Having sufficient magnesium can be the single thing that saves you from a heart attack or severe heart arrhythmia while in the hospital. If your intracellular levels of magnesium are low, not even ready access to a defibrillator may be able to activate your heart back to life.
Studies as far back as 1990 showed that well over half of hospitalized patients were low in magnesium. Those with the lowest levels of magnesium had the highest risk of dying from a heart attack or severe heart arrhythmia while in the hospital. Diabetics were even worse off as nearly 80% were found to be deficient in magnesium.
Studies conducted by the federal government have shown that the standard American diet provides less than a third of the needed magnesium. Deficiency of magnesium is a major underlying cause of sudden death with there are no obvious medical problems.
Comments from Dr. Thomas: If your physician orders bloodwork and checks your magnesium level and says that “everything is fine,” do not buy into that. Chances are, your physician was unknowledgeable and ordered an inferior serum or extracellular magnesium blood test. The results of this test do not correlate with the levels inside heart cells. Only an intracellular magnesium should be looked at when assessing your level. This lack of knowledge can not only instill a false sense of security, it can also result in the death of a patient because the wrong test was ordered. Furthermore, if you are taking a magnesium supplement, please do not assume that “everything is fine.” Getting too much or too little magnesium can be detrimental. It is always better to test and not guess. Please contact us if you’d like our help.
