Magnesium plays an integral role in our health, but it is often pushed aside for its more widely mentioned cousins, Calcium, and Potassium, as well as other vitamins and minerals. It is estimated that only 25% of Americans are meeting the Recommended Dietary Allowances (RDA) of this mineral. So what does this mean for your health? Let us begin at the top, your brain, and work our way around.

Magnesium, along with Calcium and glutamate, works within the brain synapses. Calcium can keep neurons overactive and ultimately cause death to the cell. Magnesium balances out the activity and can keep brain cells healthy and working correctly. This will result in more clear thinking, less overstimulation, and less stress. It will also allow your brain to cycle through sleep correctly, allowing you to gain the rest you need.

With such a healthy brain, it is just as vital to have a healthy heart. Magnesium is found to prevent the calcification of the arteries. Without this important mineral, the arteries harden and slow the blood flow through them, thus causing heart disease, heart attacks, and strokes. However, as with anything, you can have too much of a good thing. One sign of having too much magnesium in your system is an irregular heart rhythm.

Magnesium, working in conjunction with potassium, keeps your muscles from cramping, twitching, and becoming fatigued. This mineral keeps the cells healthy and allows them to better receive the potassium, oxygen, and hydration to keep them working at their fullest capacity.

The other parts of the body function more fully with magnesium needs being met. Kidneys function properly, which may be helpful for those with diabetes. Once levels rise, a person supplementing may experience less depression, less inflammation, more energy, fewer headaches, and just a general better overall health.

So how does one increase their intake of this “Master Mineral”?

For this mineral to be able to do its work all over the body, 300 body functions, it would require you to eat things like pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, soybeans, black beans, cashews, spinach, squash, sesame seeds, almonds, okra, and dark chocolate. There are supplements on the market in health food stores to your local grocery store. For some those supplement caplets may be difficult for the system to digest. There is a topical oil on the market, or one can be made at home.

While many of the symptoms of this deficiency can also be the same symptoms as a more serious condition, it goes without saying that it can be taken as preventative care or to help manage an ongoing condition. This is a valuable mineral, one not to be dismissed or ignored.