Do You Have to Take a Magnesium Supplement?

 Do You Have to Take a Magnesium Supplement?

Producer Potts  0:14  

Okay, everyone on social media, again, as always talking about these different forms of magnesium Linnaean to supplement with, but I know from learning from you about neutral form, that we should focus on getting all of our nutrients from the foods we eat. So I guess my question is, do we actually need a magnesium supplement? Or can we get enough from food?

Dr. Sarah  0:38  

Yeah, magnesium is one of the most common dietary shortfalls, it’s in the top 10 most common dietary shortfalls, the top 10 that half or more of Americans are not getting enough magnesium from their diets. If I remember correctly, it’s something like 65% of Americans don’t get enough magnesium from the foods they eat. So it’s not like potassium levels where it’s nearly 98%. But it’s you know, it’s more than half its, it’s a big challenge. And magnesium is required as what’s called a cofactor, which means it is necessary for an enzyme to do its job to make a chemical reaction happen in the body. So it’s necessary for like over 300 enzymes to do their job. And a lot of enzymes that are important for metabolism. So like how we use energy and not getting enough magnesium increases risk of cardiovascular disease, type two diabetes, osteoporosis, because magnesium also has a structural role in bones. It can also not get enough magnesium and has also been strongly associated with increased migraine frequency and severity. So getting enough magnesium, incredibly important. Magnesium is the middle of a chlorophyll molecule. So chlorophyll is actually a fun fact. Chlorophyll molecularly so chlorophyll is the thing in plants that photosynthesize so that it takes energy from the sun and turns that into chemical energy, right, it turns it into sugar for the plants to use. And the molecule itself is really, really similar to a molecule in our bodies called heme, which has an iron in the middle instead of a magnesium in the middle. And heme is the thing that hemoglobin is made out of. So heme is really important for transporting oxygen and getting oxygen to our tissues and getting carbon dioxide as the end product of cellular respiration out of our bodies. So both really interesting molecules that have roles in how we’re using how we’re using energy, right, so one is helping with photosynthesis, and then one is helping with oxygen transport. The difference is, chlorophyll has magnesium in the middle, and heme has iron in the middle. So because magnesium is the middle of a chlorophyll molecule, and chlorophyll is the green thing in leaves that photosynthesize. Green vegetables, especially leafy vegetables tend to be our best food sources of magnesium. Some other really good sources include legumes, so especially soy and soy products really high in magnesium and cocoa powder, which also comes from seeds inside of bone that kids like a giant pod, also really high in magnesium, and we can get some from molasses. So that’s another fun source of magnesium. So, is it possible to get enough magnesium from foods? Funnily enough, there’s very, very few foods that have like over half of the daily value per serving. I think the only one is mature soybeans, which is not soybeans aren’t commonly consumed in that form. So we need to be picking more like magnesium rich foods that are going to have more like 10 or 20% of the daily value per serving and, and sprinkle those out throughout the day.

Producer Potts  4:12  

So like a nice green smoothie with some cocoa powder. Right? Okay, cool. We can do that for sure. 

Dr. Sarah  4:20  

I mean, just eating enough vegetables. So hitting the recommended five servings of vegetables per day, incorporating lagoons into the regular diet. Definitely, you know, chocolate, dark chocolate or cocoa powder is going to be a good source of magnesium as well. Just but just hitting like just making sure that we’re getting vegetables and legumes into our diet regularly is going to make it pretty easy to get enough magnesium.

Producer Potts  4:46  

Awesome. So where can someone if they want to nerd out and learn even more about magnesium, is there a place that they can go to do that? 

Dr. Sarah  4:57  

Yeah, I definitely think that if you want to dive deep into nutrients and what they do in the body and what foods are the best sources. The best place to learn about nutrients is my website Nutri four.com. So every nutrient has these really detailed articles that explain the biological rules of that nutrient. So what is it actually used for biochemically and our bodies, and then all of the different health conditions of not getting enough of that nutrient is associated with and then best food sources and also like recommended dietary intakes. So for magnesium, it’s 310 milligrams per day for adult females, and 400 milligrams per day for adult males. Fascinating for magnesium. Because we’re following a tangent now that there’s no tolerable upper limit for magnesium from food. Part of that is it’s, it’s really because we don’t have any foods that are like super concentrated sources of magnesium. It’s really hard to overdo magnesium from food. But there is a tolerable upper limit set for magnesium in supplement form, which is 350 milligrams, that mainly has to do with the fact that magnesium can act as a osmotic laxative. So it can draw water into the large intestine and cause gi unpleasantness. There are some forms of magnesium supplement that are better tolerated like magnesium glycinate is a well absorbed form that doesn’t tend to cause as much GI issues. So if your doctor recommends supplementing magnesium glycinate is kind of like the standard to go to. But yeah, just do know that magnesium supplements can cause

Producer Potts  6:48  

that’s another reason why you shouldn’t supplement just because you think you need to write, always talk to somebody and overdoing

Dr. Sarah  6:56  

Magnesium can cause issues. I mean, that’s the other thing is too much magnesium supplementation. I mean, I think the scariest thing is that it can cause heart arrhythmias. So yeah, like overdoing magnesium it is definitely something that we want to avoid. There are lots of situations, especially with stress related disorders where magnesium may be beneficial. There is some in like magnesium supplementation may be beneficial and the research showing that it can improve sleep quality in some situations, but that is a like don’t learn that from YouTube. That’s not a that’s don’t, we’re not to talk to your doctor about. That’s, that’s let’s let’s. Well, the food is great. We’re gonna stick with the greens and the cocoa powder. There’s no it’s so hard to overdo magnesium from food. That’s why there’s no tolerable upper limit set for magnesium from food only for magnesium from supplements. Absolutely, you can get enough magnesium from food. And those are really healthy eating patterns, like the foods that are high in magnesium are high and lots of other things that are beneficial for us. And too much magnesium from supplements that can be complicated, both in terms of visiting the bathroom, and also in terms of rhythm. So, so yeah, supplements should always be a conversation between you and your doctor and not between you and a parasocial relationship with an influencer.