Benefits of Magnesium Supplementation

I think supplementation is one of those things that’s accepted by most and controversial to some. There are some valid arguments that if you eat a varied, whole foods diet, you shouldn’t have to supplement with vitamins. And while this is true to an extent, and the best way to get the vitamins you need is always from a food source, there are clear situations where supplementation is helpful or necessary. 

Above probably anything else I talk about on this blog, nutrition is going to be of high importance to you overall health. You can reduce all the chemicals you want and that should benefit your health, but if you’re not taking care of your body in the basic way of nutrition, the gains are essentially lost.

One supplement that’s risen in popularity in recent years is magnesium. Magnesium supplements are touted to help with relaxation, sleep, brain and heart health, and all sorts of other things. Today we’re going to look at what the science says about why magnesium is important and if a magnesium supplement may be beneficial for you.

Supplementation vs. diet

The importance of magnesium

Is a magnesium supplement right for me?

Summary / TLDR

A brief note on supplementation vs. diet

Generally, I (as someone who is not a doctor but has listened to many doctors, nutritionists, and so on discuss this) don’t recommend relying on vitamins to get your nutrients. You should absolutely aim to eat a diet full of whole foods and with a lot of variety. 

When starting to write this section, I realized it could be a whole post… so I rerouted and tried to keep it brief (this may be my new catchphrase). 

It’s always best to focus on diet first when trying to improve your intake of vitamins and minerals, and in fact, it’s not really recommended for healthy people that eat a balanced diet to take nutrient supplements. Supplementation can be helpful to fill gaps in nutrition where needed because of age or disease, but it will never replace a good diet. 

Part of this is because, actually, consuming too much of one nutrient, as can often happen with supplementation, can throw the levels of other nutrients out of balance. Nutrients don’t typically exist alone in nature and they don’t act alone in our body. Rising and decreasing levels work together somewhat and everything in the body interacts. Because of this, taking a supplement in isolation isn’t the best method for most healthy people.

I once listened to a podcast where Kirsten at Screen Nutrition discussed that to get all of the micronutrients you need from your diet, you should aim to eat 30 different plants every week! 30!!! Granted I assume that includes things like wheat, but still. I started counting the number of plants I eat in a week, and it was decent, but I wasn’t hitting 30. 

Why is magnesium important?

Nutrients provide specific functions in the body. Every nutrient is important for specific purposes, which is why we want to keep them balanced, so our body can function properly. Magnesium is a major part of regulating muscle and nerve function, blood sugar levels, and blood pressure and is involved in creating protein, bone, and DNA. Important stuff! 

Ensuring adequate consumption of magnesium may protect against some types of heart disease and stroke, type 2 diabetes, and osteoporosis. Though the evidence for heart disease and stroke is limited due to difficulties in analyzing specific nutrient effects, it does appear likely that magnesium intake is correlated with cardiovascular disease and mortality and hypertensive disorders.

There’s also some evidence that magnesium supplementation may promote better sleep because magnesium regulates the neurotransmitters that deal with sleep. When looking at the relationship between magnesium and sleep, it appears that higher dietary magnesium intake or supplementation is related with greater ease in falling asleep and better-quality sleep (including reduced daytime sleepiness) than lower intakes.

The research is strongest for observational studies and less certain, though still promising, for randomized controlled trials (the gold standard of research). Overall, I’d say there’s not enough quality evidence to say magnesium will benefit your sleep, but that it very well may.

Is a magnesium supplement right for me?

As I stated earlier, food first, always. It’s not actually that hard for most people to obtain the magnesium they need if they just eat real food. Magnesium can be found in decent quantities in nuts, seeds, leafy greens, oats, whole wheat, some beans, brown rice, bananas, and cow’s milk. So you can see there’s a good variety of sources there and most people should be able to find foods they like that contain a good amount of magnesium. 

For most healthy people

As with all nutrients, people run into issues when they live off highly processed foods. If you are a generally healthy person, you should be able to eat a handful of real foods (ideally a whole diet of varied real foods but at minimum a few real foods here and there) and obtain the magnesium you need. Additionally, the body is pretty good at holding onto magnesium in the kidneys if you aren’t getting enough through your diet, so unless you are really not eating foods that have magnesium, you should be okay. Just don’t exist on Pringles and Red Bull alone, you know?

And though I say this, there is strong evidence that a majority of the population in the Western world is not getting enough magnesium in their diets. It’s difficult to get solid numbers on this, but a reasonably reliable one is that as many as 60% of Americans are not getting enough magnesium through their diets according to an analysis of their food consumption for two days.

Also keep in mind that this number is referring to inadequacy of magnesium intake, not quite deficiency levels.

Though you can and should be getting enough from your diet, many are not. Again, this likely has to do with heavy reliance on highly processed foods and the fact that a lot of people simply don’t eat a lot of whole foods or much variety of foods.

In this case, again, I would urge you to improve your diet, not take a supplement, but unfortunately a lot of people will opt for a pill over lifestyle changes. Supplementation for these people will be helpful, but it is not the best way, as we discussed earlier that nutrients do not work in isolation, taking one nutrient can cause imbalances in others, and the best, most bioavailable source of nutrients is through consumption of whole foods.

Now if you are a generally healthy person and you eat a balanced diet of whole foods, I wouldn’t probably recommend a magnesium supplement, though I’d always recommend talking to a nutritionist or dietician before making that decision if you can. I will concede that our food is less nutritious than it used to be, which may lead to higher requirements for supplementation, but most people should still be able to obtain the magnesium they need.

Populations that may benefit from magnesium supplementation

Supplements are important for certain populations that experience deficiencies, and the same is true for magnesium. There’s good evidence of the benefits for pregnant and postpartum women, some elderly populations, and some disease populations. These people should still focus on diet first, but supplementation may be helpful in addition to this. 

For elderly individuals, it is mostly an issue of the body not absorbing nutrients as well as it used to. This isn’t something I can speak majorly to. It’s necessary to discuss this with your doctor and perhaps a nutritionist. However, general supplementation is likely helpful for older individuals due to this issue, magnesium included.

For pregnant women, though diet should provide all the magnesium you need, you may still benefit from a magnesium supplement. This is particularly true for those dealing with preeclampsia, as magnesium supplementation may help reduce blood pressure and risk of negative health outcomes for mother and babies in this situation.

For people with heart disease, magnesium supplementation may be helpful. Though the research in this area is somewhat limited, there is reasonable suggestion that it may help reduce blood pressure and risk of cardiac events. In fact, it’s a common treatment in hospitals when someone comes in with heart related issues. Obviously, whether to add a supplement in this situation would require careful discussion with your doctor. Magnesium isn’t going to cure you.

For those who are diabetic or struggle with other metabolic issues, it may be helpful to supplement magnesium, though again, it’s best to talk with a nutritionist and a doctor about this. But because of magnesium’s role in blood sugar regulation, it’s important to make sure this is under control. You should be able to do this through diet, but it’s always worth talking to your providers about. 

One population that gets a lot of buzz when it comes to supplementing pretty much anything is athletes. Though there is a higher prevalence of nutrient imbalance and deficiency in athletes than the general population, this appears to be mostly caused by those who are actively trying to lose weight while training hard. The body works really hard as an athlete and it can be difficult to be in a calorie deficit while demanding that much of the body. You’re more likely to run into issues. Athletes who eat properly don’t tend to have this issue and should be able to get all the magnesium they need from their diet. If you are an athlete and trying to lose weight or be in a calorie deficit, it’s important that you do this consciously, focusing on eating a varied diet to consume the nutrients you need, and you may benefit from utilizing a professional for guidance. 

People with GI issues are often going to need supplementation but this isn’t something I’ll touch on. If you aren’t getting the nutrients you need because of a GI issue, you need to be working with a professional. 

Finally, I will add that it may be worth trying a magnesium supplement if you are having difficulty with sleep, especially if you are of older age or pregnant. I’ve already discussed some of the science around that in various areas of this article. It’s worth trying, as long as you ensure you are not taking the supplement in excess of the upper limits described. 

One strong limitation in the area of sleep is among adults of older age. There’s simply not enough quality evidence for this population and what does exist doesn’t show benefit.

Summary / TLDR

Magnesium, as with any other nutrient, is very important to the proper functioning of our bodies. Unfortunately, a large portion of the population does not consume enough magnesium in their diets. It seems that this is mostly caused by people failing to eat a varied and balanced diet full of whole foods, but there are a few other populations that may struggle to obtain all the magnesium they need. 

Though focusing on diet should ensure most healthy people obtain enough magnesium, you may want to discuss a magnesium supplement with your doctor or a nutritionist if you struggle with heart disease, preeclampsia, metabolic issues, sleep issues, or are of older age. 

Generally, though potentially unnecessary, taking a magnesium supplement should be safe, though it is possible to take too much, and it is important to be mindful of how taking magnesium may impact the uptake of other nutrients. Additionally, people on antibiotics, acid-reducing medications, or diuretics should avoid taking magnesium supplements. 

However, if you’re healthy, focus on food before taking a supplement. Yes, it takes more effort, but it’s better for you.

If you want to go a little deeper into the research on magnesium and health, this is a great, trusted resource with lots of information and cited articles, some I included in this post but many I did not. Also keep in mind that, unfortunately, a lot of the research on magnesium is not the best quality. That’s why I’ve said a lot of “it may” instead of “it will” do this. There’s not no evidence, it’s just not the most convincing.

I’d say, overall, magnesium is important for overall health and if you are worried you aren’t getting enough in your diet, you may want to consider adding a supplement. However, it is not likely to be a magic fix to all of your life’s issues. (I mean, obviously. But that is how some people talk about it online and on social media.)

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