Magnesium Could Keep Your Muscles Free From Pain
Wow! Magnesium. Who knew how powerful of an element our little friend magnesium could be. Well, a lot of people actually, but there are even more people who are living completely unaware of all the power magnesium holds for your overall well being and, even more importantly, for helping you become free from pain.
Magnesium is a necessary macro mineral that our bodies require for proper function. The human body actually needs 100s of milligrams of magnesium every day. Inside our bodies magnesium can be found inside our bones, our muscles and in our cells and bodily fluids. Our bodies do not produce magnesium on their own, instead we must absorb our necessary magnesium from the foods we eat and from the supplements we take.
Magnesium is related to so many different functions in the body that a magnesium deficiency can surface in a variety of ways. From muscle weakness and tremors to headaches and elevated blood pressure, not getting enough magnesium can create a pretty uncomfortable and rather unexplainable situation. Chronic pain and especially muscle pain can be associated with magnesium deficiency.
Magnesium works with its good buddy calcium to help to regulate the body’s nerves and muscle tone. Magnesium actually performs as a gate keeper for the amount of calcium allowed into a nerve cell. If there is a rush of calcium into a nerve cell, it will activate the nerve. This continued over-activation of the nerve causes the nerve to send too many messages to the muscle resulting in a muscle that over-contracts and becomes uncomfortable. Yes, we are talking about chronic pain of the muscle variety. Not just pain, but muscle fatigue and cramping like you wouldn’t believe; all because we didn’t have enough magnesium in our daily diet.
What can you do to determine if your pain is associated with a magnesium deficiency? Well eat more magnesium rich foods of course! As always, we suggest that you get your magnesium from the foods you eat rather than a supplement, but using a supplement isn’t against the rules either. Foods high in magnesium include swiss chard, spinach, pumpkin seeds, soybeans, sesame seeds, halibut, black beans, sunflower seeds, almonds and cashews.
Another way to deal with chronic pain associated with the muscles is to try a magnesium oil or cream that is applied to the skin over the area that is in pain. The magnesium is absorbed through the skin and is noted for immediate relief of muscle pain. There are also some practices of a magnesium oil foot bath in which you soak your feet in the magnesium oil for at least an hour allowing your skin to absorb the magnesium. These skin absorption approaches have not been tested as much as simply increasing the amount of magnesium you get in your diet.
Too much magnesium can result in diarrhea and other digestion issues. As always, you should consult your doctor before making changes to your diet especially if you are taking other medications to deal with your chronic pain. What we eat has so much to do with how our bodies perform. We are intricate machines that need the right balance to operate properly.
We talk to a lot of people everyday about the pain they are experiencing while we discuss if PRRT (Primal Reflex Release Technique) is the right treatment for pain. We also talk to our patients about their diet and exercise to see if we can also make suggestions that will help them be free from pain for years to come.
