If you’ve been a visitor to our amazing clinic you may have noticed some of the great products we have for sale, one of our best sellers is our Magnesium range from Metagenics. Both our practitioners and admin superstars often get questions about the range of products, so we thought we’d run through a little information document here!
Magnesium is a commonly taken dietary supplement, magnesium is found in a range of foods but the vast majority of us simply don’t eat enough of the recommended foods to meet optimum requirements. A recent study of college athletes in the USA found that less than 1% were getting enough magnesium in their diet!
What are the mains roles of magnesium in the body
- Energy creation – helps convert our food stores into energy stores throughout the day
- Muscular movements – is involved in the process of muscle contraction
- Regulation of neurotransmitters – helps initiate and control the amount of messages sent through our bodies
- Genetics – Helps regulate, create and repair DNA
- Protein – forms Amino Acids, the building blocks of our body.
Does Magnesium help my sport?
Magnesium has huge roles in exercise, it helps move blood sugars throughout your body, and then helps dispose of the lactate that builds during exercise.
This helps aid recovery from exercise – one of magnesium’s more marketed benefits.
Does magnesium help mental health?
Magnesium has critical roles in the brain, a study from 2020 showed that people with depleted magnesium stores showed greater susceptibility to stress and depression.
There has since been studies showing that supplementing magnesium showed mental health improvements (including anxiety) in both an 8 week and a 16 weeks trial
Does it help you sleep?
As mentioned earlier magnesium has a big role in your brain and the neurotransmitters, and in this case it helps act on several of the transmitters involved in sleep.
There has been studies that have shown improvements for those who suffer from insomnia and other sleep based conditions.
What are some other proposed benefits of magnesium?
There are many studies looking at how else magnesium can help support our body function. There are some early indications for the following but more and larger studies will be required to support them
- Decrease inflammation – this is by reducing the amount of CRP which is an inflammatory marker with chronic inflammatory conditions
- Improve heart health – lowers blood pressure and LDL (bad) cholesterol.
- Migraines – there has been a study that suggests migraines are more prevalent in those with low magnesium, and taking a dose of magnesium improved the migraine symptom as much as a common medication.
- Improves bone health and decreases rate of osteoporosis
When and why should I take it?
There are many reasons to take magnesium, it could be because you’re waking up sore after exercise, are feeling particularly stressed or down. It could just be that you don’t feel like you’re operating at 100%.
In terms of time of day, that seems to be more of a personal preference, some like to take it after exercise, and other like to take it after dinner to help them sleep.
There doesn’t seem to be a right or wrong answer for this!
Are there any side effects?
Magnesium seems to have very minimal potential side effects as long as its taken in the recommended dose. (400-420 mg for men, and 310-320 mg for women).
If you do have too high of magnesium intake, it is likely that it will just pass straight through you in the form of diarrhea, however prolonged over usage can cause weight loss and electrolyte imbalance.
Magnesium may interact with anti-biotics so be sure to always check with your GP.
What foods have lots of magnesium in them?
(DV = Daily volume) stats per Healthline.
- Pumpkin seeds: 37% of the DV per ounce (28 grams)
- Chia seeds: 26% of the DV per ounce (28 grams)
- Spinach, boiled: 19% of the DV per 1/2 cup (90 grams)
- Almonds: 19% of the DV per ounce (28 grams)
- Cashews: 18% of the DV per ounce (28 grams)
- Black beans, cooked: 14% of the DV per 1/2 cup (86 grams)
- Edamame, cooked: 12% of the DV per 1/2 cup (78 grams)
- Peanut butter: 12% of the DV per 2 tablespoons (32 grams)
- Brown rice, cooked: 10% of the DV per 1/2 cup (100 grams)
- Salmon, cooked: 6% of the DV per 3 ounces (85 grams)
- Halibut, cooked: 6% of the DV per 3 ounces (85 grams)
- Avocado: 5% of the DV per 1/2 cup (75 grams)
Drop into the clinic today and check out the range of Magnesium we have to offer
