Why magnesium is so good for you

hi guys my name is Sanjay Gupta I'm a consultant cardiologist from York and today I wanted to do a video on the subject of magnesium and why magnesium is so good for us yet we have so little off it and I really think that part of the reason there's so much illness at the moment is something to do with the with the of with magnesium deficiency and I want to talk you through it okay so it certainly changed my practice in a big way pretty well much everyone I know now takes magnesium and it's not uncommon for me to get at least one or two people every day come to me and say look that magnesium you recommended it's really good it's made a real difference to my life and perhaps one of these days I'll put up some videos from some people who have taken the magnesium and found that it's helped them in a big way you know and it's not just with regards to ectopic heartbeats because I talk a lot about ectopic heartbeats on my other videos but just generally people have felt well B people have felt well people have slept better etc so I'm just going to talk you through magnesium why it's so good for you making and why it's so good for the heart so the first thing to say is that ultimately the majority of the problems that arise with regards to health are based around something called inflammation which is that the that the body starts reacting to external influences and because it's reacting over a number of years it causes long-term changes within the body and ultimately what they result in is that it is harder for the heart to get blood around the body okay so the big problem is that if you have long term inflammation you will get development of hardening of the arteries and blood doesn't get where it needs to as easily and as time progresses blood gets there less easily and less easily and eventually this is why areas of the heart areas of the brain areas of the body start lacking because the blood is not getting through because of persistent hardening that's why people develop high blood pressure because the heart has to work much harder generate a higher pressure to try and get blood through to the vital organs so anything that improves the blood supply anything that reduces inflammation is a good thing anything that improves blood supply to the vital organs is a good thing okay anything that pins the blood ever says slightly to try and allow that or stops the blood from thickening up so that it doesn't get through as easily is a good thing again magnesium has all these properties so let me just talk you through a little bit of my magnesium so magnesium is both a mineral and an electrolyte it is the fourth most abundant mineral in the body and it's necessary for electrical activity in the heart and the brain and also is a cofactor in more than 300 reactions within the body now the recommended daily allowance is about four hundred to four hundred and twenty milligrams for men and three hundred and ten to 360 milligrams for women but actually our daily intake is a lot less than that whereas we're supposed to be taking about four hundred milligrams majority of people take between two hundred and forty to three hundred and seventy milligrams at most okay so 75% of people take in less magnesium than they should and it's also worth understanding what happens to that magnesium when you take it in 30 to 40 percent is absorbed within the gut in the small bowel and then some of it is excreted through the kidneys but then the kidneys reabsorb it and magnesium is very interesting because only one or two percent is available in the blood sixty-seven percent is in the bone and thirty-one percent is around about in the cells within the body so when you measure it in the blood you're only measuring a very tiny proportion of what is actually around why are we magnesium deficient because the majority of us are magnesium deficient and the reason is that we're firstly not taking in enough and the reason for that is that there's the more modern farming methods that deplete the magnesium in our soil this processing of food which depletes magnesium and so we are taking in the magnesium in our food is a lot less because of what's being done to the food a when it's been grown B when it's being processed that it becomes magnesium deficient anyway then when we take the magnesium in actually we don't absorb it from our stomachs as well and the reason we don't absorb it as well is because a lot of us are on pee pee is lumps oprah's all omeprazole these are tablets that people take because they have indigestion because they have reflux why do we have reflux because of the bad food that we're being fed because of that people are now taking this these agents now what these agents do is that they inhibit the production of gastric acids so they inhibit the production of acid in our stomachs but actually acid is really necessary you know we were born to have acid in our stomachs that's how we digest things and if you block the absorption if you block the secretion of acid then we are going to absorb less of what we should be absorbing and because a we're getting less magnesium going in and then we're taking these proton pump inhibitors and it is well proven that they reduce the amount of magnesium within the body because you're not absorbing as as much magnesium similarly also carbonated beverages will also reduce the amount of absorption of magnesium in our body so that's number two then whatever we are absorbing whatever is getting inside us we're using GUP too much we're using a lot more magnesium nowadays than we did several hundred years ago and why is that a because stress uses of magnesium and we're all stressed lack of sleep uses up magnesium and we all get too little sleep sugar intake so taking in sugar uses up a lot more magnesium it needs magnesium to break it down to process it and so because we've got so much more sugar going in your foods that breaking down the magnesium and we're not getting to keep the magnesium within our bodies and then also we're excreting larger amount of magnesium so things like coffee tea a lot of us are on diuretics and that's what that means is that that you know when I said that the kidneys excreted but then reabsorb it well when you're taking all these things which are diuretics which make you cost more water it reduces the absorption of magnesium so we're being hit from so many different angles with in terms of a lack of magnesium in terms of our magnesium being depleted that's not surprising that we are all deficient in magnesium so the next word so who is deficient I think pretty well much all of us what can it do to be magnesium deficient well it doesn't do anything too dramatic but when you look at it more carefully you know a lot of us are tired and magnesium deficiency will cause tiredness a lot of us don't see particularly well and magnesium deficiency can cause insomnia a lot of us feel anxious and get depressed and magnesium deficiency has been associated with that many people complain of heartache heart fluttering or palpitations and magnesium deficiency can certainly do that people develop hardening of the arteries and they develop high blood pressure and as I said this is because the heart has to the heart be you know you have this inflammatory reaction that's constantly going on in our bodies because of stress because of bad food etc and that causes hardening of the arteries and magnesium has this anti-inflammatory role and therefore if you're short of magnesium then you get more inflammation you get more hardening of the arteries and you get high blood pressure and having a good magnesium intake helps with all those things and also with diabetes so taking in more magnesium is better for diabetic control it causes osteoporosis if you're deficient in magnesium and a lot of people get constipation and bowel disturbance because of being deficient in magnesium now these may not be immediately obvious but when you look at it over a number of years you'll find that actually these things have crept up on you without you actually realizing that actually when I don't sleep as well high marks I'm always tired these days could it be something as easy as the fact that you've been devoid or not been getting as much magnesium as you should over the last twenty years it's just worth bearing that in mind next thing is how do you measure it well the blood test is pretty well much useless because as I told you earlier you're only really measuring one or two percent of what's what's in you know what's your total magnesium count should be so I wouldn't rely on the blood test the only time it may be useful is if you're very deficient and the blood test confirms it but just because a blood test shows that your magnesium levels are okay doesn't mean that they are the only a better way to measure the magnesium is to measure the content of magnesium in the blood cells measuring the intracellular content or measuring how much magnesium you're excreting through the urine so you can have urinary magnesium levels down or red cell magnesium content measured but this these are not easy tests to get they're not easily available so most people say oh well your magnesium levels are fine you've had a blood test effects I wouldn't rely on the blood test making the next question she says well why don't people recommend magnesium you know there's so much owners and why why haven't you been told about this and the reason this is the case is one it is difficult to measure - there's not much big research being done on it because no one really profits from it when people are interested in doing big research on new wonderful expensive drugs you know and most of the research is being driven by pharma companies and therefore simple things like this no one really looks at but if you go onto the internet and look at PubMed you'll find tons of small studies which have shown you know the benefits of magnesium so it does have a small anticoagulant effect it does have an anti-inflammatory effect and it is also vasodilator it opens up the blood vessels allowing more blood to get to the vital organs ie reducing pressure on the heart which is really good and how did you get more of it okay so I think the first thing to say is it's very important to be more responsible about what you're eating you know try and get a better intake of magnesium naturally if you can so magnesium rich foods which are grown on organic soil so try and go to local growers rather buy food from supermarkets almonds spinach cashew nuts peanuts avocado or contain lots of magnesium but you want to be sure that they've been grown in sort of good soil which is not magnesium depleted you can apply magnesium oil to your skin and that can sometimes help there's ionic magnesium drops which are available you can soak in Epsom bath salts and that can take that can absorb magnesium into your body but also you can take magnesium oral supplementation so you can buy magnesium from a health shop and take that every day and a lot of people write to me and say well can it be harmful you know truthfully it's usually not harmful not unless you're overdosing so if you're taking a ton you know you're taking 5,000 milligrams a day whereas you're only you only really need about 400 milligrams a day if you're taking them but then you can overdose in it and it's usually what tends to happen is if you're not if you don't tolerate it very well you can get some diarrhea and cramping usually if you're - if you take it in a bit more magnesium the kidneys will just excrete it but if you have kidney failure of your kidney problems then I recommend that you speak to your kidney specialist before you take the magnesium because it can accumulate because you're not getting rid of it as much all right it's worth bearing in mind what kind of magnesium tablets do cause the diarrhea cramping more well carbonate magnesium gluconate magnesium chloride magnesium oxide are tend tend to cause more diarrhea but if you take things like magnesium glycinate then that's a long letter and causes less cause of Listeria so here's this is a little bit about magnesium I think it is worth just paying attention to your magnesium intake because you may find that just taking a little bit of magnesium salts salts a lot of your problems out and makes you feel a bit better so try it let me know how you get on my name is Sanjay Gupta I'm really really grateful to you for watching my videos I'm um you know I'm overwhelmed with the kind words you write and please keep them coming thank you for your questions I will try and answer them I keep secrets but I will try and answer them I'd be very grateful if you could share these videos it'd be really really nice it's really encouraging you know when people come and can come and comment and one of the pleasures for me is to come onto the website and see how many people have watched the videos over night and just makes me gives gives meaning to my life you know otherwise you're sort of end up becoming a bit of a pill pusher which is not what I want to do I want to try and you know I want to try and just educate people about their lifestyle so I'm really grateful for everything you do thank you very much we've started this new channel called more than just medicine if you get a chance please visit it because we've got an amazing gastroenterologist Simon smell but an exercise professional we hope to bring more videos from different healthcare professionals but really the only way we're going to be able to do that is with if we have enough people watching the channel you can contact me through my website which is your cardiology co uk I have a Facebook page and you can contact Jeanette on this number ah thank you so much for watching all the best take

Channel: York Cardiology

Views: 3,709,862

Keywords: #hangoutsonair, Hangouts On Air, #hoa, magnesium, miracle, carolyn dean, sanjay gupta, yorkcardiology, heart, afib, strokes, health

Id: oZYXBYAHhN8

Length: 15min 1sec (901 seconds)

Published: Fri Mar 18 2016