Topical Products - Magnesium Chloride

Articles

  1. Engen DJ et al (2015). Effects of transdermal magnesium chloride on quality of life for patients with fibromyalgia: a feasibility study, 13:306-313. J Integr Med.

    Summary: The results of this pilot study suggest that transdermal MgCl2 applied twice daily on upper and lower limbs may be beneficial for patients with fibromyalgia. This is the first study evaluating the effectiveness and feasibility of transdermal MgCl2 for treatment of fibromyalgia symptoms. Further dose-finding studies with a larger sample size and including intracellular magnesium measurements in the setting of a randomized control trial seem indicated.

    Abstract: Background: Fibromyalgia is a syndrome characterized by chronic pain, fatigue, depression, and sleep disturbances. Its primary cause is unclear. Several studies have reported decreased intracellular magnesium levels in patients with fibromyalgia and have found negative correlation between magnesium levels and fibromyalgia symptoms.

    Objective: To gather preliminary data on whether transdermal magnesium can improve quality of life for women who have fibromyalgia.

    Design, setting, participants and interventions: This is a patient questionnaires and survey in a fibromyalgia clinic at a tertiary medical center. Forty female patients with the diagnosis of fibromyalgia were enrolled. Each participant was provided a spray bottle containing a transdermal magnesium chloride solution and asked to apply 4 sprays per limb twice daily for 4 weeks. Participants were asked to complete the Revised Fibromyalgia Impact Questionnaire, SF-36v2 Health Survey, and a quality-of-life analog scale at baseline, week 2, and week 4.

    Main outcome measure: Questionnaire and survey scores, evaluated through intent-to-treat and per-protocol analyses.

    Results: Twenty-four patients completed the study (mean [SD] age, 57.2 [7.6] years; white, 95%; mean body mass index, 31.3 kg/m2). With intention-to-treat analysis, Revised Fibromyalgia Impact Questionnaire subscale and total scores were significantly improved at week 2 and week 4 (total score, P=0.001). Per-protocol analysis results were similar: all subscales of the Revised Fibromyalgia Impact Questionnaire were significantly improved at week 2 and week 4 (total score, P=0.001)..

    Conclusion: This pilot study suggests that transdermal magnesium chloride applied on upper and lower limbs may be beneficial to patients with fibromyalgia.


  1. Hupp S et al (2017). Magnesium therapy improves outcome in Streptococcus pneumoniae meningitis by altering pneumolysin pore formation, 174: 4295-4307. Br J Pharmacol.

    Summary: In summary, it was demonstrated that magnesium, a widely and safely used compound, could be an effective adjuvant therapeutic approach for pneumococcal meningitis together with other established therapies. This is the first example of a clinically applicable compound that is capable of inhibiting, in therapeutic doses, the deleterious effects of a cholesterol-dependent cytolysin.

    Abstract: Background and purpose: Streptococcus pneumoniae is the most common cause of bacterial meningitis in adults and is characterized by high lethality and substantial cognitive disabilities in survivors. Here, we have studied the capacity of an established therapeutic agent, magnesium, to improve survival in pneumococcal meningitis by modulating the neurological effects of the major pneumococcal pathogenic factor, pneumolysin.

    Experimental approach: We used mixed primary glial and acute brain slice cultures, pneumolysin injection in infant rats, a mouse meningitis model and complementary approaches such as Western blot, a black lipid bilayer conductance assay and live imaging of primary glial cells.

    Key results: Treatment with therapeutic concentrations of magnesium chloride (500 mg·kg-1 in animals and 2 mM in cultures) prevented pneumolysin-induced brain swelling and tissue remodelling both in brain slices and in animal models. In contrast to other divalent ions, which diminish the membrane binding of pneumolysin in non-therapeutic concentrations, magnesium delayed toxin-driven pore formation without affecting its membrane binding or the conductance profile of its pores. Finally, magnesium prolonged the survival and improved clinical condition of mice with pneumococcal meningitis, in the absence of antibiotic treatment.

    Conclusions and implications: Magnesium is a well-established and safe therapeutic agent that has demonstrated capacity for attenuating pneumolysin-triggered pathogenic effects on the brain. The improved animal survival and clinical condition in the meningitis model identifies magnesium as a promising candidate for adjunctive treatment of pneumococcal meningitis, together with antibiotic therapy.


  1. Alarcon PO et al (2014). Antimicrobial properties of magnesium chloride at low pH in the presence of anionic bases, 27: 57-68. Magnes Res.

    Summary: Magnesium dramatically increases skin surface acidity to a level that was antimicrobial in the presence of anionic bases. Apart from its implications for surface disinfection, this observation might support the commonly believed therapeutic properties of MgCl2 for the treatment of skin diseases (with healthy skin being an acidic environment), and could contribute to understanding why Mg (2+) salt from the Dead Sea has microbiological healing properties.

    Abstract: Magnesium is an element essential for life and is found ubiquitously in all organisms. The different cations play important roles as enzymatic co-factors, as signaling molecules, and in stabilizing cellular components. It is not surprising that magnesium salts in microbiological experiments are typically associated with positive effects. In this study with Listeria monocytogenes as a model organism, we focus however on the usefulness of magnesium (in form of MgCl2) as a stress enhancer. Whereas MgCl2 does not affect bacterial viability at near-neutral pHs, it was found to strongly compromise culturability and redox activity when cell suspensions were exposed to the salt at acidic pH. The principle was confirmed with a number of gram-negative and gram-positive species. The magnesium salt dramatically increased the acidity to a level that was antimicrobial in the presence of anionic bases such as phosphate, lactate, or acetate, but not TRIS. The antimicrobial activity of MgCl2 was much stronger than that of NaCl, KCl, or CaCl2. No effect was observed with MgSO4 or when cells were exposed to MgCl2 in phosphate buffer with a pH ≥ 5. Acid stress was reinforced by an additional, salt-specific effect of MgCl2 on microbial viability that needs further examination. Apart from its implications for surface disinfection, this observation might support the commonly stated therapeutic properties of MgCl2 for the treatment of skin diseases (with healthy skin being an acidic environment), and could contribute to understanding why salt from the Dead Sea, where Mg(2+) and Cl(-) are the most abundant cation/anion, has healing properties in a microbiological context.


  1. Proksch E et al (2006). Bathing in a magnesium-rich Dead Sea salt solution improves skin barrier function, enhances skin hydration, and reduces inflammation in atopic dry skin, 44: 151-157. Int J Dermatology.

    Summary: In summary, it was discovered that bathing with Mavena® Dermaline Mg Dead Sea salt solution, owing to its high content of magnesium ions, enhanced stratum corneum hydration, improves skin barrier function and reduces skin roughness and inflammation.

    Abstract: Magnesium salts, the prevalent minerals in Dead Sea water, are known to exhibit favorable effects in inflammatory diseases. We examined the efficacy of bathing atopic subjects in a salt rich in magnesium chloride from deep layers of the Dead Sea (Mavena(R) Dermaline Mg(46) Dead Sea salt, Mavena AG, Belp, Switzerland). Volunteers with atopic dry skin submerged one forearm for 15 min in a bath solution containing 5% Dead Sea salt. The second arm was submerged in tap water as control. Before the study and at weeks 1-6, transepidermal water loss (TEWL), skin hydration, skin roughness, and skin redness were determined. We found one subgroup with a normal and one subgroup with an elevated TEWL before the study. Bathing in the Dead Sea salt solution significantly improved skin barrier function compared with the tap water-treated control forearm in the subgroup with elevated basal TEWL. Skin hydration was enhanced on the forearm treated with the Dead Sea salt in each group, which means the treatment moisturized the skin. Skin roughness and redness of the skin as a marker for inflammation were significantly reduced after bathing in the salt solution. This demonstrates that bathing in the salt solution was well tolerated, improved skin barrier function, enhanced stratum corneum hydration, and reduced skin roughness and inflammation. We suggest that the favorable effects of bathing in the Dead Sea salt solution are most likely related to the high magnesium content. Magnesium salts are known to bind water, influence epidermal proliferation and differentiation, and enhance permeability barrier repair.


  1. Fazekas T et al (1993). Magnesium and the heart: antiarrhythmic therapy with magnesium, 16: 768-774. Clin Cardiol.

    Summary: Magnesium is a critical ingredient in the treatment of ventricular tachyardia and a complementary agent in digitalis-induced tachycardias.

    Abstract: Magnesium is an essential transmembrane and intracellular modulator of the electrical activity of cardiac cells. This review provides an up-to-date consideration of the cellular and clinical electrophysiological role of magnesium. This ubiquitous element seems to be important from both the theoretical and clinical point of view, because magnesium salts (MgSO4, MgCl2) administered intravenously are particularly effective in those arrhythmias in which the mechanism involves early or delayed after depolarization-induced triggered activity. The authors share the view that I.V. magnesium is the drug of choice in "torsade de pointes" ventricular tachycardia accompanying acquired long QT/QTU syndrome. It is complementary therapeutic agent in digitalis-induced tachycardias. Further studies are needed to elucidate magnesium's mode of action and efficacy in other types of clinical tachyarrhythmias