Like many women, Ahlem Gamri was always sipping bottled water in an effort to drink the recommended eight glasses a day.
As a consultant in the oil and gas industry, who travels around the world, she kept a bottle in her handbag to drink on the move.
‘It’s common knowledge that drinking water is fundamental in maintaining health,’ she says.
But despite her best efforts to stay healthy, she was baffled when she began to suffer from a range of symptoms.
‘I felt bloated and wiped out, no matter how much sleep I got,’ says Ahlem, 37, from London.
‘I tried cutting out bread and exercised more in a bid to boost my metabolism and snap me out of it, but I still felt terrible. I had odd symptoms that would flare up and subside without warning — muscle aches, joint pain, dizziness, palpitations, nausea.’
For three years, she consulted endocrinologists, neurologists, gastroenterologists, rheumatologists and immunologists.
Every expert offered different solutions to the symptoms — but none could explain what was actually wrong.
‘It wasn’t until I saw naturopathic doctor Nigma Talib that I got any answers,’ says Ahlem. ‘After a battery of tests, she identified I had a magnesium deficiency.’
Surprisingly, drinking bottled water can cause it.
This little-heard-of deficiency is surprisingly common among women — one survey found one in ten suffers from it, but some experts cite figures as high as seven in ten — and the effects can be devastating.
From maintaining energy levels to steadying heart rhythm, regulating blood pressure and keeping bones strong, magnesium is vital for the body
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