Magnesium - My Favorite Mineral

Ever have a super intense chocolate craving? The kind that sends you to the store for all of the chocolate you can find - in any form - RIGHT NOW? Welcome to my life. If I neglect to take magnesium even for a couple of consecutive days this is the first and hardest hitting symptom I personally have. It is also my warning sign to get my act together with my supplement routine. Why chocolate, you ask? Was I having a bad day? Was i suffered from PMS? No and No. Chocolate is a magnesium rich food. Magnesium deficiency will send me to the grocery store in such desperation that the poor clerk will think I'm gone round the bend.

In clinic, many of the patients for whom I recommend magnesium come in reporting symptoms sounding orthopedic in nature: muscle cramps, difficulty with exercise recovery, increased nerve pain or the like. One layer deeper into discussions, I hear many additional reports including constipation, poor sleep, poor stress management, brain fog or cognition issues. And while these may all sound like - you guessed it - perimenopausal and menopausal concerns, these symptoms defy age and gender.

Let me introduce you to the hypothalamus, a little structure in our brains about the size of an almond. The hypothalamus is the H in the HPA/HPG axis. Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Adrenal axis or Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Gonadal axis. Wanna nerd out with me? Follow the links. But, in a brief synopsis, these body-wide systems regulate our stress, mood, sleep, sex drive, blood pressure, hunger, temperature regulation, amongst many more functions.

Magnesium is crucial to the hypothalamus and therefore HPA/HPG functions. Supplementation with magnesium is known to help manage stress and anxiety, sleep and digestion by allowing these systems to function with more ease. This is part of neurological downregulation ("rest and digest" if you remember that phrase from high-school biology class).

Magnesium and Hot flashes: A Theory:

Hot flashes happen to those of us with dropping estrogen (peri and menopause). It is widely accepted that estrogen reduction affects the hypothalamus, our temperature regulator, and makes this little internal thermostat more finicky than it was earlier in life. Stay with me here...

Here is my theory. Magnesium is crucial to the health of the hypothalumus. The hypothalamus is critical for our temperature control. It follows that supplementing with magnesium could help manage hot flashes. But correlation and causation are not the same and I can find no studies that have proven this theory. I can tell you this: taking magnesium as part of my pre-bed routine does help me. I sleep more soundly and I suffer from fewer hot flashes when I take magnesium routinely. If you try this, please let me know if it helps you!

Magnesium types and roles:

While all of these forms of magnesium are absorbable, each have a stronger emphasis on particular benefits. Here is an overview.

Magnesium Glycinate:

functions: mood, relaxation, stress, sleep support, muscle relaxation

Magnesium Malate:

functions: manage muscle pain and associated symptoms

Magnesium Oxide:

functions: digestion/indigestion/heartburn

Magnesium Taurate:

functions: blood pressure and cardiovascular health

Magnesium L-threonate:

functions: brain boosting, cognition, memory, brain fog

Magnesium Citrate:

functions: bowel mover, laxative.

How much should I take and is this right for me?

First and foremost, consult your own medical professional to make sure that supplementing magnesium will cause you no harm and doesn't interact with any medications you take. Once magnesium has been established as safe for you, start slowly and you can build up to tolerance. Gastric upset and loose stools are the most common side effects from taking magnesium. If you experience either complaint, back down until these symptoms are no longer present. I take magnesium glycinate for my own health needs. It is also what I recommend most often within my clinical practice as it fits most complaints I am trying to remedy. This form also tends to be better tolerated by most patient's "guts".

Why supplementation versus whole foods?

Nutrition from whole foods is always best. Regrettably, the soil in which our food is grown, is often depleted of nutrients. Even diets full of magnesium-rich foods such as dark leafy greens, avocado, bananas, nuts and seeds and soy simply may not provide enough of this mineral to do the many jobs it is needed for. That is where supplementation comes in. Consider supplementing magnesium in your diet for your mental health, sleep wellness, hormonal health, or physical wellness.

I will leave you with this last thought: Magnesium plays well with others. Along with other nutrients, magnesium is essential for our bone health. This short article in Thorne's Take 5 Daily Newsletter does a nice job of explaining the concept. Just one more reason to add magnesium to your wellness routine for age-related wellness.