Today’s special product needs no introduction, but that never stopped us.
If you’ve ever been talking to Doc Frank for more than about 3 milliseconds, he likely mentioned the vital importance of magnesium to you. And how you cannot get enough from food or most supplements on the market. So, let’s dive into magnesium all over again.
Don’t expect to read about magnesium in South Africa’s leading medical journals, like YOU magazine or Huisgenoot. Don’t expect newspaper headlines like, “Drink More Magnesium!” or “Magnesium Is Vital!” Don’t expect your doctor to prescribe it.
And while magnesium gets no attention, her ugly stepsister Calcium gets a lot of lime-light.
How ironic that calcium supplementation is likely harmful, but promoted, while magnesium supplementation is vital, yet ignored.
Magnesium is crucial in more than 300 metabolic reactions in our bodies. It forms part of almost every aspect of life – and you’re not getting enough of it.
How much magnesium do we need?
There are at least two answers to this question: The RDA (Ridiculous Daily Allowance) and what science really tells us.
The RDA hovers somewhere between 300 and 420 mg daily, depending on age, gender and pregnancy status. The number is based on faulty science from a century ago, but has never been revised.
The estimates of required daily magnesium intake were based on how much magnesium adults lose in their urine daily. In other words, if you lose 400 mg in your urine daily, you need 400 mg in your food, right? Wrong! That would only have been a fair assumption if all ingested magnesium got absorbed and all of absorbed magnesium was excreted via the kidneys.
It turns out that only a fraction of ingested magnesium is absorbed. Two thirds or more is lost in stool. Of absorbed magnesium, a significant amount is lost in sweat. If you plug these numbers into magnesium requirements, you end up with a daily dietary requirement of about 1500 mg elemental magnesium.
Oops.
How much magnesium did the ancients get?
Magnesium forms part of our teeth and bones (along with calcium, boron and some trace minerals). That means we can measure average magnesium intake by looking in the bones of ancient humans (not like a sangoma, though). When archaeologists compared the magnesium content of ancient teeth to modern teeth, they estimated that our distant forebears got about 600+ mg elemental magnesium on a daily basis. That’s absorbed magnesium, not ingested magnesium.
Adding insult to injury…
Compare this historic intake to the South African government’s limit of NO MORE than 250 mg of elemental Magnesium per person per day allowed via supplementation. How does that make sense? Aah, these were the same kind, concerned folks who locked us down to flatten the curve, forced us to satanise our hands, wear mouth gags and who didn’t mandate the mandatory injections. As you can see, they are really, really concerned about your well-being. They don’t want you to die from an overdose of good health.
Elemental, my dear Watson
What is “elemental” magnesium?
What is meant by “elemental” magnesium? Magnesium in food is always bound to other substances. The weight of these other substances must be deducted in order to figure out how much “magnesium only” is in that nutrient or supplement. “Magnesium only” is called “elemental magnesium”.
For example, Magnesium glycinate contains only 14% elemental magnesium. In other words, if you take 1,000 mg of Magnesium glycinate (a very big pill), this translates to a mere 140 mg of elemental magnesium (a tiny amount). You’d need four of these bombs to get even close to 600 mg of elemental magnesium.
Magnesium confusion
Manufacturers of magnesium supplements deliberately confuse customers to make their products look great. The label may say “Magnesium citrate 200 mg”, but that translates to a mere 22 mg of elemental magnesium in a poorly absorbable form. In fact, the world’s top selling magnesium supplement contains a mere 135 mg of elemental magnesium in a poorly absorbed form. Why on earth?
And just when you thought it can’t get any worse
Most magnesium supplements are combined with calcium. The idea is to boost bone density. But study after study shows that calcium supplementation does not boost bone density, while magnesium supplementation does. In fact, studies show that if you take more than about 200 mg of elemental calcium daily via supplements, your risk of dying early (from any cause) increases significantly. The more calcium you take, the higher your risk of dying prematurely. If you’re eating dairy, you do not need supplemental calcium.
And that’s not all. Calcium is known to block magnesium absorption from the gut. So why on earth would you want to combine calcium and magnesium in one supplement?
Knight in shining armour
In the case of magnesium, the mortality curve looks very different, compared to that of calcium. Study after study shows that, the more magnesium you take daily, the longer (and healthier) you can expect to live. The highest dose studied in this regard was 500 mg elemental magnesium daily. But the trend at that dose was still pointing strongly upward. Yet nobody bothered to study what happens to mortality when we supplement with even higher doses of magnesium. Maybe people will die from too much health? We have every reason to believe the trend to a longer life continues upward for quite some more (but we will never know for sure until the science is done).
Where do I find magnesium?
Let’s go back to our ancestors. If their teeth show 600 mg daily elemental magnesium absorption, where did that magnesium come from?
* Ten medium-sized avocados?
* One cup of cashews?
* 3.5 cups of black beans? Sheez.
* Four cups of cooked spinach? Yuck!
You get the picture? It is pretty impossible to get that much magnesium EVERY DAY from food. So where DID it come from?
The well that makes you well
Until the fairly recent arrival of purified tap water, everyone got drinking water from wells. These wells provided many minerals, including (especially) magnesium. In fact, all natural spas have water high in magnesium. The more magnesium, the more “miraculous” healing claims are made for that spa. Coincidence?
So, do I need magnesium?
Measuring magnesium deficiency is not so easy, and quite expensive. A study among US adults found that four out of five (~80%) of them were magnesium deficient. Remember that “sufficient” refers to 300-400 mg magnesium daily. If we take the ancient average of 600 mg magnesium daily, that figure will be even higher.
Short answer: We all need more magnesium.
A quick recap
* Most adults have too little magnesium in their bodies.
* The Ridiculous Daily Intakes for magnesium are based on poor and outdated science.
* You have to take magnesium daily, since your body absorbs little and excretes lots.
* It is almost impossible to get enough magnesium from food alone.
* Our water supplies are not helping us get magnesium any more.
In other words, to get enough magnesium every day, your only option is … supplement.
That’s where it gets tricky and somewhat icky. Everyone will tell you THEIR magnesium is the best. Of course.
Which magnesium is best?
Magnesium oxide (MgO), one of the cheapest forms of magnesium, is generally reviled for its low bioavailability (about 8% of what is taken ends up in your body). But… that study was done with tablets. Magnesium oxide dissolves fairly well in stomach acid, which increases the availability a lot. A 1994 study explains what this means. Where MgO was presented in capsule form (instead of compacted, tablets), availability rose to 22.8%. Capsules rapidly dissolve in stomach acid, tablets don’t.
In that same study, magnesium glycinate (commonly regarded as the best absorbed form of magnesium), scored an availability of 23.5%. In other words, for all practical purposes, MgO in capsule form is as good as the best absorbed form of magnesium out there.
The truth is, magnesium is absorbed in ionic form in the first few inches of the gut (the duodenum). You don’t need “slow” magnesium, you need one that instantly dissolves in the stomach.
Taking it up a notch
At Integrow Health, we went a step further. We added D-Ribose to our MgO. D-Ribose is known to significantly boost the absorption of magnesium from the gut. The result is that even one capsule of our MgO gives you a noticeable lift in energy within hours of taking the first dose.
Who needs magnesium?
* Everybody.
What is magnesium good for?
* Muscles: Improves strength, endurance, acceleration, reduces cramping
* Bones: Anti-osteoporosis, faster fracture healing
* Brain: Sleep, calm, attention span, memory, happy mood
* Stress: Lowers cortisol (stress hormone), increases GABA (calming hormone)
* Immune system: Improved immune response, “balances” immune system
Magnesium is beneficial in many conditions, including cancer, auto-immune disease, asthma, depression, insomnia, ADHD, nerve injury, bone fractures, etc.
Frequently asked questions
How much magnesium do I need?
Each of our MgO capsules provides 240 mg elemental magnesium. Taking one a day already makes a big difference to most people, but higher doses can safely be taken. Some high performance athletes take up to 5 of our MgO capsules daily, with no ill effects. In fact, they mostly end up finishing first in their events.
Can you take too much Magnesium?
Humans happen to have a nifty magnesium regulating mechanism. It is called diarrhoea (scientific term: jippo guts). If you take in too much magnesium, you get the runs and the excess is excreted in the form of runny diarrhoea. This mechanism is so effective, it is virtually impossible to get a magnesium overdose via oral intake.
How long does MgO last?
If kept in a cool, dry place, our MgO will last a very long time – 2 years or more.
To your (shining) health!
The Team at Integrow Health
