Magnesium supplements helped chronic kidney disease patients who were obese and had low magnesium levels improve their insulin-resistance and disease profiles, clinical trial results showed.
The supplements also led to improvements in other metabolic measures, including obesity and the pre-diabetic state, underscoring magnesium’s importance to obese kidney disease patients.
The study, “Magnesium Replacement Improves the Metabolic Profile in Obese and Pre-Diabetic Patients with Mild-to-Moderate Chronic Kidney Disease: A 3-Month, Randomised, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Study,” was published in the journal Kidney and Blood Pressure Research.
Researchers at the Balikesir University School of Medicine in Turkey recruited 128 people with mild or moderate chronic kidney disease for their study. All patients were obese and pre-diabetic, with blood glucose levels higher than normal but not high enough for a diabetes diagnosis. They also had low levels of magnesium.
Patients were randomized into two groups. One received 365 mg of magnesium supplementation once a day for three months, the other a placebo. The trial was double-blind, meaning that neither patients nor study staff knew which treatment a patient was receiving.
The groups did not differ in disease severity, weight, or metabolic-factor blood levels. In addition, they were receiving similar treatments for their kidney disease.
After three months, the magnesium levels of those on the supplements had reached normal levels. The supplement takers had significantly lower levels of fasting insulin, blood glucose and insulin resistance than at the start of the study. They also had lower blood pressure and smaller waists.
Importantly, the supplement group had lower levels of uric acid and less protein in their urine.
The supplement takers also had lower measures of metabolic syndrome, obesity, and pre-diabetes, although the differences between them and the placebo group were not statistically significant.
Three patients receiving magnesium, or 5.2 percent, and one person in the placebo group reported slight stomach ache and mild diarrhea. The symptoms disappeared without treatment within 24 hours of the participants stopping their intake of the mineral or the placebo.
“Our data support the argument that magnesium supplementation improves the metabolic status in hypomagnesemic CKD patients with pre-diabetes and obesity,” the researchers concluded.