Magnesium: Are We Consuming Enough?

Magnesium is essential for maintaining normal cellular and organ function. In-adequate magnesium balance is associated with various disorders, such as skeletal deformities, cardiovascular diseases, and metabolic syndrome. Unfortunately, routinely measured serum magnesium levels do not always reflect total body magnesium status. Thus, normal blood magnesium levels eclipse the wide-spread magnesium deficiency. Other magnesium measuring methods, including the magnesium loading test, may provide more accurate reflections of total body magnesium status and thus improve identification of magnesium-deficient individuals, and prevent magnesium deficiency related complications.