The Mineral of Life Everyone’s Missing

by Ward W. Bond, PhD

​Living in an over-medicated world where people look at using synthetic chemicals to heal their ailments and ignore the nutrients they are deficient goes back decades.

Our bodies need food to survive and without it, we starve to death. Many people today are actually starving themselves to death slowly, but gaining weight in the process. Increases in heart disease, cancer, arthritis and diabetes are occurring rapidly among the billions of people worldwide. Have we become so naïve that as we desire to have longevity, we are missing the very thing that is in front of us? Food. Nutrient-dense food, is it still available? In some cases nutrient-dense food is available as you learn to grow your own herbs and foods or you shop at an organic farmer’s market. In the mainstream commercialized world of growing crops, our soil has become so depleted we are eating food from a visual perspective and not from a nutritional perspective.
​
Take the mineral magnesium for example. Magnesium is the eighth most abundant mineral found in the Earth’s crust and it is the third most abundant mineral in sea water. In the human body, magnesium is the eleventh most plentiful element by mass—measuring about two ounces. If you think about it, if the Earth and the ocean are abundant in magnesium, wouldn’t you think that it would be vitally important to our health?
 
Many people today are so deficient in magnesium they literally go to their doctor with ailments that are directly related to magnesium deficiencies. Let’s take a look at a few:
 
•Tension
•Sleeplessness
•Calcium deficiency
•Poor heart health
•Muscle cramps
•Tremors
•Anxiety
•High blood pressure
•Type II diabetes
•Respiratory issues
•Dizziness and Fatigue
•Poor memory
•Confusion
•Digestive issues
 
When you look at the above list you can see that many of these are currently being treated with medications. Stress and anxiety, yep there’s a medication for that. Muscle cramps and tremors, yep there are muscle relaxers for those, too. High blood pressure and poor heart function, yes you guessed it, there are a million medical pills for those ailments too. I could go on and on and as you see, if we really took our health seriously from a food perspective and ate the foods that nurture our cells and tissues instead of placing a higher priority on our taste buds, we would be much healthier.
 
The Relaxing Mineral
 
Magnesium is commonly known as ‘The Relaxing Mineral’.  You can see why tension, sleeplessness, stress and anxiety are on the list. How many of you are under chronic stress and deal with sleepless nights? Mental and physical stress, with its related continuous flow of adrenaline, uses up magnesium rapidly.  Adrenaline affects heart rate, blood pressure, vascular constriction and muscle contraction— all actions that demand steady supplies of magnesium for smooth function. The nervous system depends upon sufficient magnesium for its calming effects, including restful sleep. Hibernating animals, by the way, maintain very high levels of magnesium. Magnesium deficiency will accelerate a vicious cycle and amplify the effects of chronic stress, leading to more anxiety, irritability, fatigue and insomnia—many of the symptoms of adrenal exhaustion—as well as to hypertension and heart pain, which are symptoms of heart disease. I hope you’re taking notes because as you can see, magnesium is a life sustaining, life-giving mineral.
 
Here is a list of foods high in magnesium to help you to obtain this necessary mineral from your diet. This is a short list, so I encourage you to search for more (you can Google it!) and add them to your weekly at-home menus:
 
•Spinach
•Chard
•Pumpkin seeds
•Yogurt or Kefir
•Almonds
•Black Beans
•Avocado
•Figs
•Dark Chocolate
•Banana
 
I also believe heavily in nutrient supplementation as we often do not receive adequate nutrition from the foods we eat because of the food choices we make and the availability of nutrient-dense foods. Not everyone grows their own organic garden or has access to nutrient-dense foods. What I do is supplement using Natural Vitality’s Natural Calm, a powdered magnesium supplement. I use it twice daily by adding a teaspoon to my morning smoothie and again mixed with water at bedtime. It’s that simple. Get on the magnesium train and ride relaxed and healthier than ever before.