Effects of oral magnesium supplementation on inflammatory markers in middle-aged overweight women

Background: this study aimed to investigate whether magnesium supplementation might affect serum magnesium, high sensitive c-reactive protein (hs-crp), plasma fibrinogen, and interleukin 6 (il-6) levels in healthy middle-aged overweight women. the relationships, if any, between serum magnesium and the inflammatory markers were also examined cross-sectionally in the entire participants at the beginning of the study. materials and methods: this double-blinded, placebo-controlled, randomized trial included 74 middle-aged overweight women. participants were randomly assigned to receive either 250 mg magnesium as magnesium oxide or placebo daily for 8 weeks. serum magnesium, hs-crp, fibrinogen and il-6 concentrations were measured before and after the intervention. results: serum magnesium was found to be inversely correlated with hs-crp (rs=−0.22, p=0.05) in the entire participants at baseline. serum hs-crp declined significantly in both groups as compared with baseline values (median change=0.8 mg/l; pmagnesium=0.03, pplacebo<0.001). plasma fibrinogen decreased significantly, by 9%, in the magnesium group at the end of week 8 compared to baseline (p=0.001). mean concentration of il-6 was significantly increased in the magnesium group comparing the baseline value(p=0.001). however hs-crp, fibrinogen and il-6 levels at week 8 or any changes during the study were not statistically different between the two groups. serum magnesium showed no significant changes in any groups. conclusions: serum magnesium had a significant inverse correlation with hs-crp. in the present study, magnesium as magnesium oxide, 250 mg/day, for 8 weeks did not significantly attenuate inflammatory markers in the magnesium group as compared to the placebo.