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Comment by lima | Hacker News Reader

There are other interactions like that: for instance, magnesium is known to massively increase the replication of rhinoviruses (common cold).

Magnesium is also a common food supplement...

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There is a balance of zinc-magnesium that needs to be maintained in the body. In a mineral-poor diet, supplementing magnesium without zinc can cause side effects like this.

Calcium has a similar problem, but it's even more complicated. It needs corresponding levels of magnesium, vitamin D, boron, and K2 for proper utilization.

Supplementation should not be done in a shotgun fashion. This is why, as much as I appreciate the nutritional research which identifies common deficiencies, I hate the nutrient fads which result from them. People hear "You need magnesium" so they rush out and take magnesium with no understanding of its function in the body, nor the nutrient balance that the body needs.

Yet apparently half the US population is magnesium deficient: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22364157

I've been taking magnesium supplements for the past few months. Coincidentally, I've been blowing my nose continually for the past week. Wasn't aware there could be a potential link.

Edit: Although, I've been taking a Zinc supplement (as well as a D3 supplement) and according to my lay-understanding of this blog-post[a], the Zinc should cancel out magnesium's effect?

[a] http://www.virology.ws/2009/12/16/rhinovirus-and-zinc-part-5...

Many common Mg supplements have rather poor bioavailability according to several studies and the dietary needs are quite high, high enough that most people are actually deficient in Mg according to research by the FDA.

Mg deficiency is suspected to have several rather significant effects. All the way from cognitive effects to heart disease and formation of kidney stones.

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