Hypomagnesaemia is associated with diabetes: Not pre-diabetes, obesity or the metabolic syndrome

AimsThe mechanism for the association between diabetes and hypomagnesaemia remains uncertain. This study aimed to test whether hypomagnesaemia is present in pre-diabetes, obesity and the metabolic syndrome.Methods1453 adults from randomly selected households from rural Victoria, Australia, attended for biomedical assessment. Serum magnesium concentrations, hypomagnesaemia defined using local laboratory criteria (<0.70 mmol/l), and defined by the bottom quintile of serum magnesium concentrations, were compared in different diabetes pre-cursor states including metabolic syndrome using ATP III criteria.ResultsThe mean serum magnesium was 0.84 ± 0.06 mmol/l and 25 (1.7%) had a low magnesium. Mean magnesium was lower among those with known diabetes than those with new diabetes, impaired glucose tolerance (IGT), impaired fasting glucose (IFG) and normal subjects (0.79 (0.78–0.81) vs 0.83 (0.81–0.86); 0.84 (0.82–0.85); 0.84 (0.82–0.86); 0.85 (0.84–0.85) mmol/l). After adjusting for confounders, and compared with those without diabetes, hypomagnesaemia was 10.51 (1.37–80.60)-fold more common with new diabetes, 8.63 (2.20–33.90)-fold more common with known diabetes, 6.77 (1.75–26.17)-fold more common among those taking anti-hypertensive medication but with no difference to those with IGT/IFG (0.90 (0.10–8.10)).ConclusionDiabetes is associated with hypomagnesaemia, but not its pre-cursor states.