Curious if anyone has supplemented with magnesium. If so, what type of magnesium and for what purpose?
A long time ago a doctor told me magnesium could help with my sleep issues. It didn’t. I wondered if I had tried the right kind but she said I had, and if it were going to help I would have noticed right away.
Recently I’m dealing with sciatica and my BIL said he is using magnesium and it’s helping, so he bought me some. It did nothing. It was some cheap walmart brand and didn’t say what kind of magnesium it was. I read that magnesium glycinate is best for sleep so I bought some of that from a brand I trust. Still nothing.
In both cases I only tried it one night, but now I’m wondering if I need to give it some time?
I think it’s also supposed to be good for blood pressure but again not sure if this is the right version of magnesium for that.
Opinions appear to be mixed on whether it helps with sleep, from what I’ve seen. Some will say it helps, others say the evidence isn’t strong. My take on that? There’s probably some observational studies out there that show elevated magnesium intake was correlated with “better” sleep.
I follow Dr. Rhonda Patrick (FoundMyFitness podcast) and she just released an episode that dove in to magnesium. I’d recommend listening to that. I also use examine.com to look up info/studies related to nutrients, supplements, etc.
Personally, I take magnesium each night and get some throughout the day in the electrolytes I mix in to my water. While I have a pretty healthy diet, there aren’t a lot of foods I consume that are high in magnesium, hence the supplementation. If it turns out that magnesium DOES help with sleep, great! I’m already taking it before bedtime so a cherry on top type of situation. If it doesn’t actually help with sleep, still great! I’m still meeting my daily magnesium intake.
My electrolytes have a combo of magnesium malate and magnesium glycinate. The capsule I take at night is magnesium bisglycinate. I don’t know if this is different than glycinate, just reading from the labels. I’ve taken magnesium threonate in the past, but it did not agree with my gut so I stopped. I’m not sure if I’ve seen that one type of magnesium is better than the other, but it seems that certain types are more bioavailable than others. Dr Patrick goes in to detail on the different types and what she recommends and takes herself.
One day doesn’t seem like a long test period… I’m just some rando on the internet, but here’s what I might do, if I were you:
Develop a way to measure your sleep. I have an Apple Watch that tracks my heart rate, disturbances, and other metrics. If you don’t have a wearable that can do that, you could simply track your bed/wake times, number of major disturbances (going to the bathroom, not adjusting your pillows), and how alert/groggy you feel when waking.
Do #1 with NO magnesium prior to sleep for a week or two. I’d lean more towards two weeks since sh*t happens in life. Track your sleep metrics as best you can.
Add in magnesium ~1hr prior to bedtime for the next 1-2 weeks. Track your metrics.
Compare 2 and 3.
That could introduce placebo effects, since you know what you’re taking vs not each night. If you have a partner, you could ask them to load up your weekly pill dispenser and not tell you if its magnesium vs something else.
Melatonin works for me. Great sleep, weird dreams. Take an hour before you want to be asleep. Buy the lightest dosage, which I think is 1mg. (Used to have 500mcg). I get the cherry-flavored ones that dissolve under the tongue.
I don’t use it every night, though. I don’t want to end up dependent on it.
Might also want to look in to what you eat all day and when.
Thanks for your response. I don’t mind the detail at all.
I have a long history of sleep issues and a lot of things that affect it (slight iron deficiency, slightly hypothyroid, low Vit D without supplements, mild sleep apnea—have CPAP but it wakes me up, etc.) so I’m not necessarily blaming my sleep issues on low magnesium. I was just curious if it was worth trying. I will definitely check out that podcast and try to understand the different types of magnesium better.
Yeah, 1-3 mg of melatonin didn’t work for me and 5 mg was too much. I have a sleep med and I also have gabapentin for my sciatica, so I can get a really good night’s sleep when I need it. Just always looking for a better solution. I keep hearing that magnesium has a variety of benefits in addition to helping with sleep, so was wondering about that.
I’m going to assume then conclude without a lot of knowledge that taking magnesium is a solution for someone who is missing magnesium, either from diet or from overexercising.
OK, my feelings on the subject have some merit:
Even if you eat foods with magnesium, your body needs to utilize it and not shit/piss it out (pardonez mon Franḉais).
Oh, here is something to read, the bolding is their doing:
Most people get more than enough magnesium from foods and do not need to take magnesium supplements. Excessive use of magnesium supplements can be toxic. In addition to what you get from food, the highest dose you should take of magnesium supplements is:
65 mg/day for children ages 1-3
110 mg/day for children ages 4-8
350 mg/day for adults and children ages 9 and up
These doses are the highest anyone should add to their diet. Many people ingest significant quantities of magnesium through the foods they eat. It’s safe to get high levels of magnesium naturally from food, but adding large amounts of supplements to your diet can prove dangerous. Do not exceed these maximum advised levels.
Yeah, that might work for part of the year, but much of the time that’s when I’m driving to work. I should drag myself out of bed earlier and then walk when I get here.
I have spent a year plus not moving much bc of my ankle and now the sciatica. Not wanting to push it too much until I see the specialist next week. I can do short walks though, and should do more of them.
Just get early morning light if walking is difficult. The idea is to get all the solar radiation into your eyes to trigger hormonal cascade for the day (I don’t know the particulars). Sunlight through the windshield and/or sunglasses filters out certain beneficial wavelengths.
Although I don’t understand the particulars, it makes sense from an evolutionary standpoint - that big ol’ fusion reactor has been a constant in the Earth’s evolutionary history so it makes sense that living organisms make good use the entire radiation spectrum it provides.