The Chinese call magnesium “The Beautiful Mineral.” It is also known as the “Lamp of Life.” And it’s been called the absolute most important nutrient in the world.
In fact, Dr. Mark Sircus, one of the country’s leading authorities on the effects of magnesium on our health has even stated, “The bedrock of medical truth sits upon the metal magnesium for it is at the exact center of biological life like air and water is. All of life collapses around its loss, but with only the smallest amount of caring and intelligence we can replete what has been lost inside of a person’s cells.” He goes on to say that for the deepest healing of many health problems “there is going to be only one answer and that answer is magnesium, preferably in the chloride form.” And finally, “What we have found is that magnesium chloride, applied transdermally, is the ideal magnesium delivery system — with health benefits unequalled in the entire world of medicine.”
I read these words about 15 years ago when I was studying the health benefits of magnesium. At the same time, my teacher and mentor, Vaidya Rama Kant Mishra, award-winning Ayurvedic herbal formulator and dermatologist was researching the use of magnesium as well. After I finished my research I thought I had better call him because I knew he was intent on formulating transdermal magnesium products. I had just finished reading how magnesium chloride was the best form of magnesium to use and I remember thinking I had better let him know this since he was a Vaidya who had just come from a small village in India, and I thought he might not be well versed enough in the latest modern research.
I remember calling him and asking him how he was coming along with his transdermal magnesium products. He said he was very happy with the creams, roll-ons and abhyanga oils he was developing. I asked him what type of magnesium he was using in all the products. And even without all the research I had access to, I was shocked when he replied, “Magnesium Chloride. That’s the best.” From that point on I never questioned any of his formulas! And he knew intuitively that the transdermal use of magnesium was the best delivery system.
It turns out that the fats in the skin disperse it into the body and activate it along the way, allowing your magnesium deprived cells to bathe in its healing effects. Let’s see why every cell in your body is crying out for more magnesium and why we should learn to listen to these calls.
Let’s start with the fact that magnesium is bound to the center of the chlorophyll molecule. It’s because of magnesium that the plants can convert the sunlight into energy. Which means that all of life, including the food chain, is dependent on the sunlight-chlorophyll-magnesium chain. So we can consider it the source of life since all animals and humans eat plants for their food supply. All of life for billions of years has been dependent on the development of chlorophyll, a molecule that captures light energy from the sun and through a process called photosynthesis transforms it into small energy rich molecules easy for cells to use, which creates all the various life forms on Earth.
So magnesium is seen as the one nutrient which is needed by plants to form chlorophyll, which makes the plants green, but on a deeper level, without magnesium the plants would not be able to absorb nutrition from the sun because the process of photosynthesis would not go on.
This is why when magnesium is depleted things begin to die: in fact you can’t take a breath, move a muscle, think a thought, or make energy without enough magnesium in your cells. In fact, 800 other functions wouldn’t occur either, since magnesium is a catalyst for all these important reactions throughout the body.
Let’s take a deeper look at what magnesium does for us.
First, it plays a huge role in helping newly formed DNA to repair itself. Toxins can cause oxidative damage to the DNA causing dangerous mutations to form. Magnesium initiates many of the mechanisms that need to occur to help correct any mistakes as the DNA is forming, which will help serious diseases, such as cancer, from developing.
Glutathione is considered the body’s master antioxidant which prevents generation of free radicals. In fact glutathione is one of the few antioxidant molecules which can neutralize mercury. But magnesium is required to make glutathione, so, if magnesium goes low, and I can emphatically tell you from experience it is low in just about everyone of us, then glutathione levels become severely depleted, which is not good because glutathione defends the body against damage from cigarette smoking, radiation, cancer-causing chemicals, alcohol, and just about any other toxin you can think of.
The vast majority of the new patients complain of low energy. There are several reasons for this, and we always make sure to address all those reasons, but keep in mind that the body makes energy by producing ATP. ATP is made in the mitochondria — and it’s made in each of the 100 trillion cells of our body. ATP is the main source of energy in our cells and inside each cell are mitochondria making the energy for all of our cells’ functions. But ATP must be bound to magnesium in order for it to work. ATP is formed from our food through a series of chemical reactions called the Kreb’s cycle and 7 of the 10 enzymes in this cycle are dependent on magnesium.
And here’s the important thing: Magnesium sits on the outside of every cell in your body always keeping the calcium out. So if magnesium becomes too low calcium can take advantage and quickly infiltrate into the mitochondria, causing it to calcify. This would create lots of health problems since the heart muscles have a never ending need for energy since they are always contracting without a rest. And the mitochondria are highly concentrated in the brain and the central nervous system which is why calcification of the mitochondria is implicated in Parkinson’s, MS and other brain diseases.
And since the power plant of the cells is in the mitochondria where all the ATP is made, if the mitochondria become low in magnesium and the calcium gains access inside, this calcification of the mitochondria can mark the beginning of the aging process. In fact every function can slow down when the mitochondria calcify. This is why our biochemical age is determined by the ratio of calcium to magnesium both inside and outside of our cells.
The ancient doctors of India said there are two types of hormone problems: either not enough of the hormone is being made, or sufficient quantities of hormones are being made but they’re not getting transported to the areas where they exert their influence.
Magnesium has effects on both of these two aspects concerning the hormones: it is used to both make the hormones and it is also a co-factor involved in transporting hormones into the cells because the hormones can’t pass into the inside of the cell by themselves. So magnesium carries them across the cell wall and delivers them into the inside of the cells. We can make these hormones but if they just sit outside the cell they can’t carry out their intended functions.
In fact, magnesium also allows insulin to transfer glucose (sugar) into the cells. If magnesium goes low the glucose and insulin can build up and the blood sugar can go high.
Many of our patients get tremendous relief from their headaches because magnesium promotes relaxation in the head and neck muscles and prevents spasms in the walls of the arteries, taking away intense headache and migraine pain.
Magnesium is famous for lowering blood pressure. This is because it relaxes the muscles in the walls of the arteries, allowing the artery to open up causing the blood pressure to go down. When we’re stressed the magnesium flushes out of the body which can cause the arteries to contract down causing the blood pressure to go up. Once magnesium levels come back up the muscles in the walls of the arteries relax and the blood pressure goes down as the artery dilates open again.
Magnesium is also an amazing antidote for hardening of the arteries. Any calcium we take into out bodies should only go into our bones and teeth, and that’s it. But calcium always wants to take advantage whenever magnesium goes low, rushing into the inside of the cells, creating lots of problems. For example, if it makes its way into the inside of your arteries it will cause hardening of the arteries.
Normally, when the heart beats the arteries give a little, due to the elastic found in one of the layers of the arteries. It’s just like a rubber band. This dilation of the arteries keeps the blood pressure low when the heart beats. But over a lifetime if calcium has been allowed to infiltrate into the elastic layer it will make the arteries stiff and hard causing the blood pressure to go up when the heart beats.
The good news is I’ve been able to reverse hardening of the arteries in so many of our elderly patients. If you take the pulse of someone in their 20’s you can feel a lot of elasticity in the arteries, they are very pliable and soft. But as the patient ages, by the time they are in their 50’s or above, the arteries feel very hard due to the calcium which has infiltrated over the years.
Always remember this image: if you put a calcium tablet in a glass of water, it just sits there. But once you put some magnesium in it will break it down and disintegrate it. The same thing happens to the calcium lining our arteries: magnesium can displace the calcium once it enters into your body. So this means that if you are very diligent in using your transdermal magnesium products, the arteries will become soft and pliable again as the magnesium forces out the hard calcium, and the pulse will feel much younger, like when you were in your 20’s! And the blood pressure will go down again.
And think of this: nearly everyone develops cataracts as they age. What are cataracts? Well, they are the infiltration of calcium into the lens. Again! Calcium is trying to get into places we don’t want it. And once calcium enters the lens it becomes very difficult to see. So start out using magnesium to prevent or delay the onset of cataracts.
Now, as far as osteoporosis is concerned, many people automatically think of supplementing with calcium when they hear their bones are depleted. Calcium makes the bones hard and brittle, like a piece of chalk which breaks if you drop it. But magnesium keeps the bones pliable, kind of like a chicken bone — if you try to break it it bends due to the elasticity from the magnesium contained in it. So don’t forget to keep up with your magnesium therapies if you get a diagnosis of either osteopenia or osteoporosis.
And as far as Ayurveda is concerned, magnesium is known as a tridoshic therapy. This means that it is balancing to all 3 body types: Vata, Pitta and Kapha. It calms the nervousness of Vata, cools down the heat of pitta and gives energy to the laid-back kaphas who tend to get a little lazy.
And not only that, it has the unique property of being both nourishing and detoxifying at the same time. This is an unusual quality to have because some remedies are either detoxifying, which break down the body as they cleanse the tissues, while others build up the body due to their nurturing capabilities. But magnesium does both. These rare types of remedies which have both effects of nourishing and detoxifying are highly prized in Ayurveda.
We like to apply it directly on the skin where it brings new life into the cells. The fat cells in the skin take up the magnesium and absorb and activate it much better than if it is taken orally where it sometimes travels too quickly through the digestive tract, creating loose bowel movements or diarrhea.
We use magnesium chloride in all of our transdermal products: abhyanga oils which are used for daily oil massages, concentrated roll-ons and creams to be applied to the specific areas where the magnesium is needed most, such as the lower spine and lower abdomen to prevent painful menstrual cramps, on the lower legs to prevent restless legs and muscle spasms, on the entire back to prevent irregular heartbeats or to lower the blood pressure; down the spine, on the wrists and the soles of the feet and under the skull in the back (in the suboccipital region) for panic attacks and headaches, nervousness and anxiety. We even use magnesium chloride baths to treat severe body aches and pains, and to calm the nerves and lower the blood pressure.
Epsom salts contain magnesium sulfate, but the sulfate form doesn’t have long-lasting effects like the magnesium chloride does. Plus the body has to convert the sulfate into the chloride form so you might as well use the magnesium chloride in the first place. And magnesium chloride has a stronger effect on drawing out toxins through the pores of the skin than other types of magnesium.
Just about everyone needs magnesium: the cortisol we produce when we’re stressed flushes magnesium out of the body; nearly every pharmaceutical also flushes out magnesium; the soil nowadays is depleted in magnesium. Alcohol, coffee, and the phosphorus in sodas also deplete it. And for every molecule of sugar you eat it takes 18 molecules of magnesium to break it down.
Transdermal use of magnesium is the safest way to take it: the skin absorbs exactly what it needs without you having to worry if you’re overdosing or underdosing.
I hope you can now understand why magnesium is considered the absolute most important nutrient in our bodies. The transdermal use of magnesium on a daily basis will improve your health more than just about any other remedy you could ever think of.
Thank you,