Magnesium is essential for the immune system, including in the fight against cancer (“T cells can eliminate abnormal or infected cells efficiently only in a magnesium-rich environment”)

Medical Xpress / University of Basel / Cell ^ | Jan. 20, 2022 | Christoph Hess et al

[ConservativeMind]

The level of magnesium in the blood is an important factor in the immune system's ability to tackle pathogens and cancer cells. Researchers from have reported that T cells need a sufficient quantity of magnesium in order to operate efficiently. Their findings may have important implications for cancer patients.

Magnesium deficiency is associated with a variety of diseases, such as infections and cancer. Previous studies have shown that cancerous growths spread faster in the bodies of mice when the animals received a low-magnesium diet—and that their defense against flu viruses was also impaired. However, there has so far been little research into how exactly this mineral affects the immune system.

Now, researchers have discovered that T cells can eliminate abnormal or infected cells efficiently only in a magnesium-rich environment. Specifically, magnesium is important for the function of a T cell surface protein called LFA-1.

LFA-1 acts as a docking site, which plays a key role in the activation of T cells. "However, in the inactive state this docking site is in a bent conformation and thus cannot efficiently bind to infected or abnormal cells," Christoph Hess explains. "This is where magnesium comes into play. If magnesium is present in sufficient quantities in the vicinity of the T cells, it binds to LFA-1 and ensures that it remains in an extended—and therefore active—position.

The fact that magnesium is essential for the functioning of T cells may be a highly significant finding for modern cancer immunotherapies. These therapies aim to mobilize the immune system—in particular cytotoxic T cells—to fight cancer cells.

Using data from previously completed studies of cancer patients, the researchers were able to show that immunotherapies were less effective in patients with insufficient levels of magnesium in their blood.

[TTFX]

I think it’s easy to get enough magnesium from food, but mixing magnesium hydroxide with carbonated water we might have the best form. Magnesium citrate also seems good.

[spacejunkie2001]

it’s really not dependable anymore to get enough mag from our food or water. The soil is depleted and water is filtered. Coupled with that is the competing toxins that actually attach to our nutrient receptors throughout our body and block our ability to absorb our nutrients. Only supplementing will give us enough to offset the toxins, knocking them off the receptors and allowing the good ones to attach.

[telescope115]

Well, they sure as hell new what they were doing when they gave me a new liver last year, so I think I’ll stick with them for a while….

[caww]

Thank you.