Abstract

Seventeen unselected patients with mild to moderate essential hypertension and whose average supine blood pressure after two months' observation with no treatment was 154/100 mm Hg were entered into a double blind randomised crossover study of one month's treatment with magnesium aspartate (15 mmol magnesium/day) and treatment with placebo for a further month. This preparation of magnesium was well tolerated and did not cause diarrhoea. Despite a significant increase in plasma magnesium concentration and a significant increase in urinary excretion of magnesium while taking magnesium aspartate there was no fall in blood pressure compared with either treatment with placebo or values before treatment. The results provide no evidence for a role of dietary magnesium in the regulation of high blood pressure and are contrary to recent speculations.