Doctors at Tongji University, Shanghai, China published their research in the medical journal Life sciences on the benefits of magnesium in helping patients with osteoarthritis. Here is what they said:
- Magnesium is widely involved in human physiological processes (inflammation) that may play key roles in the generation and progression of diseases.
- Magnesium deficiency is considered to be a major risk factor for osteoarthritis development and progression.
- Magnesium deficiency is active in several pathways that have been implicated in osteoarthritis, including:
- increased inflammatory mediators,
- cartilage damage,
- defective chondrocyte biosynthesis (you don’t make good cartilage),
- calcification in soft tissue,
- and a weakened effect of analgesics (magnesium makes painkillers work better, a subject that you need to discuss with your doctor).
- Abundant evidence in animal models now suggests that the nutritional supplementation or injection of magnesium represent effective therapies for osteoarthritis.
A second team of Chinese researchers writing in the journal PLOS Public Library of Science one, looked at cross-sectional associations between dietary magnesium intake and radiographic knee osteoarthritis, joint space narrowing, and osteophytes (bone spurs).