19. SUICIDE AND THE
MAGNESIUM DEFICIT
WHAT is it that makes a person jump off a bridge, swallow an
overdose of pills, turn on the gas jets, or put a gun to his
temple? Whatever it is that triggers this kind of desperate
action is at the root of the most widely misunderstood of our
health and social problems. Suicide is the most irrational of all
individual actions. Most of us realize this. Yet every 20 minutes
in the United States someone takes his own life. Can anything be
done to stem this tragedy of self-destruction which accounts for
22,000 deaths annually, which is the tenth leading cause of death
in our nation, and which among college students is the second
leading cause of death?
In this great big expanding world full of so many splendors,
so many opportunities for growth, enrichment, so many exciting
experiences to anticipate that one lifetime is hardly sufficient
for all of them, why would anyone want to pull down the curtain
before the show is over? Certainly it isn't that the trials and
troubles are meted out more to the suicide-prone than to those
with zest for life. Haven't you seen people with the troubles of
a job manfully shouldering their packs with never a thought of
ending it all? No, it isn't the troubles. We all have our share
of those. Is it then a capacity for handling burdens--the
emotional stability that, when troubles abound, whispers in your
ear, "This too shall pass"?
And what is it that gives one this emotional stability? Is
this quality in some way dependent upon your physical health
which in turn is dependent upon your nutrition?
According to a French scientist, it definitely is--and
particularly related to a mineral that has only recently been
recognized as essential in human nutrition, but has been so
neglected that the specific daily requirement has never been
officially determined.
Would you believe that increasing lack in our diets of the
mineral magnesium could in some way be linked to the increasing
suicide rate in our country? Does this sound irrational, too pat,
farfetched? Let's look at the evidence and you be the judge.
French scientist, M. L.
Robinet, in a study of suicide statistics, discovered that
"the comparison of geological maps and statistics establishes in
a striking manner the influence of the magnesium content of the
soil on the number of suicides. It is evident," M. Robinet points
out, "that one doesn't commit suicide because the soil is poor in
magnesium. But, those who
regularly absorb a good amount of magnesium salts have a more
stable equilibrium, they support adversity with more calm and do
not renounce, everything to avoid some sorrow.
"The use of magnesium permits one to support adversity with
more serenity," M. Robinet concludes in the Bulletin of the Academy of Medicine published in
France (1934).
Apparently M. Robinet's study has been largely overlooked in
this country where the inability to "cope" is treated on the
psychiatrist's couch and not generally by improving one's
nutrition.
And yet there are many clues in the scientific literature that
lead one to the conclusion that this mineral in plentiful supply
is vital to mental health and the innate ability to see the
silver lining behind the clouds.
Small Problems Loom Large
It would seem from experimental studies on animals that when
one is low on magnesium, small problems loom large, even
overpowering. Thus animals deprived of magnesium suffer from
superexcitability to such an extent that they become hysterical
at the sound of small noises or the sight of shadows.
Symptoms of magnesium depletion in man as reported by Dr. L.
M. Dalderup of the Netherlands Institute of Nutrition in the Swiss
publication Voeding (August 15, 1960) are excitability
and apprehensiveness, muscle twitchings, tremor, myoclonus--not
responding to calcium administration-confusion, and
disorientation. Indeed the blood of people suffering from extreme
irritability has been found to be low in magnesium.
Recently much new knowledge has been gained about the role of
magnesium in general
metabolism. This mineral activates
some 30 enzymes in the body, it takes an active role in the
metabolism of protein, fat, and carbohydrate; it influences the
action of some of the vitamins and hormones.
Magnesium, says Dr. Lewis B. Barnett, is needed by the pituitary
gland. The pituitary, sometimes called the miracle gland, takes
instructions from the hypothalamus in the brain to which it is
connected by a thin stalk, then transmits them through the body
in the form of chemical messengers known as hormones. These
hormones not only exert a direct influence of their own, but also
trigger the production of other vital hormones elsewhere in the
body. When the pituitary is not getting the magnesium it needs,
it fails in its function of exercising a sort of thermostatic
control over the adrenals which are thus allowed to overproduce
adrenaline. It is known that situations of danger incite the
activity of the adrenal glands. Troubles or worry also incite the
adrenal glands, which then pour hormones through the body that
increase heartbeat, release sugar from the liver, and contribute
to a host of problems not the least of which is hyperexcitability
and an inability to "cope."
According to some startling new data presented at the meeting
of the American Societies for Experimental Biology in May, 1966
the adrenal glands also contribute to the desire of a suicide to
cut himself away from life.
Scientific evidence was presented at this conference that
showed how, in the split instant of final decision to take his
life, it is the glands rather than the psyche that give that last
little push. New data indicated that "successful suicides
probably had highly active adrenal glands just before their
deaths. That discovery fits neatly into other observations that
depressed patients--those most likely to commit suicide--also
have more adrenal hormone in their blood than do normal persons,"
says Earl Ubell, science editor of
the Herald Tribune (May, 1966).
One investigation revealed that, just before attempting
suicide, depressed patients experience a rapid rise of adrenal
breakdown products in the urine. As reported in that study, a
laboratory made measurements on one woman, found an
extraordinarily high hormone level, and called her home to warn
her family only to find she had already killed herself.
Bone Storage No Answer
Magnesium triggers and controls so many bodily reactions that
without an ample supply one cannot possibly enjoy a zest for
living. Without an ample supply, one courts many debilitating
conditions, some of which possibly have not yet been identified.
Why is it generally ignored by the medical profession? Because
for many years it was believed that the magnesium in the bones
was a storehouse that supplied the tissues when they were in want
of it. But nutritionist Williard A.
Krehl, M.D., says in Nutrition
Today (September, 1967) that magnesium stored in the
bones is not released in response to a deficit the way calcium
is, and a wide variety of clinical circumstances exists in which
magnesium deficiency may develop rapidly and profoundly. Dr.
Krehl found many nervous disorders in patients suffering from
magnesium deficiency. More than 78 percent of these patients
suffered mental confusion, 83 percent were disoriented, all of
them suffered hyperreflexia, the kind of exaggerated reflexes
that make people jump when they hear an unexpected noise from
behind.
We know that the psyche is influenced by the soma --that
physical ailments trigger mental upsets. "The most general
indications of impending suicide," says Dr. Matthew Ross of the Harvard Medical School, are emotional disorders that
manifest themselves in some significant change in basic
biological functions and behavior that cannot be
determined by routine physical examinations."
These people who are potential suicides are aware of some
disturbance in their bodies. Fifty percent of all suicides saw a
physician during the last month of their lives, says Dr. Robert
E. Litman of the Los Angeles
Suicide Prevention Center.
Dr. Jerome A. Motto of the
University of California found in a study of attempted and
completed suicides in San Francisco that one out of every 25
cases saw a physician on the same day be chose
self-destruction.
Ironically, although physicians should be in the best position
to note warnings of an impending suicide threat and avert it,
says Dr. Howard A. Rusk, medical
columnist of The New York
Times (January 21, 1968), the suicide rate among physicians
is much higher than that of the general population.
A study by Dr. Daniel DeSole
of the Veterans Administration Hospital in Albany showed that 26
percent of all deaths among physicians 25 to 39 years of age were
suicides. This compares to a rate of 9 percent for white males in
the same age group.
Doctors, with a few rare exceptions, tend to preach and
practice the doctrine of "Eat a balanced diet and you will get
all the nutrients you need."
In a recent 900-page book on clinical nutrition, written as a
reference book for the practicing physician and as a textbook for
medical students, the word magnesium is not mentioned or listed
in the index. The assumption is that it is unimportant because it
is generously supplied in our foods. But is it? Not only are
meats, eggs, and dairy products,
the staples of the high protein diet so many Americans are
subscribing to, low in magnesium, but the more protein you
consume, the more magnesium you need to metabolize this
protein.
A study done by Menaker and Kleiner published in Pro. Soc.
Exp. Biol. (81, 1952) of nitrogen balance in respect to
magnesium content of adult animals indicated that a high protein
diet enlarged the need for magnesium. A high protein diet could
even induce acute magnesium deficiency symptoms, because
magnesium is involved in important amino acid
transformations.
With our country growing more affluent and people eating more
meat, the magnesium deficiency seem to be increasing year by
year. This may provide some explanation why people who seem to
have so much to live for work themselves up into emotional states
in which they kill themselves.
It should be noted that large amounts of calcium, too,
aggravate magnesium deficiency. Milk
has very little if any magnesium. People on weight-watching
diets that emphasize proteins and skimmed milk should be careful
to include plenty of magnesium. The best
source of magnesium is fresh green vegetables, but much of this heat-sensitive mineral is lost
in the cooking water. Raw wheat germ is an excellent source, but
this nutrient is lost in the flour refining process. Nuts,
especially almonds, are naturally rich in magnesium, but they
lose some in the roasting process.
Dr. Barnett told Prevention that, in a test he conducted on 5,000
people, 60 percent proved to be deficient in magnesium.
How much magnesium should one get? On the basis of his
findings, Dr. Barnett recommends 600 milligrams a day. How can
you be sure of getting that much? Make sure your diet is rich in
green leafy vegetables (uncooked), in raw nuts and seeds, and, to
be on the safe side of the mineral balance, take a dolomite supplement. Dolomite limestone supplies a
good balance, not only of calcium and magnesium, but also of many
trace minerals which, in minute quantities, play an important and
often overlooked role in human nutrition.
Last year a Center for Studies of Suicide Prevention was
established within the National
Institute of Mental Health. It is publishing a new periodical
Bulletin of Suicidology. The center's program includes
support of suicide prevention activities, follow-up studies,
research and training grants, refinement of statistics on
suicide, and training of personnel. We wonder if all of these
sophisticated and high-priced procedures will lead ultimately to
the Nutrition to Discourage Suicide.
We don't mean to imply that dolomite will succeed in solving
the problems that weigh on the shoulders of every potential
suicide. It won't pay gambling debts or solve your income tax
underpayments or make your mother-in-law more appreciative of
your virtues. But it might just be the element that helps put the
rosy hue in your glasses. It might be that little extra something
that transforms a problem too big to support into a challenge to
be tackled with a sense of adventure, cheer, and a twinkle in the
eye. It's worth trying.
PREVIOUS CHAPTER:
Chapter 18. Some Letters
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