Dr. Carolyn Dean LIVE

Not only is magnesium is absolutely essential for good health; one of the best things about magnesium supplementation is that our bodies have a fail-safe mechanism that prevents us from absorbing too much magnesium. If we consume too much magnesium in our diets or from supplements, the body rids itself of the excess by flushing it out through the bowels with diarrhea. This built-in fail-safe makes magnesium, in Dr. Dean’s opinion, one of the safest nutrients you can take.

This fail-safe was created during out evolution in a culture living near the ocean where most of humanity survived on produce from the sea. Sea water has three times more magnesium than calcium. So, the primitive diet was high in magnesium-rich foods (seaweed, fish, and shellfish), and low in calcium. Thus, it became important to eliminate too much magnesium via the bowels but grab on to as much calcium as possible via vitamin D.

In current times, we are eating high-calcium foods and calcium-fortified foods, and we’re taking far more calcium supplementation than magnesium. We also take high doses of vitamin D, which holds on to calcium, to our detriment.