Long-term magnesium supplementation improves arterial stiffness in overweight and obese adults: results of a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled intervention trial.

Study answer

What this study found

Twenty-four weeks of magnesium citrate supplementation improved arterial stiffness versus placebo in overweight and obese adults. Carotid-femoral pulse wave velocity decreased to 8.3 m/s at 24 weeks and was significantly better than placebo by 1.0 m/s (95% CI 0.4, 1.6; P = 0.001). Office and 24-hour ambulatory blood pressure did not change, and no adverse events were observed. Serum magnesium did not significantly differ at 12 weeks and only tended to increase at 24 weeks, while 24-hour urinary magnesium excretion increased significantly.

Study & population

Randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial in Maastricht, Netherlands.

Intervention

Oral magnesium citrate complex providing 350 mg/day elemental magnesium, given as 3 capsules per day (116.7 mg magnesium per capsule) after breakfast, lunch, and dinner for 24 weeks, compared with placebo.

Key limitation

The active intervention arm was small (N = 26), and the trial was conducted at a single center in a relatively specific group of apparently healthy overweight or slightly obese Dutch adults, limiting generalizability.

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Original abstract