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Research Article Free access | 10.1172/JCI115317

Intestinal absorption of magnesium from food and supplements.

K D Fine, C A Santa Ana, J L Porter, and J S Fordtran

Department of Internal Medicine, Baylor University Medical Center, Dallas, Texas 75246.

Find articles by Fine, K. in: JCI | PubMed | Google Scholar

Department of Internal Medicine, Baylor University Medical Center, Dallas, Texas 75246.

Find articles by Santa Ana, C. in: JCI | PubMed | Google Scholar

Department of Internal Medicine, Baylor University Medical Center, Dallas, Texas 75246.

Find articles by Porter, J. in: JCI | PubMed | Google Scholar

Department of Internal Medicine, Baylor University Medical Center, Dallas, Texas 75246.

Find articles by Fordtran, J. in: JCI | PubMed | Google Scholar

Published August 1, 1991 - More info

Published in Volume 88, Issue 2 on August 1, 1991
J Clin Invest. 1991;88(2):396–402. https://doi.org/10.1172/JCI115317.
© 1991 The American Society for Clinical Investigation
Published August 1, 1991 - Version history
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Abstract

The purpose of this study was to measure magnesium absorption over the wide range of intakes to which the intestine may be exposed from food and/or magnesium-containing medications. Net magnesium absorption was measured in normal subjects after they ingested a standard meal supplemented with 0, 10, 20, 40, and 80 mEq of magnesium acetate. Although absorption increased with each increment in intake, fractional magnesium absorption fell progressively (from 65% at the lowest to 11% at the highest intake) so that absorption as a function of intake was curvilinear. This absorption-intake relationship was almost perfectly represented by an equation containing a hyperbolic function plus a linear function. Our results are statistically compatible with a magnesium absorption process that simultaneously uses a mechanism that reaches an absorptive maximum, plus a mechanism that endlessly absorbs a defined fraction (7%) of ingested magnesium. Compared to previous studies of calcium absorption, much less magnesium that calcium was absorbed at intakes above 8 mEq/meal, apparently due to greater restriction of intestinal permeability to magnesium. We also found that magnesium from a high magnesium-containing food source, almonds, was just as bioavailable as from soluble magnesium acetate. In contrast, magnesium absorption from commercially available enteric-coated magnesium chloride was much less than from magnesium acetate, suggesting that enteric coating can impair magnesium bioavailability.

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