Surgeon Q&A: Can Magnesium Supplements Reduce Mitral Valve Disease?

Magnesium supplements for cardiovascular health have become increasingly popular over the last several years. Magnesium is a vital electrolyte critical to heart health. It helps regulate blood pressure, blood glucose levels, and the heart’s electrical activity.

We get a lot of patient questions about the safety-and-efficacy of magnesium supplements, and we recently received an interesting one from Jane, who asked, “One year ago, I started taking magnesium orate. After my recent echocardiogram, I was told that my mild to moderate regurgitation has gone away. What do your experts know about the use of magnesium for mitral valve disease?”

To answer Jane’s question, we spoke with Dr. Dominic Emerson from Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, California. Dr. Emerson is a leader in minimally-invasive robotic mitral valve surgery.

Video available online at:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M3HqjMCwLAc

Key Learnings About Magnesium Supplements and Mitral Valve Disease

Here are the important insights shared by Dr. Emerson:

• More patients are taking daily supplements. “This is a great question,” said Dr. Emerson. “More and more patients are asking about supplements in the clinic, and many are taking daily supplements.” Dr. Emerson explained that older data suggest that magnesium supplementation for mitral valve disease may be helpful only in patients who are already magnesium deficient and probably doesn’t apply to most people.

• Patients should consult their doctor before starting supplements. “I tell patients to be very cautious with supplementation,” said Dr. Emerson. “The supplement market is a multi-billion-dollar-a-year industry, and many of them are not as well studied or regulated as you would hope. While some supplements have strong data and studies, not all of them do. Like anything in life, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Patients should be careful about which supplements they’re taking, and it’s extremely important to tell their doctors which supplements they’re taking, because some of them can have adverse reactions with other medications they may be taking.”

Thanks Dr. Emerson and Cedars-Sinai Medical Center!

On behalf of all the patients in our community, thank you, Dr. Dominic Emerson, for everything you and your team are doing at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, California!

Related Links:

• Ask Dr. Dominic Emerson: How to Choose Your Mitral Valve Surgeon

• Patient Webinar: Advances in Mitral Valve Surgery with Dr. Dominic Emerson

Keep on tickin,
Adam

P.S. For the deaf and hard-of-hearing members of our patient community, we have provided a written transcript of our interview with Dr. Emerson below.