Prevention of hypomagnesemia in diabetes patients.

DEAR EDITOR,

Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is a major global public health problem in the world-wide and is increasing in aging populations.[123] We previously conducted a study entitled; lipids in association with serum magnesium in DM patients in 2008. In this study, on 122 patients, we found a significant inverse correlations of serum magnesium with serum cholesterol and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C).[4] In this regard, we would like to remind a few points about the association of magnesium with serum lipids in T2DM. In the study conducted by Dasgupta et al. on 150, T2DM patients, hypomagnesemia was documented in 17 (11.33%) of patients. They concluded that hypomagnesemia in diabetes was associated with poorer glycemic control, retinopathy, nephropathy and foot ulcers.[5] Baig et al. conducted a study on 60 patients of T2DM between 40 and 70 years. They observed that the mean serum magnesium level was statistically significantly low in diabetic patients without and with complications when compared with controls. Furthermore, they found that serum magnesium level in cases with diabetic complications was much lower than those without complications.[6] Recently, Kocot et al. conducted a study on 54 T2DM and found, low concentration of magnesium in diabetic people in comparison to healthy individuals. They also found, a weak negative correlation between plasma magnesium and total cholesterol as well as between plasma magnesium and triglycerides in diabetic patients.[7] This finding was in agreement with our previous results.[4] More recently Mishra et al. studied 45 known diabetic patients, observed significant negative relation of serum magnesium with triglyceride and very-LDL-C level and positive relation of magnesium with serum high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) too.[8] The association of hypomagnesemia and insulin resistance in diabetes patients has been documented previously. Accordingly in the study of 219 diabetic patients, Rasheed et al. found serum magnesium had significantly positive correlation with HDL-C while total cholesterol and LDL-C was negatively correlated, albeit non-significantly, with serum magnesium.[9] Furthermore, a study on 550 T2DM patients, revealed serum magnesium, significant negative correlation with estimated glomerular filtration rate.[10] Thus, clinical care should therefore focus on increasing dietary magnesium intake or magnesium supplementation to improve metabolic control and prevent dyslipidemia in diabetes patients.