Magnesium has over 600 different functions within the body with the vast majority relating to the nervous system. It is also a very common mineral to become deficient in due to the low amount found naturally in our diets. Magnesium is also not stored in our bodies for long periods which means deficiencies can become an issue.
Common symptoms associated with a deficiency in this mineral include: muscle cramps, muscle weakness, excessive tiredness, poor sleep, and mental health issues just to name a few.
In this article I will go through the top 8 reasons to take magnesium.
1. Improves Athletic Performance
Magnesium is essential for the proper functioning of your muscles. It is responsible for ensuring that the glucose reaches your muscles to give them the energy it requires for full performance. This mineral acts as a natural calcium blocker allowing your muscles to relax when they need to. This is part of the reasons why cramps occur with deficiencies. Deficiency in this mineral can thus lead to cramping of various muscles within your body. Most commonly this occurs in your hamstring and calf muscles.
2. Improves Sleep
One of the most common and most immediate effects of increasing magnesium that I hear from patients is the improvements in their sleep. This is due to magnesium’s role in regulating the neurotransmitters required for sleep. A deficiency therefore can interfere with your sleep regulation causing disruptions. A study by Jasmine Mah and Tyler Pitre (2021) showed how a group of adults who suffered with insomnia that took magnesium before bed, slept on average 17.36 minutes faster than the group that didn’t take the mineral. Therefore if you suffer with sleep, there’s a good chance that increasing your magnesium intake will help you.
3. Improves Mental Health
Depression and anxiety is so common with our society and it is well recognised that there are many causes for this. One of the causes that can contribute to this is due to low levels of magnesium. As already mentioned, Magnesium has many functions within the nervous system. Low levels will therefore cause your nervous system to work less efficiency and thus over time issues such as depression and anxiety can develop. Javad Anjom-Shoae and colleagues (2021) found that “dietary intake of Mg was inversely associated with depression and anxiety.
4. Reduces Diabetes
Magnesium is vital for regulating your blood sugar and maintaining good insulin sensitivity. Thus low levels of this mineral can lead to poor regulation of the sugar within your blood, leading to diabetes.
5. Improves Cardiovascular Health
Magnesium plays many roles in regulating the cardiovascular system. Kolte, Dhaval MD and colleagues (2014) mention in their article how magnesium plays a critical role in “modulating vascular smooth muscle tone, endothelial cell function, and myocardial excitability and is thus central to the pathogenesis of several cardiovascular disorders such as hypertension, atherosclerosis, coronary artery disease, congestive heart failure, and cardiac arrhythmias” Thus deficiencies can thus cause a variety of issues within this system.
6. Reduces Inflammation
There is a link between low levels of magnesium and high levels of inflammatory markers in the blood. This would make you more susceptible to chronic inflammatory diseases. This means that if you are indeed deficient in this mineral, you could see great improvements in inflammatory based conditions by replenishing your levels.
7. Improves Migraines
It has been well known for many years the effects of magnesium with migraines. Migraines are caused by what is called a “cortical spreading depression”. This means that unstable neurons in the brain fire very easily causing a dominos effects across the brain. This along with the dilation of the blood vessels within your brain causes the migraine and associated aura. Magnesium, as already mentioned, has many of its functions within the nervous system. Deficiencies in this mineral can reduce the function of the nerves making the cortical spreading depression more likely to occur. If you suffer with migraines, it’s always worth supplementing with magnesium as there’s a good chance of seeing an improvement.
8. Improves Bone Health
Around 50-60% of the magnesium within your body is stored in bone. This is why it can be difficult to get an accurate measure of your magnesium levels via a blood test. Magnesium is essential for the integrity of your bones along with calcium and many other components. Therefore deficiencies can contribute to osteoporosis and other bone issues.
How Do I Know If I Need Magnesium?
Doing a blood test to look at magnesium levels isn’t the most reliable method due to only a small amount of it being stored in the blood. The best test, if you believe you may be deficient based on the symptoms above, is to take a magnesium supplements for 1-2 months and see whether you notice a change. If you do, this would suggest you are deficient. If you don’t however, likelihood is that you are not deficient.
How To Get Magnesium Naturally & How Much?
Magnesium is found in many foods and of course it is always better to get it from your foods naturally rather than supplements. The only issue is that it can be hard to get enough in our diets naturally. If you think you are deficient, supplements are the easiest way of testing due to the fact that you know exactly how much you are taking. However, once you have identified magnesium as a deficiency, then I would absolutely recommend increasing this in your diet. Common foods include:
- Seeds such as Pumkin Seeds, Sesame Seeds, Chia Seeds
- Nuts such as Cashews, Peanuts, Almonds
- Leafy Green Vegetables
- Dark Chocolate
The recommended daily intake for Magnesium is around 400mg for men and 300mg for woman.
If you think you may be deficient and want to supplement, just make sure you get a good form of Magnesium as there are many types. The type I commonly recommend is Magnesium Glycinate. You can find this here: https://amzn.to/3Zew4Cc
See what people have said about their success with Dr Hulme who have had similar problems.