Magnesium status and the metabolic syndrome: A systematic review and meta-analysis

• Magnesium status is proposed to be associated with metabolic syndrome.
• Our review revealed a strong inverse association between magnesium intake and metabolic syndrome.
• Serum magnesium had a heterogeneous, sensitive association with metabolic syndrome.
• Intake of other nutrients should be considered when examining the association.

ObjectivesTo systematically review the published evidence regarding the association between Mg intake and serum concentrations with MetS and, if possible, to summarize the results using a meta-analysis.MethodsPubMed, ISI Web of Science, Scopus, and Google Scholar were searched to identify related articles. Fully adjusted odds ratios (ORs) of MetS in participants with the highest intake of Mg compared with those who had the least consumption, and the mean difference in serum Mg levels between patients with MetS and their controls were extracted for the meta-analysis.ResultsIn total, 9 articles with 31 876 participants were included in the meta-analysis regarding the association between dietary Mg intake and MetS, and 8 studies that assessed the mean level of serum Mg in 3487 individuals with and without MetS were eligible. Our analysis found that higher consumption of Mg is associated with lower risk of MetS (OR = 0.73; 95% confidence interval: 0.62, 0.86; P < 0.001); we also could find a significant but heterogeneous association between serum Mg and MetS (mean difference: −0.19; 95% confidence interval: −0.36, 0.03; P = 0.023).ConclusionsThe present systematic review and meta-analysis found an inverse association between Mg intake and MetS. However, the inverse association for serum Mg levels was highly heterogeneous and sensitive. The link between Mg status and MetS should be confirmed by prospective cohort studies controlling the association for other nutrients related to MetS risk.