Magnesium-Rich Diet May Reduce Metabolic Syndrome Risk

A magnesium-rich diet may help reduce the risk of metabolic syndrome and, perhaps, a heart attack or diabetes, Northwestern University researchers report in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association.

Previous studies indicate that magnesium can reduce the risk of the individual components of metabolic syndrome, but scientists lacked evidence of its efficacy against the syndrome.

"As far as we can determine, this is the first prospective evidence that shows magnesium intake provides a beneficial effect in the syndrome," said Ka He, MD, lead author of the study and assistant professor of preventive medicine at Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine. "We also saw that a higher magnesium intake was associated with a reduced risk of each individual component of the metabolic syndrome," Dr. He said.

The observational study initially included 5,115 blacks and whites ages 18 to 30 enrolled in 1985 and 1986 in the Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults Study (CARDIA). After excluding those with metabolic syndrome and diabetes at the beginning, and pregnancy in the study period, 4,637 participants (53.8 percent female) remained in the study.

Reporting 15-year follow-up data, Dr. He and co-researchers found that 50 percent of participants with the highest intake of magnesium had a significantly lower rate of metabolic syndrome than the 25 percent who consumed the least magnesium.

The age of the participants at enrollment was important because "most of the evidence that magnesium lowers the risk of cardiovascular disease or diabetes comes from studies using older adults," Dr. He said. "People middle-aged or older are more likely to already have had the onset of disease."

Fifteen years after enrollment, 608 of the participants had developed metabolic syndrome. For analysis, the researchers divided the volunteers into four groups based on their magnesium intake. Only 16 percent took dietary supplements that contained magnesium.

The researchers found an inverse relationship between magnesium intake and the development of metabolic syndrome—the more of the nutrient consumed, the lower a person's risk.

"This is an observational study," Dr. He said. "Without data from randomized clinical trials, we are not comfortable making any recommendation on a daily dose of magnesium intake in terms of metabolic syndrome prevention."

Magnesium can come from foods or supplements. Foods rich in magnesium include halibut, dry- roasted almonds and cashews, spinach, whole-grain cereals, blackeyed peas, long-grain brown rice, kidney and pinto beans, avocadoes, bananas, and raisins.

Steve - Wow! While we need to contain our excitement because it was an observational study, it is very intriguing nonetheless. What's amazing is that only 16% of the participants took magnesium supplementally. It is difficult to get magnesium from the Standard American Diet. That fact that magnesium alone could make a dent with a condition as broad as Metabolic Syndrome is a perfect example of why we always say that it is so important. Magnesium has over 300 functions in the body and is critical to every organ system.