Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Challenges in the diagnosis of magnesium status

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–30 of 412 posts

Re: Challenges in the diagnosis of magnesium status

#21

Post by petree »

hirundo wrote: post #3

I'd expect the same deficiencies to show up downstream in grain and soy fed cows, pigs and chickens. For meat eaters, that's an argument to spend more for grass fed beef, lamb, buffalo, and pastured chicken eggs. I don't know if such regenerative agriculture can scale up enough to feed everyone, but it can become a lot more affordable and accessible than it is now.

It can't scale up if it still needs to be produced in the same quantities. It takes a lot of farmland, about 80% in fact, to produce feed for livestock (especially for cattle) even with calorie-dense feed like cereals. You'd have to cut down a lot of forest to make pastures.

Re: Challenges in the diagnosis of magnesium status

#22

Post by xyzzyz »

esquivalience wrote: post #4

From the source: "The high rate of magnesium deficiency now postulated [5,6,7,8] can be attributed in part to a steady decline in general magnesium content in cultivated fruits and vegetables, a reflection of the observed depletion of magnesium in soil over the past 100 years [11,12,13]. A report to Congress was already sounding the alarm as far back as the 1930s, pointing out the paucity of magnesium, and other mine…

Can it be solved by simply adding more magnesium to the fertilizer?

Re: Challenges in the diagnosis of magnesium status

#23

Post by mtalantikite »

Anecdotal, but I personally would get ocular migraines pretty frequently for years. They started when I was a teenager, but I was always told by doctors that it was nothing to worry about.

A few years ago I read about magnesium deficiency and migraines, figured it was worth a shot to try supplementing it, and now I rarely get those ocular migraines. The only time I get them now is when I run out of magnesium supplements, forget to buy more, and end up going a few weeks without them.

I really can’t say that it’s the magnesium, but as long as I’m not getting the ocular migraines anymore I’ll continue to supplement it. A bit of a warning though, it can act as a laxative for some people and cause digestive issues. Liquid based forms are gentler. Mineral water tends to have high magnesium content as well (e.g. Gerolsteiner brand).

Re: Challenges in the diagnosis of magnesium status

#24

Post by softwaredoug »

I had sleep issues for years, including periodic limb movements[1]. My sleep doctor said to try 500mg plus of magnesium supplements. That was probably one of the most significant steps to (mostly) resolve the issue.

1 - https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Periodic_limb_movement_disor...

PS full TMI story here: https://www.reddit.com/r/PelvicFloor/comments/kq089v/my_25_c...

Re: Challenges in the diagnosis of magnesium status

#25

Post by seaorg »

celticninja wrote: post #15
seaorg wrote: post #7

If you put a whole cow into a meat grinder, the resulting paste contains every single micro and macro nutrient required by the human body, in their most bioavailable forms, many of which are completely absent in vegetarian and vegan diets. For millions of years, humans ate ruminant animals who’s herds they followed around, and almost nothing else. People who eat nothing but ruminant meat and organs become slim even i…

Isn't that a bit like survivor bias though? People who are on meatrx (not familiar with the site at all) are already predisposed to thinking that this is the best thing to do, so all the positive things that occur they are attributing to their meat diet. What about the people that didn't get pregnant or who didn't regain their hair? I assume they are not posting about this outcome. I think some sort of peer reviewed…

It isn’t survivor bias when the giant red rashes all over your body go away after nothing else has worked your entire life and your doctor says that for that to happen is impossible. It’s overlooked science.

But there could still be survivor bias in there to some degree. We need proper interventional studies.

Re: Challenges in the diagnosis of magnesium status

#26

Post by wincy »

esquivalience wrote: post #4

From the source: "The high rate of magnesium deficiency now postulated [5,6,7,8] can be attributed in part to a steady decline in general magnesium content in cultivated fruits and vegetables, a reflection of the observed depletion of magnesium in soil over the past 100 years [11,12,13]. A report to Congress was already sounding the alarm as far back as the 1930s, pointing out the paucity of magnesium, and other mine…

Interesting. I recently started using Magnesium Glycinate as a supplement and I feel it truly changed my life, not exaggerating. I’ve suffered from chronic general anxiety for most of my teens and adult life. Magnesium has completely cleared this up, things I thought were just part of my personality (being anxious and other associated things) were actually due to a chronic magnesium deficiency. I just have to make sure I get a decent amount of calcium in my diet (via canned mackerel mostly) to avoid muscle twitches from the magnesium.

Re: Challenges in the diagnosis of magnesium status

#27

Post by version_five »

I understand this seems mostly to be about soil depletion. I'm curious more generally if vegetables are also less nutritious because they are selectively bread for high water content and size. For example, its appeared to me for years that you vegetables you get on a Subway sandwich must have almost no nutritional content. They are all way paler than you'd normally see, and super watery.

Thinking about it, I suppose the vegetables may get that way from growing in poor soil, and Subway et al just buy those ones because they're cheaper

Re: Challenges in the diagnosis of magnesium status

#28

Post by viburnum »

I know geeks love Norman Borlaug, but there was a catch: the new high-yield varieties are dependent on fertilizers made from fossil fuels. These plants grow fast and have more carbs and less of everything else. There needs to be a second Green Revolution, this time sustainable.

Re: Challenges in the diagnosis of magnesium status

#29

Post by jeffbee »

papito wrote: post #8

The must-read book The Dorito Effect covered this years ago. De-nutrification of food has been decades in the making.

That's right. If you want magnesium you need to eat Cool Ranch Doritos … they have twice as much magnesium as the Nacho Cheese variety.

Seriously though a handful of Doritos has as much magnesium as a raw carrot. Vegetables just aren't a concentrated source of metals. Nuts are more reliable.

Re: Challenges in the diagnosis of magnesium status

#30

Post by objclxt »

seaorg wrote: post #7

If you put a whole cow into a meat grinder, the resulting paste contains every single micro and macro nutrient required by the human body, in their most bioavailable forms, many of which are completely absent in vegetarian and vegan diets. For millions of years, humans ate ruminant animals who’s herds they followed around, and almost nothing else. People who eat nothing but ruminant meat and organs become slim even i…

> For millions of years, humans ate ruminant animals who’s herds they followed around, and almost nothing else.

This is just wrong. Nearly all archeological evidence suggests humans were hunter-gatherers. They hunted (meat) and they gathered (fruit, vegetables, nuts, etc). Hunter gathering represents about 90% of human history prior to the invention of agriculture.

> And couples who do it get pregnant immediately after failing for years. It’s all documented on meatrx success stories section.

Ah yes, because the company selling the diet plan has no incentive not to mislead you with highly selective research.

Post reply on HN