Last week, we celebrated World Kidney Day. Have you seen Otsuka Pharmaceutical Companies’ World Kidney Day post featuring Steve Winfree, several others, and me? We all shared messages about dealing with kidney disease for other kidney disease patients.
While World Kidney Day has passed, it’s still National Kidney Month. During this time, I decided to look for topics I hadn’t thought about before. I researched several only to find they had nothing to do with the kidneys. Then I hit upon magnesium. Bingo!
Since my cancer dance, I’ve been taking 400 mg. twice a day for healing. [Chemo is really hard on the body.] I had no idea I was helping my kidneys, too. Of course, I had to know how this worked and then share it with you.
Let’s start with what magnesium is. I liked the Kidney Coach’s down to earth explanation:
“Magnesium is one of the key minerals that the body needs to stay healthy, in fact it is needed for more than 300 biochemical reactions in the body. Approximately 60% of the body’s magnesium is present in bone, 20% in muscle and another 20% in soft tissue and the liver. Less than 1% of total magnesium is in blood serum and our body works hard to try and keep these levels under tight control.”
I’m not certain, but I’m guessing it’s the blood serum’s 1% of magnesium that concerns us. But let’s find out for sure. Here’s what WebMD had to say:
“Magnesium is a mineral that is important for normal bone structure in the body. People get magnesium from their diet, but sometimes magnesium supplements are needed if magnesium levels are too low. Low magnesium levels in the body have been linked to diseases such as osteoporosis, high blood pressure, clogged arteries, hereditary heart disease, diabetes, and stroke.”
Hmm, while that doesn’t answer the implied question, it does bring up other issues. Did you catch ‘high blood pressure’ and ‘diabetes’ in the above quote? Those are the two leading causes of chronic kidney disease.
Maybe Harvard Health Publishing, Harvard Medical School can help us out here:
“Magnesium helps regulate hundreds of body systems, including blood pressure, blood sugar, and muscle and nerve function. We need magnesium to help blood vessels relax, and for energy production, and bone development. Just like potassium, too much magnesium can be lost in urine due to diuretic use, leading to low magnesium levels.”
Think about it: relaxed blood vessels allow the blood to flow through your body more easily, thereby avoiding blood pressure build up or high blood pressure. Unregulated blood sugar leads to diabetes. It’s starting to make sense, isn’t it?
Jumping back to the blood serum, look what I found at ANA Journals:
“… in patients with CKD, we observed that higher serum magnesium is associated with lower SBP and lower DBP at baseline in the CRIC Study. Higher serum magnesium is associated with a lower risk of hypertension according to multiple definitions. Furthermore, regarding hard clinical outcomes, higher serum magnesium is associated with a significantly lower risk of CKD progression during long-term follow-up ….”
I needed some of that alphabet soup defined, so maybe you do, too.
SBP: systolic BP [top number – blood pressure when the heart is beating]
DBP: diastolic BP [bottom number – blood pressure when heart is at rest]
CRIC: Chronic Renal Insufficiency Cohort [conducts studies to further the health of those with CKD]
Well, what happens if you have too much magnesium in your body? MedicalNewsToday was able to help us out with this question:
“Most cases of hypermagnesemia occur in people who have kidney failure. Hypermagnesemia occurs because the process that keeps the levels of magnesium in the body at normal levels does not work properly in people with kidney dysfunction and end-stage liver disease.
When the kidneys do not work properly, they are unable to get rid of excess magnesium, and this makes the person more susceptible to a build-up of the mineral in the blood.
Some treatments for chronic kidney disease, including proton pump inhibitors, can increase the risk of hypermagnesemia. Malnourishment and alcoholism are additional risk factors in people with chronic kidney disease.”
Doesn’t sound good, especially since we have CKD. We’d better find out what the symptoms are. According to Mercy Health:
“Hypermagnesemia has serious symptoms. They can cause problems with your heart and difficulty breathing. Some people experience signs of shock or go into a coma. Other symptoms of hypermagnesemia include:
- Very low blood pressure
- Nausea and vomiting
- Headaches ….
A normal level of magnesium in the blood is between 1.7 and 2.3 milligrams per deciliter.”
As best I can figure out [Remember, I’m not a doctor.], the treatment is dialysis or diuretics. However, these each have further treatment necessary.
Let’s not panic now. Remember that this is pretty rare. Hypomagnesemia? Not so much. The Egyptian Journal of Internal Medicine makes that clear:
“… hypomagnesemia is a common electrolyte disorder in non-dialysis CKD population and is independently associated with proteinuria. Hypomagnesemia is a risk factor for inflammation, anemia, and hyperparathyroidism in pre-dialysis CKD population.”
I went to my trusted source, the Cleveland Clinic, for the symptoms of low magnesium:
“Tremors.
Tetany (muscle spasms, muscle cramps and/or numbness in your hands and feet).
Abnormal eye movements (nystagmus).
Fatigue and weakness.”
Now, of course, we need to know how it’s treated. I read several studies to find this one simple treatment on National Center for Biotechnology’s site:
“Mg [magnesium] supplementation was safe and well tolerated with no adverse events related to Mg treatment and no incidences of symptomatic hypermagnesemia.”
In other words, OTC magnesium pills.
This has definitely been one of the harder blogs I’ve written. I kept having to dig and dig for information. Let’s not take anything for granted. Do speak with your nephrologist if you have questions or think you may have low or high magnesium. All you’ll need to be sure is a blood test.
Until next week,
Keep living your life!
SlowItDownCKD 