What Happens To Your Blood Sugar When You Don’t Get Enough Magnesium – Health Digest

Magnesium plays a role in more than 300 functions in your body, such as building proteins, keeping muscles and nerves working properly, managing blood sugar levels, and controlling blood pressure. You also need magnesium to support the health of your bones, create DNA and RNA, and produce energy. Magnesium works with other electrolytes, such as calcium and potassium, to steady your heartbeat.

If you don’t get enough magnesium through your diet or supplements, you could develop numbness, muscle cramping, seizures, or personality changes. Because magnesium supports blood sugar metabolism, a magnesium deficiency might cause problems managing your blood sugar. A 2007 review in the Journal of Internal Medicine found that consuming more magnesium is linked with a 15% lower risk of type 2 diabetes.

However, that doesn’t necessarily mean that low magnesium levels will cause type 2 diabetes. Magnesium deficiency is also associated with insulin resistance, so researchers are looking closely at whether magnesium supplements can help manage type 2 diabetes.

Your kidneys work to keep certain nutrients in balance in your system. If you take in too much magnesium through supplements or food, your kidneys will rid your body of excess magnesium through your urine. On the other hand, if you have specific days when your magnesium intake is low, your kidneys excrete less magnesium to keep your body functions intact. People with type 2 diabetes tend to lose magnesium through their urine, which worsens their insulin resistance.

A 2021 review in Nutrients found that magnesium supplements help improve blood sugar levels in people with diabetes and those at high risk. Magnesium reduces fasting plasma glucose, glucose levels after a two-hour test, and insulin resistance, especially in people at high risk of diabetes. Magnesium also appears to improve insulin sensitivity and may reduce oxidative stress and inflammation.

Not all studies have found that magnesium can help people control their blood sugar. A 2023 study in Diabetologia tested how daily supplements of 365 milligrams of magnesium can improve the health of older adults (average age 67) with insulin-treated type 2 diabetes. Although the magnesium supplement slightly increased HDL (“good”) cholesterol levels, it didn’t result in significant changes in people’s insulin use and HbA1c (the average blood sugar over two or three months).

In a 2013 statement in Diabetes Care, the American Diabetes Association said there’s not enough evidence to advise supplementing with magnesium to control your blood sugar if you have type 2 diabetes.

Even though the research continues to be mixed about the effect of magnesium on your blood sugar, it doesn’t mean that increasing your magnesium levels can’t benefit other aspects of your health. In a 2021 study in the Journal of Hypertension, older adults with untreated prediabetes and high blood pressure supplemented their diets with 400 milligrams a day of magnesium citrate for 12 weeks. Magnesium slightly lowered their HbA1c, but it led to a noticeable drop in blood pressure. Supplementing with magnesium citrate saw blood pressure change from an average of 144/86 to 122/78 millimeters of mercury (mmHg).

Your body holds about 25 grams of magnesium, mostly in your bones and tissues, but you need to take in enough magnesium to account for your kidneys excreting up to 120 milligrams through your urine. Men over 30 need at least 420 milligrams of magnesium, and women need 320 milligrams (or more if they’re pregnant or nursing). Chia seeds, almonds, black beans, and peanut butter are just some of the foods rich in magnesium. Magnesium supplements such as magnesium aspartate, citrate, lactate, and chloride are better absorbed by your body than other magnesium supplements. Be aware that magnesium supplements can have a laxative effect.