Every organ in your body, especially the heart, muscles, and kidneys, needs magnesium. This mineral also contributes to the makeup of healthy teeth and bones. Magnesium activates enzymes, contributes to energy production, and helps regulate levels of other important nutrients in your body.1
When it comes to nutritional healing for muscle and back pain, magnesium helps nerves and blood vessels relax, relieving the pain caused by these constrictions. Magnesium also plays a key role in the production of Adenosine triphosphate (ATP), which is the high-energy molecule that stores the energy we need to do just about everything we do.2 Without enough ATP, our muscles contract.
Magnesium also counters another imbalance linked to muscle pain: too much calcium. In muscles, calcium and magnesium dance a delicately balanced duet. Calcium causes muscles to contract and magnesium causes them to relax. Too much calcium causes the fibers of the muscle – the actin and myosin filaments – to bind up tightly.4 When there isn’t enough magnesium to counter the calcium, our muscles can’t relax.
Unfortunately, we are getting less magnesium in our diet than we need, but we’re also getting too much calcium – throwing the balance off even more.5 Our ancestors’ Paleolithic diet included calcium and magnesium in a ratio of 1:1. Today’s modern diet has a calcium to magnesium ratio of anywhere from 5:1 to 15:1.6
Leafy green vegetables, nuts, seeds, and whole grains are the best sources for magnesium in your diet, but unfortunately these sources are mostly devoid of magnesium, primarily because current farming practices and food processing has stripped our food supply of magnesium.3 Getting enough magnesium from your food alone even on the most magnesium-rich diet is very difficult. Many health experts recommend taking a highly absorbable magnesium supplement such as Jigsaw Magnesium w/SRT® daily in order to give your body what it needs for optimal health.7
To learn more about choosing the right magnesium supplement for maximum absorption and effectiveness without the digestive discomfort that comes with many cheap forms of magnesium, visit Jigsaw Health to read about their proprietary formula, Jigsaw Magnesium w/SRT®.
Footnotes
1.University of Maryland Medical Center - Magnesium
2.Georgia State University - Adenosine Triphosphate
3.Carolyn Dean, The Magnesium Miracle, Ballantine Books, New York. 2007, p. 27
4.Joseph E. Muscolino, “Body Mechanics”; www.amtamassage.org/mtj
5.Carolyn Dean, The Magnesium Miracle, Ballantine Books, New York. 2007, p. 21
6.Jacob Teitelbaum, From Fatigued to Fantastic, Avery Books, New York. 2007, p. 176.
7.Carolyn Dean, The Magnesium Miracle, Ballantine Books, New York. 2007, p. 243
