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and the food supply has less magnesium , it is almost impossible now to get enough magnesium to cater for highend needs , although on rare occasions , say , in the middle of a heart attack , hospitals may administer intravenous magnesium chloride to relax the heart and cardiovascular system .
However , do we need to let the situation deteriorate into an acute crisis before we get can a big dose of magnesium ? The answer is no . We can use the skin to deliver large amounts of magnesium very safely and effectively in order to avoid crisis and maintain optimum magnesium status . The skin , being the largest organ of the body and part of the integumentary system ( skin , hair , nails , bones , teeth ), can act as a reservoir to store magnesium where the body may draw from it what it needs in a self-regulatory manner .
Getting magnesium in via skin
The gentlest way to absorb magnesium transdermally is via bathing . When we have a bath or foot soak with magnesium chloride , the absorption process takes about half an hour and then subsides . If you need to soak for a longer duration , you may get wrinkly skin from too much water ingress , without the benefit of much extra magnesium . Magnesium soaks are a great way to not only absorb magnesium , but also to detox , as the skin also uses the opportunity to release wastes . Another welcome benefit of magnesium soaking is that it helps to promote deeper and more restful sleep .
Magnesium is absorbed effectively into the epidermis with bathing because hot water helps to open up the pores . The heat partly melts the cermides ( solid fats in the skin ), some of which are lost in the bath water , along with any dust particles and wastes that happen to be present in that outside layer . The epidermis then takes up the magnesium in solution until no more can enter .
You may notice that with profuse perspiration , the same ceramide ( skin oil ) loss happens and the skin becomes more sensitive as a result . After heating of the skin barrier and consequent loss of skin oils , fatty barrier protection needs to be restored . Younger people with naturally oily skin will find this replenishment relatively easy , but those with a dryer skin type will need some help from plant fats to restore skin barrier protection .
Even when applying pure magnesium oil to dry skin without the help of the hot water of bathing to open skin channels , magnesium deficiency symptoms can be alleviated . A study by Chandrasekaran 2 using only magnesium chloride solution on skin found that it increased hydration , recovery and resilience of the epidermis with significant magnesium uptake into the skin barrier :
“ Magnesium ions can penetrate through healthy skin with intact stratum corneum , with significant contribution from hair follicles . At high magnesium concentrations the permeation of Mg2 + into the epidermis increases with time and is significantly higher than the baseline concentration of Mg2 + in the epidermis of untreated controls after 15 minutes of exposure … Magnesium treatment also increased the redox ratio of cells in granulosum and spinosum layer indicating changed metabolic activity .” 2
However , there is also a lower threshold of uptake compared to magnesium bathing because of skin ’ s resistance to taking up all the dissolved magnesium of the magnesium oil . This is why people report magnesium oil as leaving their skin with an itchy sticky residue , which can often deter them from using transdermal magnesium regularly .
Magnesium ‘ oil ’ is not a lipid fat , as are plant oils . It is a water-based solution which has been called ‘ oil ’ because magnesium chloride in solution , which structures water molecules in a liquid crystalline formation , feels slippery . Some of the magnesium oil will find lipid partners that are naturally present in the skin , which help to absorb it ( and you are lucky if you have the oily skin to do this ), but a large part of it encounters skin resistance without enough lipid help , leaving a salty residue on the surface .
To achieve an optimal uptake of magnesium oil via skin it needs to be combined with lipids in the right proportion to suit skin type . As the skin takes up the plant fats with infused magnesium chloride , the nutrients sit inside the skin reservoir until the body takes them up in its own time . The amount of magnesium and lipids able to be taken up by the epidermis will depend on the collagen structure of the skin .
If the skin is very dry , thin and depleted , it can become overly sensitive to salt stimulation , as with the higher magnesium concentrations . Absorption is limited until the collagen rebuilds and strengthens . In extreme cases of sensitivity , we recommend using more magnesium bathing for the first month , followed up with a fatty magnesium cream ( and milder magnesium concentration ) to protect the skin barrier .
Not only have researchers found that magnesium ions are transported into the skin layer via pores and hair shafts , but recent studies have also found a cell to cell ( transcellular ) transport system via the membrane protein channel TRPM7 . This means magnesium can travel quickly in the body and is not limited to transport via blood supply . It makes sense because only 1 per cent of total body magnesium is in the blood , and 99 % is located in cell storage of muscle and bone . Magnesium needs to be able to be moved efficiently to access the mitochondria of tissue cells for making ATP ( adenosine triphosphate ) in metabolism .
The tissue cells , holding most of the body ’ s magnesium reservoirs , can even sacrifice their magnesium to the blood to maintain critical levels for cardiovascular electrolyte support , leaving tissue storage levels low , while blood tests can show magnesium levels in the normal range . Care must be taken not to let the cell storage tanks get too low !
98 | vol30 | no2 | JATMS