Magnesium is one of the most plentiful elements in nature and the fourth most abundant metal in living organisms. It is extremely important in both plant and animal metabolism. Photosynthesis does not proceed when the magnesium atom is removed from the chlorophyll molecule. Magnesium also plays a key role in many enzyme reactions that are critical to cellular metabolism and is one of the main determinants of biological excitation (Aikawa 1981).

Despite its ubiquitous distribution and the multiplicity of its actions, magnesium has long been considered as a microelement with a vague physiological role, and not until the early 1930s was it recognized as an essential nutrient. Magnesium deficiency in humans was only described in 1951, and according to several experts, it continues to be diagnosed less frequently than it should be (Whang 1987).

There are many explanations for the reluctance to allow magnesium deficiency a place in medicine; among them are the difficulties in measuring magnesium, which have restrained the accumulation of knowledge. Moreover, the essentially intracellular location of the magnesium ion has discouraged the detection of its deficit. Lastly, because magnesium is so widely distributed in foods, its dietary intake has been assumed to be sufficient to meet the body’s requirements.

Actually, pure magnesium deficiency is quite rare. Marginal deficiency of magnesium, however, is believed to occur fairly often in the general population. Moreover, in most diseases causing magnesium deficiency, significant nutritional factors exist.