If you have tendon, cartilage, joint, ligament or other connective tissue problems, it’s a distinct possibility that these were caused from a chronic lack of magnesium.

I know that you probably think that you couldn’t possibly have magnesium deficiency, but if you problems with any of these body structures it’s actually most likely that you absolutely DO have moderate and maybe even SEVERE magnesium deficiency- and that you’ve had it for many years.

The reason that you probably think that you don’t have magnesium deficiency is that you simply aren’t aware that the Signs of Magnesium Deficiency include common problems like:

Constipation

Anxiety

Insomnia

Feeling stressed

Low back pain

And a whole host of other problems that people consider a ‘normal’ part of living in a stressful society. But these are NOT ‘normal everyday’ problems, they are distinct symptoms of magnesium deficiency that neither you nor your doctor recognizes. The fact that everyone has these symptoms doesn’t mean that they aren’t problems with a real and fixable cause- and there ARE doctors who DO recognize these problems as being from magnesium deficiency. The doctors who DO understand this, such as Dr. Caroline Dean author of The Magnesium Miracle and Dr. Marc Sircus author of Magnesium Medicine, know that magnesium deficiency is epidemic and actively promote magnesium supplementation in the vast majority of their patients.

Connective Tissue Synthesis

While most of the problems mentioned above can be corrected within several weeks to several months of aggressive magnesium replacement, connective tissue problems are both less recognized as being due to magnesium deficiency as well as requiring a longer to correct. As a result, most people can’t imagine these problems as being caused by magnesium deficiency since the long term nature of the connective tissue degeneration makes it hard to link the two since it might take years or even decades for this problem to manifest.

Magnesium is a critical component of collagen formation and repair, but calcium will fill up cells and ‘calcify’ cells in magnesium’s place when there is a deficiency of magnesium. This can lead to defective collagen formation over time in the presence of a chronic magnesium deficiency. One study explained it by showing that magnesium ‘hinders the mechanism by which fibroblasts (collagen creating cells) degrade defective collagen’. In other words, when magnesium deficiency is present, the old collagen cells that need to be replaced get replaced with unhealthy calcified cells rather than flexible new healthy cells. In the case of connective tissue such as joints, ligaments and tendons, this can lead to a susceptibility to joint problems, tendonopathies, fibromyalgia (meaning literally connective tissue pain), worn cartilage, osteoarthritis and even certain heart problems that are related to connective tissue dysfunction.

Quinolone Antibiotic Toxicity

Another extremely concerning area for readers is not JUST the fact that long term magnesium deficiency can weaken connective tissue and lead to the problems above, but long-term magnesium deficiency apparently makes one more susceptible to the damaging effects of a common class of antibiotics called the Quinolone Antibiotics.

The problems that occur from these antibiotics are called Cipro Tendonitis or Quinolone Toxicity and they are of particular interest to me as I’ve done extensive research and work with people suffering from this disabling life-altering problem and have written the book The Levaquin Tendonitis Solution in response to the great need for an effective solution to this problem.

One of the questions about the damage from Quinolone Antibiotics is why certain people are more susceptible than others to the effects of these drugs. When millions take these drugs every year and only a small percentage is affected, the problem is baffling to both researchers and sufferers alike. One of the answers lies in the fact that magnesium deficiency is epidemic and long term magnesium deficiency weakens and replaces healthy connective tissue cells with calcified unhealthy cells. To show this point, a study done on rats with magnesium deficiency were given dosages of Quinolone Antibiotics and their joints were examined. (3,4)

The joints of all of the animals showed damage and swelling- regardless of whether they received the Quinolone antibiotics or not. In other words, magnesium deficiency BY ITSELF created painful and swollen joint lesions in these animals from the unhealthy calcium deposits that the magnesium deficiency allowed. The unhealthy cells created by magnesium deficiency allows small amounts of damage to the existing healthy cells become a HUGE problem of cellular death and destruction that can lead to widespread connective tissue pain and even tendon rupture with just a few doses of these toxic drugs.

While there are certainly other factors involved in being susceptible to Levaquin Tendonitis, chronic long-term magnesium deficiency is most likely one of the most predominant risk factors. Unfortunately, for various reasons, few people or their doctors are recognizing magnesium deficiency. But when you understand the powerful effects that magnesium has on the body, then you begin to see many ‘chronic health problems’ through the lens of being symptoms of the avoidable problem of magnesium deficiency.

Kerri Knox, RN- The Immune System Queen
Functional Medicine Practitioner
Immune System
Side Effects

PS: If you found this website helpful, please consider using the
Easy Immune Health Product Store the next time you purchase your supplements online. Your support allows me to keep this site running and educating as many people as possible. Thank you!

Research

1) Magnesium deficiency in the pathogenesis of mitral valve prolapse.
2) Synergistic Effect of Ofloxacin and Magnesium Deficiency on Joint Cartilage in Immature Rats
3) Integrins on joint cartilage chondrocytes and alterations by ofloxacin or magnesium deficiency in immature rats
4) Magnesium deficiency induces joint cartilage lesions in juvenile rats which are identical to quinolone-induced arthropathy

The mitral valve is one of the valves of the heart that keeps blood flowing in the proper direction when the heart beats and pushes the blood into the next chamber. Mitral Valve Prolapse is a common problem where the ‘leaflets’ of this valve don’t fit perfectly together and can lead to an abnormal backflowing of blood that causes problems in some people that experience this condition.

There have been a large number of studies showing that people with mitral valve prolapse have magnesium deficiency, but it’s extremely interesting to note that some studies have shown that chronic magnesium deficiency may have actually been the cause of the mitral valve prolapse in the first place!

Symptoms of Mitral Valve Prolapse

When mitral valve prolapse causes symptoms that affect people’s lives, then it is often termed Mitral Valve Prolapse Syndrome (MVPS) and it can lead to problems such as:

Shortness of breath

Chest pain

Heart Palpitations

Activity intolerance

Anxiety

These symptoms can really affect people’s lives in a negative way on a day to day basis. Those with MVPS go to the emergency room frequently and can sometimes feel that they are dying due to their severe symptoms.

The Magnesium Connection

There have been MANY studies showing that those with mitral valve prolapse often have low Magnesium Levels in their blood. This is especially interesting since blood magnesium levels are almost worthless and only show magnesium deficiency when levels are EXTREMELY low. This leads me to believe that if accurate intracellular magnesium testing (an accurate way to do magnesium testing) were used that even higher numbers of those with MVPS would show functional magnesium deficiency.

Several studies also show that these same people have fewer symptoms and better quality of life when they take magnesium supplementation on a regular basis. While this is interesting, it’s not very surprising to those who are familiar with the Signs of Magnesium Deficiency and actually see everyday that these types of symptoms, whether related to MVPS or not, resolve when high doses of magnesium are taken.

What IS interesting, however, is that some studies suggest that the magnesium deficiency may not be a result of the mitral valve prolapse, but that the mitral valve prolapse may actually have been CAUSED by the Magnesium Deficiency! This is possible because magnesium is required for the proper formation of collagen and collagen is a major component of heart valves. Therefore, a disruption of collagen formation could affect a wide variety of structures in the body, with heart valves only being one example.

Another example is the damage that is done to tendons when a class of drugs called Quinolone Antibiotics are taken. These drugs cause magnesium to be ‘chelated’ from the body and some people experience connective tissue pain, damage and even full tendon rupture after taking these drugs. My extensive studies have shown that the lack of magnesium causes many of the problems that make one vulnerable to this condition known as Levaquin Tendonitis.

But these studies that are showing that magnesium may actually disrupt collagen formation leading to Mitral Valve Prolapse makes me even more convinced that those susceptible to Levaquin Tendonitis likely have had a chronic magnesium deficit with subsequent collagen disruption for many many years before they were damaged by these antibiotics.

These findings make me more and more convinced that Dr. Carolyn Dean of The Magnesium Miracle and Dr. Mark Sircus the author of ‘Magnesium Medicine’ are correct in their assessment that magnesium deficiency is an ‘epidemic’ that is simply being overlooked by those in the health care industry due to their inability to recognize the many many symptoms of deficiency of this nutrient and the fact that the tests that they are using are outdated and completely inaccurate. If YOU are experiencing chronic health problems, could they be due to magnesium deficiency?

Kerri Knox, RN- The Immune System Queen
Functional Medicine Practitioner
Immune System
Side Effects

PS: If you found this website helpful, please consider using the
Easy Immune Health Product Store the next time you purchase your supplements online. Your support allows me to keep this site running and educating as many people as possible. Thank you!

Resources

Recent data on mitral valve prolapse and magnesium deficit.

Magnesium deficiency in the pathogenesis of mitral valve prolapse.

The importance of magnesium status in the pathophysiology of mitral valve prolapse

Neurotic, neuromuscular and autonomic nervous form of magnesium imbalance.

Magnesium is a powerhouse. It is inexpensive and is used to treat a vast array of medical problems, often better than any drugs or medical procedures available. The latest feather in magnesium’s cap is its newly discovered ability to protect the brain and improve the neurologic outcomes of infants and adults who have had oxygen deprivation to their brains. Pretty impressive for a cheap mineral present in practically every Multivitamin and Mineral Supplement on the market.

Magnesium is a simple element, abbreviated Mg, and is number 12 on the Table of the Elements. It is only present in small amounts in the body, yet it is imperative for many bodily processes and is essential for several lifesaving emergency treatments in the hospital in cases when there are simply no other procedures or drugs that exist to help.

One of the common lifesaving uses in the hospital is literally the ONLY treatment. In the movies, when someone’s heart stops beating and the doctors or paramedics rush on scene with CPR and a defibrillator to “shock” the patient’s heart back into a normal rhythm, they often portray the heart rhythm as a ‘flatline’ with no electrical activity. But in reality, if it is very soon after a person’s heart stops, they often have a heart rhythm called ‘Ventricular Fibrillation’- which is treated by ‘shocking’ it back to a normal rhythm, something that you cannot do with a ‘flatline’.

But occasionally, if this rhythm remains despite the best efforts to get the heart started it may be that the rhythm is a specific subtype of Ventricular Fibrillation called torsade de pointes. This rhythm is hard to distinguish from ‘simple’ ventricular fibrillation, but the importance of recognizing it quickly can’t be understated because it’s ONLY treatment is the immediate infusion of intravenous magnesium. Without emergency magnesium, the patient will die.

Additionally, intravenous magnesium is the only effective treatment for the prevention of seizures in women with late stage pregnancy whose blood pressure is extremely high- a very dangerous condition called eclampsia that requires immediate delivery of the baby in order to resolve.

Magnesium also shines as helpful additional treatment for many other problems such as heart rhythm disturbances, migraine headaches, depression, diabetes and constipation – among only a few of its many achievements.

But some of the latest and most exciting new research is showing its protective effects on the brain. Strokes, often called ‘Brain Attacks’, are one of the most devastating neurologic events. With few treatment options after the first few hours after the onset of symptoms, most of the time the family is relegated to just ‘watch and wait’ to see if the patient gets better. Often they don’t get better and are faced with a lifetime of disability.

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Some studies have shown that a higher daily magnesium intake can help to prevent strokes. But even more remarkably, a recent study found that intravenous magnesium, when used with other treatments, has “synergistic neuroprotective effects and reduces brain injury” in strokes caused from lack of blood flow to the brain.

While that study is impressive in its own right, another new study shows that magnesium also protects the brains of infants during childbirth when complications cause the baby to have a lack of oxygen to the brain. This devastating event called perinatal asphyxia often leads to permanent brain damage and disability. When magnesium was given to infants after these highly stressful births, researchers concluded that it “improves neurologic outcomes”. An impressive feat since giving oxygen and having hope is the current standard treatment for these infants.

So, while doctors still don’t even recommend that the general population take magnesium or a Mineral Supplement regularly despite its impressive list of accomplishments, it’s low risk of Magnesium Side Effects and its incredible record of safety, magnesium continues to rack up successes in treating and preventing some of the most difficult to treat medical problems that exist today.

Kerri Knox, RN- The Immune Queen
Functional Medicine Practitioner
Easy Immune Health.com