Magnesium for skeletal muscle cramps.

What It Covers

Researchers studied Magnesium in this meta-analysis publication.

To assess the effects of magnesium supplementation compared to no treatment, placebo control or other cramp therapies in people with skeletal muscle cramps.

Why It Was Studied

Skeletal muscle cramps are common and often presented to physicians in association with pregnancy, advanced age, exercise or disorders of the motor neuron (such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis).

The researchers considered comparisons of magnesium with no treatment, placebo control, or other therapy.

Who the Included Studies Covered

PubMed tags the participants as both men and women.

How the Review Was Done

The researchers searched the Cochrane Neuromuscular Disease Group Specialized Register (11 October 2011), the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL) (2011, Issue 3), MEDLINE (January 1966 to September 2011), EMBASE (January 1980 to September 2011), LILACS (January 1982 to September 2011), CINAHL Plus (January 1937 to September 2011), AMED (January 1985 to October 2011) and SPORTDiscus (January 1975 to September 2011).

What Was Measured

Two authors assessed risk of bias.

The researchers attempted to contact all study authors and obtained patient level data for three of the included trials, one of which was unpublished.

Topics PubMed links to this paper include Age Factors, Magnesium, Muscle Cramp, Muscle, Skeletal, Pregnancy Complications and Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic.

What This Means in Plain Language

This is a meta-analysis of Magnesium.

Results are reported in around 12 sentences of the abstract; we leave them to the paper itself rather than summarise them.

The publication is from 2012 (The Cochrane database of systematic reviews), a journal based in England.

More context: the related Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc library page, all human trials.