A recent report in the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition stated that magnesium can significantly lower blood pressure.
The blood pressure benefits of magnesium have long been debated, but a team of researchers from the University of Hertfordshire were able to determine that the consumption of a magnesium supplement can have positive effects on blood pressure. This comes as great news to the United States where heart disease kills millions of people. High blood pressure, or hypertension, can lead to serious heart problems and often times death.
Hypertension is far more common than people think, and the American Heart Association believes that 1 in 3 American adults over the age of 20 have hypertension. Even more disturbing is that adults over the age of 65 are more likely to have hypertension than not have it. In the United States 58% of women over 65 have hypertension, while 53% of men have hypertension. Hypertension can potentially be caused by unhealthy diet, smoking, a lack of activity, age, ethnicity, genetics, obesity, sleep apnea, and a deficiency in minerals, like magnesium.
The research team from the University of Hertfordshire was inspired by the inconclusive evidence on magnesium, so they tested 1173 people over 22 different trials. The doses of magnesium given to subjects ranged from 120 to 973 mg, and the trials were followed up on for up to 24 weeks. The magnesium didn’t help every single individual, but when all the data was pooled together one thing became clear: magnesium can help to significantly drop both systolic and diastolic blood pressure. Even more promising was the fact that subjects who took more magnesium had lower blood pressure.
In today’s population hypertension is running wild. Unhealthy diets, a lack of activity, and smoking can all cause hypertension. Fortunately, taking magnesium is quick, easy, and it can be an effective way to fight hypertension. Use a magnesium supplement to take a stand against hypertension. Of course talk to your doctor to make sure you are doing all you can to lower your high blood pressure.