3 Different Types of Magnesium: Which Best Should I Take?
Video Transcription:
Did you know that magnesium is an essential mineral that is needed by nearly 600 enzymatic reactions in the body?
Nearly 30% of people are actually deficient in magnesium and up to 75% of the US population are not getting enough magnesium in their diet.
So that's why today I feel it's important to share with you some different types of magnesium.
My name is Marcie Vaske and I'm a functional medicine nutritionist and I specialize in gut health at the Oswald Digestive Clinic. So I see a lot of people who struggle with that bloating, constipation, maybe diarrhea, indigestion, all sorts of things.
And if that sounds like you or someone you know or love, you can easily make an initial appointment with one of our practitioners.
But if you're kind of the person who likes to do things on their own or just continue learning about health, you can download our Free Guide: Five Ways to Improve Your Gut Health.
Understanding Magnesium: Our Calming Mineral
Magnesium is known as an electrolyte that helps to maintain the mineral balance in our body working alongside or in tandem with calcium. Now, 50 to 60% of our magnesium is actually stored in our bone, but the rest of it is stored in our blood, our cells, and our tissues.
Now, magnesium is, as I said, in 600 different reactions in our body. And so it supports a lot of different things in our system. Some of that is it relaxes our muscles, it's our calming mineral. It also can support our mental health.
It helps to turn our food into cellular energy and it can also have anti-inflammatory properties. So magnesium is amazing for all sorts of things, and if we're low or deficient in it, then we might be feeling not so good.
So today I'm going to walk through three different types of magnesium.
Now we've done other blogs on magnesium which are 7 Types of Magnesium and Magnesium - How to choose the right one? So to learn more, check them out.
And you can fill in the blanks or there are a few blogs where we've explained more than just three different types of magnesium. So it's fun to keep learning.
And today we're going to dig into three of them.
3 Types of Magnesium: Which Should I Take?
If you're asking which type of magnesium should I take, consider magnesium malate.
Now magnesium malate takes the essential mineral magnesium and combines it with malic acid, which is found in apples and in other food sources.
And magnesium malate is known to be one of the magnesium that absorbs easily or it's easy to digest, which makes it a great type of magnesium.
It has shown in studies that magnesium malate can help to enhance our cellular reaction, getting that energy out of our cells, and also to reduce that lactic acid.
So that lactic acid is this feeling that you get when your legs are burning or when you've worked out really hard. And that malic acid helps to reduce that. So it's increasing also our ability to recover from exercise.
Magnesium malate can also support our mood. So magnesium malate is important in that conversion between making tryptophan into serotonin, which is a neurotransmitter. And serotonin is one of our known neurotransmitters to help keep us calm and reduce our anxiety.
And so adding in a little magnesium malate might be really helpful.
Another benefit of magnesium malate is that it helps to reduce pain. So for individuals who struggle with fibromyalgia or even chronic pain, taking magnesium malate can help reduce that pain due to its components within it.
It helps to reduce pain by tamping down those neurotransmitters that get kind of round-up when we feel pain. So magnesium malate will be beneficial if you are a heavy exerciser and want to recover more quickly. If you're struggling with chronic pain or fibromyalgia, that could help reduce your soreness and pain.
And also if you are feeling that you're a little bit more anxious or even depressed, adding in some magnesium malate might be an option for you.
So next on the list is magnesium L-Threonate. And magnesium L-Threonate is a salt that's formed by combining magnesium and Threonic acid. And Threonic acid is something that is a substance that comes from the metabolic breakdown of vitamin C.
Magnesium L-Threonate is also great to reduce our anxiety, as I said, but it improves, just kind of relaxes us. It increases our focus. And so magnesium L-Threonate is a great one if you are kind of struggling with some brain memory loss or um, if you're dealing with Alzheimer's.
But it also can be great if you just need a little extra focus or maybe you have a little bit of extra anxiety that you want to get rid of or a low mood. Putting in magnesium L-Threonate might be just the one you need.
Now the third one I'm going to talk about today is magnesium citrate.
And magnesium citrate is a combination of magnesium and citric acid, citric acid coming from citrus fruits.
Magnesium citrate is one of the most absorbable forms of magnesium and it can greatly improve digestion. If you're struggling with constipation, it has a laxative effect that can be very helpful.
So not only does it absorb very well and get help with all of those reactions in our body that we need, but as I said, if you have a little bit of constipation, magnesium citrate might be one that you want to add in.
It also helps to calm us down, right? Calm our muscles down. It's a great form of magnesium. So again, if you're looking for just a kind of generalized magnesium, magnesium citrate is a great one to add in because of its absorbability.
Practical Advice to Overcome Magnesium Deficiency
So what do you do if you're low in magnesium or might have some of the symptoms I talked about and feel like you want to give it a try?
I think that magnesium is a very safe mineral and supplement to use. If you want to get it from food, of course, it's in our food. But as I said at the beginning of this blog, 75% of us still don't get enough of it in our diet.
And part of that reason is that the soil that our food is grown in, it's magnesium deficient. So we're not getting as much magnesium actually in the foods that we're eating.
1). Eat Foods With Magnesium
If you want to start with just trying to eat more foods that have magnesium, things to start with would be legumes.
They have a great amount of magnesium, so beans and peanuts. You can also do, of course, lots of vegetables, kale, broccoli, those are going to have a lot of magnesium in them.
Nuts and seeds also have lots of magnesium. And of course, if you like a little chocolate, chocolate has quite a bit of magnesium in it as well.
2). Take A Magnesium Supplement
Now, of course, some people are more at risk for magnesium deficiency. So individuals with type two diabetes, anybody with digestive health problems, or anyone that is alcohol dependent will really run through their magnesium or not be able to absorb it in the way of their digestive tract. So it might be helpful to take a supplement.
The general rule of thumb is to start with 200 to 400 milligrams of the magnesium that you choose.
And of course, look at the back of the packaging of whatever you get and follow that. That's a good rule of thumb as well.
3). Seek Advice From Healthcare Practitioner
If you're thinking that I just don't know which one is right for me, or I don't know if I can pair them together, and magnesium can be paired together and a lot of times they'll be a few different ones in certain supplements. So that is fine to do if you're still questioning.
I always recommend talking to your practitioner about it in terms of how much you need and how or what you might need to take.
So I hope this gives you a little bit more information today about magnesium and the different types of magnesium that are out there. Of course, in some of our other blogs, we go through a few more varieties of magnesium. So take a look at those for more information.
If you'd like to explore any of this information further or obtain an individualized nutrition plan, you can schedule an initial appointment at our clinic. We also take insurance and some of our clients get full coverage, which is great.
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