More praise for The Magnesium Miracle “Every doctor and patient should read this comprehensive book on the many roles of magnesium.… I loved this book. Clearly written and packed with information, it offers a compendium on natural medicine and is an invaluable resource for both practitioner and public alike. It is the most comprehensive and well-referenced guide to the myriad benefits of magnesium published to date.” —CAROLYN DEMARCO, M.D., author of Take Charge of Your Body: Women’s Health Advisor “Throughout this volume and with utmost clarity, Carolyn Dean presents invaluable recommendations—based on the latest magnesium research. Virtually every American can benefit.” —PAUL PITCHFORD, author of Healing with Whole Foods: Asian Traditions and Modern Nutrition “Physicians and therapists have paid scant attention to this very important element, which is also involved in maintaining our good health. The massive evidence is here in this important book on magnesium. I am pleased to have been taking magnesium for so many years.” —ABRAM HOFFER, M.D., author of Putting It All Together: The New Orthomolecular Nutrition “Excellent research together with valuable inspiration to empower the doctor within each of us.” —JOSHUA ROSENTHAL, director of the Institute for Integrative Nutrition, author of The Energy Balance Diet “An enlightening and practical book. Dr. Dean supplies powerful information for people while trumpeting a reminder to doctors about this essential and often overlooked mineral elixir. The Magnesium Miracle should be required reading for living a rich, healthy life.” —EUGENE CHARLES, D.C., DIBAK, author of Physician Heal Thy Patient and Becoming Healthy, Wealthy and Wise “I have been in complementary medicine for thirty years and I believed I knew all there was to know about magnesium—until I [read] the latest book by Dr. Carolyn Dean. This book is the most comprehensive review on the subject I have ever read. As one can expect from a physician with such vast and diversified knowledge, The Magnesium Miracle contains information on allied fields of medicine that makes this book an incredible resource for doctors and patients alike. The Magnesium Miracle is a book that is going to be of great service to humanity since, as the author points out, there is so much information on magnesium that has failed to be included in the medical curriculum.” —SERAFINA CORSELLO, M.D., Wellness Medical Center for Integrative Medicine, author of Ageless Healing 2014 Ballantine Books eBook Edition Copyright © 2003, 2007, 2014 by Carolyn Dean, M.D., N.D. Foreword copyright © 2003 by Dr. Bella Altura and Dr. Burton Altura All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Ballantine Books, an imprint of Random House, a division of Random House LLC, a Penguin Random House Company, New York. BALLANTINE and the HOUSE colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc. Originally published in hardcover and trade paperback in different form as The Miracle of Magnesium by Ballantine Books, an imprint of Random House, a division of Random House LLC in 2003 and 2007 respectively. ISBN 978-0-345-49458-0 eBook ISBN 978-0-307-55769-8 www.ballantinebooks.com Cover design: Karen Lau v3.1_r2 CONTENTS Cover Copyright Foreword to the First Edition Introduction PART ONE: THE HISTORY OF MAGNESIUM 1 The Case for Magnesium 2 Magnesium: The Missing Mineral PART TWO: MAGNESIUM-DEFICIENT CONDITIONS 3 Anxiety and Depression 4 Migraines and Pain 5 Strokes, Head Injury, and Brain Surgery 6 Cholesterol and Hypertension 7 Magnesium and Heart Disease 8 Obesity, Syndrome X, and Diabetes 9 PMS, Dysmenorrhea, and Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome 10 Infertility, Pregnancy, Preeclampsia, and Cerebral Palsy 11 Osteoporosis and Kidney Stones PART THREE: THE RESEARCH CONTINUES 12 Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Fibromyalgia 13 Environmental Illness 14 Asthma 15 Health and Longevity PART FOUR: TESTING AND SUPPLEMENTS 16 Magnesium Requirements and Testing 17 A Magnesium Eating Plan 18 Magnesium Supplementation and Homeopathic Magnesium Dedication Appendix Magnesium Content of Common Foods Calcium Content of Common Foods Resources References About the Author FOREWORD TO THE FIRST EDITION “Clearly there is more to life than magnesium” is one of the remarks from Dr. Dean’s remarkable, almost encyclopedic, but very readable book. Her book is long overdue, for it gives the lay reader a chance to discover for him-or herself the many needs for this mineral in a healthy diet, and the reasons why this has not been emphasized in the everyday literature. The requirement for magnesium in our diet is indeed a much neglected topic, and this book by Dr. Dean brings the message home by her carefully written repetitive emphasis on the subject. That does not mean that there are not many other nutrients necessary in our daily food intake, as stated above, but the point she so clearly makes is that the public in general has not been notified to look for the proper amount of this mineral in the daily diet and of the many reasons magnesium is needed in our bodies. After a cursory overview of the material, the book should be read as one would read an encyclopedia, that is, pick out the parts one is particularly interested in, and then go back and try to read it all. This way the reader will get the gist of how important magnesium really is and how little he or she has been informed, be it from newspapers, magazines, or the rest of the news media. As the old adage says, “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure,” and so it is with balanced nutrition, which includes this all- important mineral in adequate amounts. (As to the other