I’m a 35 year old woman and I suffer with palpitations. I don’t have panic attacks, just a pounding in my chest. My doctor examined me and said I have a mild mitral valve prolapse . He said not to worry about it, but I do. Any suggestions?

L.M.

While most cases of palpitations are found to be unrelated to serious heart problems, you did the right thing by seeing your physician first. Mitral valve prolapse is a fairly common condition that involves a loss of tone or deformity of the mitral valve of the heart. This can cause the valve to develop a leak known as a “heart murmur”. Most cases of mitral valve prolapse don’t cause symptoms and are not a major problem. That being said, you may be suffering from a magnesium deficiency. Magnesium is an essential mineral that is arguably the single most deficient element in the American diet. The recommended daily allowance for magnesium is 280 mg. a day for women, and 350 mg. a day for men. Unfortunately the average American takes in between 143 and 266 mg. a day. The following list of the top ten richest sources and the ten poorest dietary sources of magnesium will tell you why we’re deficient. Based on the milligrams of magnesium in a 3 1/2 ounce serving:

If you’re like most people, you choose more foods from column B than from column A. (Unless, of course, you’re a big fan of seaweed and buckwheat lasagna with a nice brazil nut, molasses glaze!)

This shortfall may be extremely significant, since the tissues in our bodies that depend most on magnesium to function properly are the brain, heart, liver, kidneys and bone. Although calcium supplementation gets most of the headlines, magnesium may be far more important for many people. Many studies published in major medical journals have linked low levels of magnesium in our bodies to diseases that are very common in our society. These include heart disease (heart attack, congestive heart failure and arrhythmias, mitral valve prolapse, etc.) high blood pressure, kidney stones, osteoporosis, cancer, chronic fatigue, PMS, migraines, menstrual cramps, and problems in muscle and nerve function.

Recent research studies show that 85 percent of patients with mitral valve prolapse have a chronic magnesium deficiency. There are already several studies demonstrating that taking oral magnesium supplements actually improves mitral valve prolapse. This is not difficult to see when you understand what magnesium does in the heart.

One of the reasons heart problems are related to a magnesium deficiency, is that the heart depends on magnesium to regulate the rate, rhythm, and strength of heart muscle contractions. It also regulates blood vessel tone, thereby affecting blood supply to the heart itself. One recent study published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, found that body magnesium levels directly affected survival rates in patients with congestive heart failure (CHF). In patients with normal levels, the 1 and 2 year survival rates were 71 and 61 percent, compared to rates of 45 and 42 percent in patients with lower magnesium levels. Making matters worse, is the fact that most conventional drug therapies for CHF (digitalis, diuretics, beta-blockers, calcium channel blockers) all cause depletion of the body’s magnesium.

Interestingly, mitral valve prolapse is also linked with migraine headaches. Mitral valve prolapse causes changes in blood platelets. This causes the platelets to release substances that lead to the dilation or expansion of blood vessels in the head. We now know that migraines are most likely caused by, or strongly associated with these changes in blood flow to the brain. In another recent study, magnesium levels were monitored in adult migraine sufferers both while they were suffering a migraine and when they were headache-free. It found that migraine sufferers had significantly lower magnesium levels than those who were headache-free.

Experts agree that most of us can’t depend on our diets to get all the magnesium we need, and that the RDA values are just barely adequate and need to be revised. The best way to calculate how much magnesium you need is based on body weight. Figure on about 5-6 milligrams of magnesium per 2.2 pounds of body weight. (For a 110 pound person that comes out to 300 milligrams). Since you are already having symptoms of insufficient magnesium, supplementing with that amount would be helpful. Also, I would recommend that you avoid caffeine and other stimulants in all forms, and watch your calcium intake. High calcium intake and high intake of vitamin D-enriched dairy foods decreases the body’s absorption of magnesium.

While magnesium is very safe, I recommend supplementing with the proper levels of other essential minerals so you don’t cause an imbalance in absorption of these nutrients. Any patients I see are always put on a balanced formula for that reason. [Anyone with severe heart disease (such as advanced atrioventricular block), or kidney disease should not take magnesium without specifically consulting their physician.]