Deficiencies of Potassium and Magnesium Linked to Diabetes in Two Separate Studies
Two recent studies have linked deficiencies in Magnesium and Potassium to an increase in the prevalence of Diabetes.
The first study, done in Brazil, found that those patients with lower fasting and after-meal blood glucose levels had higher blood magnesium levels while those patients with higher fasting glucose levels had lower blood magnesium levels and higher urine levels of magnesium.
According to the author of "The Magnesium Miracle", Dr. Carolyn Dean, MD ,ND, "Magnesium plays a pivotal role in the secretion and function of insulin; without it, diabetes mellitus is inevitable. Measurable magnesium deficiency is common in diabetes and in many of its complications, including heart disease, eye damage, high blood pressure, and obesity. When the treatment of diabetes includes magnesium, these problems are prevented or minimized."
In the second study, lower potassium levels in the blood may help explain why African-Americans are twice as likely as whites to be diagnosed with type 2 diabetes.
According to Hsin-Chieh “Jessica” Yeh, Ph.D., an assistant professor of medicine at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and an author of the study, which appears in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. "We now know lower serum potassium is an independent risk factor for diabetes and that African-Americans have, on average, lower potassium levels than whites. What remains to be seen is if increasing potassium levels through diet or supplementation can prevent the most common form of diabetes.”
