Understanding Inflammation and Unlocking the Anti-Inflammatory Benefits of Magnesium: What Your Bloodwork Reveals

Three pieces of bloodwork to test your inflammation levels. 

Let’s look at the importance of testing for inflammation markers like ESR (Erythrocyte Sedimentation Rate) rate and C-Reactive Protein to gauge your health status. By monitoring these markers and understanding how they relate to your Magnesium RBC Red Blood Cell test, you can take action to reduce inflammation and optimize your health.

Chapter 1: Introduction to Inflammation Testing

Inflammation: How to test for it and how to reduce it. Let’s start with the testing. There are three ways that I’ve been able to understand the inflammation markers in my own body, this has helped me shorten my pathway to creating optimal health, and I want to share those with you. Number one is an ESR, and when you have a complete blood panel done, just a regular CBC (Complete Blood Count), your ESR rate can be found in there.

Basically, what it is is they separate the plasma from the red blood cell and put it in a test tube. The faster it falls the higher the inflammation because a protein is covering the cells and making them fall faster. So you want that separating out at a slower rate. The slower, the better. Looking at those markers can show you on your complete blood panel if you’re walking away or toward health. So looking back at over the last couple of years, your CBC blood work is going to show you that marker and how it’s moving. Another one is the C-Reactive Protein. When inflammation levels are high, your thyroid is not as functional, causing hormones not to be as balanced, creating a breakdown in the activation of your vitamin D. Looking at C-Reactive Protein will help that.

A C-Reactive Protein Test is a very specific test and it’s a slow-moving test. The reason I say that is, let’s say I get my blood work done today, a C-Reactive Protein test, and then for six weeks, I work really hard at doing all the things to bring my inflammation levels down. If I retested in six weeks, that blood work panel is not going to show an increase. It’s a big overall arching picture. I have it taken once a year, so I can look yearly. Am I walking toward help or away from help? That’s C-Reactive. C-Reactive is a marker that’s actually happening in your liver. When inflammation is high, your liver will produce specific proteins. And when you have a lot of those, it means your health is slowing down your thyroid, making everything harder.

Another test is your Magnesium Red Blood Cell test, and I’ll if you’ve been hanging around Living the Good Life Naturally for very long, you’ve heard me talk about this one. The reason magnesium can be an inflammation marker test is that if your magnesium is low, your inflammation is higher. Now, there are lots of ways to take magnesium. The way I have found to be most beneficial, and now there are studies coming out supporting the benefit, where 20 years ago, when I started talking about it, there weren’t any. I love the fact that Western medicine is starting to test in the realm of transdermal magnesium application to increase your red blood cell number.

Chapter 2: Importance of Magnesium Red Blood Cell Test

There are actually two ways that you can test your magnesium. Western medicine will test your serum. Here’s why I don’t really follow my serum. Because magnesium is so critical for you to stay alive and breathing at 1%. In your serum, it will pull from everywhere: your pancreas, your heart, your lungs, your bones, and your brain, to keep the serum at 1%. Your Magnesium RBC Red Blood Cell number shows you what’s inside the cell and what’s left over for other parts of your body to utilize the magnesium levels. Now, the Magnesium Red Blood Cell test is not perfect. It does not show the magnesium level in your bones. But it does show the magnesium left over to benefit thyroid, adrenals, brain function, and all of those things. 60% of the magnesium is in your bones. So, that Magnesium Red Blood Cell test, we’re looking at that 40% that goes everywhere else in your body.

Years ago, they considered magnesium cell saturation at 6.3. Then they dropped it because no one was hitting the mark. I don’t want to drop my expectations for my body because everyone around me is sicker. As a society, we’re getting sicker every year. We have to stand up, make a decision that we want our health, know what we need to do, and take action on it. That’s what creates optimal health. Imperfect action creates optimal health. Repeat that like 10 times a day.

Imperfect action creates optimal health.

When we make that decision to take action that maybe the people around us are not taking, that’s that action that walks you toward where you want to be. Maintaining my Magnesium Red Blood Cell number has been a game changer for me in keeping my inflammation down and activating my stored vitamin D to active vitamin D. When your magnesium levels are low, your vitamin D status is compromised. In a way, your vitamin D status is actually an indication of your magnesium status. If you’ve got issues with your vitamin D, you know that your magnesium levels are low. You need magnesium to make the conversion from stored vitamin D and create a step and process the activated vitamin D. 

Magnesium is the mineral that does that. The master mineral. It also starts so many other areas of the body and acts like a spark plug. The opening gate to our health way, though, is active and stored vitamin D. And you need magnesium to do that. So, think of a horse at the gate, ready to run the race. You need magnesium right there beside you so you can come out of that gate strong and healthy. ERS and your Magnesium Red Blood Cell numbers will all help show you where your inflammation currently is. Magnesium numbers in your red blood cells can move quickly.

Chapter 3: Role of Hydration and Food Choices

Your ERS can move quickly. Your C-reactive protein is a longer inflammation window to look at. Tracking these and knowing where your numbers are will give you an indication of whether you’re taking enough action to decrease your risk. One of the foods that I eat for inflammation is bone broth. That is one of the most beneficial foods that I have ever utilized in helping to reduce my inflammation. But it’s not for everyone. If you’re having a hard time breaking down histamines, bone broth is high in histamines, and it can actually aggravate your inflammation levels.

Did you know, proper hydration helps inflammation? If your body gets dehydrated, it gets sticky and slow-moving. Staying hydrated is incredibly important. Making sure the foods that I’m talking about are a good fit for you helps to bring your patterns and your pathway of inflammation to a good point. For example, My daughter did some international travel and came back very, very sick. Well, I’m her mom. I love her. I’m going to give her all the foods that help me, right? Well, those foods were all high in histamine, and at that point, because of what she was exposed to on her international travel, she wasn’t breaking down histamines. They were making her sicker. I think this is where we can get overwhelmed with health. Well, my sister did this, and it worked for her, but it doesn’t work for me.

Understanding your individual pathway and trying some things that don’t work is how you find the things that do work. Bone broth, cold water fish, an omega supplement, and chia seeds. Those have all been foods that have helped me bring down my inflammation levels. You might have an allergy to seafood, so obviously, salmon is not going to be a good fit for you. Finding those foods that work for you to bring your inflammation down is important. I have foods that I know increase my inflammation. One of them is popcorn. I love popcorn. I love the smell of popcorn. I love going to the movies and eating popcorn. I’m a girl from the 80s. However, that popcorn I know the next morning, if I do eat that popcorn with the garbage oil from the movie theater, I’m not going to feel as well. In fact, my joints are actually going to hurt if I eat that popcorn. And so determining how often is a good time for me to enjoy that experience with my family with my grandkids will help me determine how quickly I’m walking and creating optimal health. Now there was a time in my life I couldn’t eat any. I had no tolerance for it, and it would throw me backwards for months. Now I can handle it. My goal is 80-20. 80% of the foods going in my health in my body are to promote health, and 20% are creating experiences and having communal time with people that I love. Now I do do popcorn every once in a while. I don’t beat myself up over it. I do know to watch for triggers the next day to see how much it triggered my body and increased inflammation. I’ve tested corn, and it’s across the board for me except for one type, and that is blue corn. It’s an older variation of corn. It hasn’t been changed as much, and I can eat a blue corn chip that doesn’t cause me any issues.

Finding the foods that work for you, changing one thing at a time, will help you walk away from inflammation, which will help keep your magnesium levels strong. Which will help you feel better when you wake up in the morning. And that’s the ultimate goal of living the good life naturally. Waking up feeling good, ready to start your day, creating things that you’ve been dreaming about and actually living them. Not just thinking about them but putting them into reality because you’ve got the energy and the follow-through with a functional brain and a functional body to do those things you want to do.

Interested in starting the 30 Day Magnesium Soaking Challenge