Pain Relief
Magnesium has also been found to be an NMDA receptor antagonist, which is helpful when trying to relieve pain.[3] Pain itself is stressful and causes excessive magnesium loss. Another revolving door! “In a double-blind study, patients receiving a preoperative bolus and postoperative infusion of magnesium sulphate had lower morphine requirements, less discomfort and less subjective sleep disturbance than control patients in the first 48 hours after operation.” [3]
Magnesium also relieves migraine headaches because it is a relaxer of smooth muscle cells in our vascular system. When magnesium gets low the vessels can tighten up and cause pain and constriction. Magnesium supports production of nitric oxide [6], which relaxes and expands blood vessels, allowing better blood flow and oxygenation. If your vessels tighten up and you can’t get enough oxygen supply to your extremities or micro-vessels in the brain, this can result in hypoxia (starvation of oxygen). If cells can’t get oxygen, after a period of time they die.
Magnesium is known to increase blood fluidity and normalise blood pressure. It is anti-thrombotic and helps our blood to keep moving where it needs to go. Magnesium is also the greatest support for normal heart rhythm. Without enough magnesium your heart can go into cardiac arrest – usually as a result of severe stress. [5]
Magnesium Alleviates ADHD Symptoms
Back to Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, anxiety, impulsivity and hyperactivity in children: ADHD cases who had low hair magnesium level were found to have highly significant improvement in hyperactivity and impulsivity, as well as significant improvement in inattention, opposition and conceptual level when magnesium was supplemented.[7]
Low magnesium is very common among children with ADHD. Out of 116 children (94 boys and 20 girls) aged 9-12 years with recognized ADHD symptoms, magnesium deficiency was found in 95 per cent of cases. [8]
In a study by a university in Cairo it was found that magnesium supplementation for a few weeks significantly reduced the clinical symptoms of ADHD. [7]
Another study published in 2006 was also able to demonstrate improvement of neuro-behavioural disorders, including hyperactivity attention deficit, with magnesium supplementation (see ADHD Study Graph on your right). [9]