According to Dr. Carolyn Dean, MD, ND, Editor of the Nutritional Magnesium Association, she reports that it is quite common for kidney disease patients to forego magnesium supplementation due to the standard protocol by doctors and belief by the public that if you have any kind of kidney disease you should avoid magnesium. This is particularly true of diabetic and heart failure patients. Even the National Kidney Foundation does not state to limit magnesium intake for kidney disease patients. But for certain, before taking a magnesium supplement if you have any form for kidney disease, it is imperative that you discuss magnesium intake with your doctor. A catch-22 if you will.
Chronic kidney disease (CKD) advances as the kidneys store calcium and phosphorous and do not filter them out properly. This situation creates high levels of calcium, which inevitably means that magnesium levels will be very low. This situation also leads to calcification in soft tissue, most commonly in blood vessels. So what should you do?
First learn about the significance of magnesium so you can be prepared to talk to your doctor. Inevitably, too much calcium will deplete magnesium. That’s scientific fact number one. Secondly, over 300 enzymes systems in the body require magnesium, including those performed by the kidneys.
You can request a test for magnesium levels but make sure your doctor orders an ionized magnesium test or mouth swab test where tissue is analyzed. Blood serum tests are not reliable, and especially not a good choice if you have kidney disease. (Please see our post about testing for magnesium levels). There are only abut 140 labs in the United States that offer the ionized magnesium test, but their locations are only known by doctors. Definitely not a treasure hunt for which you were looking to sign up, but the test exists and patients needs to demand the ionized test to find out their true magnesium levels. The test can help you get your doctor on board for magnesium supplementation so you can seek relief from potential CKD magnesium deficiency as well as other magnesium deficiency conditions .
Also know that If your kidneys function properly, you can’t over do it on the magnesium, the excess is simply removed in the urine. If your doctor does recommend magnesium supplementation please consider Mag-Tab®SR .Clinical trials show it is a highly absorbed sustained release formulation of magnesium L-lactate dihydrate and easy on the stomach compared to other common magnesium tablets.