Women with Higher Magnesium Levels Reduce Their Risk of Sudden or Arrhythmic Cardiac Death

In 1980 a prospective study (a study that starts in the present and continues forward in time) of 88, 375 women who were free of disease was conducted.Over the 26-year follow-up 505 cases of sudden or arrhythmic death were documented. The relative risk of sudden cardiac death was found to be significantly lower in women in the highest quartile (a value which divides the data into four equal parts), as compared to the lowest quartile of dietary magnesium.


Levels of plasma magnesium, assessed in a nested, case-control analysis including 99 sudden cardiac death cases and 291 subjects matched for age, ethnicity, smoking and presence of Cardiovascular Disease, and who were also inversely associated with sudden cardiac death . Each 0.25-mg/dL (1 SD) increment in plasma magnesium was associated with a 41% reduced risk of sudden cardiac death.

This study was conducted by Chiuve SE, Korngold EC, et al, Am J Clin Nutr, at The Center for Arrhythmia Prevention, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA).

Their conclusion "In this prospective cohort of women, higher plasma concentrations and dietary magnesium intakes were associated with lower risks of SCD. If the observed association is causal, interventions directed at increasing dietary or plasma magnesium might lower the risk of SCD."

For more on magnesium, see http://www.thewayup.com/newsletters/081501.htm