Magnesium and Blood Pressure – It’s In the Blood: Magnesium for the Circulatory System
The entire circulatory system, from the heart, blood pressure, to the tiny capillaries in the smallest toe, is dependent on magnesium. 
Because magnesium plays an important role in the relaxation of cells of the muscles that make up the heart and arteries, low magnesium levels in the blood can lead to a variety problems of the circulatory system.
These problems can include numbness and tingling in the hands and feet related to poor blood perfusion, heart palpitations related to the decreased ability of the heart muscles to send and receive electrical signals, peripheral artery disease related to decreased elasticity of the arteries, and high blood pressure.
How Magnesium Can Affect High Blood Pressure…
High blood pressure occurs when, for a variety of reasons, blood is not able to easily flow through the body.
One of the primary causes of this difficult blood flow is the narrowing of the spaces in the vessels that the blood travels through. The heart is a constantly working muscle which pumps approximately 5-6 liters (quarts) of blood through miles of blood vessels every minute. In addition, smooth muscle tissues that surround the arteries assist in this action by squeezing the blood along.
Magnesium assists in this process by facilitating the impulses that allow the muscles to relax. This relaxation gives the heart the opportunity to rest in between contractions and allows a dilation of the blood vessels. Both of these important actions result in decreased blood pressure because the heart is not working as hard and there is more space in the dilated blood vessels for the blood to travel.
When magnesium levels are low, the heart does not have sufficient opportunity to rest and refill, the blood vessels are narrower due to constriction and it is more difficult to move the blood through the body. All of this means an elevation in blood pressure. With extended periods of high blood pressure the body begins to suffer detrimental consequences that can lead to heart attacks, stroke, kidney failure and even death.
Aren’t There Medications That Correct High Blood Pressure?
Once you have been diagnosed with high blood pressure, your doctor may recommend that you lose weight. Unfortunately, they are not usually very specific about how they would like you to go about that and many doctors report that they don’t even bother with diet and exercise recommendations because they often see these methods fail.
This means that your doctor quickly moves on to the next step; prescribing diuretics to help remove water from the body. The reasoning behind this is that if there is less water in the body, then there will be less pressure on the blood vessels. It is generally recognized that most people fail to drink enough water and tend to be in a constant state of dehydration. They are then placed on diuretics that further dehydrate them through the removal of water and subsequently, removal of electrolytes and minerals, as well.
The irony of this is that dehydration causes the body to constrict blood vessels in an attempt to hold onto more water and this constriction is naturally going to raise blood pressure. To further complicate the issue, when the water is removed from the body, magnesium is also lost.
As we have already seen, low magnesium levels cause the blood vessels to contract and do not allow the heart adequate time to relax, resulting in high blood pressure. This continued elevation in blood pressure usually leads to more medications and even greater side effects.
The important step that has been overlooked is the normalization of magnesium levels.
Before it gets to the point of multiple medications with significant side effects, adding a magnesium supplementation from a good source has proven to be effective in many cases of high blood pressure.
It is absolutely true that weight loss and lowering the intake of fats can have a significant impact on lowering your blood pressure, however studies have consistently shown increasing magnesium intake can make even greater improvements.
While magnesium may not be able to affect every type of high blood pressure, a significant number of cases will see marked improvement with proper and appropriate supplementation.
The Best Source of Magnesium: Activation Products
Activation Products has a product called: Magnesium Infusion. It is the best transdermal magnesium on the market because they use premium magnesium chloride hexahydrate in an ultra-purified water solution. Their unique process allows us to make a solution that is saturated with magnesium. This means your body is supplied with the maximum amount of magnesium possible and you are given all of the benefits of this life supporting, ultra-energy nutrient.
Reference: Carolyn, D. (2007). The Magnesium Miracle: Discovering the Missing Link To Total Health. New York, NY: Random House
