Magnesium - The Mineral of Life

Something interesting happens when you believe you are on the brink of death. Besides the feeling of panic, anxiety, impending doom, and a flood of inconceivable emotions, there is a sense of clarity. You start to rationalize your life, what you’re doing vs. what you would like to be doing. All the time wasted and risks you didn’t take. Your purpose and your lack of pursing it. All the things you thought that mattered suddenly seem non-existent, and the only things that truly matter are the things that truly matter, one of those being your survival.

I’ve had the displeasure of living this moment, over and over again, daily, for months on end. If you had sanity, an experience like this will test it. The thoughts are more torturous than the condition that causes them and at first you try to control them, but eventually exhaustion takes hold and your will to live diminishes. Suddenly, death doesn’t seem like such a bad option. I’d never intentionally harm myself, but thoughts like “if it’s my time, so be it” become more and more prevalent. But how in the world did I get here in the first place? How can someone go from being totally fine to daily torture, seemingly overnight?

My First Time (And It’s Not What You Think)

The first time I experienced this was in 2009, I was 25 years old. During this time, I was building my house and it was probably the most stressful thing I had ever done up to this point. One day in the early summer, I had a breakdown at work. I was sitting at my desk, completely at ease, and began having surges of anxiety attacks. I didn’t know what they were at the time, and I was convinced I was having a heart attack. My heart was racing, my vision was fuzzy, my limbs and face were numb, I was hyperventilating, and I was sure I was going to die. Disregarding the protest from my boss, I decided to try to drive home. I did not make it. The further I got, the more consumed I became. I almost fainted at the wheel several times and eventually pulled off into a friend’s driveway, jumped out of the truck while it was still rolling, nearly kicked the door down, ran inside, and collapsed. Luckily someone was in the house and called an ambulance. A few hours later, I was released with a diagnosis of – nothing.

Several follow up visits with my primary care provider revealed that I was having anxiety attacks and I was prescribed some medication and sent on my way. Some of my labs were off, specifically liver enzymes and potassium, but after more tests and a few thousand dollars later, no significant issues were found. Something I never mentioned to anyone at the time was that I was having severe heart palpitations and runs of irregular heartbeats that started a couple weeks prior to this event. It freaked me out to say the least, but I chalked it up as stress, and they eventually went away on their own.

The End of an Era

Fast forward to 2017, and this is where my life changed forever. The “Origin Story” page covers the details of exactly what happens, so I won’t get into that here, but this is where the heart palpitations began again. This time was a bit different though. This time, there were a plethora of other factors that should have been indicators of some sort of deficiency, but I was too naive and uninformed at this point in my life. This time, not only was I having heart palpitations, I was also getting really strange muscle cramps and muscles that were staying contracted and would not relax, muscle & eyelid spasms, and eventually, more anxiety attacks. The heart palpitations got so bad and my heart would stop for such lengths that I would nearly faint from the lack of blood flow to my brain. This time, I started to see a cardiologist, and after numerous EKGs, chest x-rays, ultrasounds, labs, and a week-long halter monitor, I was diagnosed with irregular heartbeat, high blood pressure, and supraventricular tachycardia. In short, my heart would go through bouts of very fast, ineffective beats. My options were blood pressure medication, ablation (burning nerves in my heart), and possibly a pacemaker. This is where I decided to take matters into my own hands.

Do not Google your symptoms. I know, I know, this is super important, but I did, and in this case, I am forever grateful that I did. After extensive research, I determined that I might have a magnesium deficiency, and here is how I came to this conclusion:

• My labs continuously showed low serum levels of potassium, despite my over-consumption of potassium-rich foods. Research showed that chronically low potassium levels can be an indicator of low magnesium, as low magnesium will often drive down potassium levels.
  

• Muscle cramps, tense muscles, and muscle spasms. Primary indicator of low magnesium.
  

• Proliferation of candida, yeast, and fungus. Can occur when magnesium levels are low, and lead to further decline of magnesium levels.
  

• Severe digestion issues. Can occur when magnesium levels are low, and lead to further decline of magnesium levels.
  

• Hormonal issues. Can occur when magnesium levels are low, and lead to further decline of magnesium levels.
  

• Heartburn. Can occur when magnesium levels are low, and lead to further decline of magnesium levels, especially if antacids are used because they drive down magnesium levels significantly.
  

• Heart palpitations, irregular heartbeat. The #1 indicator of low magnesium.
  

• Anxiety. Strong indicator of low magnesium, especially when present with other symptoms above.
  

• Blood serum levels of magnesium were always within range, but at the very bottom end. I learned through research that your body will do everything in its power to keep blood serum magnesium levels within range because the moment they drop below that range, your heart cramps, spasms, and you have a heart attack and die. This is often referred to as the widow maker heart attack. For this reason, magnesium deficiency is often overlooked or dismissed, thus serum levels of magnesium are largely unreliable in diagnosing magnesium deficiency.  

I took this information to my cardiologist, along with a list of magnesium-rich foods and asked for his input. Unfortunately (or fortunately), he quickly dismissed mineral deficiencies as being related. Cue the talk about ablation and a pace maker, remember?

When I made the decision to take matters into my own hands, everything changed. The first thing I did was buy all the magnesium-rich foods that were listed on the internet. I bought pumpkin seeds, nuts, dark chocolate, spinach (lots of spinach), Swiss chard, kale, quinoa, and anything else I could find that was supposedly rich in magnesium. At one point I consumed so much spinach I nearly damaged my kidneys from oxalate overload (I didn't know about phytochemicals at the time). After a couple months, I had some signs of relief, but it was minimal and I was still being tortured daily.

From there, I began to research the different kinds of magnesium, which ones were more bioavailable and why. I also learned about why plants were not the best sources of magnesium due to the phytochemicals that bind to magnesium and prohibit its absorption, making it less bioavailable.  I then moved over to supplements. I bought a magnesium supplement off amazon called Triple Calm; this is where everything changed. The dosage called for 2 capsules, but since I was extremely ill during this time and wasn’t sure how this would affect me, I took one. Within 15 minutes my heart streamlined, and I could literally feel a calming sensation throughout my entire body. My heart went from pounding at upwards of 200bpm like I was running a 24-hour marathon to not even noticing it. I nearly cried. I had finally figured it out. Up to this point, I would literally wake up every single day with 911 pulled up on my phone and would have to decide if I was going to call an ambulance or not. Every second of every day my heart felt like it was going to beat out of my chest, I could literally watch my shirt jump off my chest, even at rest. It was struggling, it was super irregular, and I was sure that at any moment, widow maker. Then, this one pill fixed everything within 15 minutes. The results didn’t last, and the symptoms returned within an hour or two, but I know knew where the issue lied. I continued taking this supplement for about two weeks but because my gut was an absolute wreck, I was absorbing it into my bloodstream, eventually resulting in extremely low blood pressure and dangerously low heart rate. From here, I had to come up with another solution.

Magnesium, as I would later learn, is best absorbed through the skin. It is one of the few minerals that can be absorbed transdermally. This is its most bioavailable and safest form, as your body will only absorb and use what it needs, shuttling it to exactly where it needs to go. When I learned this, I switched to soaking in water mixed with Epsom salts (magnesium sulfate) and magnesium chloride flakes. I started this right around the same time I started carnivore, and these two therapies combined, completely resolved my magnesium deficiency. It took months of persistence and consistency, but I am happy to report that I avoided any type of medical intervention and have had a healthy, regularly functioning heart for over 5 years now.

Through my research, I learned several other hard truths about magnesium and the likely causes of the increased prevalence of magnesium deficiency in modern society:

• Monoculture has degraded the soil to the point that many of the foods that are labeled as magnesium rich, likely contain little to no bioavailable magnesium. Couple this with the phytochemicals in plants that bind to magnesium, and you are left with very little that can be utilized by the body.

• Water was once a primary source of magnesium, as natural water from the earth is rich in essential minerals. However, since today’s water is filtered and chemically treated, the minerals are removed. Many water companies add minerals back into the water, but the forms added back in are often synthetic and of such poor quality that they are not absorbed by the body.
  

• Ground contact was likely another primary source of magnesium absorption. The ground itself is rich in minerals, including magnesium. Walking barefoot on this soil was likely to have provided a daily dose of magnesium by default. Today, we wear shoes that insulate us from the ground and few of us ever come in contact with the earth.
  

• Salt, another essential mineral, is rich in magnesium, but not the salt that is common today. Table salt is sodium chloride and processed, and thus all of the essential minerals have been removed. Additionally, over the last 50 years there has been a major push in the health and nutrition space that demonizes salt, claiming that it leads to high blood pressure. A lack of sodium can lead to problems with digestion and can cause the body to dump minerals, therefore further contributing to deficiencies. Sea salt and pink Himalayan salt still have minerals in tact and are great options for dietary magnesium.
  

• Things like antacids, alcohol, and processed sugary foods can decrease magnesium levels by up to a couple hundred percent. The prevalence of these in the modern diet are a likely cause of magnesium deficiency.
  

• Stress and anxiety can trigger biological mechanisms in the body that can lead to depleted levels of magnesium. The increased stress levels and prevalence of anxiety-related disorders in modern society are likely a contributor to magnesium deficiency.
  

• Digestive disorders can inhibit the body’s ability to absorb magnesium through diet. Disorders such as SIBO, IBS, IBD, Crohn’s, leaky gut, acid reflux (low stomach acid), parasites, candida/yeast overgrowth, diverticulitis, and ulcerative colitis are extremely common and can drastically reduce the body’s ability to breakdown and absorb magnesium.

Any of these potential causes on their own would be enough to lead to a magnesium deficiency over time, but unfortunately most people in today’s modern society are facing multiple causes at once, thus proliferating and drastically exacerbating the risk for magnesium deficiency. As it turns out, recent studies estimate that nearly 90% of the entire U.S. population is deficient in magnesium. In fact, an independent researcher and heart specialist theorized, after years of research, that significant number of cardiac-related deaths were likely misdiagnosed, with the underlying issue and actual cause of death being magnesium deficiency, leading to the cardiac event.

Magnesium is a vitally important mineral that is essential for life and human health, and without it, we would cease to exist. The unfortunate circumstances of our modern world have created an atmosphere in which magnesium deficiency has become commonplace, but even more unfortunate is that because magnesium deficiency can be so difficult to diagnose, it is not widely discussed or considered when diagnosing illnesses and cardiac-related disease.

Luckily, there are solutions. Supplementing with magnesium (orally or transdermally), adding (real) salt to your food, making regular contact with the ground, drinking well or spring water, and making conscious decisions to improve one’s diet, health, and lifestyle are some of the most important and impactful decisions a person can make to ward off a potential magnesium deficiency. Adopting a healthy diet full of nutrient-dense foods is critical, and growing your own food or sourcing it from your local community helps to ensure that your food is packed full of nutrients. If you grow the food yourself you can even add magnesium to the soil to boost your plant’s magnesium content.

Magnesium deficiency can be scary, and for good reason because if it is allowed to go unchecked it could easily become life-threatening. However, by becoming aware of the subtle symptoms of magnesium deficiency and adopting these lifestyle changes, we can fight what has now become an epidemic of mass proportions. The path to a happier, healthier life starts with just a few small tweaks and a little dedication, just remember to walk that path barefoot so you don’t miss out on a chance to absorb a little magnesium along the way.