Magnesium and obesity: effects of treatment on magnesium and other parameters

Obesity, a well-known phenomenon in Western society, is frequently associated with cardiovascular and endocrine disease. Strokes, myocardial infarction, diabetes and hyperlipidemia are classical reasons for the high mortality and morbidity of overweight people. For this reason, intensive weight-reduction programs have been proposed: low-calorie diets, total starvation, drugs and even surgery. Total starvation and some low-calorie diets are, however, also associated with sudden death, most probably of cardiac origin. Experimental data from our laboratory show that total starvation is accompanied by a severe depletion of magnesium in myocardial tissue. Protein-sparing modified low-calorie diets, however, can protect against this mineral loss even if magnesium supplementation alone cannot obtain this goal. Applying these principles in overweight man show weight reduction without mineral loss or cardiac disturbance. Surgery with 'ileal bypass' procedures gives rise to severe hypomagnesemia and hypocalcemia with tetany and spasmophilia. New procedures, derived from experimental surgery, are 'gastric bypass' and 'gastroplasty'. These methods, only applied in very obese patients (body mass index greater than 40, normal 23-27) show no change in mineral concentrations of calcium and magnesium and no clinical symptoms suggestive for mineral loss. A good, controlled weight-reduction program under strict medical surveillance can, in this way, offer new perspectives in the treatment of one of our most frequent 'culture-induced' diseases.