Magnesium Sulphate to prevent brain edema (swelling) injuries and childbirth deaths

In my own course of research on the effect of Magnesium, I chanced upon the compound Magnesium Sulphate (commonly known as Epsom salt) for treating both brain edema injuries and also to prevent child birth deliveries deaths. So what is the link between both supposedly different topic? Well you see, for brain edema here, I am referring to long period of physical exertion that result in the depletion of essential electrolytes, of which water retention is the body own self defence mechanism to conserve electrolytes. Prior to reaching this critical stage, the person would have experienced very severe muscle cramps creeping from the lower limbs towards the heart causing heart arrhythmia (abnormal heart beat), bloating of the body and eventually the expanding brain squeezing against the non-expandable skull.

Similarly childbirth is comparable to a marathon, with severe muscle contraction (convulsions) lasting many hours too and which could affect both mother and child drawing upon the draining essential mineral electrolytes. The focus on magnesium here is to highlight the increasing absence of this essential mineral in our diet or lifestyle that necessitate physical endurances. Isotonic drinks in particular are lacking in this area whilst having too much sodium to promote thirst instead. This is also the same for potassium which could be an oversight reduction from the food chain.

Firstly, I would like to point to that so many findings by a “Professor Magnesium” aka Gustawa Stendig-Lindberg ~ physician, scientist & poet. A forerunner in Magnesium Research in Biology & Medicine, for which she has gained international recognition and authored over a hundred scientific publications on the subject, she is also a specialist in Rehabilitation of the Back and a Psychiatrist. Pioneering “magnesium research” since 1967, she has been invited to over eighty lectures around the globe including several presentations at the Gordon Conferences in USA.

Of interest here would be that she had conduct so many findings and articles establishing correlations between magnesium and physical performance and sudden death syndrome. She summed it up by saying that

“Magnesium is an essential metal that is indispensable in cellular metabolism. It’s arch-importance is not yet sufficiently recognised.”

Comments: I think this site merit some readings and further research.

a. Magnesium Sulphate to treat or prevent brain edema

There was an experimental studies down in 2004 entitled :Effects of Magnesium Administration on Brain Edema and Blood-Brain Barrier Breakdown After Experimental Traumatic Brain Injury in Rats.” (link)

In this experimental findings released in 2004, to sum up, it found that Magnesium Sulphate REDUCED brain edema in experiments conduct in rats models. I would now be further inclined to think that magnesium is really needed for endurance events since brain swelling (edema) is a real problem there. Brain edema occurs because through our body self-regulating water retention mechanism is meant to prevent electrolyte loss. Having magnesium in our isotonic drinks to counter the deadly effect of brain edema. Sadly, there are not many isotonic drinks in the market with magnesium additives but instead were loaded with too much sodium for our own good since I need to potassium during my runs but at the same time need to watch consuming too much sodium (salt). Anyway, I would like to do a review on the various isotonic drinks later.

b. Magnesium Sulphate to pevent pre-Eclampsia and Eclampsia

In this article, it rightly pointed out the “Over the past century, drugs rather than minerals have been employed to treat eclampsia…… Yet the anticonvulsant drugs continue to be employed with little reliable evidence that they work”. This starking statement that truly reflect the need to push medicinal drugs to the market without due concern for patients.

Eclampsia is a serious complication of pregnancy and is characterised by convulsions. Usually eclampsia occurs after the onset of pre-eclampsia though sometimes no pre-eclamptic symptoms are recognisable. The convulsions may appear before, during or after labour, though cases of eclampsia after just 20 weeks of pregnancy have been recorded. The article claimed that during the period 1905 to 1987 an estimated 42 million women may have undergone eclamptic convulsion and possibly 4 million died.

The most recent finding from a quick check in Wikipedia, was that magnesium sulphate also better known as “Epsom salt can prevent cerebral palsy: US study” (Reuters 31 Jan 2008).

“Giving a woman an infusion of Epsom salts when she goes into premature labor can help protect her baby from cerebral palsy, U.S. researchers reported on Thursday. Magnesium sulfate, popularly known as Epsom salts, cut the rate of cerebral palsy in half, Dr. John Thorp, a professor of obstetrics at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and colleagues reported.”

My Comments: Maybe mineral balance is better than medicinal drugs in preventive health care. In conclusion, I would also like to point out one important thing, which is the ability to distinguish or rather be able to measure exactly whether it is intracellular and serum magnesium level when we are talking about deficiencies of electrolytes. Take the cue from below:

Excerpts from “The Mineral That Could Have Saved 4 Million Women“

Blood tests for magnesium are notoriously inaccurate. Only 1 percent of the total body magnesium pool exists outside of living cells. So blood serum levels are notoriously inaccurate. [Clin Chem Lab Med 37: 1011-33, 1999] Only red-blood cell magnesium levels accurately determine the risk for pre-eclampsia and/or magnesium deficiency, but this test is not commonly performed in laboratories. [American Journal Hypertension 13: 765-69, 2000] http://www.lewrockwell.com/sardi/sardi13.html

——-

Excerpts from “From Weekend Warrior to Super Athlete“

“Depletion of magnesium results in loss of cellular potassium even when potassium intake is adequate.”

My Comments: I thought this is very important for isotonic drinks manufacturers as well as sport scientists to take note of since absence of magnesium due to non-stop physical activities or non-availability in diet could exacerbate the loss of potassium and loss of both precious electrolytes both really hasten the heart failure rate or the so-called sudden death syndrome for seemingly healthy joggers.

—–

Excerpts from “STUDIES OF MINERALS AND CARDIAC HEALTH IN SELECTED POPULATIONS“

Magnesium and calcium are also antagonistic for blood coagulation. Magnesium inhibits
coagulation while calcium promotes the process. It is possible that calcium to magnesium ratios
of much greater than 2 to 1 can interfere with coagulation as well as other processes (3).

My Comments: Since isotonic drinks do not have magnesium and being antagonistic to calcium (which is forcibly available in our diet and supplement), this could promote blood coagulation during running and could hasten the factors involving sudden death syndrome.

Lastly,

Take Care and do exercise for both health and productivity … not to be too tired to do anything the next day! Oh! those are for professionals under sponsorship to run endlessly and maybe tirelessly.

Mikey

19 Apr 2008