Magnesium plays a critical role in maintaining healthy cardiovascular function.
It is also involved in glucose and insulin metabolism and has significant impacts on one of the most important sources of energy in the body.
Experimental studies have shown that magnesium deficiencies might result in adverse cardiovascular effects, of which atherosclerosis has the most important impact.
Although there are a limited number of clinical trials studying the effect of magnesium supplements on cardiovascular health, they have shown that consuming magnesium supplements can promote cardiovascular health in different ways including lowering blood pressure and fasting glucose and improving vascular stiffness and insulin resistance.
Despite having these effects, it is not clear if these associations are a causal relationship or are due to other cardioprotective factors. A Mendelian randomization study investigated whether serum magnesium levels are causally associated with coronary artery disease or not.
The results are published in the BMC Medicine.
This Mendelian randomization analysis used data from a meta-analysis of 48 studies with a total of 60,801 coronary artery disease cases and 123,504 non-cases. Scientists used six single-nucleotide genomes which determined the serum magnesium levels as variable.
Based on the results, they found that a genetic predisposition to higher serum magnesium levels is associated with a lower rate of cardiovascular events. For future studies, they suggest randomized clinical trials should evaluate the role of magnesium supplements on cardiovascular events, especially in cases of very low magnesium levels.
Reference: Larsson, S. C., Burgess, S., & Michaëlsson, K. (2018). Serum magnesium levels and risk of coronary artery disease: Mendelian randomisation study. BMC Medicine, 16(1), 68.
