• Cramps / Restless Legs
• Skin Problems
• Constipation or Leaky Gut
• Chronic Fatigue
• Irritability / Headaches
• Inflammation / Pain
• PMT / Hormone Issues
• Anxiety / Depression
• Disturbed Sleep
• Metabolic Syndrome
• Insulin Resistance
• Heart Arrhythmia
• Hypertension / Heart Disease
• Stiff joints / Arthritis / Osteoporosis
• Auto Immune Disorders / Allergies
• Acidosis / Candida Overgrowth

When magnesium is lost excessively the cell membrane channels become compromised and 'looser' because the electrical charge drops. That means the cell wall is not as good anymore at holding in magnesium and potassium electrolytes. The membrane starts to lose integrity with the cell losing water, leading to excessive dehydration. 

This loosening effect also allows in more calcium and sodium, which are larger molecules that over-stimulate, causing contraction without release.. There are athletes that have suffered cardiac arrest (heart muscle cramp) in the middle of a marathon when magnesium and water levels got critically low from exercise and perspiration.

Excessive stress, traumas, injury, sleep deprivation, dehydration, and high carbohydrate consumption (sugars and starches) cause excessive magnesium loss from cell stores, which means free calcium can start to dominate, and interfere with the balance and smooth running of the electrical nervous system, causing intermittent contraction without relaxation. 

Be careful of commercial hydration drinks with low or no magnesium that have sugars added, as this is likely to make electrolyte imbalance worse. The metabolism of sugars is hungry for magnesium ions, and so uses up extra magnesium reserves. Approximately 26 to 56 magnesium ions are used to metabolise one sugar molecule, including sucrose and fructose. 

Processed food diets are therefore the most likely to lead to magnesium deficiency, metabolic syndrome, diabetes and obesity. To make matters worse, processed foods are denatured and stripped of most of their magnesium, and industrial farming methods mean that the soils those crops are grown in are also magnesium deficient.

We can’t afford to waste magnesium, or to supply sub-optimal amounts, because it has the vital function of control of the cell membrane channels. Magnesium regulates calcium entry and exit from cells so that muscle fibres can squeeze with adrenaline triggering, but also relax when required by switching out the calcium with magnesium and its associated hydration. 

Mitochondria in cells use magnesium to make ATP (adenosine triphosphate) bioelectrical energy, which fuels all organs and systems in the body. Low magnesium leads to cellular oxidative stress, premature ageing and degenerative diseases.

Low magnesium over time eventually leads to excessive free calcium settling in the soft tissue and joints, or the endothelial lining of blood vessels, as in hypercalcaemia.  In other words, the body gets stiffer and older faster. Not only that, but blood can become thicker and even prone to clotting, hypertension and cardiovascular problems. 

These constrictions can also cause nerve signalling to become inhibited or intermittently blocked, with electrical conductivity becoming compromised.  Cramping, muscle spasms or restless legs during sleep in the early hours of the morning is a classic symptom of these kinds of constrictions, as the body becomes more dehydrated at that time, and if magnesium is also too low, calcium becomes the dominant bully.

Remember that magnesium is the best calcium-channel blocker - the natural controller of how the body uses calcium to its best advantage – ie. via helping the parathyroid and vitamin K to store calcium in the bones, and not depositing it in the soft tissues of the body where it can cause constriction.

The neurons of the brain (and heart) also require a lot of magnesium because of the high electrical activity. Calcium gets shot into the synapse for firing (action potential), but then you can’t keep overstimulating without a relaxation cycle, or you risk damaging the cells. We need magnesium (and water) for this recovery part of the cycle.

To help the body release this pressure and return to normal hydration you can drink more magnesium water in a natural spring water concentration. Magnesium hydration will help to get more clarity and improved brain function by supporting mitochondrial metabolism, vascular performance, electrical conductivity and nerve messaging.  

Try Magnesium Mineral Drops for filtered drinking water. You can also add per litre an extra pinch of natural sodium salt, eg. Celtic, Himalayan pink salt (or similar), or sodium bicarbonate. if you have been perspiring a lot. People with high blood pressure may need to limit sodium more.

For a fast muscle relaxation effect a relaxing magnesium soak using Elektra Magnesium Flakes allows transdermal magnesium absorption, as well as helps the detox system to eliminate wastes via skin. You can also massage into muscles: Elektra Magnesium Cream, Elektra Magnesium Oil Spritz or Magnesium Charge Lotion.

When the body becomes dehydrated it moves to a water-conserving and rationing status, releasing vasopressin, a hormone which constricts blood vessels so that more water is shunted to the brain, as the brain must take priority with water usage. The muscles will have reduction in water supply before the brain, but eventually the brain also gets low, which is when dizziness and other nerve signalling dysfunctions can set in. 

Another side effect of body water rationing is that the brain will message the kidneys to retain more sodium, which then retains more water in the extra cellular spaces to dilute metabolic waste accumulation. This leads to tissue swelling (oedema), usually in feet and ankles. 

As toxins and wastes can accumulate in tissues over time, care needs to be taken to avoid more severe conditions like sepsis. The body’s detox system requires the balancing with water and electrolytes (including sufficient magnesium) to flush out wastes, regulate pH, and alleviate oxidative stress, thus allowing the kidneys and waste elimination system to resolve oedema, inflammatory conditions, and return to homeostasis (normal).

Scientific studies show, “Positive associations between greater intakes of dietary magnesium and grip strength, indices of skeletal muscle mass, and BMD in men and women in middle and older age groups.” These studies suggest that magnesium supplementation may help with strategies to prevent sarcopenia, frailty, falls, and fractures.

(as printed in Nexus Magazine Apr-May 2018).  Read why magnesium deficiency can lead to metabolic syndrome, sleep disturbance, anxiety, arrhythmia, cardiovascular disease, neuropathy, asthma and immune system dysfunction, muscle and bone problems and other magnesium deficiency symptoms.

Magnesium is now becoming a big revolution in natural health as industrialised societies suffer more and more under stress and are looking for ways to compensate without relying on drugs or surgery. Transdermal absorption of magnesium salts is the best way to absorb magnesium, as no digestion of tablets is required. It’s a naturally occurring food salt and not made in a lab.

Chloride is the most abundant negative ion in the body. For us to be able to use the metals of magnesium, sodium, calcium, potassium etc, they are bound to chloride to be ionised and fully absorbed into the water molecule as free ions - in a sense swallowed up by the water - and fully dissolved.  In that form these electrolytes (eg. magnesium chloride, sodium chloride etc) are biologically available.

The 'cation' of magnesium in 'magnesium chloride' is bound up with chloride 'anions' so that the compound shares electrons in the outer shell to become a stable salt crystal. It is fully soluble in water, releasing free magnesium ions, which are therefore accessible to cells without the body needing to use digestion to break down and release the free ionic usable magnesium ions.

This is the form that occurs most abundantly in the earth’s surface waters, and is harvested by dehydration of salt water whereby the sodium part rises to the top and is skimmed off to make table salt, leaving a remainder of about 15% of brine called bischofite. This is then further dehydrated to make salt flakes, called magnesium chloride hexahydrate.  The chemical notation is MgCl2.6H20. The crystal salt flakes are usually 47-48% pure magnesium chloride with 1-2% other sea trace minerals, and the other half of the flakes being trapped 6 sided crystalline water structures (the hexahydrate part).

This is why the flakes are so hygroscopic - that is, their 'charge' attracts water from the atmosphere and they can start to 'sweat' and become sticky if there are humid conditions and they are exposed to air. If left out long enough, they will become fully saturated with the atmospheric water and turn back into the liquid magnesium salt solution called 'magnesium oil' . Magnesium chloride hexahydrate in crystallised or in the more liquid form of magnesium oil, just contains less or more water in its different states.

When you take oral tablets and powders of various magnesium compounds (magnesium joined to another element), they have to be digested in the stomach using hydrochloric acid. The older we get the less stomach acid we make and the more difficult it gets to digest. All this takes a lot of extra time before you feel the benefit of just a little bit of magnesium. By the time it can get through the bowel wall several hours later it is a much smaller quantity that is available for cells than if you soaked in magnesium chloride solution (magnesium flakes in water) or applied it to the skin as a topical magnesium product (magnesium cream, lotion or oil).

Higher concentrations are eliminated by the digestive system. Scientists have found that in the gut, "the absorption of magnesium decreased with increasing magnesium concentrations." This is why high concentrations in oral supplements tend to be wasted so much.

When you take too high a concentration of oral magnesium the bowel contents become loose and watery, finding their way into the toilet well before you get the benefit of all that magnesium. However, via the skin there is no digestion required because the magnesium chloride solution is already in the right form for cellular uptake of free magnesium ions. You can feel the benefit of the magnesium much sooner and absorb a higher quantity when it is absorbed transdermally, bypassing the digestive system. 

THE SKIN'S LARGER ABSORPTION CAPACITY: In this way the body takes what it needs from the skin reservoir, (but no more than what it can deal with at any one time) just like the tree roots take up minerals from the soil, but no more than the tree can deal with at any one time. It is a natural self-regulating system.