The Marvel That's Magnesium
NATIONAL JOURNAL OF HOMOEOPATHY 1997 Mar / Apr VOL VI NO 2.
Dr Manu Kothari
Dr Lopa Mehta
Magnesium is worthy of being marveled at: world's lightest structural metal; highly active in its pure state; the third most abundant of the metals forming 2.5% of the earth's crust; in the human body too it is the third most abundant cation after sodium and calcium; the body of a healthy human has nearly 1 mol (24 gm) of magnesium, of which 1% is extracellular, 32% is intracellular, and 67% is in teeth and bones; the most abundant intracellular cation, most of it bound to ATP and hence vital for all energy reactions; the prime catalyst for many intracellular reactions; a cofactor for numerous enzymes - you think of an -ase and magnesium has to be there; as a reliable check-n-balance against calcium, magnesium and sodium at various levels. Magnesium seems magnificent.
The terms magnesium, magnet and magnetism are traceable to Greek magnes standing for ho Magnes Lithos meaning the magnesium stone, Magnesia being an ancient city in Asia Minor. The names of Joseph Black, Sir Humphrey Davy and Michael Faraday are associated with mankind's extraction and understanding of this vital metal. Sir Humphrey was responsible for introducing the suffix - ium to indicate a metallic element, and hence cadmium, sodium, and magnesium. A single comprehensive statement in Webster's Dictionary sums up to the gist on the heroine of this issue of NJH : Magnesium: a silver-white light malleable ductile bivalent metallic element that occurs abundantly in nature but always in combination in minerals (as magnesite, dolomite, carnallite, Olivins, spinel), in sea and mineral waters, and in animals and plants (as in bones and seeds and in the form of chlorophyll in the green parts of plants), that is obtained chiefly by electrolytes of fused salts containing magnesium chloride or by thermal reduction fo magnesia, that is used also (as in the form of powder, flakes, or ribbons) in photography, signaling, and pyrotechny because of the intense white light it produces on burning to form magnesia, and that is used structurally esp. in the form of light alloys (as in airplanes). The lightness of magnesium has earned for it a place of pride in aerospace, electronics, transportation, tooling, materials handling, consumer goods, and most importantly, alloy-making. It has a high affinity for oxygen and hence is in great demand as a reducing agent. The foregoing is mentioned only to highlight the fact that magnesium is as great in the inanimate world as it is within an animal body. It is no less than iron in this sense and beats gold, silver and copper literally hollow.
Yet, its role in the animal kingdom is miniscule as compared to its role as the annadata - God that gives food - through its pivotal role in the functioning of chlorophyll. In the NJH issue of Ferrum, it was pointed out that what iron is in haemoglobin, Magnesium is in chlorophyll. Magnesium is magnanimous in making food for the plants, and thus for animals and man, by its ability to catalyse the porphyrins into converting air and water into sugar in the presence of sunlight. Your sense of wonder as to why Mother Nature chose Magnesium to play the role of Chloropqueen can turn into a sense of reverential understanding on realising that Nature bestowed this honour on Magnesium for 3 reasons: it being the lightest, the most abundant, and most active. Long live Magnesium.
The richest source of dietary magnesium is chlorophyll. Hence it is good to go green on the dining table. Magnesium excess occurs only in rental failure and the treatment is simple: cut down on its intake. Magnesium deficiency is uncommon, except in severe malabsorption syndromes and in chronic diarrheas. The characteristic symptoms of Magnesium deficiency are paraesthesias, muscular cramps, irritability, decreased absorption span and mental confusion. The management of acute/chronic magnesium deficiency is simple replacement.
The authors of this piece face the predicament of being Homoeopathic ignorami in the midst of best Homoeopathic minds. We make do by assuming that Magnesium adorns the title page of this issue as it plays some pivotal role in Homoeopathic practice. An allopath's therapeutic respect for magnesium does not go beyond Milk of Magnesia - 'The milk that makes ladies raise their skirts and the gents lower their pants.' No allopathic issue has ever honoured magnesium the way Homoeopathy does. HOMOEOPATHS KNOW BETTER, ARE WISER VIS-À-VIS MAGNESIUM.
Is Magnesium, a kind of homanesium?
