did you know that we rely on our gut microbiome more than our own cells and enzymes for digestion of food and nutrient absorption? If digestion is compromised we can be short-changed on magnesium uptake. Low magnesium can lead to feelings of depression, mood disorders, fatigue, restless and disturbed sleep, foggy brain, anxiety and much more. See the STUDY: "Dietary magnesium deficiency alters gut microbiota and leads to depressive-like behaviour."
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Transdermal magnesium absorption means that magnesium ions (electrolytes) can pass into the epidermis (outer layer) of the skin, which acts as a nutritional reservoir until the tiny capillaries of the dermis underneath can absorb nutrients as required. From this skin reservoir the body may also absorb the vitamin D it made when you got some sunshine on your skin.
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Keratosis can also develop concurrently with inflammatory states such as eczema, psoriasis, dermatitis, allergies and asthma. If the inflammation is adequately quelled, the skin issues also tend to dissipate. Magnesium is a powerful anti-inflammatory. Many studies since last century have confirmed that in low-magnesium states we are more likely to develop inflammatory conditions. Where those inflammatory conditions manifest depends largely on genetics and environmental factors. Some people can experience skin problems or mood swings and depression, while others develop hardening of the arteries or sugar-sensitivity (metabolic syndrome) and unstable energy fluctuations. Multiple symptoms can occur and are usually a sign of magnesium deficiency.
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When you purchase epsom salt (magnesium sulfate) from the supermarket however, it is usually not one harvested from ocean water, but manufactured in a factory as an isolate which is magnesium sulfate. It does not contain the other sea trace minerals that would be present in dehydrated sea salt. Epsom salt (magnesium sulfate) is very cheap and in the event you can’t get hold of anything else, it can certainly save your life.