Magnesium In Water

Can calcium and magnesium ("hardness") in drinking water contribute to preventing disease? This book documents the outputs of an unprecedented group of experts assembled by the World Health Organization to address this question. It includes their comprehensive consensus view on what is known and what is not about the role and possible health benefit of calcium and magnesium in drinking-water. Also included is a series of chapters each authored by internationally renowned experts reviewing the state of the art in different aspects including: global dietary calcium and magnesium intakes; the contribution of drinking water to calcium and magnesium intake; health significance of calcium and magnesium; role of drinking-water in relation to bone metabolism; epidemiological studies and the association of cardiovascular disease risks with water hardness and magnesium in particular; water production; technical issues and economics. In both developed and developing countries, typical diets are often deficient in calcium and magnesium--essential minerals which are necessary for the development of strong bones and teeth, and for cardiovascular function. At the same time, there is evidence that consuming "hard" drinking-water may be associated with reduced risks for some diseases. Climate change and other ongoing changes will increase the use of high tech treatments--for example desalination and reclamation of polluted waters and mean that the issue will be of increasing future importance.

134 abstracts from Selected water resources abstracts through June 15, 1971 (volume 4, number 12). Arranged in ascending accession order. Each entry includes title, author, source, descriptors, identifiers, abstract, and accession number. Keyword index.

The brain is the most complex organ in our body. Indeed, it is perhaps the most complex structure we have ever encountered in nature. Both structurally and functionally, there are many peculiarities that differentiate the brain from all other organs. The brain is our connection to the world around us and by governing nervous system and higher function, any disturbance induces severe neurological and psychiatric disorders that can have a devastating effect on quality of life. Our understanding of the physiology and biochemistry of the brain has improved dramatically in the last two decades. In particular, the critical role of cations, including magnesium, has become evident, even if incompletely understood at a mechanistic level. The exact role and regulation of magnesium, in particular, remains elusive, largely because intracellular levels are so difficult to routinely quantify. Nonetheless, the importance of magnesium to normal central nervous system activity is self-evident given the complicated homeostatic mechanisms that maintain the concentration of this cation within strict limits essential for normal physiology and metabolism. There is also considerable accumulating evidence to suggest alterations to some brain functions in both normal and pathological conditions may be linked to alterations in local magnesium concentration. This book, containing chapters written by some of the foremost experts in the field of magnesium research, brings together the latest in experimental and clinical magnesium research as it relates to the central nervous system. It offers a complete and updated view of magnesiums involvement in central nervous system function and in so doing, brings together two main pillars of contemporary neuroscience research, namely providing an explanation for the molecular mechanisms involved in brain function, and emphasizing the connections between the molecular changes and behavior. It is the untiring efforts of those magnesium researchers who have dedicated their lives to unraveling the mysteries of magnesiums role in biological systems that has inspired the collation of this volume of work.