A FEW HYPERTENSIVE HUMANS RESPOND TO MAGNESIUM SUPPLEMENTS WITH A RISE IN BLOOD PRESSURE, suggesting a genetic subgroup in response to nutritional Mg

Abstract

Far back as 1942, Winkler showed that i.v. Mg infusion lowered blood pressure (BP) in humans; that study also showed one subject's systolic blood pressure rose upon i.v. Mg infusion. Analysis of 41 clinical studies of Mg supplements on blood pressure show that 20 mmol (486 mg)/day Mg will significantly decrease high blood pressure in humans, with half that dose being effective for subjects on anti‐hypertnesive medications.Few of these 41 studies report individual blood pressure results, but in the 8 that do, all but one show “outliers” for whom magnesium supplements resulted in INCREASED blood pressure during the study. For this almost completely consistent finding (7 of 8 studies), 15 – 52% of 7 studies’ subjects had at least a slight rise in diastolic, systolic or mean blood pressure upon Mg supplementation, while 1 – 17% of studies’ individuals were significant outliers, showing large rises in these blood pressure parameters, [i.e. > 5 mm Hg rise for DBP, > 20 mm Hg rise for SBP or > 10 Hg mm rise for MBP]. Only one of the 8 studies reporting individual subjects’ results showed all subjects with a drop in blood pressure.Combined, these 8 studies show 207 individual results of Mg therapy for blood pressure, of which 6.3 – 7.3% showed a substantial rise in the measured BP parameter, opposite the majority and group statistical results, suggesting variant genetic allele(s) or polymorphism(s) in the human genome for the handling of Mg supplements and how they effect a blood pressure response. Mg supplementation for blood pressure, while therapeutic for the majority of hypertensives, may be contra‐indicated for a small minority beyond the gastro‐intestinal considerations.