Most experts believe our food is drastically reduced in Magnesium. So even if you are eating foods rich in magnesium, likely, you are still low in magnesium. Our farming practices lower the magnesium content in the soil, and the processing of our foods also causes them to lose about 80% of their magnesium content.
I personally experienced the benefits of consuming magnesium when I was going through my many health issues way back before I became an herbalist. You can read more about that here. I’m sure it helped with my constipation, fibromyalgia, severe neck and shoulder tension, lowering my stress and helping to sleep better.
When I Recommend Magnesium to Clients
I most likely will recommend my clients start taking magnesium if they do not already, but in the following conditions, I will always recommend someone start taking magnesium. If you have anxiety, are sleeping poorly, have consistent muscle weakness, cramps, aches and pains, tension anywhere in the body or mind, fatigue, numbness or tingling anywhere, headaches or migraines, or mood changes.
Those at risk should also be taking and that is someone with any digestive conditions, type 2 diabetes, the elderly, drinking more than one drink of alcohol a day, any heart conditions, those with headaches, and those on diuretics and proton pump inhibitors.
Magnesium has many other benefits: Support for PMS and helping to balance hormones. Help with Allergies. Supports the thyroid, detox pathways.
How to Increase Magnesium
There are many ways to increase magnesium in your body. You can try any of the following.
- Herbs 1st! Since I’m an herbalist! These are the herbs that are high in Magnesium. To extract the most magnesium out, use it as food for highest content or herbal infusions. You can read more on how to make herbal infusions here.
- Nettle, Burdock Root and Chickweed. To compare, 1 oz of Nettle will give you around 215mg to 24mg of magnesium in the same amount of spinach. Nettle is excellent in soups, Burdock (called Gobo in Japan) is yummy in stir-fries, and Chickweed is tasty in salads.
- Other Herbs higher in Magnesium than spinach (in order) are Oatstraw, Kelp, Dandelion Root, Horsetail, and Red clover, all great options as infusions.
- Foods Highest in Magnesium are Pumpkin Seeds, Chia Seeds, Almonds, Spinach, Cashews, Peanuts, Black Beans, Edamame, Potatoes (with skin), and Rice.
Topical ways of getting Magnesium:
- You can take an Epsom Salt Bath or soak your feet in a bath. 2 cups daily.
- Magnesium Oil applied to your feet or skin after a bath. (A word of warning: When this is applied on freshly shaved skin, it stings!)
Magnesium Supplementation:
How Much to Take: For Adults (150lb) Consider taking 600-1,000mg. Magnesium is taken to bowel tolerance. I usually recommend taking 600mg at night, as that is generally tolerated by most, and then taking 300-400mg more in the morning.
If that is too much (you get lousy diarrhea), back off the dosing in the evening. For those with diarrhea tendencies, I recommend Magnesium Taurate or Malate. For those with Constipation tendencies, I recommend Magnesium Citrate or Glycinate. Calm Gummies are great options for kids. I often choose Calm gummies when I’m stressed and want something sweet! To determine kids dosing use the Clarks Rule Calculator Here.
If you want to know which brands I like, check out my Fullscript store here and get 20% off.
You can learn more about magnesium through the below studies!
- https://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/Magnesium-HealthProfessional/#:~:text=Early%20signs%20of%20magnesium%20deficiency,occur%20%5B1%2C2%5D.
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1855626/
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC185562https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7917752/
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7649274/
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7649274/#:~:text=Mg%20depletion%20in%20the%20soil,in%20human%20Mg%20deficient%20intake.
- https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S221451411500121X
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5786912/
