Perspective:

Increased magnesium intake has been observed to lower the risk of adverse cardiac events including stroke, nonfatal myocardial infarction, and cardiac death, and it is thought that increased magnesium may slow or prevent arterial calcification and plaque formation. The present findings suggest that increased calcium intake may be associated with a reduction in arterial calcification in a large population of asymptomatic individuals without known cardiovascular disease. Increased arterial calcification correlates with greater overall plaque burden, and has been robustly demonstrated to convey increased cardiovascular risk. Nevertheless, some research suggests that calcified plaque may be less vulnerable than mixed or noncalcified plaque, and this study cannot assess whether these other types of plaque are also decreased in patients with increased magnesium intake. These findings support the hypothesis that increased magnesium intake may reduce cardiovascular risk, and should prompt future randomized trials to test this hypothesis.