Magnesium is the fourth most plentiful mineral in the human body. It plays many essential roles in the health of your body and brain. 

Magnesium regulates temperature, produces and transports energy, sends nerve signals, and relaxes muscles. Magnesium is necessary for glucose, fat, and protein metabolism and influences every cell in the body in a positive life-supporting way.

In this article, I will share the function and benefits of magnesium, what it does in the body and dietary sources.

Different Forms of Magnesium

Magnesium Malate

Magnesium malate is a dietary supplement that combines magnesium and malic acid. It’s connected to numerous health benefits, including improvements in mood, blood sugar control, exercise performance, and chronic pain.

Magnesium Glycinate

 Magnesium glycinate has many benefits:

• It has a calming effect on your brain.
• It can help reduce anxiety and support better sleep.
• It helps keep bones strong by keeping healthy bone density.
• It helps control blood sugar in diabetics and can lower the risk of developing diabetes.
• It decreases irregular heart rhythms.
• It reduces (PMS) symptoms.

Topical Magnesium

Topical magnesium is a way of delivering minerals to the body through your skin. 

Magnesium chloride is easy to absorb and may raise levels of this nutrient within the body when applied topically to the skin. There aren’t any side effects of using magnesium oils or creams other than potentially some stinging on the skin. 

Magnesium Threonate

Magnesium L-threonate is a supplement that has the L-threonate form of magnesium that can normalize magnesium levels in the body.

Magnesium L-threonate Effectively Fights ADHD is a wonderful memory and cognitive-enhancing supplement and even helps fight depression and anxiety. 

Research shows that Magnesium L-threonate is safe and well-tolerated by the body when taken in dosage amounts less than 350 mg a day. However, increased Magnesium L-threonate intake can lead to side-effects, such as nausea, vomiting, etc.

Remag Liquid Magnesium 

ReMag is “The Magnesium Miracle.” ReMag is a stabilized ionic form of magnesium that is entirely absorbed at the cellular level and does not have a laxative effect. ReMag has the highest known concentration of any magnesium. It’s much more therapeutic, effective, and fast-acting than magnesium in pill or liquid form.

ReMag was created by Dr. Carolyn Dean, author of “The Magnesium Miracle“. ReMag minerals are acquired from a pure source of magnesium chloride and deliver stabilized magnesium ions that are similar in size to plant magnesium.

ReMag is a picometer-ionic form of magnesium. Picometer magnesium is smaller in diameter than the body’s cell mineral ion channels. Its direct and complete absorption into cells means ReMag bypasses a leaky gut and does not even reach the large intestine to cause diarrhea. 

ReMag promotes brain health, strong muscles and bones, cardiovascular health, and nervous system function ReMag is generally recognized as safe and is free of heavy metals verified in rigorous testing performed at 3rd party FDA accredited labs. 

What foods Have Magnesium In Them?

Magnesium-rich foods include raw, green organic vegetables, and spinach. Juicing green leafy vegetables provides it also.

Magnesium Recommended as the Daily Allowance By Age

Note *: For infants from birth to 12 months, an adequate intake for magnesium is equal to the mean consumption of magnesium in healthy, breastfed infants, with added solid foods for ages 7-12 months.

The RDA for magnesium is expressed in mg/kg and is roughly 6 mg per kg (2.2 lb) of body weight. To easily calculate your magnesium, take your weight (in pounds) times 4. This is your RDA minimum.

Benefits of Magnesium

Magnesium has tons of health benefits. According to the National Institutes of Health, magnesium can help the following conditions:

Relieves Insomnia

• Magnesium relaxes your muscles for better sleep. 
• It helps to “shut your mind off” and calms your nerves by regulating two of your brain’s neurotransmitters that tend to keep you awake. 
• Magnesium is also necessary to keep a healthy “biological clock” and sleep cycle. 
• Magnesium may also prevent restless leg syndrome. It does this not only by relaxing muscles but by reducing inflammation and helping to make sleep-enhancing chemicals called melatonin and glutathione.

Protects Your Heart

• Magnesium fuels your heart, protects the heart’s pump, prevents heart attacks, and gives elasticity to your heart and blood vessels.
• Magnesium decreases calcium build up in your heart and arteries.

Combats Asthma

• Magnesium has the potential to stop the spasms of your bronchial muscle that creates narrowing in the tubes transporting air to the lungs and help your lungs breathe easier. 
• Magnesium supplements also help control non-extreme cases daily in both children and adults. 
• Magnesium relaxes the bronchial muscles even when you are not having an attack. 
• Studies show magnesium does this either because it blocks calcium (which can reduce dilation) or its vital connection to the enzyme responsible for cell function called adenylyl cyclase.

Reduces High Blood Pressure

• Magnesium relaxes “smooth muscle” cells, meaning those in your veins and arteries, so they don’t constrict the flow of blood. 
• It also regulates other minerals vital to blood pressure.
• It maintains the delicate balance between sodium and potassium. 
• It helps the body absorb calcium (and not be deposited in arteries).

Improves Digestion and Alleviates Constipation Symptoms

• Without magnesium, your body can’t perform the “mechanics” of digestion, make hydrochloric acid (stomach acid), make digesting enzymes for carbs, proteins, and fats, and repair and protect your digestive organs (esophagus, stomach, intestines, pancreas, colon).
• Magnesium helps make enzymes in your saliva that break food down into smaller parts, helping the entire digestive process. 
• The hormones that tell your stomach to produce digestive acid need magnesium to be made; you can’t digest food without it. 
• The pancreas must have magnesium to make these vital enzymes. 
• Magnesium also keeps the pancreas healthy, helping to prevent pancreatitis and pancreatic cancer.
• Magnesium aids stomach acid production and reduces bad bacteria in the gut.

Protects Against Diabetes

• Magnesium is the key to insulin sensitivity. 
• Research from 2014 says magnesium deficiency is associated with triggering “acute phase response” that contributes to type 2 diabetes. Supplements were given to healthy people with prediabetes who had low magnesium. Taking magnesium supplements decreased their C-reactive protein. C-reactive protein is high in those who develop diabetes.
• Magnesium deficiency has also been linked to poor glycemic control, diabetic retinopathy (damage to eyes leading to blindness), nephropathy (damage to kidneys leading to renal failure), neuropathy (nerve damage), and foot ulcerations. Therefore, scientists highly recommend supplementing magnesium due to the increase in these conditions among people with type 2 diabetes.
• Taking magnesium can improve metabolic control, increase good (HDL) cholesterol, and lower triglycerides that reduce heart trouble risks.

Supports Bone Health

• Magnesium is known to reduce the rate that bones degrade or break down. 
• Too little magnesium contributes to bone loss by:
  • Affecting “crystal formation” in bone cells.
  • Impacting the amount of parathyroid hormone produced. (The amount of calcium your body absorbs is controlled by parathyroid hormone.)
  • Creating inflammation in your bones.

Deficiency and Symptoms

Some researchers state that magnesium deficiency has reached epidemic proportions. Why has it? 

A major reason that our bodies are being “drained” of magnesium is stress. 

This stress can be created by intense exercise, processed food (and even the many foods fortified with calcium but not magnesium), prolonged exposure to light from a computer screen (which reduces your hypothalamus gland from releasing healing hormones), and emotional stress. 

Stress also damages and inflames your gut, which is where magnesium is absorbed into your body.

Magnesium deficiency symptoms are difficult to pinpoint because they can show up in any part of your body. 

Initial mild symptoms can range from trouble concentrating, dizziness, and excessive menstrual pain to fatigue, headaches, facial twitching, and heart palpitations. Common symptoms also include constipation, food cravings, loss of appetite, muscle cramps, irritability, and anxiety.

How to Effectively Increase Your Magnesium Levels

As with any deficiency, begin eating foods high in the nutrient daily. Challenge yourself to create a high-potency meal plan, including as many of these foods as possible.

Yet, most research agrees that if your body is already in a deficit state, achieving a therapeutic dose of any nutrient from meals alone is rarely possible. Supplementation is the only route to top up your shortfall.

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