Magnesium intake and vascular structure and function: the Hoorn Study

Association between dietary magnesium intake and peripheral arterial disease: Results from NHANES 1999-2004

BACKGROUND

Magnesium has been found to have a strong association with peripheral arterial disease (PAD), and dietary magnesium intake shows promise as a predictor of the condition. However, the relationship between low dietary magnesium intake and an increased risk of PAD remains uncertain, and further research is needed to clarify this relationship.

METHODS

This study analyzed data from 5969 participants in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) of the United States from 1999 to 2004. Multifactorial logistic regression models were used to investigate the association between dietary magnesium intake and PAD.

RESULTS

Participants with PAD had lower dietary magnesium intake compared to those without PAD. After adjusting for all covariates, dietary magnesium intake remained negatively associated with PAD (OR: 0.999, 95% CI: 0.998, 1.000). When dietary magnesium intake was divided into quartiles, compared with the fourth quantile, the first quartile is associated with a higher incidence rate of PAD (OR: 1.560, 95%CI: 1.019, 2.386). Subgroup analysis revealed that the link between dietary magnesium intake and PAD remained significant among specific subgroups, including non-white, never or former smokers, and non-hypertensive, non-diabetic individuals (P < 0.05).

CONCLUSION

Our study provides evidence that dietary magnesium intake is negatively associated with the incidence of PAD. Therefore, people with inadequate dietary magnesium intake, particularly those with excessively low intake, should increase their magnesium intake to reduce the risk of PAD.

Does Ionized Magnesium Offer a Different Perspective Exploring the Association between Magnesemia and Targeted Cardiovascular Risk Factors?

Evidence of the association of magnesium (Mg) with arterial stiffness has so far been conflicting. The interplay between hypertension and elevated body mass index (BMI), with hypomagnesemia, instead, has been described in the literature in a more consistent way. Our study aims at revisiting the correlations between blood Mg levels and hemodynamic and body composition parameters in the general population, exploring the sensitivity profile of ionized Mg (Ion-Mg) compared to total Mg (Tot-Mg). We collected data from 755 subjects randomly chosen from a Swiss population previously described and stratified our sample into four equivalent classes according to ionized (whole blood) and total (serum) magnesium. After correcting for age, statistically significant differences emerged between: (i) Tot-Mg ≤ 0.70 and 0.81 ≤ Tot-Mg ≤ 0.90 for cf-PWV (p = 0.039); (ii) Tot-Mg ≤ 0.70 and Tot-Mg ≥ 0.91 for o-PWV (p = 0.046). We also found a statistically significant difference among groups of Ion-Mg values for the 24 h extremes of systolic blood pressure (p = 0.048) and among groups of Tot-Mg for BMI (p = 0.050). Females showed significantly lower levels of total magnesium (p = 0.035) and ionized magnesium (p < 0.001) than males. The overall agreement between magnesium analysis methods was 64% (95%CI: 60.8−67.7%). Our results confirm that Ion-Mg compared with Tot-Mg offers a different profile in detecting both correlations with hemodynamic and body composition parameters and dysmagnesemias. Lower levels of magnesium were associated with worse arterial aging parameters, larger 24 h blood pressure excursions, and higher BMI. Ion-Mg was superior in detecting the correlation with blood pressure only. Considering Ion-Mg as a more specific marker of the magnesium status, and the partially contradictory results of our explorative cross-sectional study, to avoid confounding factors and misinterpretations, ionized magnesium should be used as reference in future studies.