The Five Supplements Anyone Should Consider Taking - Part 4 - Magnesium
Disclaimer: This article is not meant to diagnose or offer medical advice. Please consult your medical professional before committing to a supplement regime.
Magnesium (Mg) is a vital element of your health and is a mineral that is involved in almost everything your body does. It is an essential mineral, which means you have to get it from food. Unfortunately, in the modern world, a majority of the population is deficient.
This is mainly due to the environmental changes that have caused magnesium soil depletion, the abundance of processed foods which can decrease magnesium levels by 80 per cent, and the presence of excess calcium in the body which mainly comes from the extreme ratio difference in common foods such as fortified orange juice (27:1), cheese (26:1), yogurt (11:1), dairy (7:1) and very commonly used antacids, the medicines that neutralise the acid in your stomach to relieve heartburn (300:1).
There are other contributing factors such as fluoride, alcohol, coffee, sugar, stress, and medications.
The Roles it Plays
Magnesium is involved in over 300 enzymatic reactions in your body that control heart rate and blood pressure, muscle and nerve cell function, stress pathways, and crucial metabolic processes like glucose control, insulin sensitivity, and energy production. Magnesium is involved in making ATP (the energy currency of the body) and utilising it. Low levels of magnesium over time can lead to low calcium and potassium levels.
Magnesium supports vitamin D metabolism. Being deficient in magnesium can make it harder for you to convert vitamin D from the sun into an active hormone.
Cooking
Magnesium is at the centre of a chlorophyll molecule. Chlorophyll is what gives plants their green colour. Eating dark leafy greens regularly is not only going to provide enough magnesium, but they are also a good source of calcium, vitamin K1, and many other known compounds along with some that science probably doesn’t even know about yet.
Kale, spinach, Swiss chard, and romaine lettuce are all good sources of magnesium. Boiled spinach, for example, contains 156 mg of magnesium per cup.
Magnesium in raw vegetables can be a bit less bioavailable, so cooking it can release some of it, but it gets released in water too. It is probably best if you steam the magnesium-rich vegetables.
Other good food sources of magnesium include:
Seeds: Pumpkin seeds (156 mg per ounce/30 grams, roasted) and chia seeds (111 mg per ounce/30 grams)
Nuts: Almonds (80 mg per ounce, dry roasted) and cashews, dry roasted (74 mg per ounce/30 grams, dry roasted)
Legumes: Black beans (60 mg per 1/2 cup, cooked) and edamame (50 mg per 1/2 cup, shelled and cooked)
Grains: Quinoa (60 mg per 1/2 cup, cooked), brown rice, cooked (½ cup 42 mg), and shredded wheat (65 mg per cup)
Measuring the Levels
About half the body’s magnesium is stored in the bones. The rest is located in the blood and other tissues. You are only ever able to measure about 1 per cent of magnesium in your body, and that's in the serum and blood levels. It is in your red blood cells (RBC) and your bone marrow where magnesium is functional.
Testing for magnesium deficiency can be quite challenging and confusing because often elevated magnesium levels in the serum can mean Mg is being pulled from your blood and plasma, thus decreasing levels there. Therefore, if only measured in the serum, a high reading in magnesium can actually mean you're low in magnesium!
Deficiencies have historically been diagnosed by assessing a patient’s history, clinical symptoms, and the results of blood tests. Because of this, many cases of magnesium deficiency go undiagnosed.
Symptoms of magnesium deficiency can be headaches, loss of appetite, nausea, vomiting, fatigue and weakness. Very severe magnesium deficiency can cause numbness, tingling, muscle cramps, seizures, and an abnormal heart rhythm.
Unlike other mineral and vitamin deficiencies, many effects of magnesium deficiency are impossible to see, for example, DNA damage, warns the biomedical researcher Dr Rhonda Patrick. Magnesium is a co-factor for the enzymes that repair your DNA, which means that in its absence, the enzymes are not doing it properly.
Some labs offer RBC (red blood cell) magnesium tests which could give you more useful data. Please consult your GP before drawing any conclusions.
Supplementing
There are so many variations of magnesium and each has its specific properties that it would be irresponsible to just dump them all into one basket. We can’t mention all of them, but here are some that you will likely come across.
Magnesium citrate, lactate, and especially malate help with the short-chain fatty acids that are good for your gut. They get into the intestinal epithelial cells (cells that play an important role in the absorption of nutrients and protection from microbial infections) and are an energy source for mitochondria.
Mg malate can help recover from exercise quicker and it might be practical to take it during the day. It has slower absorption, a more of a sustained release. Unlike many others, it doesn’t have any laxative properties and it has a big role in ATP production and energy. Its calming effect helps with cramping. You might notice you feel better and calmer throughout the day comments the neuroscientist, Dr Andrew Huberman, from Stanford University School of Medicine. Mg malate is a chelated form so you don’t have to worry about bonding to iron or other metals. This could be one of the tools you can use for staying calm and sharp when you have a high-focusing task ahead of you.
(For nutrition geeks: Chelation is a type of bonding of ions and molecules to metal ions either rendering them weaker or stronger, depending on the enzymatic pathway utilised.)
On the other hand, Mg threonate and Mg bisglycinate tap into the GABA receptors in the brain and can have a mild sedative effect helping you transition into sleep. Research in the US military showed that threonate helped with PTSD. It has a potent effect on the blood-brain barrier and can sometimes cause pretty wild dreams too.
Mg chloride is often used for occasional detoxification, even in a bath. One reason is that it has a strong laxative effect when consumed orally. The other reason is that it chelates (binds to or neutralises) other minerals such as iron and other heavy metals. Basically, you don’t want to use Mg chloride on a daily basis.
Mg glycinate is often prescribed by doctors. It has very mild laxative properties and is absorbed through the intestinal wall. It is also chelated and highly bioavailable, but unfortunately very expensive. It calms the neurons by binding to the NMDA receptor and thus prevents calcium (which has excitatory properties) from binding to the same receptor.
Mg oxide is another form you can come across. It is non-chelated and you would usually take it consistently in smaller doses throughout the day for symptoms like acid reflux. Its bioavailability is quite low (approx 5 per cent) and is meant for very specific uses.
Mg orotate and Mg taurate work via different pathways. They are both highly bioavailable and can penetrate the cell membrane and positively affect the cycle of DNA and RNA and how genes are expressed and repaired. It is more of a long-term approach to health. High levels of these two magnesium forms are sometimes even used in a meditation session to help reach deeper states of the meditation practice. It also has positive effects on your heart.
How much do you need?
Men under 30 are recommended to take 400 mg of magnesium per day and men over 31 around 420 mg per day.
Women under 30 need 310 mg a day and 320 mg a day after 31. Pregnant and breastfeeding women, however, need more than that, approximately 350 to 360 mg a day.
Keep in mind, that this is your total magnesium intake, not just from supplements.
The kidneys have a great capacity for regulating magnesium levels in the body (they can filter up to 2,400 mg of magnesium per day) and can excrete up to 70 per cent of that magnesium through urine if there is too much in the body. Yet overdoing magnesium supplements can have many side effects, and diarrhoea is just one of them.
When choosing your supplement, pay attention to other ingredients in the bottle. Many supplement companies include so many unhealthy compounds that it defeats the purpose of taking magnesium for health reasons.
The laxative effect
Magnesium is “hydrophilic” meaning it attracts water. It draws water into the intestine, so when done properly it can help with occasional constipation. When done in excess, however, it can quickly make you spend the night on the toilet with much more than just a loose stool.
Epson salt, for example, is actually magnesium sulphate. It is a chemical compound made up of magnesium, sulphur, and oxygen. It has the biggest laxative effect when taken orally - draws water in immediately (it is pretty easy to overdose). But if you take it topically, like in a hot bath, it loses its laxative properties. Unfortunately, it only gets absorbed into the serum, but not into red blood cells.
Likewise, magnesium citrate has huge bioavailability, unfortunately so efficient, that it defeats the purpose. The diarrhoea it can cause can make you lose too much water and even more minerals with it.
How to time the absorption better
As mentioned, magnesium is highly reactive to water. If you tried to put it in a time-released capsule as it is done with certain probiotics for example, as soon as the outer layer wears off magnesium would react to water and most of it would be excreted through urine.
There are many minerals and vitamins you can take to influence the absorption of magnesium in your body, but it is far beyond the scope of this article.
Probably worth mentioning are the B vitamins. Vitamins B6, B9 and B12 are the trifectas for working with magnesium and they can greatly enhance its utilisation explains the nutrition coach Thomas DeLauer. B6 is involved in the absorption of magnesium, while magnesium helps convert folic acid into its active form folate just to mention a few examples.
Transdermal absorption
When taking creams that include magnesium be aware that when it is absorbed through the skin, magnesium takes a different form. Although there is plenty of anecdotal evidence of the local effects of topical applications, so far the clinical trials haven’t found enough evidence to support the claims on many cosmetic products, so it is hard to pinpoint the exact effects.
Magnesium carbonate is a form of magnesium that is not used as a supplement as often but is very often used as an alternative to a calcium form of chalk you find at the gym. It is especially useful for rock climbing because it is more hydrophilic than the calcium form, so it might keep your hands dry for longer.
Conclusion
To supplement or not to supplement, that is the question. First of all, I recommend getting acquainted with the levels of magnesium in your red blood cells and having an overall assessment done by your healthcare professional.
It is always good advice to eat a variety of fresh whole foods, especially plenty of dark leafy greens (preferably steamed) and other natural sources of magnesium mentioned above. With that alone you can hit a daily recommended intake fairly easily. Fresh foods have so many benefits to your health, far beyond just maintaining a sufficient intake of magnesium.
However due to soil depletion and various other factors you might find it hard to hit that mark regularly. In that case, either a short-term high dose or a long-term low dose of supplementation might be a good idea.
As you have seen, assessing your magnesium deficiency and supplementing with magnesium is a bit more complex and complicated than one would imagine. Often a combination of different forms of magnesium is sold in pharmacies and now you will at least know what some of them are and make a more informed choice.
Resources:
Huberman Lab Podcast with Dr Rhonda Patrick (from 01:40:30)
https://bengreenfieldlife.com/podcast/nutrition-podcasts/magnesium-supplementation/
https://www.healthdirect.gov.au/magnesium
https://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/Magnesium-HealthProfessional/