Oral magnesium helps asthma in children—reduces inflammation, supports glutathione

Asthma is a disease of chronic inflammation and magnesium is known to have anti-inflammatory effects. A rigorous trial published in the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition offers evidence that oral magnesium helps relieve asthma in children. The authors set out to...

"...investigate the long-term effect of oral magnesium supplementation on clinical symptoms, bronchial reactivity, lung function and allergen-induced skin responses in children and adolescents with moderate persistent asthma."

They staged a double-blind randomized parallel placebo-controlled study randomizing 37 patients aged 7–19 years into two groups. One got 300 mg/day of magnesium and the rest placebo over 2 months. The primary outcome was bronchial reactivity which was evaluated by a methacholine challenge test (PC20). The data showed a significant benefit from magnesium:

"After a follow-up of 2 months, the methacholine PC20 for testing bronchial reactivity has augmented significantly in the magnesium group only. The skin responses to recognized antigens have also decreased in patients treated with magnesium. The forced vital capacity (FVC), the forced expiratory volume at first second (FEV1), the forced expiratory flow at 25–75 and the FEV1/FVC ratio were similar in both groups. The magnesium group presented fewer asthma exacerbations and used less salbutamol compared to the placebo group."

The magnesium clearly produced a welcome anti-inflammatory effect. The authors conclude:

"Oral magnesium supplementation helped to reduce bronchial reactivity to methacholine, to diminish their allergen-induced skin responses and to provide better symptom control in pediatric patients with moderate persistent asthma treated with inhaled fluticasone."

It's very interesting that magnesium reduced inflammation in both the lung mucosa and skin. Besides the antiinflammatory effect of increasing parasympathetic tone (see posts on heart rate variability and others on magnesium and calcium), a striking paper published in the journal Inflammation Research shows that magnesium also supports the glutathione redox system, an extremely important factor in autoimmunity and allergy. The authors conducted their randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study to...

"...investigate the effects of 12-week oral magnesium (Mg) supplementation on the RBC redox system in stable, persistent, moderately asthmatic children."

They examined oxidized glutathione (GSSG) and reduced (GSH) glutathione, oxyhaemoglobin, methaemoglobin (metHb), hemichrome and bilirubin levels before and after treatment with magnesium and GSH stability in 40 kids aged 4-16 (24 boys, 16 girls). There was a clear benefit from the magnesium:

"The GSH concentration was significantly higher in the Mg-treated than in the placebo-treated patients after the treatment period. There was a positive correlation between the decreased plasma metHb and hemichrome levels and the decreased plasma haemoglobin concentrations in the Mg-treated patients at the end of the study."

Clinicians who case manage autoimmunity please note: impairment of the glutathione redox system is a major contributor to the loss of self-tolerance. Evidence that magnesium, a benign and inexpensive agent, can significantly help to improve glutathione activity is valuable. The authors conclude:

"Mg in the given doses exerts antioxidant activity and influences the glutathione redox system."