INS and diabetes mellitus: It has been suggested that a number of mechanisms may provide the molecular and functional basis for the involvement of magnesium in the pathogenesis of diabetes mellitus, as follows: (1) Magnesium is a co-factor necessary for glucose metabolism in several pathways, including transport between membranes, glucose oxidation, and insulin-mediated tyrosine kinase pathways [12, 32, 33], and it may therefore be involved in insulin secretion or insulin signaling [34].