Health aspects - Magnesium

Importance of magnesium to man

• More than 300 enzymatic processes are directly linked to the presence of magnesium. Amongst them, Mg works against depression, blood supply disorders and the formation of kidney stones.
• Mg requirement depends upon age, sex and physical load, e.g. an adult needs approx. 350-500 mg/day
• Symptoms for Mg deficiency are usually expressed by cramps, cold feet, quick exhaustion and headaches.
• Reasons for Mg deficiency can be, e.g. consumption of food low in Mg, high in calcium and fat, diabetes, pregnancy, physical stress.
• Mg deficiency can be prevented by a balanced nutrition, based on physical demands, e.g. peas and beans contain adequate Mg; meat, milk and almost all vegetables and fruits are low in magnesium.

Importance of magnesium to animals

• Most animals only have a limited capacity to store magnesium and therefore require a generally high supply.
• The Mg requirement depends upon age, performance, weight and how efficient the Mg supplied within the feed can be used by the animal. For example lambs require 1 g Mg and ewes 3 g Mg/day.
• Symptoms of Mg deficiency vary within animal breeds, e.g. in dairy cattle the first sings are anorexia, declining milk production and temporal diarrhoea.
• Mg deficiency can be caused by the intake of feed stuffs low in magnesium. For example hypomagnesaemia in ruminants is caused by taking in less than 2 g Mg/kg dry matter.
• In order to prevent Mg deficiency, magnesium should be supplied prophylactically, animal feed should be analysed for its Mg content and grassland should be regularly dressed with fertilizer containing Mg.