Written by Greg Arnold, DC, CSCS. Pregnant women with gestational diabetes who supplemented with magnesium for 6 weeks significantly improved their blood sugar and blood lipid values and decreased their CRP and risk of newborn hyperbilirubinemia.
Gestational diabetes is a decreased ability to digest carbohydrates during pregnancy (1). The condition affects 3–10% of pregnant women (2) and is caused in part by the increased hormones produced during pregnancy that can lead to elevated inflammatory factors and biomarkers of cell damage (called “oxidative stress) (3, 4). These changes result in a decreased ability to maintain healthy blood sugar levels and hamper insulin metabolism (5).
Gestational diabetes can be a significant health problem not only for the mother by increasing her long-term risk of developing diabetes, metabolic syndrome, and heart disease or stroke (6), but also for the newborn by altering liver function and causing an increased level of a liver protein called bilirubin in the blood at birth, a condition called “hyperbilirubinemia” (7).
Now a new study (8) suggests that magnesium supplementation for women with gestational diabetes may help maintain a number of health parameters in the mother and also affect the health of the newborn. The study involved 70 women aged 24 to 34 with gestational diabetes. They were given either 250 milligrams of magnesium oxide (35 women) or placebo (35 women) daily for 6 weeks. Blood samples were taken before and after the supplementation period and newborns were tested for hyperbilirubinemia which the researchers defined in previous research (9).
After 6 weeks, the researchers noted significant improvements in several blood parameters beyond blood sugar, including a long-term measure of blood sugar control called HOMA-IR, an inflammatory protein called hs-CRP, and a level of cell damage called MDA:
| Magnesium Group | Placebo | p-value | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fasting Blood Sugar (mg/dL) | 9.8% decrease (95.1 to 85.8) | 2.5% increase (91.4 to 93.7) | < 0.001 |
| HOMA-IR | 13% decrease (3.1 to 2.7) | 46.8% increase (3.2 to 4.7) | < 0.001 |
| Triglycerides (mg/dL) | 1.2% decrease (173 to 171) | 21% increase (166.5 to 201.5) | 0.005 |
| VLDL Cholesterol (mg/dL) | 0.6% decrease (34.1 to 33.9) | 28.3% increase (33.1 to 39.9) | 0.005 |
| hs-CRP (nanograms/dL) | 7.5% decrease (5731 to 5305) | 12.8% increase (6101.1 to 6881.1) | 0.03 |
| MDA (micrograms/Liter) | 12.5% decrease (4.0 to 3.5) | 8.8% increase (3.4 to 3.7) | 0.01 |
In addition, only 3 of the 35 newborns from mothers taking magnesium were afflicted with hyperbilirubinemia (8.8%) compared to 10 in the placebo group (29.4%, p = 0.03). For the researchers, “magnesium supplementation in pregnant women with gestational diabetes was associated with decreased insulin, hs-CRP, MDA, and newborn hyperbilirubinemia.”
The researchers did stress that all of the women in the study were considered “deficient” in magnesium (1.62 mg/dL in the placebo group and 1.32 mg/dL in the magnesium group) so the researchers could not conclude whether magnesium would have the same benefits in women with sufficient magnesium (at least 1.82 mg/dL (10)) blood levels and suffering from gestational diabetes.
Source: Asemi, Zatollah, et al. “Magnesium supplementation affects metabolic status and pregnancy outcomes in gestational diabetes: a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial.” The American journal of clinical nutrition 102.1 (2015): 222-229.
© 2015 American Society for Nutrition
Posted July 28, 2015.
Greg Arnold is a Chiropractic Physician practicing in Hauppauge, NY. You can contact Dr. Arnold directly by emailing him at PitchingDoc@msn.com or visiting his web site at www.PitchingDoc.com.
References:
- Nolan CJ. Controversies in gestational diabetes. Best Pract Res Clin Obstet Gynaecol 2011;25:37–49.
- Nair AV, Hocher B, Verkaart S, van Zeeland F, Pfab T, Slowinski T, Chen YP, Schlingmann KP, Schaller A, Gallati S, et al. Loss of insulin-induced activation of TRPM6 magnesium channels results in impaired glucose tolerance during pregnancy. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 2012;109:11324–9
- Volpe L, Di Cianni G, Lencioni C, Cuccuru I, Benzi L, Del Prato S. Gestational diabetes, inflammation, and late vascular disease. J Endocrinol Invest 2007;30:873–9
- Herrera E, Ortega-Senovilla H. Disturbances in lipid metabolism in diabetic pregnancy—are these the cause of the problem? Best Pract Res Clin Endocrinol Metab 2010;24:515–25
- Reece EA, Leguizamon G, Wiznitzer A. Gestational diabetes: the need for a common ground. Lancet 2009;373:1789–97.
- Brewster S, Zinman B, Retnakaran R, Floras JS. Cardiometabolic consequences of gestational dysglycemia. J Am Coll Cardiol 2013;62:677–84
- Nielsen KK, Kapur A, Damm P, de Courten M, Bygbjerg IC. From screening to postpartum follow-up—the determinants and barriers for gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) services, a systematic review. BMC Pregnancy Childbirth 2014;14:41.
- Asemi Z. Magnesium supplementation affects metabolic status and pregnancy outcomes in gestational diabetes: a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial. Am J Clin Nutr 2015 Jul;102(1):222-9. doi: 10.3945/ajcn.114.098616. Epub 2015 May 27
- Porter ML, Dennis BL. Hyperbilirubinemia in the term newborn. Am Fam Physician 2002;65:599–606
- “Magnesium” posted on the NIH website.
