Magnesium shines for diabetes prevention: study

According to a study in Diabetes Care, getting enough magnesium in your diet could help prevent diabetes. People who consumed the most magnesium in foods and from vitamin supplements were about half as likely to develop diabetes over the next 20 years as people who took in the least magnesium, according to researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. It's plausible that magnesium could influence diabetes risk because the mineral is needed for the proper functioning of several enzymes that help the body process glucose.

The researchers looked at magnesium intake and diabetes risk in 4,497 men and women 18 to 30 years old, none of whom were diabetic at the study's outset. During a 20-year follow-up period, 330 of the subjects developed diabetes. People with the highest magnesium intake, who averaged about 200 milligrams of magnesium for every 1,000 calories they consumed, were 47 percent less likely to have developed diabetes during follow up than those with the lowest intakes, who consumed about 100 milligrams of magnesium per 1,000 calories.

Researchers also found that as magnesium intake rose, levels of several markers of inflammation decreased, as did resistance to the effects of the key blood-sugar-regulating hormone insulin. Higher blood levels of magnesium also were linked to a lower degree of insulin resistance.

"Increasing magnesium intake may be important for improving insulin sensitivity, reducing systemic inflammation, and decreasing diabetes risk," researchers write.

Bonnie - I could not have drawn it up better myself. Finally, someone took a large, healthy group of young men and women who had no disease and tracked them over a twenty year period. While I am not surprised by the results of the study, it is pleasing to see that these researchers had the foresight to design the type of study that would allow them to really see what a mineral such as magnesium could do. Seeing the results of this study, and the plethora of others we have posted over the years, you can see why magnesium has always been my number one recommendation as a supplemental nutrient. One drawback health professionals consistently have about magnesium is it's pension for creating loose bowels. However, many of them are unaware of magnesium glycinate, a source that is supremely absorbed and does not create a loose bowel effect.

I wonder if our public health brain trust will take notice of this study. Although reported by Reuters, it was not even a blip on the media's radar. Think about the billions we could save in health care costs, the undo suffering that could be averted by millions of Americans, and the greater economic productivity that could be gleaned from this simple, cheap mineral. If public health officials would be as vigilant about heeding the call for optimal magnesium and vitamin D levels as they are for the flu shot, our society would be much better off. Go magnesium!