A new prospective study based on data from the Women’s Health Initiative has found a potential inverse association between dietary magnesium and fatal coronary heart disease (CHD) in postmenopausal women.
The study, published in the Journal of Women’s Health, also demonstrated a trend between magnesium intake and sudden cardiac death (SCD) in this population.
The research assessed magnesium intake at baseline for more than 153,569 postmenopausal women and identified the development of fatal CHD and SCD over the subsequent 10.5 years of follow-up.
For every standard deviation increase in magnesium intake, there was statistically significant risk reduction of 7 per cent for fatal CHD (adjusted HR [aHR], 0.93; 95% CI, 0.89-0.97) and a non-significant reduction of 18 per cent for SCD (aHR, 0.82; 95% CI, 0.58-1.15).
In age-adjusted quartile analysis, women with the lowest magnesium intake (189 mg/day) had the greatest risk for fatal CHD (HR, 1.54; 95% CI, 1.40-1.69) and SCD (HR, 1.70; 95% CI, 0.94-3.07). This association was attenuated in the fully adjusted model, with HRs of 1.19 (95% CI, 1.06-1.34) for CHD and 1.24 (95% CI, 0.58-2.65) for SCD for the lowest quartile of magnesium intake.
The authors say clinical trials should be considered to determine if magnesium supplementation could reduce fatal CHD in high-risk individuals.
