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Minerals

Magnesium Levels Linked to Internal Biological Clock

by Karen Morse | July 1, 2016

Every organ in the body needs magnesium to function optimally—it’s involved with over 300 metabolic processes in the human body. But the majority of Americans aren’t getting as much of this essential mineral that is recommended by the National Academy of Medicine—320 milligrams daily for adult women and 420 milligrams daily for adult men.

Magnesium protects the body against chronic inflammation conditions, such as arthritis and even cognitive decline including Alzheimer’s disease. Magnesium has been used to treat conditions like high blood pressure, diabetes, respiratory issues and more.

When the body is deficient in magnesium, a number of symptoms can occur including agitation, anxiety, restless leg syndrome, nausea and vomiting, abnormal heart rhythms, low blood pressure, poor memory, dizziness and fatigue.

With all we know about this critical mineral, scientists at the University of Edinburgh and the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge have recently made an unexpected discovery about magnesium—it helps cells keep time according to the natural circadian rhythm, the daily cycle typically cued by sunlight and temperature. In experiments with human, algae and fungi cells, researchers found that magnesium levels rose and fell in a 24-hour cycle which effected the internal clock of the cells.

Researchers were also surprised to learn that magnesium levels played a role in when cells burned energy and how efficiently this process occurred.

“Internal clocks are fundamental to all living things,” said Dr. Gerben van Ooijen, one of the study leaders from of the University of Edinburgh’s School of Biological Sciences. “They influence many aspects of health and disease in our own bodies, but equally in crop plants and micro-organisms. It is now essential to find out how these fundamentally novel observations translate to whole tissue or organisms, to make us better equipped to influence them in complex organisms for future medical and agricultural purposes.”

“Although the clinical relevance of magnesium in various tissues is beginning to garner more attention, how magnesium regulates our body’s internal clock and metabolism has simply not been considered before,” said another senior author on the study, Dr. John O’Neill of the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology. “The new discovery could lead to a whole range of benefits spanning human health to agricultural productivity.”

The study was published in an April 2016 issue of the scientific journal, Nature.

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