Magnesium is a mineral needed for many essential functions including human metabolism, maintaining electrical potential in nerve and muscles cells, regulating blood sugar and pressure, and DNA (1). It is involved in more than 300 reactions in which food is synthesized to new products and is a critical component in the processes that create muscular energy from carbohydrate, protein, and fat (5). But why the need for supplementation?
A Diet That is Lacking
Though it is possible to get the recommended amounts (420mg for men, 320mg for women) from the diet from foods such as nuts, beans, legumes, fruits and vegetables- the NIH says “the diets of many people in the United States provide less than the recommended amounts of magnesium.” (5). Deficiency can cause a few problems. Short term symptoms are not obvious, but long-term deficiency includes loss of appetite, nausea, vomiting, fatigue, and weakness. Extreme magnesium deficiency can cause numbness, tingling, muscle cramps, seizures, personality changes, and an abnormal heart rhythm. For athletes, deficiency could exacerbate the harmful consequences of intense physical activity (1).
Ways to Supplement
Magnesium supplements typically range from 250-500mg in a serving, making it easy to reach your daily needs. Multivitamins are another great way to supplement the need for magnesium. Most multivitamins will not provide 100% or higher of the recommended dietary intake, but when paired with daily food intake, you should be in a great spot.
Added Bonus
Recent studies have shown varying levels of sleep improvement from magnesium supplementation. A 2012 study showed that supplementation of 500mg of magnesium daily helped improve sleep efficiency, sleep time and sleep onset latency, early morning awakening, and likewise, insomnia objective measures such as concentration of serum renin, melatonin, and serum cortisol, in elderly people compared to placebo group (2). A 2021 meta-analysis showed that post-intervention sleep onset latency time was 17.36 min less after magnesium supplementation compared to placebo. Total sleep time improved by 16.06 min in the magnesium supplementation group (3).
Thinking back to the “ways to supplement” section, you could also take magnesium 30 minutes to an hour before bed. One way to supplement like this would be a product like Thorne’s multivitamin. They provide both an AM and PM multi option. When looking at the differences you would notice the AM contains 63mg of magnesium, or 15% of recommended daily intake, but the PM offers 107mg- or 25%. Taking the PM prior to sleep could help relax the body and prepare for sleep.
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References
1. Benardot, D. (2021). Advanced Sports Nutrition. Human Kinetics.
2. Jones, S. F. (2012). The effect of melatonin, magnesium, and zinc on primary insomnia in long-term care facility residents in Italy: A double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial. Yearbook of Pulmonary Disease, 2012, 207–209. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ypdi.2012.01.037
3. Mah, J., & Pitre, T. (2021). Oral magnesium supplementation for insomnia in older adults: A systematic review & meta-analysis. https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-192269/v1
4. Volpe, S. L. (2015). Magnesium and the athlete. Current Sports Medicine Reports, 14(4), 279–283. https://doi.org/10.1249/jsr.0000000000000178
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