Your Complete Guide to Magnesium Supplementation
The best magnesium forms and brands, how to dose magnesium, and more…
Magnesium supplementation has become extremely common. It’s the subject of countless social media videos, Instagram Reels, YouTube videos, dinner conversations, and more.
And that’s a good thing, in my opinion.
Most people do need to supplement magnesium. The magnesium content of our fruits and vegetables has declined dramatically over the last several decades, and that’s a very bad thing. Magnesium is involved in facilitating hundreds of enzymatic reactions in the body, including absolutely vital roles in:
Regulating the stability of the cardiac membrane (i.e. preventing heart problems)
Mediating insulin sensitivity
Processing neurotransmitters
Facilitating muscle contraction
and hundreds (thousands, even) of other functions.
It’s even theorized that simply increasing the magnesium intake of humans at a population level could dramatically reduce rates of fatal cardiac events.
So, yes, most people would benefit from supplementing magnesium. The question, of course, is how?
Do different forms of magnesium do different things?
You will find dozens of social media videos arguing that different forms of magnesium (e.g. magnesium threonate vs citrate vs malate vs taurate) do different things. You’ll find claims that:
Magnesium threonate is the best for the brain,
Magnesium taurate is the best for the heart,
Magnesium malate is the best for energy,
and so on…
I don’t exactly agree with these claims.
The magnesium in each of these supplements is ultimately the same thing: Magnesium. And that magnesium simply needs to effectively get into the body to perform its role in facilitating its hundreds of enzymatic reactions.
The question then becomes: Which magnesium is the best at getting effectively into the body? In other words:
Which form of magnesium is absorbed the best?
Let’s start with the most poorly absorbed form.
Generally speaking, the most poorly absorbed form of magnesium is magnesium oxide. Its absorption rate is somewhere on the order of 5%, or even less. Most of it just stays in the digestive tract, producing a bit of a laxative effect. So most people should avoid magnesium oxide (which happens to be the most common form of supplemental and prescribed magnesium).
Does that make magnesium oxide useless?
No. In fact,ople do well if one of your key problems is a lack of digestive motility (i.e. constipation), then magnesium oxide might actually be a great choice for you! Its poor absorption makes it great at relieving that lack of digestive motility.
But for most people, it’s a poor choice.
The best absorbed form of magnesium, on the other hand, is going to depend a little bit on who you are. In other words, it’s not a one-size-fits-all situation. Not everyone responds to magnesium in exactly the same way.
Generally, however, most people do well with chelated forms of magnesium. “Chelated” means that the magnesium is attached to an amino acid, which is basically a piece of a protein. So magnesium glycinate, for example, is magnesium chelated (attached) to the amino acid glycine. That glycine ideally allows the attached magnesium to be absorbed along with it across the digestive membrane, improving its absorption.
The same thing goes for other chelated forms, like magnesium threonate, magnesium taurate, and so on.
What I would recommend is to try different forms of chelated magnesium to see how you tolerate them. Some people will handle certain forms better than others. You can try a 400 mg dosage of each and note which causes the least of a laxative effect. That tends to be a good marker of absorption status.
Note: If you get magnesium glycinate, do not get a “buffered” form. This means it’s mixed with magnesium oxide, so you can’t tell how much magnesium glycinate is actually in there.
Are there any other ways I can increase my magnesium absorption?
Yes.
It’s not only about finding the right form of magnesium for you. It’s also about taking it in the right way.
What I recommend for most is:
Firstly, try to combine multiple forms of magnesium. For example, take some magnesium malate along with magnesium glycinate. That allows your body to absorb magnesium using multiple different routes of absorption, increasing the total amount it can uptake at once. For that reason, I’ve used Thorne’s Magnesium CitraMate in some of my patients with good success. I’ve found it to actual increase my patient’s red blood cell levels of magnesium (I have no affiliation with Thorne).
Secondly, try to divide up your magnesium dosage. The digestive system can only absorb so much magnesium at once, so throwing one big bolus at it basically ensures that a lot of it will stay in the digestive tract and not be absorbed into the bloodstream. Instead, divide up your dosage. If you take 500 mg, for example, instead of taking it all at night, you can take 200 mg in the morning and 300 mg at bedtime to increase absorption.
So are there any unique benefits of the different forms of magnesium?
There are, in fact. But it’s not really about the magnesium itself. It’s about what the magnesium is attached to. That thing can have its own benefits—totally independent of the magnesium.
So, for example, magnesium taurate consists of magnesium attached to taurine. When you take magnesium taurate, you get both magnesium and taurine in one pill. This taurine is itself a highly beneficial amino acid with anti-aging, exercise performance, and nerve-protective benefits. I tend to recommend this magnesium taurate form for people who have problems with their transsulfuration system because those problems make them less able to effectively produce taurine endogenously. Note that our Ultimate Methylation Package helps to identify such issues.
Similarly, magnesium glycinate consists of magnesium attached to the amino acid glycine. This glycine is also an extremely important molecule involved in countless physiological processes, including detoxification reactions, methylation pathways, and much more. Most people need more glycine in modern times (our Ultimate Package also helps identify glycine deficits), and by taking magnesium glycinate, you basically get two-in-one.
Similar things can be said of magnesium malate, magnesium citrate, and so on.
What about magnesium threonate? Doesn’t that have some special brain benefit?
That’s true. Magnesium threonate is a bit of an exception in that it does have some unique benefits to the brain.
But again, it’s really all about the absorption. The magnesium in magnesium threonate is still just that: Magnesium. But the threonate helps direct that magnesium more effectively to the brain.
In other words, magnesium threonate is especially good at getting magnesium into the brain. This can be extra beneficial for some people with neurological conditions requiring higher amounts of magnesium. But it’s also a much more expensive form, and I think that the incremental increase in brain absorption is not going to be worth the cost for most people.
How much magnesium should I take?
As a general rule of thumb, most people do well with around 400 mg of magnesium per day (ideally in divided dosages, as mentioned above).
However, certain circumstances increase how magnesium you need to take to feel optimal. For example, if you have a problem your MAT1A gene (tested in our Comprehensive Methylation Panel), you would do better with a much higher dosage magnesium, potentially even around 1000 mg (1 gram) per day.
People with COMT deficits (also tested in our Comprehensive Methylation Panel) also generally do better with these higher dosages of magnesium.
Here’s an easy way to get a rough estimate of how much magnesium you should take, without doing any additional testing:
Start off at around 100 mg of magnesium per day (choose what form works best for you as above). Take this at the same time each day—such as right before bed.
Every 3-4 days, increase your dosage by around 100 mg.
Continue to increase your dosage, as above, until you either (1) start to experience some laxative effect or (2) reach 1000 mg. Stop at the dosage that begins to cause that laxative effect—That’s a sign that your body has enough for now.
I hope that helps. Share this with your friends who are taking magnesium so they can do it right.
Keep in mind that this is not official medical advice. This is purely educational information and should not substitute for your doctor’s medical advice. No doctor-patient relationship is established through this article or through any other information provided on this website.
