Greenland, a soft-water area with a low incidence of ischemic heart death.

Present-time Greenlanders are living a stressful 'westernized life' complete with an elevated consumption of tobacco and alcohol. The drinking water in Greenland is extremely soft and the diet is very low in calcium (and probably magnesium) and rich in carbohydrate and fat. Despite these different predisposing factors, death from ischemic heart disease is 3-6 times less frequent than in Denmark. The serum calcium/magnesium ratio in Greenlanders is significantly lower than in Danes. Magnesium deficits in patients with acute myocardial infarction, as well as epidemiologically positive correlations between dietary calcium/magnesium ratios and ischemic heart death, are the basis for attributing the low incidence of ischemic heart death in Greenland to the low Greenlandic calcium/magnesium ratio in diet and blood serum. Other characteristics of the Greenlandic disease pattern include a low incidence of stones in kidney and urinary tract, few cases of diabetes mellitus, prolonged bleeding time, increased atrioventricular block and osteoporosis, all of which may also be related to a low calcium and high magnesium metabolic status.