Relationship between dietary magnesium intake and rheumatoid arthritis in US women: a cross-sectional study

Abstract

ObjectivesDiet has been shown to be associated with rheumatoid arthritis (RA), and magnesium has been shown to inhibit inflammatory responses, but research on the relationship between dietary magnesium and RA is limited and controversial. In this study, we aimed to explore the non-linear relationship between dietary magnesium intake and RA in US women.DesignCross-sectional survey.SettingNational Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES).Primary and secondary outcome measuresNon-linear relationship between dietary magnesium intake and prevalence of RA.ParticipantsA total of 13 324 women aged 18–80 years (RA n=12 306, non-RA n=1018) were included in this study.ResultsOverall, the absolute risk (AR) of RA was 7.24% in all participants. In the multivariable logistic regression analysis, we found a negative correlation between dietary magnesium intake and RA (OR=0.84, 95% CI 0.75 to 0.95, p=0.006). When we converted dietary magnesium intake into a categorical variable (tertiles), the ARs of the low group, the middle group and the high group were 9%, 7.1% and 4.9%, respectively. We noticed that the ORs between the three groups were not equidistant; then, we detected a U-shaped linking by smooth curve fitting and obtained inflection points at 181 and 446 mg/day. The prevalence of RA decreased when dietary magnesium intake was <181 mg/day (OR=0.7, 95% CI 0.5 to 0.8, p<0.001) and increased when it was >446 mg/day (OR=2.8, 95% CI 1.2 to 6.6, p=0.020), remaining at a minimum when it was between 181 and 446 mg/day (OR=1.0, 95% CI 0.7 to 1.2, p=0.700).ConclusionThere was a U-shaped relationship between dietary magnesium and RA in women, and our study highlights the importance of moderate dietary magnesium intake in possibly exerting a protective role in women with RA.

Factors Associated With Maintenance of Remission Following Change From Combination Therapy to Monotherapy in Patients With Rheumatoid Arthritis

“…12 A threshold effect has been reported for dietary magnesium intake and risk of RA whereby moderate doses of magnesium (184-446 mg/day) were associated with the lowest prevalence of RA but lower or higher levels had higher prevalence. 13 Similarly, we find here variable odds of remaining in remission according to baseline magnesium levels.…”

Association between magnesium, copper, and potassium intakes with risk of rheumatoid arthritis: a cross-sectional study from National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES)

“…Arablou et al demonstrated that Mg intake was negatively associated with the inflammatory factors of RA such as Prostaglandin E2 [ 15 ]. Another large NHANES study reported a U-shaped linking between Mg intake and RA in US women [ 22 ]. A dietary intake range of 181 ~ 464 mmol/day was found to remain the lowest prevalence of RA.…”

Magnesium Is a Vital Ion in the Body—It Is Time to Consider Its Supplementation on a Routine Basis

“…Multiple articles have been published on this topic, all of which have consistently demonstrated a significant connection between these two entities. Therefore, addressing magnesium deficiency in patients with rheumatoid arthritis may be a useful therapeutic strategy to mitigate symptoms and improve patient outcomes [ 65 , 66 , 67 , 68 ]. Moreover, hypomagnesemia is a possible risk factor for severe infections in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus [ 69 ].…”