Magnesium: The Lamp of Life

[Guest guest]

Magnesium: The Lamp of Life

Tuesday, November 18, 2008 by: Mark Sircus Ac., OMD

http://www.naturalnews.com/024847.html

(NaturalNews) Inside chlorophyll is the lamp of life and that lamp is

magnesium. The capture of light energy from the sun is magnesium dependent.

Magnesium is bound as the central atom of the porphyrin ring of the green

plant pigment chlorophyll. Magnesium is the element that causes plants to be

able to convert light into energy and chlorophyll is identical to hemoglobin

except the magnesium atom at the center has been taken out and iron put in.

The whole basis of life and the food chain is seen in the

sunlight-chlorophyll-magnesium chain. Since animals and humans obtain their

food supply by eating plants, magnesium can be said to be the source of life

for it is at the heart of chlorophyll and the process of photosynthesis.

A huge step forward for early life was the development of chlorophyll, a

molecule that captures light energy from the sun in a process called

photosynthesis. Chlorophyll systems convert energy from visible light into

small energy-rich molecules easy for cells to use. The harnessing of the

energy of visible light led to a vast expansion of early life-forms.

Fossilized layers, three and half billion years old, have been found with

evidence of blue-green algae that lived on top of tidal rocks.

Magnesium is needed by plants to form chlorophyll which is the substance

that makes plants green. Without magnesium sitting inside the heart of

chlorophyll, plants would not be able to take nutrition from the sun because

the process of photosynthesis would not go on. When magnesium is deficient

things begin to die. In reality one cannot take a breath, move a muscle, or

think a thought without enough magnesium in our cells. Because magnesium is

contained in chlorophyll it is considered an essential plant mineral salt.

Without chlorophyll, plants are unable to convert sunlight and carbon

dioxide. There is no life without magnesium.

Magnesium is a necessary element for all living organisms both animal and

plant. Chlorophyll is structured around a magnesium atom, while in animals,

magnesium is a key component of cells, bones, tissues and just about every

physiological process you can think of. Magnesium is primarily an

intracellular cation; roughly 1% of whole-body magnesium is found

extracellularly, and the free intracellular fraction is the portion

regulating enzyme pathways inside the cells. Life packs the magnesium

jealously into the cells, every drop of it is precious.

Insulin and Magnesium

Magnesium is necessary for both the action of insulin and the manufacture of

insulin.

Magnesium is a basic building block to life and is present in ionic form

throughout the full landscape of human physiology. Without insulin though,

magnesium doesn't get transported from our blood into our cells where it is

most needed. When Dr. Jerry Nadler of the Gonda Diabetes Center at the City

of Hope Medical Center in Duarte, California, and his colleagues placed 16

healthy people on magnesium-deficient diets, their insulin became less

effective at getting sugar from their blood into their cells, where it's

burned or stored as fuel. In other words, they became less insulin sensitive

or what is called insulin resistant. And that's the first step on the road

to both diabetes and heart disease.

Insulin is a common denominator, a central figure in life as is magnesium.

The task of insulin is to store excess nutritional resources. This system is

an evolutionary development used to save energy and other nutritional

necessities in times (or hours) of abundance in order to survive in times of

hunger. Little do we appreciate that insulin is not just responsible for

regulating sugar entry into the cells but also magnesium, one of the most

important substances for life. It is interesting to note here that the

kidneys are working at the opposite end physiologically dumping from the

blood excess nutrients that the body does not need or cannot process in the

moment.

Controlling the level of blood sugars is only one of the many functions of

insulin. Insulin plays a central role in storing magnesium but if our cells

become resistant to insulin, or if we do not produce enough insulin, then we

have a difficult time storing magnesium in the cells where it belongs. When

insulin processing becomes problematic magnesium gets excreted through our

urine instead and this is the basis of what is called magnesium wasting

disease.

There is a strong relationship between magnesium and insulin action.

Magnesium is important for the effectiveness of insulin. A reduction of

magnesium in the cells strengthens insulin resistance.

Low serum and intracellular magnesium concentrations are associated with

insulin resistance, impaired glucose tolerance, and decreased insulin

secretion. Magnesium improves insulin sensitivity thus lowering insulin

resistance. Magnesium and insulin need each other. Without magnesium, our

pancreas won't secrete enough insulin--or the insulin it secretes won't be

efficient enough--to control our blood sugar.

Magnesium in our cells helps the muscles to relax but if we can't store

magnesium because the cells are resistant then we lose magnesium which makes

the blood vessels constrict, affects our energy levels, and causes an

increase in blood pressure. We begin to understand the intimate connection

between diabetes and heart disease when we look at the closed loop between

declining magnesium levels and declining insulin efficiency.

Though it would be a long stretch of the longest giraffe's neck to compare

insulin with chlorophyll we are walking a trail at the very nuclear core of

life. It's the magnesium trail and we find to our surprise that it takes us

into intimate contact with the very structure and foundation of life. The

dedication of this chapter is to the beauty of magnesium, to its meaning in

life, in health and in medicine.

We were talking about chlorophyll and now insulin and putting magnesium

in-between. Walking further along is the DHEA magnesium story and the DNA

magnesium story. And then there is the cholesterol magnesium story. Every

part of life is in love with magnesium except allopathic medicine which just

cannot accept it in all its light, flame and beauty. Thousands of years ago

the Chinese named it the beautiful metal and they were seeing something

pharmaceutical medicine does not want to see for there is little money to be

made from something so common.

Magnesium and DNA

Magnesium ions play critical roles in many aspects of cellular metabolism.

Magnesium stabilizes structures of proteins, nucleic acids, and cell

membranes by binding to the macromolecule's surface and promote specific

structural or catalytic activities of proteins, enzymes, or ribozymes.

Magnesium has a critical role in cell division. It has been suggested that

magnesium is necessary for the maintenance of an adequate supply of

nucleotides for the synthesis of RNA and DNA.

Magnesium plays a critical role in vital DNA repair proteins. Magnesium ions

synergetic effects on the active site geometry may affect the polymerase

closing/opening trends. Single-stranded RNA are stabilized by magnesium

ions.

Distinct structural features of DNA, such as the curvature of dA tracts, are

important in the recognition, packaging, and regulation of DNA are magnesium

dependent. Physiologically relevant concentrations of magnesium have been

found to enhance the curvature of dA tract DNAs. The chemistry of water

activated by a magnesium ion is central to the function of the DNA repair

proteins, apurinic/apyrimidic endonuclease 1 (Ape1) and polymerase A (Pol

A). These proteins are key constituents of the base excision repair (BER)

pathway, a process that plays a critical role in preventing the cytotoxic

and mutagenic effects of most spontaneous, alkylation, and oxidative DNA

damage.

Magnesium ions help guide polymerase selection for the correct nucleotide

extends descriptions of polymerase pathways.

Dr. Ellis informs us that, " Magnesium ions are central to the function

of the DNA repair proteins, apurinic/apyrimidic endonuclease 1 (Ape1) and

polymerase A (Pol A). These proteins are key constituents of the base

excision repair (BER) pathway, a process that plays a critical role in

preventing the cytotoxic and mutagenic effects of most spontaneous,

alkylation, and oxidative DNA damage. " DNA polymerase is considered to be a

holoenzyme since it requires a magnesium ion as a co-factor to function

properly. DNA-Polymerase initiates DNA replication by binding to a piece of

single-stranded DNA. This process corrects mistakes in newly-synthesized

DNA.

DHEA - Magnesium - Cholesterol

Low levels of DHEA are associated with loss of " pathology preventing "

signaling between immune system cells.

Dr. says, " Cancer and infections are both increasing

and one of the basic reasons is reduced availability of DHEA, which stems

from magnesium deficiency. " Also known as " mother of all steroid hormones "

DHEA is converted in the body into several different hormones, including

estrogen and testosterone. DHEA appears to restore immune balance and

stimulate monocyte production (the cells that attack tumors), B-cell

activity (the cells that fight disease-causing organisms), T-cell

mobilization (infection fighting T-cells have DHEA binding sites), and

protection of the thymus gland (which produces T-cells). The data suggest

that DHEA has a role in the neuro-endocrine regulation of the antibacterial

immune resistance.

All steroid hormones are created from cholesterol in a hormonal cascade.

Cholesterol, that most maligned compound, is actually crucial for health and

is the mother of hormones from the adrenal cortex, including cortisone,

hydrocortisone, aldosterone, and DHEA. Cholesterol cannot be synthesized

without magnesium and cholesterol is a vital component of many hormones.

These hormones are interrelated, each performing a unique biological

function with them all depending on magnesium for their function.

Aldosterone interestingly needs magnesium to be produced and it also

regulates magnesium's balance.

Dr. Mildred S. Seelig wrote, " Mg2+-ATP is the controlling factor for the

rate-limiting enzyme in the cholesterol biosynthesis sequence that is

targeted by the statin pharmaceutical drugs, comparison of the effects of

Mg2+ on lipoproteins with those of the statin drugs is warranted. Formation

of cholesterol in blood, as well as of cholesterol required in hormone

synthesis, and membrane maintenance, is achieved in a series of enzymatic

reactions that convert HMG-CoA to cholesterol. The rate-limiting reaction of

this pathway is the enzymatic conversion of HMG CoA to mevalonate via HMG

CoA. The statins and Mg inhibit that enzyme. Mg has effects that parallel

those of statins. For example, the enzyme that deactivates HMG-CoA Reductase

requires Mg, making Mg a Reductase controller rather than inhibitor. Mg is

also necessary for the activity of lecithin cholesterol acyl transferase

(LCAT), which lowers LDL-C and triglyceride levels and raises HDL-C levels. "

Desaturase is another Mg-dependent enzyme involved in lipid metabolism which

statins do not directly affect.

DHEA is a steroid hormone produced by the adrenal gland and ovaries and

converted to testosterone and estrogen. After being secreted by the adrenal

glands, it circulates in the bloodstream as DHEA-sulfate (DHEAS) and is

converted as needed into other hormones. Magnesium chloride, when applied

transdermally, is reported by Dr. Norman Shealy to increase DHEA. Dr. Shealy

has determined that when the body is presented with adequate levels of

magnesium at the cellular level, the body will begin to naturally produce

DHEA and also DHEA-S.

Transdermal is the ultimate way to replenish cellular magnesium levels.

Every cell in the body bathes and feeds in it and even DHEA levels are

increased naturally, according to Dr. Norman Shealy. This effect is not seen

in oral or intravenous magnesium administration and Dr. Shealy has a patent

pending in this area. It is thought that transdermal application interacts

in some way with the fatty tissues of the skin to create the affect. Studies

link low levels of DHEA to chronic inflammation, immune dysfunction,

depression, rheumatoid arthritis, Type-II diabetic complications, greater

risk for certain cancers, heart disease and osteoporosis.

Magnesium and Glutathione

Without sufficient magnesium, the body accumulates toxins and acid residues,

degenerates rapidly, and ages prematurely.

According to Dr. Blaylock, low magnesium is associated with dramatic

increases in free radical generation as well as glutathione depletion and

this is vital since glutathione is one of the few antioxidant molecules

known to neutralize mercury. Glutathione requires magnesium for its

synthesis. Glutathione synthetase requires ?-glutamyl cysteine, glycine,

ATP, and magnesium ions to form glutathione.

In magnesium deficiency, the enzyme y-glutamyl transpeptidase is lowered.

Data demonstrates a direct action of glutathione both in vivo and in vitro

to enhance intracellular magnesium and a clinical linkage between cellular

magnesium, GSH/GSSG ratios, and tissue glucose metabolism. Magnesium

deficiency causes glutathione loss, which is not affordable because

glutathione helps to defend the body against damage from cigarette smoking,

exposure to radiation, cancer chemotherapy, and toxins such as alcohol and

just about everything else.

Scientific Miracles in Medicine

The 21st century is seeing the plagues of diabetes, heart disease, cancer

and neurological diseases explode with the entire western medical

establishment confused about even the most basic health issues. The three

trillion dollar medical machine in the United States is impotent against

chronic diseases and is responsible itself for much of the horror that is

happening.

Medical basics, we have to get back to them returning to the understanding

of the simplest things like water. What do you give a person coming out of a

week long walk in the desert without water? A coke? Do we have to do a

thousand double blind studies to realize there is only one answer? Are we

that dumb that medicine cannot see the forest from the trees?

When someone is in cardiac arrest or are having a stroke, having panic

attacks with heart palpitations what is the first thing, the very first

thing we would reach for like one would reach for a six shooter? Our

biological engine is seizing up what do we do? For the next million years

there is going to be only one answer and that answer is magnesium preferably

in the chloride form. It will never change either for that person coming out

of the desert; water will always be the answer to the need. We are talking

so close to the source of life when talking about water or magnesium. But

unfortunately there will always be those who think giving a coke to a very

thirsty person is just fine and doctors who think they can forget about

nature and try to substitute something to stand in magnesium's place.

The bedrock of medical truth sits upon the metal magnesium for it is at the

exact center of biological life like air and water is. All of life collapses

around its loss, but with only the smallest amount of caring and

intelligence we can replete what has been lost inside of a person's cells.

The realization that magnesium is at the center of life in chlorophyll

should help us place magnesium in the temple it deserves. It is the ultimate

love drug when used as a medicine. It's the first thing you give a person if

you want to give something necessary and helpful.

It will take this entire book to present all the reasons that magnesium

qualifies as a love drug; there are reasons that take us out of the physical

body and into emotional, mental and spiritual bodies. Psychologists and

psychiatrists also have to discover magnesium for it offers them a tool they

have not found anywhere else. Magnesium is the Lamp of Life; it operates at

the core of physiology offering us what can only be called scientific

miracles in medicine. Though other substances like Vitamin C or even iodine

are powerful competitors they cannot compare in sheer healing horsepower to

magnesium.

Magnesium Medicine

It is no exaggeration for me to say that magnesium saved my life. But is

ironic that I am the one saying it, because during my diverse medical career

in general medicine, my greatest expertisehas always been prescription

drugs, not natural supplements.

Dr. Jay S. Cohen

The Magnesium Solution for High Blood Pressure

Magnesium serves hundreds of important functions in the body and for that

reason it has virtually no side effects. Researchers all over the world have

confirmed its vital role yet, despite the intensive scientific brainpower

that has been directed toward magnesium most doctors know hardly anything

about it and never consider magnesium for treating patients. Magnesium comes

to us with scientific evidence that dwarfs the evidence presented by

pharmaceutical companies for any of their prescription drugs but its use is

still contained. (See chapter on why doctors do not use more magnesium)

Magnesium chloride treatments address systemic nutritional deficiencies, act

to improve the function of our cells and immune system, and help protect

cells from oxidative damage. Its a systemic medicine as well as a local one

bringing new life and energy to the cells wherever it is applied topically.

When used with oral administration, transdermal magnesium therapy offers us

the opportunity to get dosages up to the powerful therapeutic range without

compromising intestinal comfort through oral use alone.

What we have found is that magnesium chloride, applied transdermally, is the

ideal magnesium delivery system with health benefits unequalled in the

entire world of medicine.

Magnesium chloride solutions offer a medical miracle to humanity, one that

many have sought but have not found. In fact Dr. Carolyn Dean, titled her

book The Magnesium Miracle and she could not have been more correct. Nothing

short of a miracle is to be expected with increases in the cellular levels

of magnesium if those levels have been depleted.

There is no wonder drug that can claim, in the clear, what magnesium

chloride can do. Most people will show dramatic improvements in the state of

their health when they replete their magnesium levels and the very best way

to do that is with magnesium chloride applied transdermally (baths and body

spraying), orally, vaporized into the lungs, diluted for use with ones eyes,

intravenously, and even in douches and enemas.

Constant magnesium massages are what kings and queens should be dreaming of.

With such " brine solutions " the concentrate can simply be applied to the

skin or poured into bath water, and in an instant we have a medical

treatment without equal in the world of medicine. Intensive transdermal and

oral magnesium therapy can be safely applied every day for constantly

strengthened health.

Hidden in each cubic mile of ocean water is enough healing power to put the

pharmaceutical companies out of business.

And there are medical reasons why we love the beach and ocean. Intensive

magnesium baths, aerosolized iodine, vitamin D natural style and grounding

to the earth through the sand. Medical science and the pharmaceutical

companies will eventually have to deal with the fact that the most powerful

and universal medicine on earth is a basic nutrient from the sea and can be

purchased by anyone at low cost.

Magnesium is nothing short of a miracle to a person deficient in this

mineral. So clear and observable are the effects that there is no mistake,

no mysticism, no false claim made. Emergency room personnel know of this and

use either magnesium sulfate or chloride to save peoples lives during heart

attacks or to diminish the damage from strokes. And new research suggests

that MgSO4 infusions may have a role in cerebral vasospasm prophylaxis if

therapy is initiated within 48 hours of aneurysm rupture.

Medicine today is more and more frequently described in terms of science.

With the origin and development of drugs and surgical techniques, modern

medicine has thought itself to be evermore exact and evermore resembling the

hard sciences of chemistry and physics. In the case of magnesium, medicine

has fallen from the grace of the pure sciences, which insists that they are

ignoring the best medicine available anywhere. Magnesium is clearly

evidence-based medicine but the quality of the evidence used pharmaceutical

medicine is highly suspect. There is no such cloud of doubt hanging over the

scientific evidence that makes it clear why magnesium would be both potent

and safe.

When it comes to cardiac disease we create our primary protocol around

magnesium, selenium and iodine. These three core minerals, when backed up

with a strong naturopathic protocol, which includes natural mercury

detoxification of the heart tissues, will transform cardiology into a field

of medicine that does not have its patients dying like flies.

About the author

Mark A. Sircus Ac., OMD, is director of the International Medical Veritas

Association (IMVA)http://www.imva.info/. Dr. Sircus was trained in

acupuncture and oriental medicine at the Institute of Traditional Medicine

in Sante Fe, N.M., and in the School of Traditional Medicine of New England

in Boston. He served at the Central Public Hospital of Pochutla, in México,

and was awarded the title of doctor of oriental medicine for his work. He

was one of the first nationally certified acupuncturists in the United

States. Dr. Sircus's IMVA is dedicated to unifying the various disciplines

in medicine with the goal of creating a new dawn in healthcare.

He is particularly concerned about the effect vaccinations have on

vulnerable infants and is identifying the common thread of many toxic agents

that are dramatically threatening present and future generations of

children. His book The Terror of Pediatric Medicine is a free e-book one can

read. Dr. Sircus is a most prolific and courageous writer and one can read

through hundreds of pages on his various web sites.

He has most recently released his Survival Medicine for the 21st Century

compendium (2,200 page ebook) and just released the Winning the War Against

Cancer book. Dr. Sircus is a pioneer in the area of natural detoxification

and chelation of toxic chemicals and heavy metals. He is also a champion of

the medicinal value of minerals and is fathering in a new medical approach

that uses sea water and different concentrates taken from it for health and

healing. Transdermal Magnesium Therapy, his first published work, offers a

stunning breakthrough in medicine, an entirely new way to supplement

magnesium that naturally increases DHEA levels, brings cellular magnesium

levels up quickly, relieves pain, brings down blood pressure and pushes cell

physiology in a positive direction. Magnesium chloride delivered

transdermally brings a quick release from a broad range of conditions.

International Medical Veritas Association: http://www.imva.info/