Hypomagnesemia and Type2 Diabetes Mellitus: A Review of the Literature

Globally, diabetes Mellitus is the most prevalent disease among all race and ethnicities, and hence attaches extraordinary medical importance. The body of medical literature studying both macro and micro nutrients in regard to their association with diabetes has been growing continuously making it one of the most widely studied medical complication. The study of trace elements is a branch of diabetes literature that is considered vital due to their links to the aetiology and consequences of the disease. Mg is one of the trace elements that has enjoyed numerous experiments owing to its to its involvement with insulin sensitivity and carbohydrate metabolism and other vital physiological functions. As more and more researches are being carried out, its important to stay updated with the most recent research outcomes. The volume of studies on diabetes is overwhelmingly large and continues to grow. But the result remain mixed to some extent. This review aims to provide 1) a most recent epidemiologic evidence on the correlation between Mg and diabetes mellitus based on the researches that have been carried out on this topic so far. 2) and the potential benefits of Mg repletion in hypomagnesemic patients with DM. Method: The Medline and Embase database were searched for publications between January 1989 and December 2013, using the following search termdiabetes, trace elements, Mg, insulin sensitivity, causes of Mg deficiency, dietary supplement, oral solution. No language restriction was applied. The original articles were selected manually and only human clinical studies were selected for this review. Conclusions: Hypomagnesemia occur at an increased frequency among patients with type 2 diabetes. There exists a positive link between hypomagnesemia and hyperglycemia. The cause of diabetic hypomagnesemia is multifactorial and diabetic patients have significantly lower mean serum Mg levels compared with healthy counterparts.