August 2021
Michael Boulis, Mary Boulis, and Daniel Clauw
Abstract
Fibromyalgia, a widespread chronic pain disorder, imposes a multitude of hardships on patients and their communities. Supplements, specifically magnesium supplements, have been widely used by fibromyalgia patients in an attempt to control their symptoms.
The aim of this work is to investigate if the widespread use of magnesium in fibromyalgia is supported by evidence in the literature. This review provides a layout of the studies examining the correlation between body magnesium levels and fibromyalgia.
Furthermore, it elaborates on the trials testing the effectiveness of magnesium in treating different clinical parameters of fibromyalgia.
Keywords: fibromyalgia, pain, chronic pain, magnesium, supplements, literature review
Conclusion
Our study draws conclusions that are relevant to both clinical researchers and clinicians.
For clinical researchers: Serum and other magnesium levels (including erythrocytes, leukocytes, platelets, and hair magnesium levels) may not reflect the whole-body magnesium status. Utilizing these levels to compare magnesium status of fibromyalgia patients and healthy controls can be misleading. Similarly, employing magnesium levels to assess the effect of magnesium on different parameters of fibromyalgia should be avoided.
For clinicians: Some intervention studies in the literature suggest a benefit from magnesium use in fibromyalgia. Yet this beneficial role is not certain as none of these trials was a blinded randomized placebo-controlled study conducted with magnesium as a single therapy intervention in fibromyalgia.
