Magnesium deficiency and migraines

Advice in the Headaches/Migraine Forum

Looking for real-world advice on health care issues? Just browse through a few of the comments on the HSI Healthier Talk forums and you’ll find a wealth of personal testimonials and useful recommendations.

For instancein the Headaches/Migraine forum, a member named Sekeeta started a thread titled “Migraines you can stop them cold.” Sekeeta writes:

“”I’ve had migraines since I was 15, am now 65, and I’ve found something that stops them just like turning off a switch. Chocolate. Yes, I know chocolate is a trigger, but it works just the same. If you don’t like, or don’t want to eat chocolate (it works in any form, by the way, even chocolate extract, as long as it actually is chocolate. Nestle won’t work, Hershey’s works, Godiva is the best!), you can simply take a magnesium capsule. This has worked for me every single time I’ve done it and it has worked for every single person that I’ve told about it.

“The really nice thing is that, after awhile, the migraines come less and less frequently. As always, the earlier you eat the chocolate or take the magnesium, the quicker the migraine will go away. Oh, and if you decide to eat chocolate to fix the problem, don’t just munch a tiny little square of the stuff eat the entire bar at one sitting. It takes a fair amount of chocolate. One capsule of magnesium will do the trick.”

The key phrase here is: “after awhile, the migraines come less and less frequently.” Whether Sekeeta knows it or not, she’s hit upon a common condition among many migraine patients: magnesium deficiency.

Many factors contribute to magnesium depletion. High stress and menstruation can take their toll on magnesium levels, while a heavy intake of starches, alcohol, diuretics and some prescription drugs (such as antibiotics) can increase urinary excretion of magnesium.

Magnesium is naturally present in green leafy vegetables, avocados, nuts and seeds, and whole grains, but usually only in small amounts, so you’d need to eat a wide variety of these foods regularly to get all the magnesium you need.

In the e-Alert “Mind Over Matter” (5/27/05), HSI Panelist Allan Spreen,M.D., offered these guidelines on magnesium supplementation: “I’ve always recommended 500 mg/day, since absorption of most forms isn’t that great.

“Now, bear in mind that that’s ELEMENTAL magnesium. In a supplement, such as magnesium oxide, the tablet that is sold as a 400 mg tablet only has 241.3 mg of elemental magnesium. So, when you take a ‘400 mg’ tablet, you aren’t getting 400 mg of magnesium anyway. Plus, even the label says you can take 2/day, or 800 mg.”

To find the Healthier Talk community forums, just choose “Forum” on the HSI home page at hsionline.com.