Magnesium is an essential ion in the body as it regulates over 300 biochemical reactions including synthesising protein, regulating how muscles and nerves function, controlling blood glucose and regulating blood pressure. But what if you have a magnesium deficiency? How can you supplement your diet with magnesium?
Benefits of Magnesium
What are the Symptoms of a Magnesium Deficiency?
There are loads of symptoms of a deficiency of this ion. What makes it difficult to diagnose is that these symptoms are also common to other diseases, so making a conclusive diagnosis is often tricky.
Symptoms of magnesium deficiency can be broken down into four categories:
- Neurological, for example irritability and anxiety as well as lethargy and seizures.
- Muscular, which includes muscle weakness and spasms, tics and cramps.
- Metabolic, in other words hypoglycaemia, calcium and potassium deficiency.
- Cardiovascular, for example irregular or rapid heartbeat as well as coronary spasms.
If you are suffering from a magnesium deficiency, you could very well have one of the following diseases:
- Depression,
- Chronic fatigue syndrome,
- ADHD,
- Epilepsy,
- Parkinson’s disease,
- Sleep problems,
- Migraine,
- Cluster headaches,
- Osteoporosis,
- Premenstrual syndrome,
- Chest pain (angina),
- Cardiac arrhythmias,
- Coronary artery disease and atherosclerosis,
- Hypertension,
- Type II diabetes, or
- Asthma.
Andrew McVagh says that there are a number of blood tests that will show up a magnesium deficiency. These are:
- Serum,
- RBC,
- Ionic,
- Exa Test, and
- Loading/Tolerance Test.
Sources of Magnesium
Before you visit your local pharmacy to stock up on supplements, why not increase one of the following foods in your diet:
- Spinach,
- Chard,
- Pumpkin seeds,
- Yoghurt or Kefir,
- Almonds,
- Black Beans,
- Figs,
- Dark chocolate,
- Bananas.
One of the Most Common Presentations of a Magnesium Deficiency is Muscle Cramping
So if a personal trainer sees that his clients suffer regularly from muscle cramps he or she must be able to delve deeper into the possible causes of this ailment and not rely on the surface causes.
This is why you NEED nutritional knowledge as a personal trainer…
Contact Trifocus Fitness Academy
When you sign up for Trifocus Fitness Academy’s Specialised Nutrition Course, you’ll learn about the body’s requirements with a specialised knowledge of nutrition.