5 Signs and Symptoms of Magnesium Deficiency

There are several health problems that can be associated with loss or low levels of magnesium in your body. These can include diabetes, chronic diarrhea, and celiac disease. In most cases, magnesium deficiency tends to be overlooked as the signs of it can be minimal until your levels are relatively low. The causes of magnesium deficiency can vary so it’s important to know when your body’s telling you that you’re low on magnesium. Here are some tell-tale signs of magnesium deficiency.

Muscle Cramp or Twitching

In some cases, severe muscle cramps and twitching can cause your muscles to seize or convulse. Health experts believe this is down to growing calcium levels traveling to the nerve cells, causing them to hyperstimulate the muscles. However, more common causes of muscle cramp can include stress or too much caffeine in the body. If the problem does persist and you find that you’re getting involuntary muscle cramps regularly, you should see your doctor check up on it.

Fatigue and Muscle Weakness

Although we normally associate fatigue when engaging with physical activity, some people tend to have severe muscle fatigue that happens regularly. This would be a sign of a wider health problem that’s down to magnesium deficiency. The cause of fatigue is hard to determine as it’s not specific to one health issue and tends to be accompanied by other symptoms for there to be a cause. However, muscle weakness (myasthenia) is a more probable symptom of magnesium deficiency and is believed to be down to a loss of potassium in the muscle cells.

Asthma

Asthma is another symptom that’s found in patients with magnesium deficiency, especially comparing them to a healthier person. Why this is believed is because calcium build up in the muscles causes them to block the lining of the airways in the lungs, making it difficult for patients to breathe. Some patients can be provided with inhalers that contain magnesium sulfate to help them breathe more easily.

High Blood Pressure

There have been studies to suggest that magnesium deficiency can cause blood pressure levels to increase in the body and lead to heart disease. This hasn’t necessarily been directly linked with human testing but has been researched with animals. This suggests that further research is required in order to determine whether blood pressure increases through magnesium deficiency but it’s likely a probable cause. As a solution to high blood pressure, many people tend to take fish oil capsules or supplements to help lower blood pressure.

Heartbeat is Irregular

Also known as Heart Arrhythmia, the symptoms for this condition are fairly mild but the risk is rather large considering there are pauses in heartbeats that can occur. Other symptoms of the condition involve becoming light-headed regularly, having shortness of breath, chest pains and potentially feinting. More seriously, there’s also the risk of heart failure. It is believed that potassium levels being imbalanced in the body is the cause of this and that patients of this condition tend to have low levels of magnesium in their body.

It’s rather common for magnesium deficiency to occur in patients and the general public. The symptoms of having low levels of magnesium in your body are relatively discreet unless they become dangerously low. In cases where your magnesium is low, you have a few options. You might check how to get natural electrolytes into your system. Magnesium supplements can also help to improve magnesium deficiency levels in the body but it’s worth consulting with a doctor about the best possible method to increase your magnesium levels. In some cases, the correct diet can help to rectify the issue.