Dr. Weyrich's Naturopathic Functional Medicine Notebook is a collection of information on topics of interest to Dr. Weyrich that may be of interest to the world wide audience. Due to limitations of time, not all information that Dr. Weyrich knows or would like to further research is published here. Dr. Weyrich welcomes financial contributions to support specific research topics, as well as copies of non-free access journal articles for him to review on a topic. Constructive criticism is also welcome.

Overview of Magnesium Deficiency

Magnesium deficiency is associated with a number of medical conditions, including [Starr2005, pg 188]:
  • Irritability of skeletal and cardiac muscle.
  • Rapid and irregular heartbeats, especially during thyroid hormone supplementation.
  • Cofactor of various enzymes.

Diagnosis of Magnesium Deficiency

See [Rogers].

According to [Starr2005, pg 188] the standard blood test for magnesium is not reliable because it does not reflect intracellular levels.

Differential Diagnosis of Magnesium Deficiency

Treatment of Magnesium Deficiency

600 to 1000 mg/day is typical, but oral amount may be limited by bowel tolerance. IV pushes can increase the daily dose. Also consider magnesium oil [Starr2005, pg 188].

Hypotheses regarding Magnesium Deficiency

Dr. Weyrich suggests that heavy metal toxicity (e.g. mercury may be mitigated by increasing supplementation with magnesium. This is because both Mg and Hg can exist as +2 charged ions, and Lechatlier's Law of Mass Action suggests that increasing the concentration of Mg+2 will displace Hg+2 from binding sites that it may be blocking on enzymes. Clinical evidence to support this follows from the observation that the side effects reported by [Starr2005, pg 188] during thyroid hormone supplementation in the presence of magnesium deficiency are similar to the side effects observed in the presence of mercury toxicity (rapid, irregular heartbeat).

References for Magnesium Deficiency