How Magnesium Can Help Manage Blood Sugar: A Research Overview
09/06/2020 | By: Emily Murray
Magnesium is a crucial component to our overall good health. This mineral is responsible for nearly 600 different processes throughout the body, largely relating to the creation and management of energy. So it’s no wonder that magnesium has a hand in the regulation of blood sugar and insulin secretion too. After all, the breakdown of the food we eat, and the subsequent distribution of the precious resources that are gleaned from it, is at the very core of energy management.
Magnesium and Blood Sugar: The Important Link
According to a 2019 study of the effect of magnesium supplementation on blood glucose metabolism, magnesium appears to reduce insulin resistance. It also regulates fasting blood glucose levels, in folks who already have type 2 diabetes, or are at risk for developing it. This is so exciting because it has the potential to have huge effects on overall health. When your blood sugar levels are just right, so many more processes in your body become a breeze too. Likewise, when blood sugar levels are erratic and constantly failing to reach an optimal balance, so too does the domino effect take over on the negative side.
Blood Sugar 101
You are what you eat, quite literally. The foods that you put in your body become fuel for everything you do, as your body converts them into blood glucose (sugar). Whenblood sugar levels rise, that’s a signal to the pancreas to release insulin. Your cells need that insulin to help them absorb the blood glucose and convert it into energy. As each cell in your body munches on blood sugar and literally becomes full on that yummy sandwich too, they stop needing as much insulin. As blood sugar levels drop, so too does the insulin level. This is what happens in a properly-functioning body.
But where does magnesium enter the picture?
More Magnesium = Less Insulin Resistance
Turns out, healthy levels of magnesium promote the body’s responsiveness to insulin. Genetics and lifestyle factors can both contribute to the body becoming less responsive and even resistant to insulin.
What is insulin resistance? Just as the name implies, it happens when our cells stop responding to insulin. They don’t munch on the blood sugar from the sandwich because they don’t understand the insulin’s instructions to do so. So the body’s blood sugar levels remain way too high, all the time. The cells aren’t taking in the energy they need to thrive, and the liver starts storing all the glucose it can, just to put it somewhere. Everything goes haywire, and a sustained imbalance such as this is the stuff of type 2 diabetes, fatty liver, weight gain, and all kinds of trouble in the body.
By ensuring that you are consuming an appropriate amount of magnesium, you can head insulin resistance off before it ever even has a chance to get started. And with a hand in so many hundreds of chemical processes throughout your entire body, it just makes good sense to maintain your magnesium levels for optimal health.
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A Personal Testimonial
I don’t often align myself with products but this is one that I just had to share! My name is Michelle Toole and I am the founder of Healthy-Holistic-Living.com.
Some of you may already know years ago, I was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis.
I can still recall what it felt like to have my life change overnight…
I went from an Executive Director of a non-profit organization, running marathons, rock climbing, hiking canyons and kayaking to being completely bedridden and staring at a wall for 15 hours a day.
Of course, I went to see many doctors but unfortunately I didn’t find the help I needed. So, I had to set off on my own journey to learn my true path to healing.
I’d pretty much turned-over every rock trying to find relief for my pain, sleep issues and myriad of other symptoms…
Fast-forward 18 years.
I was determined to climb one of the true wonders of the natural world, Machu Picchu, the mystical home of the Incas in Peru.
It was there, after a grueling day when my feet, knees, legs, and lower back hurt so bad, that I thought I would have to abandon hopes of our next climb which was Rainbow Mountain! That night I pulled out a little spray bottle of “aceite de magnesio” that a friend had given me before I left on my trip.
What the heck, I thought. I was desperate. And I applied it all over my body before bed.
Because of the grueling day, I woke up expecting to be immobilized, but instead we were off to climb Rainbow Mountain and…I was totally pain-free!
I know it sounds impossible, but it’s 1000% the truth.
Sources:
https://www.mindbodygreen.com/articles/magnesium-for-blood-sugar