What You Need to Know About Magnesium and Mortality

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Data from a long-term study of nearly 60,000 people suggest that increasing the amount of magnesium in the diet could cut the risk of death due to cardiovascular disease by as much as 50 percent.

Wen Zhang, from the Osaka University Graduate School of Medicine, and colleagues from several Japanese Universities used data from the Japan Collaborative Cohort Study, which involved 58,615 healthy Japanese people aged 40 to 79. A total of 2,690 participants died from cardiovascular disease over the course of the 15-year study. The results showed that dietary magnesium intake was inversely proportional to mortality from hemorrhagic stroke in men and to mortality from total and ischemic strokes, coronary heart disease, heart failure and total cardiovascular disease in women.

The participants with the highest intake of magnesium were found to have a 50 percent lower risk of dying from cardiovascular disease than those who had the lowest intake of magnesium. When the researchers factored in the effects of calcium and potassium, however, the relationship was not as strong. They concluded, “Dietary magnesium intake was associated with reduced mortality from cardiovascular disease in Japanese [people], especially for women.”

Zhang, W., et al. Associations of dietary magnesium intake with mortality from cardiovascular disease: The JACC study. Atherosclerosis. 221:587-595.



—Dr. Bob Goldman