Sports & Health – Are you Magnesium Deficient?

by debee007

I found this great article on Natural News – an informative site for health & wellness.  This is just a wee bit of the article – check out the link at the bottom for the full article.

Sports teams don’t tell us about the poor health of their “retired” athletes. I’ve consulted with many athletes who, after years of losing vital minerals, develop a long list of magnesium deficiency diseases like arthritis, high blood pressure, migraines, anxiety and depression, as well as adrenal burn-out and thyroid weakness because of a host of other minerals deficiencies such as iodine, selenium, boron, manganese and potassium.

Here is what the sweat researchers ignore when they think that only water and salt have to be replaced after heavy exercise.

1. Magnesium is absolutely required for normal muscle and nerve function. When you have too little, your muscles cramp and twitch and you become very fatigued.

2. The body requires minerals as cofactors in metabolic processes. The metabolic cycle that makes ATP, the energy fuel of the body, has 10 steps, seven of which require magnesium. To say that muscle fatigue can only be treated by ice, massage and stretching is ridiculous.

3. Our diet used to have 500 mg of magnesium, and now we’re lucky to get 200 mg. Farmers do not replace minerals in the soil, and year-by-year they are depleted.

4. Minerals are absorbed into cells and pull water after them. Inside cells, thousands of different enzyme systems function. Without minerals in the cells, they become dehydrated and don’t function properly, and you immediately urinate out what you just drank.

5. Without magnesium inside cells, calcium takes over and causes muscle cramping, twitching and spasms.

6. Sudden heart attacks in young athletes are not uncommon and are likely due to magnesium deficiency. The highest amount of magnesium in the body is found in the heart.

Here is an important excerpt from The Magnesium Miracle about athletes and magnesium.
Many studies have shown that magnesium supplementation enhances the performance and endurance of long-distance runners, cross-country skiers, cyclists and swimmers. It also reduces lactic acid buildup and post-exercise cramps and pain.

Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/045504_LeBron_James_magnesium_deficiency_muscle_cramping.html#ixzz34EsdRGYz