Magnesium supplements could help lower diabetes risk

New research has found that taking a daily magnesium supplement could help overweight people who are also insulin resistant to improve their condition and prevent the onset of type 2 diabetes .
The study, by scientists at the Justus Liebig University in Germany and published in the journal Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolism, investigated the use of oral magnesium supplements for increasing insulin resistance . They monitored 52 overweight and insulin resistant patients, and who were not suffering from diabetes, over a period of six months, with half of them receiving active magnesium supplements and the other half a placebo .
It was shown that those who had taken the supplement had much healthier blood sugar levels, as well as an improvement in their insulin sensitivity .
The findings support another study published in the journal Diabetes Care that found that children with low levels of magnesium were much more likely to become insulin resistant, which significantly increases the risk of developing type 2 diabetes. Similar research has also found that small amounts of magnesium can be correlated with an increased risk of metabolic dysfunction .
The report pointed out that “The results provide significant evidence that oral magnesium supplementation improves insulin sensitivity even in overweight, non-diabetic subjects, emphasizing the need for an early optimization of magnesium status to prevent insulin resistance and subsequently type 2 diabetes.”