Magnesium (pharmaceutical preparation)
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| Formula | Mg+2 |
| Molar mass | 24.31 g·mol−1 |
Magnesium salts are available as a medication in a number of formulations. It is used to treat magnesium deficiency and low blood magnesium, as well as eclampsia.Magnesium is important to health.
Usually in lower dosages, magnesium is commonly included in dietary mineral preparations, including many multivitamin preparations.
Indications and uses for administering magnesium include:
More common side effects from magnesium include upset stomach and diarrhea, and calcium deficiency if calcium levels are already low.
Overdose of magnesium (hypermagnesemia) is only possible in special circumstances. It can cause nausea, vomiting, severely lowered blood pressure, confusion, slowed heart rate, respiratory paralysis. In very severe cases, it can cause coma, cardiac arrhythmia, cardiac arrest and death.
Magnesium overdose can be counteracted by administering calcium gluconate.
In practice, magnesium is given in a salt form together with any of several anionic compounds serving as counter-ions, such as chloride or sulfate. Nevertheless, magnesium is generally presumed to be the active component. An exception is the administration of magnesium sulfate in barium chloride poisoning, where sulfate binds to barium to form insoluble barium sulfate.
Magnesium is absorbed orally at about 30% bioavailability from any water soluble salt, such as magnesium chloride or magnesium citrate. The citrate is the least expensive soluble (high bioavailability) oral magnesium salt available in supplements, with 100 mg and 200 mg magnesium typically contained per capsule or tablet.
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