Magnesium crucial to prevent congestive heart failure

"...STEP ONE: LOSS OF ARTERIAL ELASTICITY
The coronary arteries bringing oxygen-filled blood from inside the heart through the aorta to the heart muscle are very, very small, only about 3 mm across (a nickel is 2 mm thick). It doesn't take much to plug them up with a tiny blood clot or to cause them to collapse when in spasm. MAGNESIUM prevents abnormal blood clot formation and prevents artery spasm.

Endothelial cells are single layers of specialized cells that form the inside membrane of an artery. The subendothelial layer (the next layer in) is a very thin connective tissue that contains elastin. This is the layer responsible for providing the elasticity in your arteries. Your body requires MAGNESIUM to maintain healthy elastin. Loss of elasticity in the coronary arteries results in inflammation of the endothelial and subendothelial layers at the points that are most mechanically challenged by stretching: the bifurcations - where blood vessels divide into two smaller branches. According to cardiologists, about 85 percent of sclerotic plaques initially form near bifurcations.

Smooth muscle cells are the next layer of the artery. Smooth muscle cells provide artery integrity and control the dilation of the arterial cavity. Calcium causes contraction and MAGNESIUM causes relaxation, which together control the blood pressure and flow in the artery. Too much calcium and not enough magnesium and the arteries go into spasm causing elevated blood pressure. A final messenger enhancing the dilation response is nitric oxide, which is dependent on MAGNESIUM.

STEP TWO: THE INFLAMMATORY RESPONSE
Inflammation begins with injury to the artery wall, leading to white blood cells and cholesterol hovering around trying to heal the damage (in a good way). At this stage in the process, if there is too much calcium and not enough MAGNESIUM in the bloodstream, excess calcium precipitates around the area of inflammation in the artery wall (leading people to erroneously think that cholesterol is the bad guy). The affected area becomes rigid and interferes with blood flow. MAGNESIUM is an exceptional anti-inflammatory mineral. Calcium is a powerful pro-inflammatory mineral..."

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