Monday, April 26, 2010

I know I'm starting to sound like a broken record

I'm amazed that magnesium is the real answer to so many problems, but even many scientists and researchers seem unaware of its importance.  This Reuters article talks about the rise in kidney stones among children in South Carolina and points to excessive antibiotic use as a possible cause.  Antibiotics deplete magnesium!  And the "stone belt" (from Virginia down to Florida and over to Texas) mentioned in the article is an area of the country with primarily very soft water--low mineral content.  Hard water and healthy gut bacteria help raise our bodies' magnesium levels.  They don't mention it in the article, but low magnesium can lead to kidney stones. Magnesium is the missing puzzle piece no one (well, almost no one) is talking about.

Get yer magnesium, my friends!

6 comments:

Carol said...

Broken records can be catchy =)

Diana said...

What are your recommendations for getting enough magnesium?

Still reading your blog and loving it, even though I only rarely have time to dash off a comment! Love the blog! :)

Lani said...

Diana- Thanks! If you check out this post http://birthfaith.blogspot.com/2010/04/magnesium-manifesto.html, I share some ideas for raising your magnesium levels. I hope it helps! :-)

Diana said...

Ha! You would think that it would occur to me to check your past posts since you've been talking about magnesium lately! (*Hitting head repeatedly*) LOL! THanks!

Mama V said...

Another excellent source of magnesium is sea salt -- make sure it's not bleached white and is pure. My faves are celtic sea salt (gray) and himalayan sea salt (pink). The former can be a bit pricey but a little goes a long way and is so worth it for the nutritional value and taste. Whatever you choose, it should have a hint of color to it (evidence of high mineral content) and some moisture (sort of like sand at the beach). Pure, virgin salt has 80-90 minerals, but once bleached, (Most people are often concerned about the iodine issue... The naturally-occurring iodine in sea salt is also removed by the bleaching process, which is why a inferior form of iodine (that's less easily absorbed by the body) has to be put back in.) I've had several health issues due to mineral deficiencies that have literally disappeared within a few weeks of using real sea salt. (I've also seen an improvement in my teeth -- when your body doesn't receive the minerals it needs, it pulls from your bones, including your teeth.)

(FYI: real sea salt tends to taste a bit more salty, so use less than a recipe calls for until you get used to using it.)

Mama V said...

So sorry! Part of my sentence got cut off! It was supposed to say that, once bleached, sea salt loses most of the naturally occurring minerals, going from 80-90 minerals (depending on the sea salt) down to 2-3 minerals ONLY! Yikes!

Probably since puberty, I used to have strange divits in my nail beds -- little dents that looked like I had slammed my finger nails into something hard. They would grow out and then more would appear in the nail bed. Over and over again, every doctor would tell me that it was a sign of a mineral deficiency and to "take a multi-vitamin." I always did, plus have always been a health-food junkie, but the dents in my nail beds never went away, so I just kept on keeping on and stopped worrying about it. After switching to real sea salt, the grooves in my nails disappeared within a month! For the first time in over 20 years!