What You Need to Know About Magnesium

Hi, I’m Dr. Emily Parke with your functional health minute for today. Today I’d like to go over the different types of magnesium as there are many and they all have a little bit of a different indication or things that they’re best used for. The first form of magnesium I’d like to talk about is magnesium glycinate. It is a great general form of magnesium that’s good for all kinds of things and it is rapidly absorbed by the GI tract, meaning it is absorbed quite well when you take it orally. Magnesium glycinate can be used on the spot, so meaning if you had let’s say leg cramps or if you were sweating a lot and needed to kind of replacement of your minerals and electrolytes, you could use some magnesium glycinate in that situation. Also, if you just generally needed magnesium replacement, that is a good form to choose.

The next form of magnesium is magnesium malate, so think of M, muscles. If we go back to magnesium glycinate you can think of G, glycinate, general form, and magnesium malate, M, muscles. The malic acid part of magnesium malate has been proven to help with things like muscle pain and there have even been some studies done in fibromyalgia patients saying that it actually helps improve pain management for them. I also use magnesium malate a lot for general magnesium replacement because a lot of people are experiencing muscle aches and pains. It does help also improve recovery from exercise as well, so that’s magnesium malate.

The next form I’d like to introduce is magnesium citrate, so C, citrate, colon, constipation. That’s how I remember that one and magnesium citrate is in fact used for constipation, so in my patients that need magnesium replacement I’m going to choose a magnesium citrate because I’m getting a win-win for both of those. Also, magnesium citrate, it does get absorbed well but because it is used to treat constipation…if you don’t have constipation you’re going to be unable to take a high enough dose to actually get your magnesium stores up if you’re trying to treat a magnesium deficiency so I would choose a different form of magnesium. But magnesium citrate is actually really good for magnesium replacement if you have constipation or even just as a constipation treatment.

The next form of magnesium I’d like to talk about is magnesium L-threonate. Magnesium L-threonate is the magnesium that has been known to cross the blood brain barrier and so it’s the magnesium that I like to use when there’s difficulties with anxiety, with sleep, and with just general brain function, memory and cognition, I like to use magnesium L-threonate. Then of course there’s some other forms of magnesium like magnesium oxide which I don’t tend to use because magnesium oxide is the least absorbable form of magnesium and tends to cause GI upset rather rapidly, and there are some other forms of magnesium as well. There’s some magnesium chelates and other mixed forms so there’s some magnesium supplements that have more than one form of magnesium in it as well.

I hope this helps describe a little bit about the different types of magnesium and what you might use each one for. I’m Dr. Emily Parke with your functional health minute for today.