Magnesium and Diabetes: What Are the Connections?
Long known as a mineral essential to heart and bone health, experts today are becoming more and more aware of the importance of magnesium. Responsible for more than 300 hormonal processes and known to be linked to 22 medical conditions (when there is a magnesium deficiency), it is a mineral in use by every organ in the body. This is why the links between magnesium and diabetes cannot be ignored.
Can Magnesium Reduce Your Risk of Diabetes?
Let's rephrase that question above, and ask: can magnesium lower blood sugar? This is really the key to reducing your risk of developing type 2 diabetes. According to the health experts at Mercola, "Magnesium is also found in more than 300 different enzymes in your body, including some of those that help regulate blood sugar. This is one mechanism by which magnesium may keep diabetes at bay."
How? Rather than offering an overly technical explanation, let's look at magnesium and its links to your metabolic system. It plays a role in blood sugar (glucose) regulation and insulin sensitivity. This is precisely where magnesium and diabetes are so sharply connected, and studies have shown that those who have higher magnesium intake are also those who are much lower risk for problems with managing glucose and producing appropriate levels of insulin. In fact, seven unique studies demonstrated that for every 100mg of magnesium consumed each day, the risk of diabetes decreased by roughly 15%. (Mercola)
What the studies have found is that magnesium and diabetes prevention occur because magnesium affects your insulin resistance. This is when the body is not creating enough insulin to effectively "unlock" cells and allow them to absorb blood sugar. Instead, the glucose remains in the blood stream, allowing blood sugar levels to spike. Typically, someone with insulin resistance trouble is also someone apt develop type 2 diabetes.
Interestingly enough, magnesium is a key player in the cellular mechanism that cues insulin receptors to function properly. When you have adequate amounts of magnesium, it can start to reign in issues with insulin resistance and help the cells open up, take in the glucose and prevent unhealthy and dangerous spikes in blood sugar.
Diabetes and Low Magnesium
Unfortunately, consuming more magnesium-dense foods or oral supplements may not be all that is required to enjoy the benefits. This is because those with insulin resistance problems are also typically going to experience higher than normal levels of magnesium excretion in their urine. Magnesium loss occurs in diabetics because they have higher levels of urinary glucose, causing much more frequent urination. What this means is simple, having diabetes typically causes you to urinate much more often, and your urine is going transport too much magnesium out of the body. This creates an ongoing cycle of magnesium deficiency, higher than normal insulin and blood sugar, and too much magnesium excreted to begin helping you overcome the issue.
This is why it is of the utmost importance to find the wisest and most effective ways of supplying the body with adequate amounts of magnesium. Again, we can turn to the advice of Mercola's experts who say that "Most people can keep their magnesium levels in the therapeutic range without resorting to supplements". This, they say can be done by eating the ideal diet and using baths in which magnesium salts are used to create an optimal soak or relying on a topical oil. They identify magnesium chloride as one of the best forms of magnesium, too because of its superior absorption levels in human skin and cells.
Is magnesium good for diabetes? In a word: yes. Described by some medical experts as a "forgotten healer" and by others as a "miracle" drug, it can help the body to become far better regulated. There are proven links between magnesium and diabetes, and magnesium will improve blood sugar levels once any deficiencies have been overcome.
If you are considering magnesium and diabetes because you struggle with the condition, Downunder Products offers pure, organic magnesium oils and flakes made of premium magnesium chloride (downunder Oil Magnesium Products). It can be a very effective first step in getting your diabetes under control.