Taking care of your health is, without a doubt, extremely important. While this involves regular trips to the doctor’s office and regular check-ups, that won’t do you any good if you don’t create a lifestyle that will be good for your body and your mind. That is if you don’t create a lifestyle that will promote health. This, however, can be quite difficult, especially nowadays when we are all rushing to complete the daily tasks, one day after another, and when we don’t have the time to simply stop and enjoy life, while also doing something great for our overall wellbeing.
Nevertheless, even though this is difficult, taking care of your health is possible, when you make it a priority. And, you should always make it a priority. Now, great health starts with the perfect balance of necessary nutrients and minerals in your body, such as magnesium, and other electrolytes. People often don’t pay much attention to these minerals, and that is a mistake because they are crucial for the proper functioning of our bodies. So, if you want to be healthy, you’ll need to maintain a good balance of electrolytes.
You may have already heard someone talking about electrolyte deficiencies in the past, but there is a chance that you don’t understand the dangers of that. Furthermore, while you’re acquainted with magnesium, you may not be sure why your body needs it, or how to raise magnesium levels in your body. Those are, without a doubt, all quite important questions, and I am now going to answer them for you one by one, starting with talking about the dangers of electrolyte deficiencies, a topic that’s also discussed on this page.
Dangers of Electrolytes Deficiencies
If you have done any reading so far on this topic, then you may have already gotten a clearer idea about the importance of electrolytes. For one thing, they help regulate the balance of fluids, thus maintaining hydration. Then, they are essential for transmitting nerve impulses, meaning that they pretty much enable communication between the brain and the other parts of your body. On top of that, they play a crucial role in muscle contraction and relaxation, as well as help maintain the pH levels of your blood.
As you can see, thus, there are a lot of key functions that electrolytes support and play a part in. What happens, thus, when your body is low on these? The imbalance can occur for various reasons, including a poor diet, dehydration, as well as certain chronic illnesses and medications. Let us, though, discuss further what the dangers of these deficiencies are.
Now, what kinds of symptoms you may experience depends on the specific electrolyte that your body may be low on. So, for instance, if it is lacking calcium, you may notice symptoms such as muscle spasms, cramps, twitches, or tics, as well as some severe neurological symptoms, including seizures. Furthermore, this can cause abnormalities in your heart rhythm.
Moving on, if your body is low on magnesium, the first symptoms you may notice are muscle aches, fatigue, as well as a loss of appetite, and nausea. As the deficiency worsens, though, it can cause cramps, numbness, seizures, abnormal heart rhythms, as well as some personality changes, including irritability. Furthermore, hypomagnesemia can result in osteoporosis, as well as in certain mental disorders.
Read more about magnesium here:https://www.health.com/magnesium-7229399
Similarly, low potassium can also cause abnormal heart rhythms, as well as sudden heart stops. Apart from that, it can lead to muscle weakness, cramping, as well as in fatigue. In some more severe cases, though, people can experience, apart from the heart issues I’ve mentioned, kidney problems, breathing problems, as well as the loss of normal intestinal movements.
I won’t go further, listing all the electrolytes and the symptoms of their deficiency. You should have, however, understood the dangers of those deficiencies by now. So, you get how important it is to maintain a good balance of electrolytes in your body.
Why You Need Magnesium
Even though we’ve briefly talked about it above, there is a chance that you still don’t quite get why you need magnesium in your body. So, that is what we are going to discuss right now before we proceed to help you learn how to raise its levels. After all, you have to understand the significance of this specific electrolyte, so that you can get a better idea about how it impacts your body and how important maintaining normal levels of magnesium is in the first place.
As you may know already, magnesium supports various bodily functions. For example, it is important for energy transfer within cells, but then it also plays a vital role in the synthesis of protein, which is extremely important for tissue and muscle repair. In addition to your muscles, magnesium has a positive effect on your bones as well, as it contributes to their density.
Apart from that, it helps regulate neurotransmitters that send messages throughout the nervous system and throughout your entire body, which is also extremely important. And, in addition to being important to the brain, it plays a role in the health of your heart, maintaining normal blood pressure. Given all of this, it is no wonder that you are interested in learning how to raise magnesium levels in your body. And, it is also no wonder that this is the topic that we will discuss in the rest of the article.
How to Raise Magnesium Levels
In case you’ve done any research of your own already, chances are you’ve realized that there are various causes of magnesium deficiency. For one thing, a poor diet can contribute to it. And then, certain medications can cause deficiency, as well as certain gastrointestinal disorders. Furthermore, excessive alcohol intake hurts the absorption of magnesium, thus causing deficiency. And, of course, older individuals tend to be at higher risks of this, as their absorption efficiency decreases.
Nevertheless, regardless of your age and your general health condition, there are some steps you can take towards raising your magnesium levels. So, below I am going to list some effective ways of doing that. That way, you can start improving your health right away, by simply making some small changes to your lifestyle.
1. Improve Your Diet
One of the first things people will often do when trying to raise magnesium levels is improve their diet. This doesn’t essentially mean that you are not eating healthy already. It simply means that you may not be consuming food rich in magnesium, which can result in its deficiency. So, what you may want to do is start eating more food that is rich in this mineral, including nuts and seeds, leafy greens, fish, legumes such as black beans and lentils, as well as whole wheat products such as brown rice and quinoa. If you have a sweet tooth, dark chocolate can also help you maintain normal levels of this mineral in your body.
2. Avoid Sugar and Refined Foods
Speaking of having a sweet tooth, there is one thing you should know here. Foods rich in sugar can increase magnesium excretion. And so can refined foods. Therefore, it would be best if you could avoid these, to maintain adequate levels of magnesium in your body (read more)on why that is important).
3. Reduce Alcohol Consumption
As I’ve mentioned already, excessive and chronic alcohol intake is a huge risk factor for magnesium deficiency. This is because chronic alcoholism increases renal excretion, as well as impairs absorption. So, another thing you should do to maintain good levels is reduce alcohol consumption.
4. Manage Stress Levels
Here is a piece of advice you may have heard many times before, as people give it out for pretty much any health issue. Well, the advice is important, and it is not given in vain, especially when we are talking about maintaining and increasing magnesium levels. In simple words, you should try and reduce stress in your life as much as possible, as your body will use more of this mineral during stress responses. And, regular physical activity can help reduce stress, and so can practices such as yoga and meditation.
5. Treat Underlying Gastrointestinal Issues
If your magnesium deficiency is caused by certain underlying gastrointestinal issues, then it goes without saying that you should treat those to succeed in raising the levels of this mineral. So, pay a visit to the doctor and find a solution to your gastrointestinal problems. Often, the solution will involve not only medications but also dietary changes.
Add Magnesium Supplements to Your Daily Life
Last, but not least, you may want to add magnesium supplements to your daily life. These products have been created specifically to help people raise the levels of this mineral in their bodies, regardless of the cause of the deficiency. Of course, they are especially important for people who have absorption issues. So, take time to find the right supplements and introduce them to your diet.
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