THE EFFECTS OF MAGNESIUM-OXIDE ON MILD ESSENTIAL-HYPERTENSION AND QUALITY-OF-LIFE

The role of magnesium (Mg) in the pathophysiology and treatment of pri mary hypertension has been recently identified, To evaluate the effect s of Mg supplementation on mild hypertension and quality of life, 83 p atients were randomly assigned to receive either placebo (n = 41) or M g (n = 42) after a placebo run-in phase of 4 weeks, The patients in th e Mg group received 200 mg oral Mg oxide daily, All patients underwent periodic measurements of blood pressure (BP) and heart rate and 24-ho ur noninvasive BP monitoring at the start and end of the study, Serum and urinary electrolytes were also evaluated, To analyze quality of li fe, all patients completed the questionnaire, Treatment was administer ed and the measurements of BP were performed in a double-masked fashio n, Data demonstrated a significant reduction in systolic BP values at 12-week follow-up in patients treated with Rig compared with both the pretreatment values and the values in the placebo group, whereas no di fference was found in diastolic pressure, The 24-hour noninvasive moni toring of BP showed no significant differences between the two groups in systolic and diastolic values, The analysis of the questionnaire de monstrated a lower score (indicating a good quality of life) with a Li kert-type scale at 12-week follow-up in the Mg group (67.58 +/- 5) tha n in the placebo group (78.23 +/- 8), with a corresponding significant improvement in psychosocial variables, general well-being, and work s tatus, A significant difference was also found in the treatment group when the values at follow-up were compared with those at baseline (73. 58 +/- 6), These results show that Mg oxide positively influences the quality of life, although it exercises only a weak action on arterial BP.