Women's Bodies, Women's Wisdom (163 page)

Organically grown vegetables have higher nutritional content.

Calcium is only one of the minerals needed for optimal nutrition.

Nondairy sources of calcium are particularly rich in the other minerals needed for health. Some argue that plant oxalates, found in spinach and some other greens, interfere with calcium absorption. The same argument has been used for phytates in grain. Newer data suggest that this absorption issue has been highly overemphasized and is not very significant. So keep eating your spinach.

THE WONDERS OF MAGNESIUM

Magnesium requires its own section because it is so often overlooked and is so important for women’s health. This mineral is in much shorter supply than calcium in our diets because of poor dietary choices (refined grains and too few dark green leafy vegetables), soil erosion, and overuse of chemical fertilizers instead of organic farming methods. I was first introduced to the wonders of magnesium during my obstetrical training, where I saw, up close and personal, how effective magnesium sulfate was in preventing seizures and restoring normal blood pressure in pregnant women suffering from toxemia. Years later, I often gave my patients magnesium intravenously (along with a series of other vitamins) as part of an IV mix known as the Myers formula (or Myers cocktail). I found that this mixture frequently relieved muscular pain and also helped speed healing from surgery, sprained ankles, and so on. It also appeared to boost immunity, which is why I often had a colleague give me an IV of it myself when I was coming down with something. Worked like a charm!

An astounding number of studies have documented the effectiveness of IV magnesium in helping prevent cardiac damage and even death following a heart attack. The reason for this is that 40 to 60 percent of sudden deaths from heart attack are the result of spasm in the arteries, not blockage from clots or arrhythmias.
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And magnesium helps coronary artery muscles (and all other muscles) relax. Carolyn Dean, M.D., N.D., author of
The Magnesium
Miracle
(Ballantine Books, 2007), reports that she’s seen magnesium improve patients’ PMS, painful periods, chronic fatigue, fibromyalgia, depression, and anxiety—not to mention improving their enjoyment of sexual pleasure.

Most of us don’t require intravenous magnesium, of course. We can get all the benefits we need just by making sure that we get enough of it in our diets or through supplements. Here’s what everyone needs to know about getting optimal benefits from this essential (but often over looked) mineral.

Why We Need Enough Magnesium

Magnesium is essential for the functioning of more than three hundred different enzymes in the body, particularly those that produce, transport, store, and utilize energy. Magnesium is essential for the following:

Protein synthesis. DNA and RNA in our cells require magnesium for cell growth and development.

Sparking of the electrical signals that must travel throughout the miles of nerves in our bodies (including our brain, heart, and other or gans).

Normal blood pressure, vascular tone, transmission of nerve cell signals, and blood flow.

Functioning of all nerves and muscles.

Release and binding of adequate amounts of serotonin in the brain.

In short, living with suboptimal levels of magnesium is like trying to operate a machine with the power turned off.

WOMEN’S BODIES, WOMEN’S WISDOM
The Magnesium/Calcium Connection

Though the role of calcium has received an enormous amount of attention, very few people realize that without its partner magnesium, calcium doesn’t serve the body nearly as well as it should. In fact, too much calcium can actually impede magnesium’s uptake and function, creating further imbalance. When it comes to building healthy bones, magnesium is as important as calcium and vitamin D!

Magnesium and calcium are designed to work together. For example, magnesium controls the entry of calcium into each and every cell—a physiological event that happens every time a nerve cell fires. Without adequate magnesium (which is also a natural calcium channel blocker) too much calcium gets inside the cell. This can result in muscle cramp ing, blood vessel constriction, migraine headache, and even feelings of anxiety.
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Magnesium also keeps calcium dissolved in the blood so that it won’t produce kidney stones. In fact, taking calcium without magnesium for osteoporosis can actually promote kidney stone formation!

Magnesium Deficiency on the Rise

In 1997, the National Academy of Sciences found that most Americans are deficient in magnesium.
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There are a number of reasons for this:

Food processing depletes magnesium.
And the vast majority of Americans eat mostly processed foods. When wheat is refined into white flour, 80 percent of the magnesium in the bran is lost; 98 percent is lost when molasses is refined into sugar. Similarly, magnesium is leached out of vegetables boiled in water or blanched before freezing them. Additives such as aspartame and MSG, as well as alcohol, also deplete magnesium stores.