Transdermal Magnesium Mineral
Therapy in Sports Medicine

International Medical Veritas Association

 Magnesium nutrition is an area that
no serious athlete can afford to overlook.

    Despite magnesium’s pivotal role in energy production, many coaches and athletes remain unaware of its critical importance in maintaining health and performance.[1] Magnesium deficiency reduces metabolic efficiency, increases oxygen consumption and heart rate required to perform work, all things that would take the edge off of performance. The last thing any trainer or sports doctor wants to see is their athletes lose their competitive edge. Not performing to full capacity because of the lack of a mineral like magnesium is simply not an option for winners. Athletic endurance and strength performance increases significantly when a large amount of magnesium is supplemented transdermally/topically and orally.   

A magnesium shortfall can cause a partial uncoupling
 of the respiratory chain, increasing the amount of
oxygen required to maintain ATP production.

      Athletes, who might be expected to take greater care with their diets, are not immune from magnesium deficiency. For example, studies carried out in 1986/87 revealed that gymnasts, footballers and basketball players were consuming only around 70% of the RDA,[2] while female runners fared even worse, with reported intakes as low as 59% of the RDA.[3] There is ample evidence that a magnesium shortfall boosts the energy cost, and hence oxygen use, of exercise because it reduces the efficiency during exercise of muscle relaxation, which accounts for an important fraction of total energy needs during an activity like cycling.[4] One study of male athletes supplemented with 390mgs of magnesium per day for 25 days resulted in an increased peak oxygen uptake and total work output during work capacity tests.[5]

 Sub-optimum dietary magnesium
 intakes impairs athletic performance.

      The regular advice given athletes is to make a conscious effort to increase the proportion of magnesium-rich foods in his or her diet. Even a simple change like eating more whole grain products and boosting your intake of vegetables, nuts and seeds can make an impact. But that is not enough, not for an athlete who loses magnesium much faster than the average person. It is not even enough today for a regular person. According to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Studies show that as many as half of all Americans do not consume enough magnesium. The latest government study shows a staggering 68% of Americans do not consume the recommended daily intake of magnesium.

      Even more frightening are data from this study showing that 19% of Americans do not consume even half of the government’s recommended daily intake of magnesium.[6] The nutrient content of foods can no longer be relied upon. The effects of stress, intense physical activity, or the use of certain medications cause magnesium deficiency as do many other factors.[7] If an athlete is not eating a heavy diet of Pumpkin seeds (roasted), Spirulina, Almonds, Brazil nuts, Sesame seeds, Peanuts (roasted, salted), Walnuts or Rice (whole grain brown), the only common foods with over 100 milligrams of magnesium content for every 100 grams, it is not really in the realm of possibility that sufficient magnesium would be consumed. Add white bread and other junk food and it can safely be assumed that it is exceedingly impractical for athletes to consume enough magnesium through dietary sources alone.

      It is commonly thought that magnesium intakes above the RDA are unlikely to boost performance, but this is absurd advice that no athlete or coach should pay attention to. First, RDAs are almost universally understated even for the general population. For athletes they are sure guides to failure for they do not take into account all the extra demands and needs of an athlete’s body. When it comes to magnesium we should be thinking many times the RDA if we are thinking of maximizing athletic performance.

    Studies have shown that supplementing with 30mg of Zinc and 450mg of magnesium per day can elevate testosterone levels up to 30%. Dr. Lorrie Brilla, at Western Washington University, recently reported that magnesium and zinc, when supplemented orally, significantly increase free testosterone levels and muscle strength in NCAA football players.[8] In another study, young athletes supplemented with 8mgs of magnesium per kilo of body weight per day experienced significant increases in endurance performance and decreased oxygen consumption during standardized, sub-maximal exercise.[9]

      Dr. Brilla reported that during an eight-week spring training program athletes had 2.5 times greater muscle strength gains than a placebo group.[10] Any athlete looking to gain strength, increase athletic performance, and muscle mass should consider greatly increasing their magnesium intake, as well as zinc. And according to a recent study published in Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, higher intake of magnesium is significantly related to higher bone mineral density (BMD). According to the paper, there was an approximate 2 percent increase in whole-body BMD for every 100 milligram per day increase in magnesium. Magnesium is a "lesser-studied" component of bone that may play a role in calcium metabolism and bone strength.

Muscle endurance and total work capacity,
 declines rapidly with nutritional deficiency in the
area of key minerals like zinc and magnesium.

     “Magnesium is essential to a diet for people are under a lot of stress or want to experience the ultimate rush,” says Dr. James Thor, National Director of Extreme Sports Medicine. “Several reasons, one is if you are working out in a gym, or continual stress excessive amounts of lactic acid in the muscle have been linked to higher levels of anxiety,” Dr. Thor adds. Large amounts of magnesium are lost when a person is under stress and when magnesium chloride is applied to the muscles topically it promotes the release of lactic acid from the muscle tissue.

      The combination of heat and magnesium chloride increases circulation and waste removal and this principle can be applied during breaks in competition as well as after the game in deeply relaxing baths similar to Epsom salt baths, but much stronger. A magnesium chloride bath helps draw inflammation out of the muscles and joints. Dr. Mark Steckel recommends a hot bath with Epsom salts (magnesium sufate) after a long run when the muscles are just aching. He also recommends soaking once a week “as a treat to your legs, just to keep them happy!” Switching to magnesium chloride takes the experience to an entirely new level of therapeutics.

Transdermal magnesium chloride mineral therapy
enhances recovery from athletic activity or injuries.

     A whole new world of sports medicine is going to explode onto the scene when athletes and coaches find out that magnesium chloride from natural sources is available for topical use. In this new and exciting breakthrough in sports medicine coaches can now treat injuries, prevent them, and increase athletic performance all at the same time. Magnesium chloride, when applied directly to the skin is transdermally absorbed.[11] Transdermal magnesium chloride mineral therapy is ideal for athletes who need high levels of magnesium. Oral magnesium is not easily absorbed and at high doses creates diarrhea. Oral magnesium also has little to no application in the treatment of injuries and tired worn out muscles.[12] (See important note on oral intake.)

     Until now it was thought that the best forms of supplemental magnesium were the ones chelated to an amino acid (magnesium glycinate, magnesium taurate) or a krebs cycle intermediate (magnesium malate, magnesium citrate, magnesium fumarate). These forms seem to be better utilized, absorbed, and assimilated. Some have correctly advised to stay away from oral intake of inorganic forms of magnesium like magnesium chloride (taken orally) or magnesium carbonate because they may not be absorbed as well and may cause gastric disturbances. But now we have a magnesium chloride lotion/bath salt that can be applied directly to the skin so dosage levels can be brought up safely to high levels without diarrhea and problems with absorption.

Maximal contraction of the quadriceps is
positively correlated to serum magnesium status.[13]

      Dr. Jeff Schutt insists that hamstring injuries can at least partially be avoided through nutritional support because contraction and relaxation is dependant on adequate cellular levels of magnesium. A shortened hamstring is a result of lack of available magnesium he says. Now we have what is called “Magnesium Oil,” which is a thick magnesium chloride liniment that can be simply sprayed and rubbed into a sore Achilles tendon to decrease swelling. And soaking the feet in a magnesium chloride foot bath is the single best thing - apart from stretching - that you can do for yourself to protect from or recover from hamstring and other injuries. The only thing better is a full body bath or to have a massage therapist use it to rub it in as they work deeply on the muscles.

The heavy use of magnesium for athletic performance
will be enough to make a difference between
winning and losing on a regular basis.

      Magnesium is the single most important mineral to sports nutrition.
Adequate magnesium level will help your body against fatigue, heat exhaustion, blood sugar control, and metabolism. It also offers part of the secret why athletes die young -- magnesium levels in tissue analysis are usually very low, and often mercury very high in athletes who  have heart attacks. Congestive heart failure patients have recently been reported to have 22,000 times more mercury and 14,000 times more antimony in their hearts.[14] Most coaches do not know it but the very best hospitals inject either magnesium chloride or magnesium sulfate for both stroke and heart attack patients. In Los Angeles they are even giving it to patients in the ambulance, in a new study, for it dramatically increases survival rates as well as diminish disabilities down the road.

    Zinc, chromium and selenium in addition to magnesium are lost in the sweat [15]-[16] or in the actual accelerated metabolism of strenuous exercise and are difficult to replenish.[17] When we sweat, we lose more than just water. Other components of sweat include electrolytes, principally sodium and magnesium. Loss of magnesium by sweating takes place at an accelerated pace when there is a failure in sweat homeostasis, a situation which arises when exercise is made in conditions of damp atmosphere and high temperature.[18] Increased energy expenditure causes an increase in magnesium requirements. Selenium is important in that it neutralizes the toxic effects of mercury and this is especially important for athletes who have a mouth full of mercury containing dental amalgam.[19] Beware the sports people who say that the amount of magnesium lost through sweat is negligible, making magnesium supplementation unnecessary.[20] Dr. Sarah Mayhill says, “Heavy exercise also makes you lose magnesium in the urine and explain why long distance runners may suddenly drop dead with heart arrhythmias.” Magnesium intake is most often marginal at best and heavy exercise is a factor that is particularly likely to expose athletes to magnesium deficit through metabolic depletion linked to exercise.

     Also beware nutritionists who mistakenly say that magnesium is stored in the body, so deficits are rare.[21] Dr. Mayhill says, “Treating magnesium deficiency is the most difficult deficiency to correct. In evolutionary terms, magnesium was abundant in the diet and therefore no good mechanisms to conserve magnesium evolved. It appears to be poorly absorbed and easily excreted even by normal people.”

Magnesium depletion and deficiency play a role
 in the pathophysiology of physical exercise.[22]

    Many in sports medicine think that supplements should only be taken when there is proof that the diet cannot provide the quantities of nutrients needed and that supplements require a proper medical diagnosis and should only be prescribed by the sports physician and dietician in writing. Some go as far as insisting that fitness coaches and conditioning staff should not prescribe any supplements. But trainers need to be aware of anything that would enhance or help reduce the amount of time for rehabilitation due to an injury. The job of trainers and coaches is to prevent injuries or to get the players well as fast as possible.

    Everyone involved in athletics need to be acutely aware that the medical industrial complex is not going to act in the best interests of athletes. Many are becoming more conscious about how good ideas and sound natural medicine are being professionally suppressed by intricate campaigns of discreditation, spun by the vested interests of corporate science and backed by the pharmaceutical industry and even the government which is in bed with the drug companies. The last thing they do not want athletes or the general public to know is that it is now virtually impossible to receive needed and necessary nutrition from foods grown from modern agricultural methods.[23] Nutritional values of foods have been dropping precipitously over the last fifty years and the increasing toxic exposures put additional demands on an athlete’s nutritional status. This is especially true with magnesium. There is virtually no one that cannot benefit greatly from increasing daily magnesium intake. In terms of health and longevity magnesium is essential. For the professional athlete it means the difference between winning and losing.