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Why Cancer Researchers Are Looking Into Magnesium Daniel Grizelj – Getty Images<\/p>\n
A new study suggests that taking a magnesium supplement may lower the risk of colorectal cancer in some people.<\/p>\n
This could have to do with magnesium’s involvement in making vitamin D useful to the body, because vitamin D may play a role in cancer prevention, too.<\/p>\n
Still, more research is needed before experts can recommend taking a magnesium supplement for this purpose. <\/p>\n
Everyone has their go-to hack for a good night\u2019s sleep, but it\u2019s hard to ignore that magnesium<\/a> is having a moment. Now, new research suggests this popular supplement<\/a> could do more than help you conk out at bedtime.<\/p>\n The study, which was published in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition<\/a>, suggests magnesium may affect processes in the body that are linked to colorectal cancer risk. So, what\u2019s behind this and what should you do with this info? Doctors break it down.<\/p>\n Meet the experts: Nagi B. Kumar, PhD, RD<\/a>, is a senior member of the Cancer Epidemiology Program at Moffitt Cancer Center. Qi Dai, MD, PhD<\/a>, is the lead study author and a professor of medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. Martha J. Shrubsole, PhD<\/a>, is the study co-author and a research professor in epidemiology at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.<\/p>\n What did the study find?<\/p>\n For the study, researchers recruited 239 people and split them into two groups. One group was given a magnesium supplement and another received a placebo. (The exact amount of magnesium each person took was “individualized,” according to the study.) The researchers then analyzed the participants\u2019 gut microbiomes from stool samples, rectal swabs, and rectal tissue samples. The researchers also looked into the participants\u2019 TRPM7 genotype, which is a gene that helps control how the body absorbs magnesium and calcium.<\/p>\n The researchers found that people with good TRPM7 function who took a magnesium supplement<\/a> had higher levels of Carnobacterium maltaromaticum and Faecalibacterium prausnitzii, which can increase vitamin D in the gut and may play a role in colorectal cancer risk. In people with inadequate TRPM7 function, the magnesium supplement lowered the abundance of Faecalibacterium prausnitzii in the rectum.<\/p>\n These findings suggest that taking a magnesium supplement may lower the risk of colorectal cancer in people who have adequate TRPM7 function. However, it also shows that magnesium may not benefit everyone equally\u2014and genetics could matter.<\/p>\n Why might magnesium help lower the risk of colorectal cancer?<\/p>\n This is complicated. \u201cMagnesium is involved in hundreds of activities in the human body, so magnesium likely has many ways that it can help to lower the risk of colorectal cancer,\u201d says Qi Dai, MD, PhD<\/a>, lead study author and a professor of medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. \u201cOne way may be its involvement in making vitamin D useful to the body, because vitamin D can be important in preventing cancer too.\u201d<\/p>\n Dr. Dai\u2019s prior research found that magnesium helps increase levels of vitamin D in the blood when a person\u2019s vitamin D levels were previously low. \u201cIn this study, magnesium helped to increase the amount of vitamin D-producing bacteria in the colon,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n But this is an \u201cinitial observation\u201d of a link between magnesium, vitamin D, colorectal cancer, and certain bacteria, points out Nagi B. Kumar, PhD, RD<\/a>, senior member of the Cancer Epidemiology Program at Moffitt Cancer Center. Meaning, more work needs to be done.<\/p>\n What does this mean going forward?<\/p>\n Don\u2019t put yourself on a magnesium supplement in hopes of lowering your cancer risk just yet\u2014more research is needed, Kumar reiterates. Still, plenty of people don\u2019t get enough magnesium in their diet as-is, points out Martha J. Shrubsole, PhD<\/a>, study co-author and a research professor in epidemiology at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.<\/p>\n \u201cAlthough we can\u2019t say with 100% certainty that increasing magnesium intake will lower a person\u2019s colorectal cancer risk, there are many potential health reasons<\/a> to increase your magnesium intake through diet and\/or supplementation to meet the Recommended Dietary Allowance<\/a>,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n As always, talk to your healthcare provider before putting yourself on magnesium\u2014or any supplement\u2014to make sure it\u2019s a good fit first.<\/p>\n You Might Also Like<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Why Cancer Researchers Are Looking Into Magnesium Daniel Grizelj – Getty Images A new study suggests that taking…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":400672,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[55992,21874,97,88470,200661,105772,10034],"class_list":["post-419768","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-cancer-epidemiology","tag-colorectal-cancer","tag-health","tag-moffitt-cancer-center","tag-nagi-b-kumar","tag-study-author","tag-vanderbilt-university"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/419768","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=419768"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/419768\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/400672"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=419768"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=419768"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=419768"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}