Magnesium's Direct Link to Heart Health

Good morning!

I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend, complete with all the good food, good company, and copious amounts of pumpkin pie. And with that, I also want to say how genuinely grateful I am for you. Getting to unpack health topics in a way that feels real, useful, and dare I say a little fun only works because you show up for it. Your presence turn these newsletters from information into an actual conversation, a community, and I’m very grateful for that.

And speaking of things that keep us going, this week we’re diving into something close to my heart… literally. Magnesium’s role in heart health. So without skipping a beat (yes, I’m doing this again), let’s get into how this mineral keeps your ticker in tune.

Key Takeaways

• Low magnesium = higher risk of palpitations, fast heart rate, and rhythm issues.

• Magnesium relaxes the heart and blood vessels by balancing calcium.

• Diet alone rarely provides enough due to the small amount of magnesium in food, resulting in most people falling short.

CORE

The Cardiac Cycle

Before we talk magnesium, we have to understand how our heart works. How does the heart beat 60-100 times per minute, every minute of every day of our entire lives? It’s quite the piece of biological machinery, and this is generally how it works:

1. It starts in your sinus node (your body's natural pacemaker), which sends an electrical signal towards the top part of the heart, the atrium, causing these to contract. This sends blood towards the bottom of the heart.

2. That electrical pulse continues downwards until it reaches the atrioventricular node. This node is like a buffer, where it will make the electrical impulse wait a split second before continuing down through the bundle of his. This is super important because it prevents the whole heart from contracting at once.

3. The impulse then goes through the “bundle of his”, into the ventricles where it then causes them to contract.

4. Then it all starts again, about 100,000 times a day, give or take a stressful email.

How Does Magnesium Tie In?

Magnesium is deeply woven into this entire cycle. One of its biggest jobs is controlling how long that little “pause” in step 2 lasts. Too little magnesium and your heart will be beating faster than it should, contributing to heart palpitations, arrhythmias and tachycardias (fast heart rate).

Magnesium also steps in as the body’s natural relaxer, balancing calcium (which contracts the muscles) so your heart muscle and blood vessels know when to release tension instead of clenching all day.

And yes, that’s not all. I could list the rest of magnesium’s related benefits, but we’d be here all day. So if you’re curious, take a peek at this source. (and feel free to ask me any questions along the way!)

PRODUCT MENTION

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CORE

How Much Magnesium Do You Need?

The FDA recommends 420mg of magnesium per day for men and roughly 320-360mg for women, depending on age. Unfortunately, magnesium is a notoriously hard nutrient to get enough of because most foods don’t have very much of it.

Take avocado, probably my favorite magnesium filled food. It’s one of the best natural magnesium sources. But to get your full daily 420mg? You’d need 2.82 pounds of avocado. Yes… pounds. Almost three. Imagine that on toast.

So yes, when we take a step back, it suddenly makes sense why half the country falls short on magnesium. As with everything in life, every person is unique and so are their daily magnesium requirements. Some people who have preexisting heart conditions may need to limit their magnesium, based on their doctor’s guidance.

So it’s always recommended to check with your doctor before making major changes to your diet or supplements.

ENDNOTE

Final Thoughts

That’s a wrap! Once again, thank you for forming part of the 8% community. We look forward to keeping you informed, inspired, and possibly even entertained.

Until next week!

Adrian Macdonald | Team Dietitian | The 8% Newsletter Author