The mineral that could have saved 4 million women - Letters to the Editor

Townsend Letter for Doctors and Patients,  July, 2003  

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Editor:

Modern medicine has made a remarkable admission. Its failure to utilize a simple, inexpensive intravenous mineral drip might have saved the lives of millions of women over the past century. Modern medicine knew about the cure since 1906. [New England Journal Medicine 333: 201-05, 1995]

Around 210 million women become pregnant annually around the world and every minute a woman dies in pregnancy or childbirth, with a quarter of these deaths due to a condition called pre-eclampsia which can lead to the more severe and mortal condition called eclampsia. Women may develop high blood pressure during pregnancy (pre-eclampsia) and during or prior to birth may experience life-threatening seizures (eclampsia). About 5-10 percent of women in their first pregnancy develop pre-eclampsia.

Over the past century, drugs rather than minerals have been employed to treat eclampsia, Diazepam (Valium) in 1968 and then phenytoin (Dilantin) in 1987. During the period 1905 to 1987 an estimated 42 million women may have undergone eclamptic convulsion and possibly 4 million died. The modern therapy for eclampsia now includes calcium-blocking drugs and a host of anti-hypertensive agents. Drugs may reduce the risk of severe high blood pressure, but not the overall rate of hypertension nor the risk of eclampsia. [The Cochrane Library, Issue 2, 2002] Yet the anticonvulsant drugs continue to be employed with little reliable evidence that they work.

Finally, a study of 10,141 women in 33 countries has shown beyond a "reasonable doubt" that intravenous magnesium reduces the risks of eclampsia among women with pre-eclampsia. The relative risk of eclampsia was reduced by 58% and the mortality rate nearly cut in half among women receiving magnesium compared to those who receive a saline drip. The authors of the study concluded that "magnesium sulfate is remarkably effective at reducing the risk of eclampsia." [The Lancet 359: 1877-90, June 1, 2002]

Not The First Time

This wasn't the first study to conclusively show magnesium sulfate is a remedy for eclampsia. In a 1995 study heralded as the most important obstetric trial of the 20th century, magnesium sulfate was found to be the most effective approach to controlling convulsions during childbirth. [British Medical Journal 311: 702-03, 1995] By 1998, data from numerous studies had been analyzed and it was known that magnesium was superior to any anticonvulsant drugs. [Cochrane Review 2002] This evidence still didn't convince most obstetrical doctors.

Seven years after the report showing magnesium reduces the risk of mortality from eclampsia, a report endorsed by the World Health Organization (WHO), UNICEF and the World Bank, magnesium sulfate is still not available to millions of women worldwide. British medical researchers are pleading with the World Bank and WHO to fund and disseminate treatment kits. [The Lancet 359: June 1, 2002]

Clues Were There

It wasn't as if physicians had no clues as to the cause of eclampsia. The worldwide mortality rates from eclampsia vary widely from country to country. The mortality rate from eclampsia ranges from 0 to 13.9%. [European Society Cardiology 21st Annual Congress, Sept. 1, 1999] So there are obviously some modifiable factors involved in the development of eclampsia among pregnant females. Pre-eclampsia and eclampsia are the most important causes of death during pregnancy in the United Kingdom, USA and Nordic countries, nations that consume the most calcium-rich dairy products. Calcium and magnesium must be maintained in a proper ratio to maintain proper muscle tone and prevent convulsive muscle spasms. Furthermore, estrogen and progesterone levels, which increase as a pregnancy advances, elevate the body's demand for magnesium. (Journal American College 0/Nutrition 12:442-58, 1993] Magnesium is a natural calcium blocker. [American Journal Medicine 96: 63-76, 1994]

Magnesium Shunned for Heart Disease Too

This isn't the first time magnesium has been shunned in favor of prescription drugs. In the 1990s a preliminary report showed that intravenous magnesium reduced mortality rates following a heart attack. This was apparently perceived as a threat to the sale of calcium-blocking drugs used for the same purpose. Medical researchers, financially backed by a pharmaceutical company that produces calcium-blocker drugs, deliberately chose to use an excessive dose of intravenous magnesium to prove it was of no value during the post-heart attack period. [Townsend Letter for Doctors, October 1998] The sale of calcium-blockers never faltered. There are more than 64 million annual prescriptions for calcium blocking drugs (Procardia, Cardizem, Norvasc, Verpamil, Adalat, Dilacor, Verelan, Calan), with sales exceeding $2.5 billion. [American Druggist 1997]

Magnesium May Prevent Sudden-Death Heart Attacks

Magnesium is not limited to treating heart disease after a heart attack. A shortage of dietary magnesium has been repeatedly shown to be associated with an increased risk of sudden-death heart attack. Unequivocally, a shortage of magnesium from the American diet, in particular the absence or shortage of magnesium in drinking water, is directly related to sudden-death heart attack. [Epidemiology 10: 31-36, 1999; Heart 82: 455-60,1999; American Journal Epidemiology 143: 456-62, 19961 Out of 750,000 heart attacks in the USA annually, an estimated 340,000 deaths occur within one hour of a heart attack. [Journal Nutrition Health Aging 5: 17378, 2001]