Magnesium is an essential mineral which is required for growth and survival of humans. Since magnesium is a mineral and not synthesizable it must be obtained through dietary foods and/or supplements. Magnesium in Human Health and Disease reviews the benefits of magnesium supplementation to reach recommended intakes as well as provides new research that suggests how reaching levels above the recommended intakes can promote health and treat various diseases. Magnesium deficiency can cause low serum potassium and calcium levels, retention of sodium, and low circulating levels of regulatory hormones. These changes in nutrients cause neurological and muscular symptoms such as tremor and muscle spasms. Further magnesium deficiency causes loss of appetite, nausea, vomiting, personality changes and death from heart failure. Causes of magnesium deficiency include alcohol abuse, poorly controlled diabetes, excessive or chronic vomiting and/or diarrhea. Thus the effects of inadequate and deficient intakes or levels of magnesium is critical to health and are reviewed by the expert clinicians in this book. Magnesium in Human Health and Disease provides the most current research to support the potential benefits or lack thereof for normal and high supplementation with magnesium. Animal model research and early human trials are reviewed to document other disease states such as hypertension, cholesterol level, type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease that would benefit from increased magnesium.

Section A - Introduction and mechanism of action



1 Clinical Assessment of Magnesium Status in the Adult: An Overview

Adel A. A. Ismail

Yasmin Ismail, MD, MRCP

Abbas A Ismail, MSc, MD, FRCP



2 Dietary Mg Intake and Biomarkers of Inflammation and Endothelial Dysfunction Simin Liu

Sara A. Chacko



3. Magnesium Role in Cytokine Regulation of Hypoxic Placentas Related to Certain Placental Pathology

Tamar Eshkoli

Valeria Feinshtein

Alaa Amash

Eyal Sheiner

Mahmoud Huleihel

Gershon Holcberg





Section B – Magnesium Status in Disease



4 Magnesium Links to Asthma Control

Alexandra Kazaks



5 Magnesium and Kidney Disease

Ioannis P Tzanakis

Dimitrios G Oreopoulos





6 Magnesium Intake, Genetic Variants, and Diabetes Risk

Yiqing Song

Cuilin Zhang

Lu Wang

Qi Dai

Simin Liu





7. Magnesium Deficiency in Type 2 Diabetes

Dharam Paul Chaudhary



Section C – Magnesium Supplementation and Disease



8 Magnesium and Metabolic Disorders

Abby Duffine

Stella Lucia Volpe



9 Magnesium and diabetes prevention

Akiko Nanri

Tetsuya Mizoue



10 Magnesium Supplementation and Bone

Hasan Aydin



11 Protective Functions of Magnesium Salts in Cancer Patients

Gabriel Wcislo

Lubomir Bodnar





Section D – Cardiovascular Disease and Magnesium



12 Magnesium and Hypertension

Mark Houston



13 The Role of Magnesium in the Cardiovascular System

Michael Schecter

Alon Schecter



14 Vascular biology of magnesium– implications in cardiovascular disease

Tayze T Antunes

Glaucia Callera

Rhian M Touyz



15 Intravenous Magnesium for Cardiac Arrhythmias in Humans: A Role?

Kwok Ho







Section F – Magnesium and Neurological Function



16 Magnesium in inflammation-associated fetal brain injury

Christopher Wayock

Elisabeth Nigrini

Ernest Graham

Michael V. Johnston

Irina Burd



17 Magnesium and Its Interdependency with Other Cations in Acute and Chronic Stressor States

Babatunde O. Komolafe, MD

M. Usman Khan, MD

Rami N. Khouzam, MD

Dwight A. Dishmon, MD

Kevin P. Newman, MD

Jesse E. McGee, MD

Syamal K. Bhattacharya, PhD

Karl T. Weber, MD



18 Magnesium and traumatic brain injury

Renee J Turner

Robert Vink





19 Magnesium in Subarachnoid Hemorrhage – from Bench to Bedside

J. H. Zhang

Jack Hou



20 Alcohol and Magnesium

Teresa Kokot

EWA NOWAKOWSKA-ZAJDEL

Małgorzata Muc-Wierzgoń

Elżbieta Grochowska-Niedworok