How Magnesium Benefits Your Energy Levels

Is it possible that 72% of adults have a nutrient deficiency that is causing fatigue, muscle pain and a shorter lifespan? Unfortunately, it is 100% true. Today, I want to take a look into the 9 ways in which magnesium can play a pivotal role in restoring your energy levels.

If you’re looking to learn more about magnesium for energy or magnesium for low energy in your body, this is the perfect place to start. Does magnesium give you energy and help with fatigue? I’ll show you.

Product Recommendation: Calcium Magnesium provides calcium and magnesium in equal amounts, with 200 mg of each mineral per 2 capsule serving. Although the most commonly recommended dietary ratio for calcium to magnesium is 2:1, magnesium depletion has become very common in the US. Click Here

Learning about Magnesium

First and foremost, magnesium is a chemical element (you might know it from your periodic table of elements as Mg). It is a metal and it can be easily found in foods.

Truth be told, there is so much that it does in the body, so it is easy to find it. We can find magnesium in our:

• Bones
• Nerves
• Intercellular fluid

Because we find it inside our cells, and not directly in our blood stream (only 1%), it makes it more difficult to test. If we can only find 1% of your levels in your blood, and if that result is already low, you can imagine just how low your actual magnesium levels might be in the other 99% that can be found inside your cells.

How common is it to be deficient in magnesium?

Unfortunately, it is super common. According to World Health Organization statistics, as much as 75% of the U.S. adult population does not meet the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s Recommended Daily Intake of 420 mg¹.

How does low magnesium affect us?

As we previously saw, magnesium plays a role in so many of our body’s different process. For this reason, a deficiency can cause a lot of problems when it comes to fatigue.

Let’s think about this, what are all of the things magnesium is needed for in our bodies?

Magnesium is needed for:

1. Protein synthesis
2. Nerve conduction
3. Muscle contractions
4. Formation of energy from glucose
5. Formation of energy from fats
6. Regulation of blood sugar
7. Control of heart rate
8. Regulation of blood pressure
9. The function of immune defenses

Why are people low in magnesium?

There are two factors at work in all of this. When it comes to our levels we need to think about:

• How much we are getting
• How much we are losing

When we fall behind in one, or when we fall behind in both, we are really hurting our bodies. We will talk more later about how we get more into our systems, but here are some of the common reasons that we are losing magnesium:

Reasons You Could Be Low In Magnesium

• Stress – mental, emotional and physical stress can cause an increased loss in the system.
• Caffeine – causes a greater loss in our bodies. This loss adds to the jittery, anxious and hyper-alert way that we feel after we consume large amounts of caffeine.
• Higher Sodium Diets – when we consume more salt, our body makes us pee it out. This causes a loss of magnesium.
• Medications – certain medications can reduce absorption in our gut and accelerate the rate at which we lose magnesium.
• Vitamin D Deficiency – magnesium is essential for vitamin D activation. We will lose our magnesium if we do not have enough.
• Gastrointestinal Diseases – when our guts are not right, our ability to absorb it suffers.
• Blood Sugar – insulin resistance and Type 2 diabetes can cause us to lose more magnesium. Oddly enough, it helps maintain blood pressure levels.
• Crohn’s Disease – those with Crohn’s can have a hard time absorbing magnesium. This can also apply to those with Celiac disease.
• Alcohol – people with chronic alcohol dependence are at a greater risk of loss in their bodies.
• Older Adults – older adults simply have a lower dietary intake than younger adults. There are also other factors, like changes in your body and medications, which can reduce absorption and increase excretion.
• Poor Dieting – when the foods we eat do not contain magnesium, we cannot get it into our systems!
• Urinary Loss – those who take medications that increase urinary magnesium loss – like thiazide diuretics for blood pressure.
• Long-Term Antibiotic Use – these can create “soaps” which prevent absorption.
• Proton Pump Inhibitors – using proton pump inhibitor antacids can result in the inhibition of absorption.
• Using NPK Fertilizers – this can cause plants in our diets to have less magnesium.

What Can You Do About It?

There are so many ways in which we might be losing magnesium, or not getting enough in the first place.

When it comes to magnesium, chances are you need more in your diet.

So, let’s look at some ways that we can get more magnesium into our lives.

How do you know if you are magnesium deficient?

There are some common symptoms that we should be aware of when it comes to being deficient in magnesium.

There are lots of them, so sometimes it can be hard to pinpoint if it is the lack of magnesium causing these issues, or something else.

Let’s look at all of the symptoms, though, so we can get a better idea of just how important magnesium is (because of the harm it can cause when we do not have enough):

• Hyperexcitability
• Muscular symptoms (like cramps spasms and weakness)
• Fatigue
• Loss of appetite
• Confusion
• Insomnia
• Irritability
• Poor memory
• A reduced ability to learn

The less magnesium we have, the more serious our symptoms can get. When we have a moderate-to-severe magnesium deficiency, we might see some of the following:

• Tingling or numbness
• Heart changes
• Rapid heartbeat
• Continued muscle contractions
• Nausea
• Vomiting
• Personality changes
• Delirium
• Hallucinations
• Low calcium levels
• Low circulating levels of parathyroid hormone (PTH)

How To Get More Magnesium?

We have talked so much about the importance of magnesium, and how we simply are not getting enough in our lives. But how do we get more? There are a couple of things I want to talk about with this and the first concerns modern farming practices.

When it comes to agricultural practices, with the use of certain fertilizers and crop rotations, we are seeing less magnesium in large farming operations of certain vegetables. So, the first distinction that we need to make is that organic is best. It is going to do a good job of ensuring that we are getting the right amount of magnesium from what we are eating.

Next, there are four big categories I want to focus on when it comes to getting more magnesium. These four categories will help us navigate away from more processed foods and will help us focus on the foods we need. They are:

• Greens
• Intact whole grains
• Legumes
• Nuts and Seeds

The more of those foods that we consume, the better we do! So, what are some of the best foods which contain magnesium?

Adzuki Beans

Adzuki beans are one of the highest typical sources of magnesium that we can find.

One serving alone could have somewhere around 125 micrograms of magnesium, which is almost half of our recommended daily intake.

They make for a great foundation for getting more magnesium into our bodies.

Legumes

Most other legumes are great follow-ups to adzuki beans, and they include:

• Black Beans
• Pinto Beans
• Navy Beans
• Garbanzo Beans
• Lentils

Greens

There are also plenty of greens that have great amounts of magnesium. One of the main ones is spinach, which has 39% of our recommended daily intake. The interesting thing about greens and our bodies has to do with hemoglobins, which are rings surrounding an iron atom.

If hemoglobin is the red part of our blood, chlorophyll is the “green” part of plant blood. Instead of iron, though, we see magnesium in chlorophyll. It is an interesting comparison, and it actually illustrates really nicely how important magnesium is in greens, as well as in our bodies.

Supplements

When it comes to supplementing magnesium and supplementing in general, it is all about balance.

Of course it is important that we are eating right for our bodies, but there is nothing wrong with striking the right balance with eating right and supplementing right.

For magnesium, I recommend di magnesium malate. This is a plant-derived type of magnesium, so it is very well absorbed – that is why I included it in the Daily Reset Pack (Click Here).

If someone is also having problems with constipation, magnesium supplements can make for one of the gentlest and safest laxatives out there. While the previous supplement I recommended does not provide those same benefits, you might want to consider a supplement like magnesium citrate for these purposes.

Action Steps for More Magnesium

If you want to get more magnesium into your life, you need to start with your diet. Try and work hard to incorporate more of those food sources (ideally several different ones) into your diet each and every day. They are foods you want to enjoy more of anyways. These foods can also be bolstered by supplementation while you’re at it.

Release the tension from your body and release the tension from your mind by getting more magnesium into your life today. It will help you feel better, and it will help you learn more about your body and what you need to be successful. While you are at it, learn even more about your body and take the thyroid quiz (Click Here) today. It will give you even more of the information you need to do what’s best for your body today.

P.S. Whenever you are ready, here is how I can help you now:

1. Schedule a Thyroid Second Opinion with me, Dr. C, Click Here for Details
2. Need a Personalized Supplement? Check out My Thyroid Specific Formulations
3. Download and use my Favorite Recipes Cookbook Here
4. Check out my podcast Medical Myths, Legends, and Fairytales Here

Dr. Alan Glen Christianson (Dr. C) is a Naturopathic Endocrinologist and the author of The NY Times bestselling Adrenal Reset Diet, The Metabolism Reset Diet and The Thyroid Reset Diet.

Dr. C’s gift for figuring out what really works has helped hundreds of thousands of people reverse thyroid disease, lose weight, diabetes, and regain energy. Learn more about the surprising story that started his quest.