Benefits of Magnesium: Exploring What It’s Good For

Benefits of Magnesium: Exploring What It’s Good For

What You’ll Learn: In this blog, you’ll learn about why magnesium is so important, why it’s an essential mineral and discover the many benefits of magnesium.‡

We know that magnesium is one of the most popular supplements available. But did you know that it’s also an essential, mineral? In fact, we need it for over 300 biochemical reactions that go on in the body. Since our bodies do not create magnesium, it’s essential for us to get this mineral from the foods we eat.1 Depletion of nutrients in our soil has made it hard for us to get usable and absorbable magnesium in our diet today.2 As a result, many of us turn to magnesium supplementation to make sure we are getting enough of this important mineral. Learn more about the benefits of magnesium so you can explore why supplementing magnesium is key to maintaining good health.‡

What Is Magnesium?

We’ve mentioned that magnesium is an essential mineral required for our body to stay healthy. It’s found naturally in foods like legumes, nuts, seeds, whole grains and dark green, leafy vegetables. It’s also found in most dairy products like milk, yogurt and in eggs. In fact, it’s so important, that it’s also fortified in breakfast cereals and other whole grain products.3

Let’s dive deeper into the health benefits of magnesium and specifically discuss why supplementing with magnesium is important to support overall health.‡

Health Benefits of Magnesium

Magnesium plays a key role in many biological functions and is used consistently throughout our daily lives. Magnesium wears many hats when it comes to supporting our overall health. Let’s talk more about why magnesium matters.

One of the many reasons why magnesium is so crucial, is because it’s necessary for the metabolism of macronutrients. This means, it works to help breakdown larger nutrients like proteins, carbohydrates and fats and helps convert those into usable energy for the body. It also works with calcium and other nutrients to enable healthy bone metabolism. Magnesium may support relaxation of the muscles in the body while also supporting energy production within the mitochondria. Not to mention, it can also support brain health.‡

But magnesium is even more important than just being a helper for our metabolism. Magnesium is so essential to the body that it’s necessary within the very biological processes that make our daily functioning possible. Let’s look further, right down to each cell in our body, to learn more about how important magnesium is for our daily wellness. 

Magnesium for Biological Processes
Magnesium is found throughout your body. In fact, it's such a crucial element in body composition that every cell in your body contains this mineral and needs it to function. Some cells have a larger concentration than others. For example, 60% of magnesium is found in skeletal bone, while the remaining is found in muscles, soft tissues or organs like the heart. Even fluids like blood or plasma contain magnesium.4

No matter the form of magnesium, this unique mineral is crucial in its ability to regulate biochemical reactions in the body. It’s used in biological functions like protein synthesis, muscle and nerve function.5‡

Magnesium is known as a helper nutrient. It works by being a cofactor to enzymatic reactions in the body. You can think of magnesium as acting like a motivational cheerleader. Where would the team spirit be without its cheerleaders?

As a cofactor, or helper, magnesium helps make sure that biological enzymatic reactions continue to occur. We already mentioned converting food into energy earlier but there are even more enzymatic reactions magnesium assists with, including:

  • Protein synthesis – the creation of new protein from its amino acid building blocks.6
  • DNA and RNA synthesis – the formation, regulation and repair of our genome.6
  • Glucose metabolism – the ability to effectively and efficiently metabolize glucose and use it for energy.7‡
  • Bone mineralization – the ability to maintain and support healthy bone integrity. 7‡
  • Muscle movement – supporting the muscles ability to contract and relax. 7‡
  • Neurological processes – supporting the regulation of neurotransmitters allowing your body to perceive and receive neurological messages.6

But, perhaps the most well-known reasons why people choose to supplement with magnesium is because of how it helps support healthy sleep.

Magnesium for Sleep Support‡
I know you’ve heard of this one before: magnesium to support healthy sleep. It’s everywhere. Now, while the research is still new and still being developed to discover magnesium’s role in sleep support, there are so many people who have shared stories about how magnesium, specifically magnesium glycinate, may help them achieve better quality sleep.‡

As I mentioned earlier, some research suggests that magnesium plays a role in neurological communication and through this neurological communication, can play a key role in regulating deep, restful sleep.8

Researchers are also exploring magnesium’s ability to help with the onset of relaxing smooth muscles. Magnesium, like the magnesium citrate and glycinate found in our Muscle Cramp/Tension Formula has been found to support leg muscle comfort by helping to lessen occasional nighttime cramping while relieving occasional sleeplessness.9‡

While magnesium may be taken at any time during the day, anecdotally, people may choose to take it closer to their bedtime for sleep support. Most tend to choose the Magnesium glycinate form. This might be partially because magnesium glycinate doesn’t have a laxative effect and is preferred by those looking to supplement in larger servings. Or, it could also be due to the fact that magnesium glycinate is organically chelated to the amino acid, glycine. Glycine has been shown to be an important amino acid involved in neurological processes, and supplementation may help support sleep.‡

Now, let’s talk about magnesium’s role in something not as relaxing as sleep, but almost as important: exercise.

Magnesium for Exercise Performance
If you’re passionate about exercise and staying active, or you simply enjoy getting your body moving, you may find that your magnesium needs increase during physical activity compared to when you're less active. Why? Well, it’s because magnesium is an electrolyte and when we exercise, we often deplete our electrolytes because they are cofactors (helpers!) for energy production.10

Research in animals have found that magnesium may help regulate blood sugar into your muscles and help manage lactate, which can build up during exercise and cause fatigue.11‡

Magnesium may play a critical role in exercise due to its role in skeletal muscle contraction and relaxation, plus it’s a key electrolyte. That’s why we include it as part of our Electrolyte/Energy Formula to provide support for hydration, stamina and electrolyte repletion.‡

If you’re exercising well, you expect to get your heart pumping, and it’s magnesium that supports your ticker. Let’s look more at how magnesium supports a healthy heart.‡

Magnesium for Heart Health Support‡
Heart health is so important. According to the American Heart Association, over 61% of adults in the U.S. struggle with heart health.12 That’s a large prevalence. Another key function of magnesium is its ability to support a healthy cardiovascular system.‡

Your heart can take on a lot of physical stress. Its responsibility is to pump the blood throughout our bodies, so nutrients can be delivered to our organs, oxygen can fuel our cells and waste products can be filtered out. When arteries and veins are constricted, or tight and not super flexible, it can be hard for the heart to get this job done and that’s when we start to see an increase in cardiac changes.

Magnesium helps with heart health in a variety of different ways. For example, magnesium may help relax blood vessels, easing passage of blood through the veins and the arteries to help aid with healthy blood flow.14‡

Due to its unique properties, magnesium can help regulate heart rhythm while also supporting the metabolism of c-reactive protein which is responsible for and encouraging lipid metabolism.13

Other major organs benefit from magnesium. Let’s look at another that benefits from magnesium supplementation, the brain.

Magnesium for Mental Health
I mentioned it earlier, but I wanted to mention it again in a new light. Magnesium helps support many neurological processes in the body. This includes brain support. In fact, Magnesium threonate is best known for its targeted brain support ability. Magnesium threonate is found in our CogniMag product. This form has been shown to cross the blood-brain barrier better than other forms of magnesium, so offers targeted support for brain health.4 The only catch is that magnesium threonate tends to naturally have a low elemental value. This means that generally people tend to also supplement with another form of magnesium to meet their needs.‡

Types of Magnesium and Dosage

Pure Encapsulations® offers a variety of highly bioavailable chelated magnesium. One thing you’ll notice is that we don’t offer standalone magnesium in oxide, sulfate or carbonate forms. Why? Well, oxides, sulfates and carbonates are inorganic chelates and just aren’t as well absorbed by the body. Not to mention, they can be a little challenging for the GI tract to tolerate.14 For this reason, we chose to only provide our minerals, like magnesium, in a fully organic chelate form, like citrates, malates and glycinates.

 As you start to better acquaint yourself with magnesium and all the options there are available on the market, you’ll also start to see the difference in the dosages. To put it simply, magnesium needs are individualistic and it’s always best to go over your needs with a healthcare practitioner. In general, the RDA, or Recommended Dietary Allowance, of magnesium for women ages 19-30 is 310 mg per day and for women ages 31 and older is 320 mg per day. For men, the RDA is slightly higher at 400 mg of magnesium for ages 19-30 and 420 mg of magnesium for ages 31 and older.15

If you’re just not sure where to start and are looking to learn more about the different forms of magnesium and which might be a good fit for you, you can check out my Types of Magnesium: Which One Is Best blog here!

Magnesium for Overall Wellness

Thanks for staying with me as I took you through the benefits of magnesium and discussed what it’s good for. Next time you see magnesium trending on social media, or you see a commercial featuring it, you’ll know why magnesium is so important to your overall health. Depending on what your unique nutritional needs are, you now have the knowledge to make the right decision for yourself regarding which magnesium is the most suitable for you.‡ You can check out all the magnesium options Pure Encapsulations® has to offer today!‡ 

  1. Medline Plus. (2016). Magnesium in diet: MedlinePlus Medical Encyclopedia. Medlineplus.gov. https://medlineplus.gov/ency/article/002423.htm
  2. How to Fix Magnesium Deficiency in Plants and Soil: Causes, Symptoms, Adding Naturally, and Chemically. (2022, November 17). Www.agrifarming.in. https://www.agrifarming.in/how-to-fix-magnesium-deficiency-in-plants-and-soil-causes-symptoms-adding-naturally-and-chemically
  3. What is magnesium and what does it do? (n.d.). Retrieved July 17, 2024, from https://ods.od.nih.gov/pdf/factsheets/Magnesium-Consumer.pdf
  4. Gröber, U., Schmidt, J., & Kisters, K. (2015). Magnesium in Prevention and Therapy. Nutrients, 7(9), 8199–8226. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu7095388
  5. Institute of Medicine (IOM). Food and Nutrition Board. Dietary Reference Intakes: Calcium, Phosphorus, Magnesium, Vitamin D and Fluoride. Washington, DC: National Academy Press, 1997.
  6. de Baaij, J. et al. (2015). Physiological Reviews, 95(1), 1–46. https://doi.org/10.1152/physrev.00012.2014
  7. Rude RK. Magnesium. In: Ross AC, Caballero B, Cousins RJ, Tucker KL, Ziegler TR, eds. Modern Nutrition in Health and Disease. 11th ed. Baltimore, Mass: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins; 2012:159-75.
  8. Arab, A., et al. (2023). The role of magnesium in sleep health: A systematic review of available literature. Biological Trace Element Research, 201(1), 121–128. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35184264/
  9. Roffe C, et al. Med Sci Monit.2002 May;8(5):CR326-30.
  10. Sun FH, et al. Nutrients. 2015 May 15;7(5):3739-50.
  11. Zhang, Y., et al. (2017). Can Magnesium Enhance Exercise Performance? Nutrients, 9(9), 946. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu9090946
  12. (n.d.). American Heart Association. Retrieved July 17, 2024, from https://newsroom.heart.org/news/population-shifts-risk-factors-may-triple-u-s-cardiovascular-disease-costs-by-2050
  13. Harvard Health Publishing. (2019, May 3). Key minerals to help control blood pressure - Harvard Health. Harvard Health; Harvard Health. https://www.health.harvard.edu/heart-health/key-minerals-to-help-control-blood-pressure
  14. Blancquaert L, et al. Predicting and Testing Bioavailability of Magnesium Supplements. Nutrients. 2019 Jul 20;11(7):1663. doi: 10.3390/nu11071663. PMID: 31330811; PMCID: PMC6683096.
  15. National Institutes of Health. (2016). Office of Dietary Supplements - Magnesium. National Institutes of Health. https://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/Magnesium-HealthProfessional/
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