The research just keeps accumulating on the effectiveness of magnesium orotate in patients who have cardiovascular disease, have had a heart attack or heart surgery, or simply desire outstanding cardiovascular fitness.
Bioavailability
Because magnesium orotate is not very soluble in water, it does not dissociate in the gut. This means that is does not cause osmotic diarrhoea, as is common with most other magnesium compounds. Instead, it delivers magnesium directly to the cells that need it most, thus smaller quantities of elemental magnesium are required to be clinically effective.[1]
Health Benefits
The clinical effects of magnesium orotate include: improved survival of heart tissue damaged by oxygen starvation,[1] reduction of premature heartbeats,[2] increase in exercise capacity,[2,3] correction of magnesium depletion,[4] improvements in skin appearance,[5] and reduction in calcification of damaged heart tissue.[6] The mechanism for these benefits is suspected to involve an improved availability of DNA and RNA precursors needed for repair of damaged tissue, and an increase in the synthesis of glycogen and ATP, both of which provide energy to and help recovery of the heart muscle.[4]
Heart attacks and ischaemia
The orotic acid part of magnesium orotate is unique in helping to kick-start the manufacture of more myocardial protein for damaged heart tissue after heart attacks, and in stimulating the synthesis of glycogen and ATP.[4,7] Magnesium orotate improves the survival of cells situated within or near a necrotic lesion and hence aids in the prevention of or survival after heart attacks.[1]
Magnesium orotate has been shown to reduce the severity of chronic myocardial dysfunction and structural damage in cardiomyopathy. It supplies much needed energy to an oxygen-starved heart by driving the pentose pathway.[7] This pathway is an alternative non-oxygen requiring pathway to glycolysis.
Arrhythmias
The improvements in ectopic and premature heart beats in magnesium orotate-supplemented patients with cardiac insufficiency or following bypass surgery has led to the suggestion that it should be added to classical anti-ischaemic therapy in the complex management of coronary patients after coronary artery bypass grafts.[1,2]
Atherosclerosis
Additionally, magnesium orotate lowers LDL and increases HDL cholesterol, and reduces the monocyte conversion to macrophages in the endothelium, thus reducing plaque formation which is implicated in atherosclerosis.[8,9] In fact, both orotic acid and magnesium orotate therapy have been shown to prevent and reduce arteriosclerosis in animals.[6] Other changes include reduction of myocardial damage - especially the tendency for calcification of soft tissue - and electrical stabilisation of failing hearts.[6]
Exercise tolerance
Magnesium orotate improves left ventricular function and exercise tolerance in patients with coronary heart disease.[3] 50% of mitral valve prolapse patients who took 3000mg magnesium orotate in divided doses for six months achieved complete or partial reduction in their symptoms.[5]
Furthermore, compared to controls, serum cortisol, acidity, venous CO2, leukocytes, insulin and creatine kinase were all reduced in triathletes after competition following four weeks of magnesium orotate supplementation.[10]
Conclusion
The health benefits documented here are largely unique to orotic acid and the orotates, with clinical effects seen at 1000-3000mg daily of magnesium orotate. For those seeking optimal cardiovascular health and for those with failing hearts and blocked arteries, magnesium orotate can be a miracle nutrient backed by a substantial, positive history in experimental and clinical medicine.
References
- Zeana C. Magnesium orotate in myocardial and neuronal protection. Rom J Intern Med 1999;37(1):91-97. [Abstract]
- Branea I, Gaita D, Dragulescu I, et al. Assessment of treatment with orotate magnesium in early postoperative period of patients with cardiac insufficiency and coronary artery by-pass grafts (ATOMIC). Rom J Intern Med 1999;37(3):287-296. [Abstract]
- Geiss KR, Stergiou N, Jester, et al. Effects of magnesium orotate on exercise tolerance in patients with coronary heart disease. Cardiovasc Drugs Ther 1998;12(2):153-156. [Abstract]
- Classen HG. Magnesium orotate--experimental and clinical evidence. Rom J Intern Med 2004;42(3):491-501. [Abstract]
- Martynov AI, Stepura OB, Shekhter AB, et al. [New approaches to the treatment of patients with idiopathic mitral valve prolapse] Ter Arkh 2000;72(9):67-70. [Abstract]
- Jasmin G, Proschek L. Effect of orotic acid and magnesium orotate on the development and progression of the UM-X7.1 hamster hereditary cardiomyopathy. Cardiovasc Drugs Ther 1998;12(2):189-195. [Abstract]
- Rosenfeldt FL. Metabolic supplementation with orotic acid and magnesium orotate. Cardiovasc Drugs Ther 1998;12(2):147-152. [Abstract]
- Jellinek H, Takács E. [Course of the progression of experimentally induced arteriosclerotic vessel wall changes after treatment with magnesium orotate]. Arzneimittelforschung 2000;50(12):1071-1077. [Abstract]
- Jellinek H, Takács E. Morphological aspects of the effects of orotic acid and magnesium orotate on hypercholesterolaemia in rabbits. Arzneimittelforschung 1995;45(8):836-842. [Abstract]
- Golf SW, Bender S, Grüttner J. On the significance of magnesium in extreme physical stress. Cardiovasc Drugs Ther 1998;12(2):197-202. [Abstract]
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