
Magnesium and the Brain (2011) - DanielleMolloy
https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/evolutionary-psychiatry/201106/magnesium-and-the-brain-the-original-chill-pill
======
shepardrtc
There was a thread on this about a year ago here, and after reading through
the results I decided to start taking Magnesium supplements. I've had very
good results. I really recommend it to anyone that has issues with anxiety or
depression. While its certainly not a cure-all, its easy, cheap, and safe, so
its absolutely worth a try.

~~~
aantix
Agree. Magnesium Glycinate made a world of difference in calming my nerves.
[https://www.amazon.com/KAL-Magnesium-
Glycinate-400-tablets/d...](https://www.amazon.com/KAL-Magnesium-
Glycinate-400-tablets/dp/B00013YZ1Q)

Also, L-Theanine is incredibly calming as well. [https://www.amazon.com/NOW-L-
Theanine-200-120-Capsules/dp/B0...](https://www.amazon.com/NOW-L-
Theanine-200-120-Capsules/dp/B00GQV9YX6)

~~~
ianai
Is magnesium glycinate easier on your stomach?

~~~
TheSpiceIsLife
If I recall correctly magnesium glycinate is the most readily absorbed and
utilised form of supplemental magnesium, followed by magnesium citrate.

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wyldfire
Lots of discussion on supplements in the comments (which are totally fine).
But for additional info, sources of dietary magnesium are (descending
concentration): spinach/chard, pumpkin seeds, yogurt, almonds, black beans,
avocado, figs, dark chocolate, banana.

~~~
Z-Widwil
I would also like to add quinoa, broccoli, and peas. There is a salad I
frequently make which I call the 'Max-nesium salad'. It's pretty much just a
combination of spinach/chard, raw almond shavings, black beans, quinoa,
broccoli, and peas. You can also throw in beets if you like them.

~~~
mholmes680
"Max-nesium salad" would be just spinach though :) "Tasty and colorful max-
nesium salad" would be yours.

~~~
Z-Widwil
Way to shoot my pun out of the sky. My only defense here is to go with the
hard definition of a salad being a mixture of vegetables. Which means spinach-
only would not constitute a salad. You are however correct that 'Max' would
also be something like a bunch of spinach and a couple pumpkin seeds. That
doesn't sound great, so I'm willing to drop it to 'Tasty Max-nesium Salad'.

~~~
tomcam
If this is a democracy I say keep your damn Max-nesium salad! Don't let GP's
literalism bum you!

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akuji1993
Checking Google Scholar, this seems to be proven by clinical trials:
[http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal....](http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0180067).
Interesting.

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joveian
I have a circadian rhythm disorder (non-24) and have tried a bunch of stuff
that could potentially help with sleep, including magnesium in three or four
different forms (including time release; they all seem to have the same
effect). I also have a fairly good diet and likely get a good amount of
magnesium from food.

500-600mg supplementation helps me stay asleep (but not get to sleep) but then
I am much more tired the entire next day vs not getting the extra sleep. 300mg
supplementation doesn't seem to do much of anything positive or negative.

From this experince, I would recommend:

1) If you want to try a supplement, I suggest powder so that you can try
different doses easily. The form does not seem to make a difference for most
people from what I've read. There are flavored powders widely available (look
for store brands) that mix with a small amount of water.

2) If magnesium supplementation helps you then that could be a sign that your
health would be improved more by improving your diet than adding a magnesium
supplement.

3) Pumpkin seeds are a good way to add magnesium and great snack food in
general. I like PumpKorn Origional (soy sauce, garlic, and pepper) or Go Raw
Sprouted Pupkin Seeds (a bag looks expensive but lasts a while so is actually
one of the less expensive ones; the sprouted ones seem lighter). Also, if you
add just about any squash to a meal you can easily roast the seeds with a bit
of salt. Squash and brown rice plus some cabbage family veggie are a good
combination. If you pick the lightest squash of a particular size they are
more likely to have more seeds.

------
S_A_P
Maybe this is TMI, but anyone wanting to try magnesium needs to ramp up their
dose, as a sudden intake of magnesium supplement is likely to cause you to
evacuate your colon in glorious fashion...

~~~
jobu
Magnesium citrate and magnesium oxide (often called elemental magnesium or
buffered magnesium) are the forms to avoid unless you're trying to clean out
your colon.

Look for Magnesium glycinate or magnesium bisglycinate, but be careful because
some of those will include significant amounts of "buffered" or elemental
magnesium.

~~~
DerKommissar
Is elemental magnesium good or bad? Looking at reviews on Amazon they make it
seem like a good thing.

~~~
copperx
Maybe it's just me, but I wouldn't listen to medical advice from the comments
section of Amazon.

~~~
DerKommissar
I don't see how it's any better than a comment here. I just wanted
clarification as to whether the poster thinks elemental magnesium is a good
thing or a bad thing.

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troycarlson
I started supplementing Magnesium about two years ago after listening to Tim
Ferriss' interview with Charles Poliquin [0]. It has absolutely improved my
sleep quality, workout recovery, testosterone levels (likely due to improved
sleep), and mild depression. I recommend listening to the interview if you're
interested in this type of stuff. Charles is a bit polarizing but he has
consistently produced world class athletes over the years so he knows a few
things.

[0] [https://tim.blog/2015/07/21/charles-
poliquin/](https://tim.blog/2015/07/21/charles-poliquin/)

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S_A_P
I've no doubt of some efficacy in certain situations for magnesium. However
this article reads like this is the magic bullet to society's ails. Very
anecdotal and hand picked cases do not make for a cure all, because there is
no one substance that possesses this ability.

~~~
marcosdumay
Magnesium is pushed as a silver bullet for decades already. But real
researchers are discovering new uses for it all the time.

I guess it is just yet another of those nutrients that our diet is lacking.

~~~
kwoff
Mercury was also a silver bullet, back in the day.

------
roceasta
Emily Deans writes very informatively about nutrition topics in a sea of dross
(also about medicine, psychology, biology if I recall correctly). Another use
of Magnesium is as a adjunct to Vitamin D3 supplementation, since magnesium is
used up in its metabolism and action.

~~~
_h_o_d_
Got linky? I can google, but you may have the best link. ALso, anyone know of
any good but inexpensive purchasable supplements that target magnesium /
related compound mixes to reasonable research results like this? (or just to
buy them separately)

~~~
roceasta
Can't recommend a specific link, but I remember when looking into vitamins and
so on several years ago I found the Vitamin D Council and the Weston Price
Foundation both interesting and useful.

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neilsimp1
I've recently given the Ketogenic diet a try. One of the things I was reading
is that Keto-ers are generally pretty low on magnesium and may need to take
supplements. I wonder if the lack of magnesium in the diet explains the so-
called "keto flu."

~~~
whb07
I think the keto flu is more due to being in a state of low blood sugar and
inability for your body to deal with the change in fuel supply rather than
mineral/vitamin deficiency. You could quickly shock your body by not eating
for a day and working out hard to speed right by a prolonged keto flu

------
visarga
Magnesium isn't good just for stress reduction, it is also great for sleep and
relaxation. It also stimulates sex drive. Another wonder mineral is Calcium
which can relieve back pains. When I take a combo of Ca+Mg I feel like I am 10
years younger.

~~~
QAPereo
[http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/heart-
attack/e...](http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/heart-
attack/expert-answers/calcium-supplements/faq-20058352)

 _Some doctors think it 's possible that taking calcium supplements may
increase your risk of a heart attack. Other doctors believe that calcium
supplements have little or no effect on your heart attack risk.

Many people take calcium supplements to treat or prevent bone disease, such as
osteoporosis. It's thought that the calcium in these supplements could make
its way into fatty plaques in your arteries — a condition called
atherosclerosis — causing those plaques to harden and increase your risk of
heart disease.

A 2013 study from the National Institutes of Health suggests there is an
increased risk of heart attack, stroke or other cardiovascular diseases from
taking calcium supplements for men only. Other studies suggest there is an
increased risk for both men and women.

More research is needed before doctors know the effect calcium supplements may
have on your heart attack risk. The calcium supplements that some doctors are
concerned about are generally those that contain only calcium. However, more
research is also needed to determine the effects of supplements combining
calcium and vitamin D. Calcium from food sources, such as dairy and green
leafy vegetables, is not a concern.

Current recommendations for getting enough calcium for people who have, or
have risk factors for, osteoporosis haven't changed. As with any health issue,
it's important to talk to your doctor to determine what's most appropriate in
your case._

~~~
coldtea
> _Some doctors think it 's possible that taking calcium supplements may
> increase your risk of a heart attack. Other doctors believe that calcium
> supplements have little or no effect on your heart attack risk._

Shouldn't it be what the medical science says on the matter, and individual
doctors having no say in this?

~~~
athenot
Think of the human body as a system of many tightly coupled functions.
Tinkering with one function can have effects on 4 other seemingly unrelated
ones. That's why generalizations don't work very well when they are shorter
than a full-blown study paper. You primary care doc _should_ have a much
better context about your health, your existing conditions, the particular
risks that you have... all which may require a different recommendation from
"the average".

If you have always been healthy and don't have have a primary care physician
(generalist), go find one with whom you're comfortable (look for good
communication and someone who suits your personality/expectations) and
establish a history. It will feel like you're throwing away a few hundred
dollars but with time this will come in handy. The one I have now is happy to
help me, an engineer, understand the underlying concepts of my care, without
wasting time dumbing things down too much—I can grok logic and tradeoffs, I'm
just not clinically trained.

------
mrfusion
Can anyone recommend a good supplement? There seem to be so many choices and
compounds.

~~~
visarga
Avoid Magnesium oxide, it has low bioavailability. Try Magnesium carbonate
instead, or any variant ending in -ate (Mg citrate, Mg chelate, ...).

------
polskibus
I remember reading once about an essential Magnesium to Calcium ratio being
1:2 or 2:1. I didn't follow references, but that article mentioned that having
that intake ratio severely distorted can affect your health negatively. Can
anyone with better understanding of the subject comment on the Magnesium to
Calcium ratio?

------
sp332
Here's a guy who can't absorb magnesium properly (among other things) and
needs regular injections. He's also literally a carnivore:
[http://forgetamnesia.tumblr.com/post/127847035996/i-am-an-
ac...](http://forgetamnesia.tumblr.com/post/127847035996/i-am-an-actual-
carnivore) He recently lost his job, his home, and some teeth.
[https://twitter.com/ForgetAmnesia/status/910536598990741504](https://twitter.com/ForgetAmnesia/status/910536598990741504)

------
neeleshs
I use magnesium water (milk of magnesia in soda water) to calm my heart
palpitations. It's worked better than any prescription from my doc so far

~~~
mholmes680
I'm curious have you talked to your doctor to complete that feedback loop?

~~~
neeleshs
Yes , I did. She basically said "oh,yes, that's a good idea. We often
prescribe it for the condition"

~~~
mholmes680
I've noticed the interactions with my doctor are strictly as, or less,
informative than interactions with google. It's worrisome.

------
vram22
Are there many nutrients which may be present in good quantity in some food
item, but some other chemical in that same food, interferes with the
absorption (by the human body) of that nutrient?

Thinking of examples like spinach, where it is supposed to contain a lot of
calcium, but also has oxalates (or oxalic acid) which interfere with the
absorption of the calcium. Or is that a one-off case?

~~~
DanBC
I was taught that some of the minerals in whole wheat were not available
because of phytic acid.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phytic_acid#Food_science](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phytic_acid#Food_science)

~~~
vram22
Thanks, good to know.

------
jerf
I have celiac. Most people know that that means "no wheat", but it also means
having a difficulty absorbing nutrition in general, and I've gotten up close
and personal with a variety of nutritional deficiencies, even in cases where I
nominally had enough in my diet. For me personally, I seem to have the most
trouble with the metals we're supposed to absorb; I can't speak to how common
this is for celiacs (and I haven't found any particular research on that exact
question; it may very well be out there but I haven't seen it). It turns out
that in the last year I've discovered this also encompasses magnesium
deficiency. What fun.

So, I'd add: I'm really not convinced by the bioavailability of magnesium
oxide. YMMV because maybe there's a threshold effect and I couldn't get
anything from it and your normal digestive system will be able to, but I would
suggest that if you are interested in magnesium, the actually bioavailable
stuff isn't that much more expensive. I've been using:
[https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000BD0RT0/ref=oh_aui_deta...](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000BD0RT0/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o08_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1)
and it very likely is having a positive effect on me where magnesium oxide was
not having any effect. (For various complicated reasons it is difficult for me
to be completely confident in that, but this claim is very likely.)

In fact this seems to be a general pattern; what you can buy in your local
grocery stores is often quite crap in terms of bioavailability, and even what
you can get from dedicated health stores is often only marginally better. So
you might think the "good stuff" must be likely to be more expensive... but it
often isn't actually that much more expensive if you order it online. It's
sort of weird.

The other thing the article at best tangentially alludes to is that magnesium
supplementation is likely to be a relatively slow process. In my experience,
for some deficiencies I take a pill or two and within 24 hours I know _yeah, I
was missing that_ ; iron I knew about after about a week (takes time to make
blood). Magnesium takes a lot longer; I've read from others in similar
positions to me that six months to a year in you can still be seeing
improvements, which is matching my experience. If you want to try this out, be
aware that it may be a subtle improvement over a long period of time, but it
could also be a really important one. And that _sucks_ , because the low
amplitude of the signal relative to the day-to-day noise makes it really hard
to tell if it's doing anything for you. However, that is simply what it is.

Another thing that's relevant is that there are some nutrients that need to be
in some balance, and it is possible to raise up your magnesium only to find
out that need more potassium, too. There's also some interaction with calcium
and sodium. I suspect that if you're normally healthy and eat reasonably
healthily that you won't encounter these issues, though. (I have substantial
evidence, but again, no proof, that my body does a particularly poor job
absorbing potassium. Hard to imagine what proof would look like, honestly.
Fortunately and/or amusingly, potassium supplements have the opposite problem
most supplements have... they're actually _dangerously_ bioavailable. So that
one turns out to be somewhat easy to cover, except that I have to remember to
take it in small doses throughout the day, and it shouldn't be mixed with
magnesium at the same time because it turns out they like to get together in
your stomach and react to form a compound that has neither the magnesium nor
the potassium bioavailable. Isn't this just such fun? Ugh.)

(Also, before someone smacks reply and starts trying to read me the riot act,
please do review the careful caveating I've written into this post. I'm not an
expert by any means; it is just that due to circumstances beyond my control
and that I would not choose, I've been thrust into the deep end of this world
and forced to go beyond what science can provide me completely rigorous
answers for. And I am working with the conventional medical system here...
however, there are just some ways that I'm having to improvise because when it
really comes down to it, we're all unique whether we like it or not, and the
doctors don't have all the answers for me. I'll cop to not being as careful as
gwern, but, well, I'm generally dealing with much larger effects and much
greater urgency than he is... I'm generally thinking in a multi-armed bandit
style moreso than a conventional null-hypothesis p-value style.)

~~~
alexanderstears
I'll +1 that recommendation. I use magnesium to manage amphetamine tolerance
and the chelated magnesium subjectively works much better than the regular
magnesium tablets at my local co-op.

------
kazinator
I'm surprised the article doesn't mention chlorophyll. You know; the
magnesium-based stuff that makes plants green.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnesium_in_biology#Chlorophy...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnesium_in_biology#Chlorophyll)

------
mollusk
I take magnesium every day because I have leg cramps, and supposedly it helps
with that. Can't say that I notice any nootropic effects at all, but I do get
less cramps, I guess.

------
interlocutor
Magnesium solved two problems for me: stiff muscles and insomnia.

Scientific information about how magnesium works is hard to come by. Here's
what I have been able to gather from various sources: The cells in your body
need calcium to go into "on state". To go into "off state" magnesium has to go
in and displace calcium.

When your body is low on magnesium your muscles can't go into "off state" and
your muscles become stiff. To relax you need an Epsom salt bath (it contains
magnesium) or just take magnesium supplements.

When your brain cells can't go to "off state" you can't sleep. You need
magnesium to help your brain cells go into off state. However there is this
thing called "blood brain barrier" (look it up) that prevents magnesium from
easily entering the brain. However magnesium l-threonate (that's a compound of
magnesium, not a brand name) can pass through the barrier and help you sleep.

I have had sleep issues for many years. I saw many doctors including sleep
specialists but all they wanted to do is put me on prescription meds. But
these meds are addictive and you have to take it for the rest of your life. I
didn't want that. These are "quick fixes". As a software developer I was
interested in finding the underlying problem and fix that, as opposed to the
quick fixes that the medical community was offering me.

A breakthrough came when I saw a naturopathic doctor for my stiff muscles and
she advised me to take Epsom salt baths. That seemed to help. I investigated
more and found out that the ingredient in Epsom salt that helped me is
magnesium. Then I found out that you can actually get magnesium pills and
tried that. That worked remarkably well. But the big surprise was that I slept
better the night I tried the magnesium pill. Since then I have been
researching how it is that magnesium helped me sleep.

Stress depletes magnesium in your body. If you are a software developer you
are stressing your brain all day when you do your job and you are depleting
magnesium. Low magnesium levels causes muscle issues as well as sleep issues.
Magnesium supplements solve the problem.

It is very unfortunate that medical doctors don't seem to be very
knowledgeable about this topic. When I see doctors I mention that I am taking
magnesium for muscle and sleep issues and they seem surprised, but no doctor
has yet told me that I am wrong.

Note that magnesium is a natural mineral, not a drug, essential for your body,
and found in many foods. Excess amounts of magnesium can cause a laxative
effect, but this is very temporary. Take magnesium before you go to bed, and
the worst thing that can happen is you go easily the next morning.

~~~
magic_beans
Epsom salt baths and a dropper full of CBD oil under the tongue completely
eliminated my insomnia. And as a bonus, eases my DOMS.

~~~
gebeeson
If you don't mind - which CBD oil are you using and is it readily available?

~~~
magic_beans
I've been using Charlotte's Web (mint flavor is great), which I can purchase
online, as I'm not in a legal medical marijuana state.

~~~
gebeeson
Excellent - thanks. I'm not in a legal state either.

------
mekonofmekonta
I should recommend taking magnesium chloride for strengthen your immune
system, it is very well used in functional and natural medicine these days.

