By LINA NJOROGE
Malnutrition is a term used to describe the effect caused by lack of or excess of not only food but essential nutrients such as vitamins and minerals that the body needs for growth and development.
In fact, most ailments can be prevented or managed through good nutrition. Poor eating habits or eating an unbalanced diet can lead to nutrient deficiency. However, nutrient deficiency could also be caused by an underlying disease.
The only way you can know the cause of the deficiency is mostly by taking a diet history to determine the eating habits of an individual.
One of these vital nutrients is magnesium, which is responsible for many critical bodily functions.
The most common symptoms of magnesium deficiency are muscle cramps or twitches. So the next time you find that your muscles are just twitching uncontrollably or cramping all the time, you know one of the probable culprits. Other symptoms are unexplained and prolonged fatigue, weakness, irritability and migraines. We become deficient in magnesium if we eat a highly-processed, refined diet that contains practically zero magnesium.
Magnesium can also be depleted by consumption of too much alcohol, salt and coffee, profuse sweating and chronic diarrhoea, prolonged or intense stress.
There are other causes that one may never think off that can also cause deficiency such as excess intake of calcium and prolonged use of antibiotics .
So the next time you experience a myriad of unexplained symptoms, it could be that your body is speaking to you about the nutrients that you are lacking. Simply take time to examine your eating habits, your diet and listen to your body.