(NaturalHealth365) Magnesium is an essential mineral you need large amounts of in your diet for optimal health. Unfortunately, magnesium deficiency isn’t talked about often … even though it is a common problem.

And, here’s the “tricky” part: even if you’re eating a healthy diet packed with magnesium-rich foods, soil depletion means that produce today doesn’t contain as much magnesium as it did several decades ago.   Bottom line, we need to careful about avoiding a deficiency.

Through the years, various symptoms related to multiple psychological disorders have been linked to a magnesium deficiency.  In fact, we know it has a significant impact on brain health, and a recent study found that increased magnesium intake among aging women was linked to a lower risk of cognitive impairment.

Cognitive benefits: How magnesium helps aging adults, study says

Researchers, in a study that was published by BMJ Open, took a closer look at more than 6,000 women within the U.S. between the ages of 65 and 79 and the amount of magnesium they were consuming.  Among those who got between about 257 and 317 milligrams per day of magnesium, they had a significantly lower risk of developing cognitive impairment compared to the individuals who got only 197 milligrams or less per day.

This study used a group of postmenopausal women who were already participating in the Women’s Health Initiative Memory Study that didn’t have dementia when enrolled in the program. The authors of the study concluded that the increased intake of magnesium is associated with a reduced risk of probably dementia and/or mild cognitive impairment.

Additional ways magnesium promotes better brain health

Research shows that magnesium plays a significant role in brain health. Just a few of the ways magnesium promotes better brain health include:

• Anxiety and depression prevention: Studies have discovered a link between depression and low magnesium intake, and one study even found that depression and anxiety are both improved with magnesium supplementation. The mineral’s ability to reduce neuroinflammation also helps us to avoid mood disorders.
• Neurotransmitter creation: Magnesium helps regulate and balance essential neurotransmitter that regular mood, and it’s required for the production and regulation of feel-good chemicals serotonin and dopamine.
• Improves brain plasticity: Brain plasticity refers to the ways your brain cells communicate and includes the ability of your brain develop new pathways of communication between your brain cells. This aids in memory retention and learning.  Unfortunately, as you grow older, brain plasticity decreases – which leads to cognitive decline. By increasing magnesium levels and improving brain plasticity, there’s great promise for the prevention of memory loss and other forms of age-related cognitive decline.
• Helps alleviate ADHD symptoms: Some research has shown that individuals with ADHD have a magnesium deficiency, and supplementation has been found to improve the symptoms of ADHD in these patients.

So how can you get more magnesium in your diet to reap the brain health benefits?

It’s important to first point out that – due to soil depletion from “modern” farming techniques – a huge segment of the population is currently magnesium deficient.  This means it’s more difficult to get magnesium from your diet alone.

Therefore, a high quality supplement can help to boost your level of magnesium, and many natural healthcare providers suggest you take a minimum of 500 mg daily.  But, like we always like to say, check with your doctor before many any significant changes to your diet or lifestyle routine.

Sources for this article include:

LifeExtension.com
NutritionalMagnesium.org
TheDrsWolfson.com