Less cognitive decline in women consuming more Magnesium (and vitamins) – Nov 2019

Relations of magnesium intake to cognitive impairment and dementia among participants in the Women’s Health Initiative Memory Study: a prospective cohort study

BMJ Open http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2019-030052
Kenneth Lo1,2, Qing Liu2, Tracy Madsen2,3, Steve Rapp4, Jiu-Chiuan Chen5, Marian Neuhouser6, Aladdin Shadyab7, Lubna Pal8, Xiaochen Lin2, Sally Shumaker4, JoAnn Manson9, Ying-Qing Feng1, Simin Liu2,10

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Many vitamins increase with increase in Magnesium

Objective To examine the associations of dietary and supplemental magnesium (Mg) as assessed by a semi-quantitative food frequency questionnaire with cognitive outcomes among ageing women.

Design This work conducts a prospective cohort study of participants enrolled in the Women’s Health Initiative Memory Study (WHIMS), which was subsequently extended and named WHIMS-Epidemiology of Cognitive Health.

Setting Forty clinical centres in the USA.

Participants Postmenopausal women aged 65–79 years without dementia on enrollment.

Main outcome measures Physician-adjudicated mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and/or probable dementia (PD).

Results Participants were excluded (n=1006) if they had extreme values of dietary energy intake, had missing or extreme body mass index values, with prevalent MCI/PD at baseline, received only one cognitive assessment or had been followed up for <1 year. During >20 years of follow-up, 765 (11.8%) out of 6473 participants developed MCI/PD. For MCI/PD and MCI, the risks tended to be lower among participants in quintiles Q2–Q5 of Mg consumption compared with those in the lowest quintile. Participants in Q3 had a significantly lower risk of MCI/PD (HR 0.69, 95% CI 0.53 to 0.91) and MCI (HR 0.63, 95% CI 0.45 to 0.87) after multivariate adjustments. No significant association was observed between total Mg intake and PD. The association between total Mg intake, MCI/PD and MCI was non-linear as suggested by the likelihood test.

Conclusions Total Mg intake between the estimated average requirement and the recommended dietary allowances may associate with a lower risk of MCI/PD and MCI.

Trial registration number NCT00685009.

Strengths and limitations of this study

• A large prospective cohort with long follow-up and careful adjudication of mild cognitive impairment/probable dementia events to ensure a high quality of outcome assessment.
• Lacking information on serum magnesium levels in the studied population.
• The cohort included only postmenopausal women, and the findings may not be generalisable to elderly men.