Do your shoulders feel tense all the time and it seems to never go away?

How about those twitchy restless legs that keep you up at night? If either of these symptoms bothers you; you may benefit from getting more magnesium into your diet. You see, our muscles require calcium to contract and magnesium to relax.  Contraction can occur when we are actively using our muscles or can be in response to stress.  Consistent stress (physical, job, emotional) can turn our body’s “fight or flight” system on by dumping acetylcholine into our muscle cells.  The acetylcholine funnels an overload of calcium into the cells to create sustained contraction.   This works well for us when we are being chased by a bear, however, it can work against us when that “bear” is merely someone yelling at us at the other end of the telephone.

Too much stress = overloaded calcium = chronically tense muscles.

 Stress and muscle fatigue is much easier to deal with when we have enough magnesium in our body.  Magnesium’s job is to enter the muscle cell, chase out calcium and turn off contraction.  Think of magnesium as the happy muscle mineral.   There are many reasons for being low in magnesium.  Stress is a big one, followed by a diet low in magnesium rich foods, or poor digestive ability to pull magnesium from foods. 

 If you suffer from chronically tense muscles and have a lot of stress in your life, I recommend looking into magnesium as something that may help you.  Keep in mind that supplementation of magnesium must be balanced with calcium.  A ratio of 2:1 calcium to magnesium is a good place to start.  Both magnesium and calcium are water soluble minerals so are generally safe to try because risk of toxicity is low unless excessive amounts are taken.  However, it is always smart to discuss supplementation with your medical professional especially when prescription medications are involved.