When you’re serious about your health, it does not take long before you realise the critical importance of magnesium to overall health. With magnesium being involved in more than 300 reactions in the body, many of them involving the production of energy, it is clear you cannot get far without magnesium.
The next thing you’re bound to realise, is that magnesium is not easy to get from food sources. Yes, you can eat a cup of almonds a day, but only if you’re earning like a member of parliament. Other sources supply much less magnesium.
So you turn to supplements. You find there are dozens of options, all of them promising to be the best.
So you turn to internet reviewers. You find there are thousands of them each claiming to be the most knowledgeable.
At this point, you either resign yourself to buying the cheapest magnesium and hoping for the best, or you become a Magnesium Nazi, clinging to one form or brand of magnesium as “the best”. Anyone who dares to challenge you becomes a target for your accumulated wisdom (aggression sold separately).
Which Magnesium Is Best?
How long is a piece of string? The magnesium that is best is the one that gets you the results you need.
If you get your supplement advice from marketers, you will believe that magnesium glycinate is the best form of magnesium since it has the best absorption.
The same marketers will have told you that magnesium oxide has the worst absorption.
But hang on a second. Is it really that simple? Of course not.
Testing Method
Measuring the absorption of magnesium is not easy. One reason is that 98% of the body’s magnesium is kept outside of the bloodstream. Measuring blood (plasma) magnesium is thus futile. What you see in the blood is a tiny fraction of the big picture.
Most studies thus rely on urine magnesium levels as an indirect indicator of how much magnesium was absorbed. The method assumes that excess magnesium is excreted in the urine. However, it does not consider that significant amounts of absorbed magnesium may get stashed away inside cells and not reach the urine at all.
Animal (rodent) studies are most frequently used to test magnesium bioavailability. Rodents, however, process magnesium very differently to humans. These studies are thus also suspect.
The “gold standard” is stable isotope tracer studies in humans. Not a single healthy human study using isotope tracers and comparing multiple types of magnesium supplements has been published to date (yes, this is the 21st century, in case you’re wondering). We’re thus stuck with rodent studies when it comes to “best evidence”. A French study from 2005 using isotopes in a rat study showed bioavailability of 10 types of magnesium to vary between 50 and 60%. This study included the much reviled magnesium oxide, but did not test magnesium glycinate. The overall conclusion was that the availability of magnesium was minimally influenced by the type of magnesium ingested. (Link)
A 1994 isotope tracer study in patients with partial small bowel resection (thus not an ideal population) found that magnesium availability from magnesium glycinate was 23% and from magnesium oxide was 22%. The difference was not statistically significant. (Link)
Formulation
Formulation counts far more than the actual chemical type of magnesium. Tablets fare the worst, since magnesium is absorbed in the small intestine. Tablets tend to dissolve slowly, meaning most of the magnesium is not available in the small intestine, regardless of the type of magnesium.
Age
Magnesium absorption decreases with age. The elderly need more magnesium, but absorb less.
Magnesium Status
The level of magnesium stores in the body determines how much magnesium is absorbed. Magnesium deficient persons will thus absorb more magnesium than those with sufficient magnesium stores. It is basically impossible to determine the level of the body’s magnesium stores.
Magnesium Dose
The dose of magnesium ingested impacts on its bioavailability. This is due to limited active transport channels in the small bowel. If they are overwhelmed by too much magnesium, the excess magnesium passes by and is lost to the body. This is God’s way of preventing magnesium toxicity. In fact, it is practically impossible to become magnesium toxic via the oral route. Too much magnesium leads to a laxative effect and all the excess is excreted via the stool.
Food Competition
The type of food taken with your magnesium supplement affects how much is absorbed. Some food types (calcium, sugar, high carbohydrate, insoluble fibre) reduce magnesium absorption, while other types (low in carbs or high in soluble fibres) increase absorption.
Vitamin D
Vitamin D plays an important role in facilitating magnesium uptake from the gut. A low Vitamin D level results in poor absorption. Always remember that what the lab calls a “normal” Vitamin D level is simply the average of sick people. The Vitamin D level of healthy people who live outdoors most of the day is ~65 ng/ml or higher.
Choosing Your Best Magnesium
If you’ve followed the argument so far, you will hopefully not fall for the marketing trick of buying the “best absorbed” magnesium. They’re all pretty much well absorbed and other factors play a more important role.
Your best magnesium is the one that solves your problem for the least amount of money.
The adult human typically needs more than 300 mg of elemental magnesium. It is likely that the real requirement is much higher, but we are limited by poor quality research done on the topic.
One capsule of our MgO magnesium supplement provides 240 mg of elemental magnesium. That is more than any other supplement available in South Africa right now. Not only is it high in magnesium, we’ve also added D-Ribose to it to enhance the absorption even further. Many of our customers report feeling energised within a day or two of starting treatment with MgO.
In contrast, the equivalent amount of elemental magnesium will cost at least double when taken in the form of magnesium glycinate. If you can afford it, that’s no problem, of course.
The various forms of magnesium have specific uses. Magnesium glycinate is best suited for persons struggling with anxiety and poor sleep. Other forms help with energy production.
Magnesium-L-threonate (found in our Brain-Mag) is the only form of magnesium thus far proven to cross the blood-brain-barrier, thus delivering magnesium directly to the brain, where it helps with symptoms of anxiety, depression and insomnia.
How To Take Magnesium
- The best way to take your magnesium is in liquid form. Dissolving the contents of a capsule in water and drinking it, either all at once, or during the course of the day, will provide the highest absorption of magnesium.
- The second-best way is to take your magnesium in capsule form.
- Never take magnesium in tablet form.
To your (complete) health!
The Team at Integrow Health
