Magnesium and Postmenopausal Heart

Too Little Magnesium Affects the Postmenopausal Heart

by Paul L. Cerrato, Altmed Watch (April, 2002, Brief Article)

A low magnesium diet puts postmenopausal women at risk for supraventricular ectopy suggests this new clinical trial. In a recent metabolic ward study, 22 women were blindly fed a diet containing less than half the RDA for magnesium or more than the RDA (320 mg/day). Those on the low magnesium regimen were more inclined toward arrhythmias, despite the fact that the diet did not cause hypomagnesemia, the usual marker that clinicians use to diagnose magnesium deficiency. Their research is consistent with previous animal and human data that have shown that magnesium deficiency causes adverse neuromuscular effects like spasm, tremor, tetany, and convulsions.

Klevay LM, Milne DB. Low dietary magnesium increases supraventricular ectopy. Am J Clin Nutr. 2002;75:550-554. Department editor Paul L. Cerrato, MA, Managing Editor of Contemporary OB/GYN is a guest lecturer at the Institute of Human Nutrition, Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York, N.Y.