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Magna Aqua, developed by Burradoo scientist Dr Russell Beckett, came from a lifelong passion to discover why people in certain parts of the world have a longer life span.

His search, however, proved to be harder than he thought, admitting that humans could tamper with birth certificate meant ages could not be verified easily.

Almost at the point of giving up and moving on, Russell was at a cafe in Braidwood when a friend suggested the livestock near Cooma airport had a longer than average lifespan.

"We went to CSIRO to investigate," he said.

"We formed a group with a few geologists, people from the University of Canberra and a few other people to assess whether there was nothing or if something was going on."

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Russell and the group compared the soil samples from 10 properties that claimed to have long-living animals and from properties that didn't.

"We got the geologists to say what was different in those properties if there was anything," he said.

"And the difference was that the properties with the longer animal life span had volcanic basalt overriding granite.

"When the rain came down it would go through the basalt, dissolve the minerals in the soil, hit the granite, and would come out as spring water.

"None of the other properties had that."

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Russell said the next step was to look at the water supply.

"The water supply with the animals that lived longer had extremely high calcium and magnesium," he said.

"The water on the properties which had the average life span animals had normal calcium and magnesium levels.

"So we made the leap that it had to be magnesium because too much calcium is toxic, in the sense that excess calcium is associated with inflammation in the body.

"We were excited. We had limited resources, and it was my private money, and I set up an experiment on the farm in Braidwood."

To set up the experiment, Russell used sheep on the farm and put magnesium carbonate into the water of half of the dams, and left half of the other dams with normal water.

"Every sheep that drank the normal dam water on the property got older quicker than the ones that didn't," he said.

"Whereas the other sheep were still running around, gestation improved like you wouldn't believe."

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Convinced there was something there, Russell decided to begin clinical trials into magnesium water.

"I thought well no one is going to take notice of this rubbish 'fountain of youth' in Cooma.

"So I did a clinical Therapeutic Goods Administration registered trial at St Vincent's Hospital with 60 postmenopausal females," he said.

"We made the water up in a factory and put the women on an identical composition to the water that the sheep were drinking.

"Well, the magnesium levels went straight up statistically... but the problem was that some magnesium was staying in the stomach and causing some intestinal problems.

"They were getting magnesium that wasn't all bioavailable. We were still getting spectacular results."

Despite his initial results, Russell faced several challenges in his journey to develop bioavailable magnesium.

"I was being rubbished in the media as a snake oil salesman," he said.

"They called it a placebo despite the clinical trial at St Vincent's hospital being positive."

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But that didn't stop Russell from creating a form of soluble magnesium into drinking water that is fully absorbed by the body.

"When you take a big magnesium tablet, it stays in the stomach, and only 30 per cent of the tablet gets absorbed," he said.

"Magnesium has to be soluble. So the trick was to get as much magnesium as possible into as little water as possible without any side effects.

"That's what we've managed to do.

"Magnesium on its own doesn't taste nice. We had to mix it with lemon juice. The lemon juice hides the taste of the magnesium, and is also a source of citric acid which is valuable biochemically."

And while it's not exactly the fountain of youth, the Therapeutic Goods Administration has passed Russell's magnesium citrate complex as a sports drink.

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"To pass as a medicine, it needs to be made in a TGA certified factory, which we don't have," he said.

"It's currently been made in a food factory, so it's classified as a concentrated tonic.

"We can't say this product is a cure but talk to your doctor about if you should take it."

According to Healthdirect.gov.au, magnesium is a nutrient that is essential for healthy muscles, nerves, bones and blood sugar levels.

It is needed for muscles and nerves to work properly, to keep blood sugar and blood pressure at the right level, and to make protein, bone, and DNA.

For more general information Magna Aqua, visit the: www.magna-aqua.com.

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