So how does magnesium help your heart?
1. It prevents muscle spasms.
2. It keeps your blood flowing smoothly.
3. It helps raise good (HDL) cholesterol.
4. It helps maintain normal blood pressure.
5. It keeps a regular heartbeat.

Bottom line: The same ratio of calcium to magnesium you take to keep your bones strong and flexible will also keep you young at heart. In addition to supplements, get more magnesium into your diet by emphasizing whole grains and beans, and limit dairy to one portion a day at most.

Calcium, magnesium, and aging emotionally
How young can you feel if you’re constantly depressed or feeling anxious? Even if you have aches and pains, a positive attitude will keep you vital, and vitality equals youthfulness. Few people realize that both depression and anxiety can begin with an imbalance of calcium and magnesium. Before reaching for St. John's wort, kava kava, prescription drugs, or other mood elevators, I suggest you take a closer look at these minerals:

Too much calcium can contribute to depression and irritability, whereas magnesium helps your brain make the calming chemical called dopamine. Magnesium, not calcium, is the mineral that calms your emotions as well as your muscles.

A number of studies have found an association between depression in psychiatric patients and high-calcium levels. If you’re clinically depressed, talk with your doctor about having your calcium level checked through a simple blood test.

Serotonin is a brain chemical considered to be a natural antidepressant, but your brain needs magnesium in order to make serotonin. If you’re depressed, and if your depression is caused by a lack of serotonin, you probably need more magnesium. Low serotonin production can cause a number of symptoms including depression, obsessive thinking, and anxiety.

When you're under stress your body loses more magnesium than usual. Stress causes your adrenal glands to produce more adrenaline and other hormones, like cortisol, causing more magnesium excretion. When your magnesium is low, your adrenal glands produce still more cortisol, which in turn decreases your levels of DHEA. DHEA is a hormone considered to be an anti-aging nutrient. Stress causes fatty acids to be released in your body and attach themselves to magnesium, which makes it more difficult for magnesium to be absorbed.

Psychiatrist Priscilla Slagle, MD, suggests that too much dairy can lower magnesium levels. She believes that the Recommended Daily Allowance (RDA) for magnesium should be raised from 320 mg a day for women over 31 to 500-800 mg a day. I would raise the upper limits to 1,000 mg.

Bottom line: When you’re under stress, increase your magnesium and keep calcium levels reasonable, not high. This may help you reduce depression and anxiety. Temporarily reduce your supplemental calcium to 500 mg a day, eat less dairy, and increase your magnesium to bowel tolerance. If you're concerned with the physical and emotional aspects of aging, examine your calcium and magnesium levels, and adjust them if necessary. They’re two of your most important anti-aging nutrients.

Abraham, Guy E., MD, and Grewal Harinder, MD. "A total dietary program emphasizing magnesium instead of calcium," Journal of Reproductive Medicine, May 1990.

Arasteh, K. "A beneficial effect of calcium intake on mood," J Orthomol Psychiatry, 9(4):199-204, 1994.