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Magnesium might be the answer.

Magnesium is a star nutrient that should be part of everyone’s diet. This mineral has
many roles in different processes inside the body. Therefore, a magnesium
deficiency can be affecting your health silently. In the same way, having an
appropriate intake of magnesium can incredibly boost your health.

● One of its main roles is that it helps convert food into energy. It also helps in
the process of creating proteins.

● More than half of the magnesium in the body is stored in bones. Therefore it
also contributes to keeping healthy and strong bones.

● Magnesium is essential in the glycolysis process; hence it helps regulate


glucose in the body.

● Magnesium also helps muscles contract and relax; hence it can help avoid
cramping.

● Bearing in mind that the heart is also a muscle, this mineral is also beneficial
for our cardiovascular health.

● This nutrient even plays a role in the nervous system by regulating nerve
transmission and protecting cells from death by excessive stimulation, also
known as excitotoxicity.

● Finally, it also helps in the synthesis of DNA by stabilizing polyphosphate in


the cells.

Knowing all the key functions that magnesium has in the body, we can deduce that
without this mineral, the body will not perform at its best. Moreover, even though the
amount of people with a magnesium deficiency is not too high, most people do not
meet their daily magnesium intake, which is around 300 mg per day in adults from 19
to 64 years.

However, it is still possible that you have a magnesium deficiency. Some signs of
this include numbness, constant cramps, and tingling, arrhythmia, fatigue, loss of
appetite, and high blood pressure, among other symptoms.
Magnesium is easily accessible. You can ingest it both from food and supplements.
Some good food sources of magnesium include vegetables like spinach, broccoli,
carrots, nuts such as almonds, cashews, and peanuts. Black beans, pumpkin seeds,
and dark chocolate are foods with high contents of this mineral.

Ingesting magnesium is still not enough to guarantee that the body can use its
supplies. Some other components can deplete magnesium. It is the case with
fluoride and chlorine. Similarly, some other factors that hinder magnesium absorption
are smoking, liver disease, alcohol abuse, vomiting, and diarrhea.

A practical way to boost magnesium absorption is through the intake of Vitamin D.


This vitamin helps absorb it more efficiently while reducing its retention making it
more accessible for the body to use. These two nutrients complement each other
since magnesium is also necessary for vitamin D to be synthesized.

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