It troubles me deeply that conventional doctors don’t pay any attention to your magnesium levels…
Especially these days when new research reveals that this miracle mineral can help you fight our modern-day infections.1,2
I’ve been advising my patients at the Sears Institute for Anti-Aging Medicine for decades about magnesium’s critical role in keeping them free of disease.
You see, magnesium is needed for more than 600 biochemical reactions in your body – and that’s just for starters.3
There’s not enough room in this letter to give you a complete list of magnesium’s health benefits, but here are just a few…4,5,6
- Magnesium can prevent – and reverse – insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes.
- It’s vital for muscle function and increases energy metabolism.
- It lowers blood pressure more effectively than any drug and keeps your heart healthy.
- It improves sleep quality and duration.
- It’s essential for warding off depression, anxiety, and other mental health disorders.
- It keeps your bones strong.
- Vitamin D cannot be activated in your body without magnesium.
- Magnesium extends lifespan by activating telomerase to increase telomere length.
And now scientists have discovered that magnesium plays a crucial role in keeping your immune system strong by fighting infections, including Covid.
The researchers found that a powerful type of immune cell called a cytotoxic or “killer” T cell can only eliminate infected cells with magnesium.7
Killer T cells are vital if your body is fighting Covid, and your immune system produces an army of them to target viral proteins like those found in the coronavirus.
But without magnesium, they aren’t able to function efficiently.
You see, while Killer T cells don’t prevent infection, they spring into action after the virus has already infiltrated your body.
They’re critical for clearing Covid once the infection has started – and crucial for stopping its spread and reducing its severity.8
It’s no coincidence that multiple studies now reveal that patients with Covid – especially those with severe cases – are woefully deficient in magnesium.9
Sadly, up to 80% of older Americans are deficient in magnesium10 – thanks to Big Agra’s industrial farming methods – and don’t have strong enough Killer T cells to fight the infection.
A few years ago, the Journal of the American College of Nutrition published a study comparing the nutrient content of crops in 1999 with 1950 levels. Researchers were shocked to find that many vegetables had lost 80% of their magnesium content.11
The good news is that it’s easy to boost your magnesium levels and get them back to where nature intended.
You should always start with diet. You boost your magnesium levels by eating nuts, seeds, and dark green, leafy vegetables. But given the depleted state of Big Agra soil, you’ll need to find additional sources.
Here’s what I recommend to my patients…
- Be aware of foods that deplete magnesium from your body. Processed foods and refined sugar are the worst offenders and deplete magnesium content by nearly 85%. I tell my patients to avoid these Frankenfoods completely.But excess alcohol, caffeine, and even dairy can also deplete your body’s magnesium levels. Use these items in moderation, especially if your levels are low.
- Eat more of the right kind of salt: Modern medicine has declared war on salt and told you to stop eating it altogether. But salt is good for almost every part of your body, and you can’t live without it. In fact, we evolved to naturally crave salty foods.Unfortunately, the salt you find in most foods is bleached, refined, and full of residual chemicals left over from processing.
Look for sea salt instead. It’s unrefined and has all the minerals and co-factors nature meant salt to have, like magnesium.
- Include a supplement: It’s almost impossible to get what you need from your food. Supplementing can fill in the gaps. Magnesium citrate and glycinate taurate are the most absorbable forms. I recommend between 600 mg and 1,000 mg a day.Be sure to confirm the source and quality of the mineral supplement. And make sure there are no extra fillers. These can cause more harm than good.
And always take your magnesium supplement with vitamin B6, which increases the amount of magnesium that accumulates in your cells.
To Your Good Health,
Al Sears, MD, CNS
References:
1. Tan CW, et al. Cohort study to evaluate the effect of vitamin D, magnesium, and vitamin B12 in combination on progression to severe outcomes in older patients with coronavirus (COVID-19). Nutrition. 2020 Nov-Dec;79-80:111017.
2. O’Keefe JH and DiNicolantonio JJ. “Magnesium and vitamin D Deficiency as a potential cause of immune dysfunction, cytokine storm and disseminated intravascular coagulation in Covid-19 patients.” Mo Med. 2021 Jan-Feb;118(1):68-73.
3. Caspi R, et al. “The MetaCyc database of metabolic pathways and enzymes—A 2019 update.” Nucleic Acids Res. 2020;48:D445–D453. doi: 10.1093/nar/gkz862.
4. Rowe WJ. “Correcting magnesium deficiencies may prolong life.” Clin Interv Aging. 2012;7:51-4.
5. Richards J, Valdes AM, et al. “Homocysteine levels and leukocyte telomere length.” Atherosclerosis. 2008;200(2):271-7.
6. Barbagallo M, Ligia J. Dominguez. “Magnesium and Type 2 Diabetes: An Update.” Int J Diabetes Clin Res .2015, 2:1
7. Lötsche J, et al. “Magnesium sensing via LFA-1 regulates CD8+ T cell effector function. Cell. 2022
8. Tarke A, et al. “Comprehensive analysis of T cell immunodominance and immunoprevalence of SARS-CoV-2 epitopes in COVID-19 cases.” Cell Rep Med. 2021 Feb 16;2(2):100204.
9. O’Keefe JH and DiNicolantonio JJ. “Magnesium and vitamin D deficiency as a potential cause of immune dysfunction, cytokine storm and disseminated intravascular coagulation in Covid-19 patients.” Mo Med. 2021 Jan-Feb;118(1):68-73.
10. “Magnesium is essential to your health but many people don’t get enough of it.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/magnesium-is-essential-to-your-health-but-many-people-dont-get-enough-of-it/2017/06/09/77bc35b4-2515-11e7-bb9d-8cd6118e1409_story.html. Accessed on February 7, 2023.
11. King DE, et al. “Dietary magnesium and C-reactive protein levels.” J Am Coll Nutr. 2005 Jun;24(3):166-71.