High Magnesium from Diet Critical to Heart Health

Obtaining sufficient magnesium from your diet can be difficult due to poor farming practices that provide 75% lower yield of the mineral in harvested crops as compared to a century ago. The result of a study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition provides evidence that women with the highest dietary intake of magnesium were 41% less likely to suffer a fatal cardiac event.

The study followed more than 88,000 women over a period of 30 years and examined magnesium intake as well as other vital nutrients and lifestyle factors. Women in the highest quartile for dietary magnesium consumption experienced the highest degree of protection from sudden cardiac death. The study authors determined that 291 lives were spared in the study group for those women with the highest magnesium intake.

The study authors concluded: "In this prospective cohort of women, higher plasma concentrations and dietary magnesium intakes were associated with lower risks of sudden cardiac death. If the observed association is causal, interventions directed at increasing dietary or plasma magnesium might lower the risk of sudden cardiac death."