Magnesium is a mineral that your body needs to stay healthy. It helps with many important jobs inside the body. One of these jobs is helping to control blood pressure.
Blood pressure is the force of your blood pushing against the walls of your arteries. If it’s too high, it can lead to serious health problems like heart disease or stroke. That’s why keeping it at a healthy level is so important.
Magnesium helps the body in over 300 ways. It keeps your muscles and nerves working properly. It helps manage your blood sugar and makes your bones strong. One very important role of magnesium is that it helps blood vessels relax.
When blood vessels are relaxed, blood can move more easily, and the pressure in your blood vessels goes down. This means your heart doesn’t have to work as hard.
Even though magnesium is so important, many people don’t get enough of it from their food. This can be a problem, especially for people with high blood pressure. Studies show that magnesium may help lower blood pressure in both people who already have high blood pressure and those who do not.
One large study looked at the results of many smaller studies. It was published in a journal called Hypertension in 2016. The researchers studied more than 2,000 people. They found that people who took magnesium supplements every day had lower blood pressure than those who didn’t. Most people in the study took between 300 and 500 milligrams of magnesium a day.
This helped lower both systolic and diastolic blood pressure. Systolic pressure is the top number in a blood pressure reading—it shows how hard your heart pumps. Diastolic pressure is the bottom number—it shows the pressure in your arteries when your heart is resting.
Another study from 2012, published in the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition, found that magnesium seemed even more helpful for people with other health problems, like being overweight, having insulin resistance, or being at risk for heart disease. These people often have higher blood pressure, so magnesium may be especially useful for them.
Still, not all research agrees. Some studies found that magnesium only helps people who don’t already get enough of it. People who already have enough magnesium in their body might not see a big change in blood pressure if they take more. That’s because not every body reacts the same way to minerals like magnesium.
If you want to get more magnesium, the best way is through food. Many healthy foods have magnesium. You can find it in whole grains, beans, nuts, seeds, and green vegetables. For example, spinach is a great source.
One cup of cooked spinach gives you almost half of what an adult woman needs in a day. Other good sources are almonds, cashews, peanuts, and black beans.
You can also take magnesium in a pill, but it’s important to talk to your doctor first. If you take certain medications or have health problems, supplements may not be safe or may not work well for you.
In short, magnesium is a helpful mineral that plays a big role in keeping your blood pressure under control. While it may not fix high blood pressure all by itself, eating foods rich in magnesium is a smart and healthy choice.
And for some people, especially those who don’t get enough of it from food, magnesium supplements might help too. Just remember—it’s always best to check with a doctor before making changes to your diet or starting new supplements.
If you care about high blood pressure, please read studies about what to eat and to avoid for high blood pressure, and 12 foods that lower blood pressure.
For more health information, please see recent studies about the connection between potato and high blood pressure, and how to eat your way to healthy blood pressure.
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