Magnesium is the fourth most abundant mineral in your body, and your body can’t work properly without it.

The nutrient is essential for hundreds of metabolic processes and many other important bodily functions — from producing energy to building important proteins like your DNA.

Dietary sources of magnesium include legumes, nuts, seeds, and green leafy vegetables. Smaller amounts are found in meat and fish.

However, despite its importance, studies show that almost 50% of people in Western countries in Europe and the United States don’t get enough of this essential mineral.

Magnesium plays an important role in relaying signals between your brain and body.

It acts as the gatekeeper for the N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptors, which are found on your nerve cells and aid brain development, memory and learning.

In healthy adults, magnesium sits inside the NMDA receptors, preventing them from being triggered by weak signals that may stimulate your nerve cells unnecessarily.

When your magnesium levels are low, fewer NMDA receptors are blocked. This means they are prone to being stimulated more often than necessary.

This kind of overstimulation can kill nerve cells and may cause brain damage.

Magnesium is important for maintaining a healthy heartbeat.

It naturally competes with calcium, which is essential for generating heart contractions.

When calcium enters your heart muscle cells, it stimulates the muscle fibers to contract. Magnesium counters this effect, helping these cells relax.

This movement of calcium and magnesium across your heart cells maintains a healthy heartbeat.

When your magnesium levels are low, calcium may overstimulate your heart muscle cells. One common symptom of this is a rapid and/or irregular heartbeat, which may be life-threatening.

What’s more, the sodium-potassium pump, an enzyme that generates electrical impulses, requires magnesium for proper function. Certain electrical impulses can affect your heartbeat.

Magnesium also plays a role in regulating muscle contractions.

Just like in the heart, magnesium acts as a natural calcium blocker to help muscles relax.

In your muscles, calcium binds to proteins such as troponin C and myosin. This process changes the shape of these proteins, which generates a contraction.

Magnesium competes with calcium for these same binding spots to help relax your muscles.

If your body doesn’t have enough magnesium to compete with calcium, your muscles may contract too much, causing cramps or spasms.

For this reason, magnesium is commonly recommended to treat muscle cramps.

However, studies show mixed results regarding magnesium’s ability to relieve cramps — some even finding no benefit at all.

High blood pressure is a health concern that affects one in three Americans.

Interestingly, studies have shown that taking magnesium may lower your blood pressure.

In one study, people who took 450 mg of magnesium daily experienced a fall in the systolic (upper) and diastolic (lower) blood pressure values by 20.4 and 8.7, respectively.

An analysis of 34 studies found that a median dose of 368 mg of magnesium significantly reduced both systolic and diastolic blood pressure values in both healthy adults and those with high blood pressure.

However, the impact was significantly higher in people with existing high blood pressure.

Several studies have linked low magnesium levels to a higher risk of heart disease.

For instance, one study found that those with the lowest magnesium levels had the highest risk of death, especially due to heart disease.

Conversely, increasing your intake may lower this risk. That’s because magnesium has strong anti-inflammatory properties, may prevent blood clotting and can help your blood vessels relax to lower your blood pressure.

An analysis of 40 studies with more than one million participants found that consuming 100 mg more of magnesium each day reduced the risk of stroke and heart failure by 7% and 22%, respectively. These are two major risk factors for heart disease.

People with type 2 diabetes often have low magnesium levels, which may worsen the condition, as magnesium helps regulate insulin and moves sugar out of the blood and into the cells for storage.

For instance, your cells have receptors for insulin, which need magnesium to function properly. If magnesium levels are low, your cells can’t use insulin effectively, leaving blood sugar levels high.

Increasing magnesium intake may reduce blood sugar in people with type 2 diabetes.

An analysis of eight studies showed that taking a magnesium supplement significantly reduced fasting blood sugar levels in participants with type 2 diabetes.

However, the beneficial effects of magnesium on blood sugar control have only been found in short-term studies. Long-term studies are needed before a clear recommendation can be made.

Poor sleep is a major health problem around the world.

Taking magnesium may improve sleep quality by helping your mind and body relax. This relaxation helps you fall asleep faster and may improve your sleep quality.

In a study in 46 older adults, those taking a magnesium supplement daily fell asleep faster. They also noticed improved sleep quality and decreased insomnia symptoms.

What’s more, animal studies have found that magnesium can regulate melatonin production, which is a hormone that guides your body’s sleep-wake cycle.

Magnesium has also been shown to bind to gamma-aminobutyric (GABA) receptors. The hormone GABA helps calm down nerve activity, which may otherwise affect sleep.

Several studies have shown that low magnesium levels may cause migraines.

One study found that participants with migraines had significantly lower magnesium levels than healthy adults.

Increasing your magnesium intake could be a simple way to combat migraines.

In one 12-week study, people with migraines who took a 600-mg magnesium supplement experienced 42% fewer migraines than before taking the mineral.

That said, most of these studies only notice a short-term benefit of taking magnesium for migraines. More long-term studies are needed before making health recommendations.

Low levels of magnesium have also been linked to symptoms of depression.

In fact, one study in over 8,800 people found that among adults aged 65 and under, those with the lowest intake of magnesium had a 22% greater risk of this condition.

One reason for this is that magnesium helps regulate your brain function and mood.

Several studies have shown that supplementing with magnesium may reduce symptoms of depression. Some studies even found it to be as effective as antidepressant drugs.

Although the link between magnesium and depression is promising, many experts still believe that more research in this area is needed before giving recommendations.

• For Men: Take 4 capsules with a meal daily
• For Women: Take 3 capsules with a meal daily
• Take consistently every day. We also recommend testing your magnesium levels to determine the extent of any deficiencies and monitor your levels as your correct the deficiency.

To support sleep, take on an empty stomach 1 - 2 hours before bedtime.

It depends on how deficient you are and your individual magnesium needs. If you’re under more physical or emotional stress, you may need more than an average person. Physical stressors include exercise and physical jobs. Vitamin D supplementation (which also helps with sleep) may also increase magnesium needs.

The recommended daily allowance for magnesium is ~400 mg/day for men and ~310 mg for women. However, very few people get this dose from food. If you haven’t taken magnesium for a long time and are deficient, taking the RDA dose can be like filling up an empty pool with a spoon. Therefore, it may be a good idea to start at a higher than the RDA dose to correct the deficiency faster.

Studies have shown benefits of magnesium supplementation from 125 mg to 2500 mg/day. You want to start with 1 - 2 capsules and slowly increase the dosage and observe your body’s response. If you have kidney problems or are on medications that many affect mineral balance (e.g. hypertension medication), it is important to speak to your physician before introducing a magnesium supplement.

• Mental/emotional stress
• Hard physical exertions
• Caffeine intake
• Being diabetic, or obese
• High doses of vitamin D supplementation
• Calcium and other mineral supplements
• An unhealthy diet with a lot of processed foods
• Alcoholism
• Stomach acid-reducing drugs
• Bisphosphonate drugs for osteoporosis
• Some antibiotics
• Diuretic drugs and blood pressure-reducing drugs
• Kidney disease
• Old age
• Gut issues that affect magnesium absorption, such as Celiac and colitis

If you have a medical condition or are taking medications, consult your physician before introducing any supplements or getting off the medications.

These foods could be high in magnesium if they’re grown in soil that contains it. However, due to modern agricultural practices, most soils are low in magnesium.

• Green leafy vegetables
• Dark chocolate
• Avocado
• Nuts and seeds

Magnesium does different things than melatonin. Melatonin is a nighttime hormone that tells your body it is time to sleep. Whereas, magnesium helps promote a relaxation response as you find down to sleep. There is time and place for both. However, taking high-dose melatonin more than what your body produces (0.35 mg/night) can override your body’s own circadian response. Whereas, taking magnesium provides nutritional insurance to prevent deficiency, which will improve all aspects of health.

Excessive doses of magnesium can cause stomach upset and diarrhea. However, these are much more common with inorganic salts (oxide, chloride, and sulfate) than organic salts (glycinate, chelate, sucrosomial, malate, taurate, etc).

Everyone should take magnesium given that the modern lifestyle depletes it and the modern diet doesn’t provide enough. If you have suboptimal sleep, such as taking a long time to fall asleep, waking up tired, or feeling tired in the afternoon, magnesium may help improve your sleep quality.

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