Magnesium is a Muscle Relaxant
Magnesium is a muscle relaxant in skeletal muscle contractions
"Do move a muscle"101
The neuromuscular system is the combination of the nervous system and
muscles, working together to permit movement. The brain controls the movements
of skeletal (voluntary) muscles via specialized nerve cells (neurons).
Process to
move a body part. A message (an action potential) is sent to upper motor neurons , which have long tails (axons) that go into and
through the brain , and into
the spinal cord , where they connect
with lower motor neurons . At the
spinal cord, ~50-200 lower motor neurons in the spinal cord send their axons via
nerves in the arms and legs directly to the muscle they control.presynaptic terminal .
The connection between the tip of the nerve and the muscle is called the
neuromuscular junction .
The neurotransmitter ACETYLCHOLINE
triggers skeletal muscle contraction. The
electrical signal from the brain (action potential) travels down the nerves (neurons) and prompts the release of
the chemical
ACETYLCHOLINE
from the presynaptic terminals. This chemical is
picked up by special sensors (receptors) in the muscle tissue. If enough
receptors are stimulated by
ACETYLCHOLINE your muscles will contract.
For skeletal muscles, the force exerted by the
muscle is controlled by varying the frequency at which action potentialsare
sent to muscle fibers.
Magnesium role in muscle tension and spasms
Magnesium
depletion leads to increased neuronal excitability and enhanced neuromuscular
transmission. The
opposite effect occurs with
magnesium excess. An example of acute CNS
magnesium deficiency is
found in cattle with "grass staggers"(tetany), leading to severe muscle seizure
and even death. In humans, a chronic
magnesium deficit is implicated in neurological and neuromuscular conditions,
such as migraine, CFS, and many other sleep and psychiatric disorders.
Magnesium Calms
Nerves
A
decrease in neuronal magnesium
concentration is postulated to increase calcium binding to prejunctional
ACETYLCHOLINE
vesicles. Increasing release of ACETYLCHOLINE into
the neuromuscular cleft and so increasing muscle contractions.
With a relative deficiency of magnesium to
calcium, calcium remains trapped in the muscle cells.
Over
time, if the relative deficiency continues (as often occurs in aging), the
muscles become more or less permanently contracted, leading to increasing muscle
tension and spasms.
Magnesium prevents soft tissue calcification
