Why Your Body Needs Magnesium

Opinion by Jake Crossman

A recent study determined up to 40% of Americans are deficient in magnesium, but the symptoms of magnesium deficiency have become intertwined with the symptoms of aging:

• You become easily fatigued
• You don’t have as much energy as you used to
• Your muscles, joints, and bones ache
• You can’t stay asleep as long as you want

While the common size of magnesium glycinate supplement is around 175mg per capsule, your body needs to store over 20g of magnesium at any given time! That’s 20,000mg of magnesium!

With so many different types of magnesium, including glycinate, chloride, citrate, and more, it can be hard to know what’s the best magnesium supplement, but let’s dive into why your body needs magnesium and how you can easily improve your health with a magnesium supplement!

How Your Body Uses Magnesium

While everyone knows magnesium is an element on the periodic table, most people don’t know that nearly 40% of all Americans are deficient in this life-sustaining mineral.

Magnesium is responsible for over 300 enzyme reactions in your body. That means that over 300 of the routine processes that your body does to keep you alive every day require magnesium!

“Magnesium is responsible for over 300 enzyme reactions in your body.”

Your cells (and specifically your mitochondria) need magnesium to function. Cellular redox is the ability your cells have to process energy, which means the more magnesium your cells have to use, the better they can process energy.

Magnesium is also crucial for digestion. Your digestive tract needs magnesium to properly break down nutrients, using some of those 300 enzyme reactions in the process, and absorb those nutrients for your body to use – it’s pretty clear how important magnesium is for daily life, but magnesium is also crucial for some lesser-known jobs in your body.

Magnesium For: Anxiety & Depression

There has been extensive scientific research on how taking a magnesium supplement can positively affect the way the synapses in your brain regulate melatonin and many other hormones. It has been said that taking a daily magnesium supplement may be as useful as using therapy and antidepressants to combat the disease.

Magnesium has also been researched and looked at as a smoking cessation aid, a powerful ally in the fight to quit smoking. There are reports of frequent smokers who, after taking magnesium for less than four weeks, saw a massive decrease in cigarettes smoked per day as well as a reduced urge to smoke.

Magnesium For: Energy & Stress

Another reason why your body needs magnesium is that magnesium will increase your energy levels and reduce your stress. 

This is because your body needs magnesium to properly regulate hormone production, with one of the major hormones being cortisol, the stress hormone. When your body has enough magnesium, your body isn’t forced to rely on cortisol for increased energy via glycogenesis, which is the process your body does to turn carbs into energy. However, if you don’t have enough magnesium, your body will want to produce extra cortisol, making you stressed, irritated, and low energy.

Magnesium For: Heart Health

Another benefit of taking magnesium is how it positively impacts your heart. According to the National Library of Medicine, magnesium was shown to rapidly resolve negative cardiac events in patients as well as treat irregular heartbeat-related diseases.

Just to cover what we have talked about so far: taking a magnesium supplement can combat depression & anxiety, decrease the urge to smoke, increase your energy and productivity levels, reduce stress and tension, and drastically improve your overall heart health.

Why Your Body Needs Magnesium: Additional Benefits

Beyond everything we’ve already talked about, magnesium is used by your body for some other important processes, including:

• Stress relief 
• Reducing muscle cramps
• Eliminating Migraine headaches 
• Helping to prevent diabetes
• Aid in decreasing restless leg syndrome and sleepless nights 
• Aid in digestive, and gut health
• Improve vision 
• Increase strength and longevity 
• Improve skin conditions including eczema 
• Aid in kidney health

Personally, I believe magnesium improves my cognitive function as well as gives me more energy throughout the day, as I’m able to think and be productive for the whole day. 

Different Types Of Magnesium

While there are many different types of magnesium to choose from, USA Medical only offers magnesium glycinate as an ingestable supplement, as magnesium glycinate is the best form of magnesium for your body as it’s easy to absorb and use. Some other forms of magnesium include:

• Magnesium citrate (laxative)
• Magnesium chloride
• Magnesium lactate
• Magnesium malate
• Magnesium taurate
• Magnesium sulfate
• Magnesium oxide

The reason magnesium glycinate is considered the best for your body is that it is the most bioavailable, which means it’s the easiest for your body to use!

Why Your Body Needs Magnesium: Final Thoughts

When I first started taking magnesium, I couldn’t tell the difference, however after a few weeks of use, I realized I was less tired during the day, sleeping better at night, my digestion was smoother (if you know what I mean), and overall I started to feel less stress.

Magnesium isn’t like other plant-based medicine that might help, your body needs magnesium… simple as that.