Magnesium and the risk of type 2 diabetes
Summary: Magnesium is important for the prevention and treatment of type 2 diabetes.The frequency of suboptimal levels of magnesium almost compares to the many critical functions it plays a role in throughout the body. A study just published in the journal Diabetes Care offers fresh evidence of the link between magnesium intake and type 2 diabetes. The authors state:
"Emerging epidemiological evidence suggests that higher magnesium intake may reduce diabetes incidence. We aimed to examine the association between magnesium intake and risk of type 2 diabetes by conducting a meta-analysis of prospective cohort studies."
They conducted a database search to identify prospective cohort studies of magnesium intake and risk of type 2 diabetes, and applied a random-effects model to compute the summary risk estimates. Data crunching yielded a significant result:
"Meta-analysis of 13 prospective cohort studies involving 536,318 participants and 24,516 cases detected a significant inverse association between magnesium intake and risk of type 2 diabetes (relative risk [RR] 0.78)...In the dose-response analysis, the summary RR of type 2 diabetes for every 100 mg/day increment in magnesium intake was 0.86. Sensitivity analyses restricted to studies with adjustment for cereal fiber intake yielded similar results. Little evidence of publication bias was observed."
In other words, there was an overall decrease in risk of 22%, and a 14% drop in risk for very 100 mg/day of magnesium consumed. The authors conclude:
"This meta-analysis provides further evidence supporting that magnesium intake is significantly inversely associated with risk of type 2 diabetes in a dose-response manner."
Clinicians, wondering whether your patient has a significant deficiency but aware that serum and erythrocyte magnesium are poor indicators of intracellular levels? X-ray fluorescence is a validated method for determining reliable tissue levels of magnesium. And it's easy to collect cellular specimen in the office.