Building your body - Magnesium

There are a few people into body building in various forms. But is nutrition adequately considered?

Whether we exercise to build or tone muscles or just stretch regularly and breathe deep such as with Qi Gong and Tai Chi, we are continually building our body.

Do we ever give enough or any consideration to our nutrition? Answer - seldom, mostly never.

Our bodies are very complex machines - organic, but still, machines. How do you treat a machine to keep it running like new? Maintain it, so it gets everything it needs!!

Most treat their cars much, much better than their bodies. Just consider YOUR diet.

OK - here is what I want to tell you that might be a little scary at first. I discovered this small fact about Magnesium in an old biochemistry text - published in 1979 - so the information has been around for some time and here it is.

Magnesium is needed for the optimal activity in the manufacture of protein (polypeptides) in the body. That's not all of course but the humble magnesium is a very important element.

So what? Proteins in many forms are what we are - our makeup, how we look-saggy or not, how we move and think.

Again, that's not all there is to it.

How our body gets made
Magnesium and amino acids (basic protein buiding blocks) plus special nucleic (from DNA) enzymes (eg aminoacyl tRNA synthetase), pyrophosphatase and ATP (adenosine triphosphate - created in the mitochondria where CoenzymeQ10 is necessary) react in four basic steps to form protein.

A deficiency may even cause new proteins to form or incomplete translations to occur - is it a real wonder that there are so many illnesses.

This is the right time to ask yourself - but why didn't someone tell me this before now - someone did - it was just not made available to you - until now - and if you read this and follow up.

That's enough biochem for this blog - but you get the picture. Remove any one of the above components and what do you think will happen to YOU - right, not much, for awhile. At least not too much that you will be able to feel until there have been that many mistakes made by the various deficiencies that it may be impossible to correct the mutations.

Just ponder on this and get the feeling - you don't need to be a biochem whiz to get a gut feeling from a basic truth you read.

So magnesium is very important - and guess what - it is also somewhat rare in our diets and in our foods.

We are alot like plants in the way we use materials - one basic truth is that the pH, the acidity/ alkalinity in various parts of our body MUST be in line with what has to happen in a particular place. For example the stomach must be very acidic with a pH of around 2 while the small intestine is around 6 to 6.5 - what happens if the pH in these areas is not right - chaos!

Without a low pH the food in the stomach cannot be reduced to smaller particles but the pH in the duodenum (first part of the small intestine) must be alot higher or much more alkaline - this is the job of the pancreas. The small intestine prepares broken down food for absorption of its nutrients and also absorbs the nutrients. If the pH is too low most elements will not be useful - as is the case with plants and as in plants the rule of thumb is "lose one, lose them all" - this just takes a little time but it will happen.

So even though the body is getting a little magnesium to help make proteins (that keep you alive) much of it may not be useable, either due to incorrect pH or deficiencies in magnesium or other elements that 'synergize' and basically help the 'group' to be useable. You see it is never one thing that goes wrong that causes a health problem, but it is the one that leads to the many errors that leads to big problems.

How do I get more nutrition from my food?
Drink it! That's right - juice fresh, raw fruit and veges and drink it. Nutrients are much more absorbable in juice and the body can use them quickly and easily without the hassle of breaking it all down - and all that chewing - impossible to get enough - all you get from trying to chew through all that raw food is a sore jaw - forget it, just buy a juicer and try the juice approach.
This is especially important if you already have an illness - fresh juices contain live enzymes and phytonutrients that do not last long, so drink it FRESH - do not store juice.

DEFICIENCIES !! A major cause of illness.

Source of Magnesium - cheap and effective - epsom salts. Use care as epsom salts (Magnesium sulphate heptahydrate, MgSO4.7H2O) is an old remedy which can loosen the bowel (like vitamin C) if taken to excess. Try some in the bath or a footbath as it will absorb through the skin direct into the bloodstream and thus bypassing the bowel. You get your magnesium and sulphate (sulphur is also an important element).

More Reading -Keyphrases
- Biosynthesis of Nucleic acids and Proteins
- Polypeptide (Protein) Biosynthesis - Gene Translation

One more thing - guard your thoughts - how you think is how you become!

All the best in your search for health.

Pan Cleared

..this is a press release from the Democrats, see link for the original below

"Democrats Demand Howard Apologise for Pan Pharmaceuticals Witch Hunt

The Howard Government must now apologise following the acquittal of Pan Pharmaceuticals boss Jim Selim in the New South Wales Supreme Court. The pharmaceuticals giant was forced into administration in May 2003 following the largest pharmaceutical recall in Australias history.
It was a pointless exercise targeting complementary medicines and it sent hundreds of small businesses broke, Democrats leader and Health spokesperson Senator Allison said today. The Howard Government turned its back on the mess and just walked away.
1500 products were recalled, not because they caused adverse reactions, but because of speculation about inconsistent quality. Senator Allison raised concerns in the Senate at that time about what was playing out as a destructive over-reaction.
Mr.Selim was accused of a litany of charges, including breaching his manufacturing licence. In the end only two counts made it to court which were thrown out today.
The unprecedented recall had a devastating effect on small businesses and shook public confidence in complementary health, Senator Allison said. The very least those who have suffered deserve is an apology."

for the original press release, see -

http://www.democrats.org.au/news/index.htm?press_id=5806&display=1