What’s With All This Magnesium?
“Without enough Magnesium, cells simply don’t work.”
-Dr. Lawrence M. Resnick
Last year I started down the long rabbit hole of magnesium. It all started when I was home sick and miserable with Covid and someone recommended I take magnesium as a way to help with my muscle cramping and fatigue. It immediately helped. Some time passed and I thought nothing of it until early this year when I started learning more about hormones, nutrition, and stress guided by an unexplained, physical pain in my back.
When my back pain showed up in March of this year I started looking for answers as physical therapy found “nothing wrong”. In somatics, back pain can represent lack of support, the past, and inflexibility. Although there was an obvious emotional component, none of the typical things felt true. I knew there was something else that my body needed and I started doing research and asking a good friend for nutritional support.
If you were to ask me if I struggle with fatigue, I would say “not more than the average 41 year old, active woman”. I do believe that answer would be different if I was not using thyroid medication which I started in 2016 after a virus caused my body to completely crash. Part of the crash was a thyroid imbalance that never recovered. So yes, like most people I struggle with fatigue. As Moreley Robbins says in his book, Cure Your Fatigue, “If you suffer from fatigue, you can be sure you also suffer from magnesium deficiency” [1].
Fatigue, muscle cramps and spasms, and decreased bone health are all signs that your magnesium is low (plus the other signs I will list below). As I started to put the pieces together, I realized that my body was trying to tell me something and I made some big changes. One of those was upping my magnesium levels and immediately I started to feel better.
What is magnesium?
Magnesium is a mineral found in the Earth, in humans, the sea, plants and animals. It is responsible for many of our metabolic processes including those responsible for processing our fats, carbohydrates, and proteins. It is necessary for ATP production (how cells make energy) as well as the storage of energy inside our cells. It is a necessary nutrient for our muscle relaxation and contraction mechanisms, heart health, decreases formation of potential blood clots, and helps regulate high blood pressure. Most importantly, if you're stressed, magnesium is the first mineral to be quickly depleted.
Why are we so low?
Beyond the fact that pretty much everyone is stressed, a few other factors are important to highlight.
Refrigeration: we no longer need to use salts and minerals to keep our foods from spoiling.
The soil is completely different: we stopped using “rock dust” to fertilize and remineralize the soil and we started using glyphosate which strips our food of mineralis and harms the soil.
Antibiotics: we started taking wide spread antibiotics in commercial farming.
Use of chemicals: we started using chemicals, such as fluoride and chlorine which bind to magnesium, making the water supply low in minerals.
Refined sugar: we started to add sugar to food to make people want them more. Increasing your sugar depletes the body’s magnesium levels.
Enriched iron foods: we added inorganic iron to our food system, a practice that still happens today at higher levels than our bodies need, making it trigger the loss of magnesium and increase inflammation [1].
How does deficiency show up?
Because magnesium is vital for our cellular functioning, when we are low in magnesium we can have A LOT of health issues. Unfortunately, most doctors do not think to look at or talk to you about your mineral levels once these signs show up.
Heart Health: Research has shown that lower levels of magnesium are linked with decreased risk of dying of heart disease [2]. Calcification of the arteries can occur from low magnesium levels which may lead one to develop coronary problems such as a heart attack, heart failure, and heart disease [3].
High Blood Pressure / Hypertension: Part of heart health is our blood pressure and the process of regulating hypertension. “A Harvard study with over 70,000 people found that those with the highest magnesium intake had the healthiest blood pressure numbers. A follow-up meta-analysis of available studies showed a dose-dependent reduction of blood pressure with magnesium supplementation” [3]. It has also been found to prevent high blood pressure [1].
Muscle Spasming & Cramping: this was my case above with my back pain and one of the most notable symptoms of being deficient in magnesium.
Depression: Research is also showing the link between low magnesium and higher rates of depression [4].
Hormone Imbalances: all of our systems are connected, meaning that our hormones are going to be affected by our nervous system and vice versa. If your endocrine system does not function properly, neither will your cycle. If you experience “ups” and “downs” before, during, or after your period, it’s likely your body is deficient in magnesium.
Low Energy: This may be the easiest sign for you to identify. As I said above, magnesium is necessary for ATP production, which is our cellular energy for ALL of our cells. If this is low you simply don’t have enough energy.
Decreased Bone Health: We need magnesium for vitamin D to turn “on” calcium absorption. No magnesium means the balance of vitamin D and calcium will be off or low. Call me crazy but I think this is why vitamin D is often low in blood work; vitamin D is not the problem, it’s that we are low in minerals. Magnesium is also necessary to draw calcium out of the muscles and tissues and into the bones. Therefore, magnesium has been shown to help lower the risk of osteoporosis, arthritis, kidney stones, and heart attack.
Sleep Problems: Magnesium helps muscles to relax which we need at the end of the day. In addition, magnesium is needed for the balance of GABA in the brain. GABA is the neurotransmitter that slows down the brain and creates a calming effect, which we also need at the end of the day for sleeping.
What magnesium should you take and how much?
There are a lot of cheap magnesium supplements on the market so finding the right one and knowing how much to take was honestly the most confusing part for me. According to Morely Robbins (who has spent years researching magnesium) one should work up to 5x their body weight in milligrams per day. For example, if you weigh 100lbs, take 500mg a day.
Different types of magnesium are going to offer different kinds of support. In an extensive review from multiple sources here is what I have found:
Bicarbonate: supports digestion often without the risk of laxative effect
Carbone: I personally think to avoid this, low absorption
Chloride: reduces pain and skin issues, can also be a laxative
Citrate: good if you have sluggish bowel movements or constipation. I personally feel this is very cheap and try to avoid it
Glycinate: (also seen as bisglycinate) promotes muscle relaxation and easily absorbed, good for at night
Lactate: good for digestive issues and good bioavailability
Malate: high bioavailability, improves energy and good for fatigue. Some sites say this is also good for heart health.
Orotate: promotes overall heart health but often more expensive
Sulfate: put in your bath for muscle soreness (epsom salt)
Taurate: take this for heart functioning and vascular health
Threonate: helps with cognition and memory, good for the brain
Most mineral drops and sea minerals would fall under malate, glycinate, and chloride.
Personally I am currently taking a blend of mineral drops from in the day in my water from Trace Minerals, malate in the evening before bed from Jigsaw, and threonate in the morning with my breakfast from Dr. Mercola.
Lastly, an important thing to keep in mind is to make sure you have enough vitamin B6 in your diet because B6 is needed co-factor for magnesium absorption. I am not a fan of supplementing B6 and prefer to get it from the foods I am eating, such as grass fed beef liver and dark leafy greens. Other alternatives are bee pollen and non-fortified nutritional yeast.
Supplementing magnesium has decreased my back pain and overall led to feeling less stressed and fatigued. For most people they see changes right away. I have spent a few months researching the brands of magnesium I like as well as other supplements that have helped me.
If you’d like to order the magnesium I am taking and other brands I trust check out where you can get 10% off every order: us.fullscript.com/welcome/leshanelson
Questions and/or comments are always welcome!
References:
Robbins, Morley M. Cure Your Fatigue. Columbus, Gatekeeper Press 2021.
Rosanoff A, Seeling MS. Comparison of mechanisms and functional effects of magnesium and stain pharmaceuticals. Journal of American College Nutrition. 2004 Oct; 23(5).
10 signs you are deficient in magnesium (and what to do about it). LongmontLeader. (n.d.). Retrieved August 17, 2022, from https://www.longmontleader.com/local-news/10-signs-you-are-deficient-in-magnesium-and-what-to-do-about-it-2386610
Jacka FN, Overland S, Stewart R, Tell GS, Bjelland I, Mykletun A. Association between magnesium intake and depression and anxiety in community- dwelling adults: the Hordaland Health Study. Aust NZ J Psychiatry. 2009;43:45–52. Pub Med 8/11/2022.