Assessment of magnesium status for diagnosis and therapy

Abstract. Magnesium is an essential element needed for health. Even though only 1 % of the total body magnesium is present in blood, the serum magnesium con-centration (SMC) is the predominant test used by medicine to assess magnesium status in patients. The traditional method to establish a reference interval for the SMC is flawed by the large number of “normal ” individuals who have a subtle chronic negative magnesium balance due to a significant decrease in magnesium intake over the past century. Evidence-based medicine should be used to establish the appropriate lower limit of the reference interval for health and I recommend 0.85 mmol/L based on current literature. The decrease in magnesium in the diet has led to chronic latent magnesium deficiency in a large number of people since their SMC is still within the reference interval due to primarily the bone magne-sium supplementing the SMC. These individuals need adjustment of their diet or magnesium supplementation to achieve a normal magnesium status for health. Key words: magnesium, serum, reference interval Magnesium is an important element for healt