Saturday, March 23, 2024
HomeDepressionWhat Is The Best Magnesium For Anxiety And Depression

What Is The Best Magnesium For Anxiety And Depression

How Much Magnesium To Take For Sleep

Magnesium for Anxiety – The BEST Magnesium Supplement

Mg deficiencies are more often found in people who follow a standard western diet, which typically lacks leafy greens, beans, and more refined grains and processed foods, all of which provide healthy doses of this essential element.

Individual doses often vary, as each person has unique health needs and issues, and those variations should be taken into consideration when ingesting any foreign supplements.

Its recommended for adults to take between 100-350mg however, some sources say you can take up to 420. We dont recommend taking any higher than 350 without professional guidance. As with anything, its a good idea to start on the conservative side. If you have significant troubles and are hoping to take a higher dose, its better to consult a medical professional to address specific health issues.

There are side effects to Mg that are experienced by some, but not all. The supplement is generally well-tolerated in healthy adults. These side effects include vomiting, upset stomach, nausea, bloating, and diarrhea, so start small and work your way up.

You May Like: Caffeine And Zoloft

Controlled Trials Of Magnesium Supplementation

As I mentioned before, there are only a few controlled trials of magnesium supplementation and psychiatric disorders. A couple covered premenstrual dysphoria, cravings, and other symptoms . Another small study showed some improvement with magnesium supplementation in chronic fatigue syndrome . Two open-label studies showed some benefit in mania 00107-9/abstract” rel=”nofollow”> 12). There is another paper that postulates that magnesium deficiency could exacerbate the symptoms of schizophrenia. However, there is nothing definitive. Which is, of course, quite troubling. How many billions of dollars have we spent on drug research for depression, bipolar disorder, and schizophrenia, when here is a cheap and plausibly helpful natural remedy that hasn’t been properly studied?

So everyone get out there and take some magnesium already! Whew. Well, just a few more things to keep in mind before you jump in.

Magnesium For Anxiety: Does It Really Work

July 13, 2020 by Tamryn

How does magnesium help with anxiety? is by far one of the most popular questions I get asked whenever I mention magnesium on my Instagram page.

And if youve followed me on for any length of time, youll know how much I could go on and on about this stuff!

So, I decided to write this blog and answer every question I get about magnesium for anxiety.

But, before I continue, here is a you can use to skip to any section of this blog:

Im the type of girl that will geek out at a natural health store when I find the magnesium section.

No joke.

But it wasnt always like that.

I always knew the very basics about magnesium

I knew that it is a mineral .

I knew our bodies need it.

And, well thats about it.

It wasnt until I was studying nutrition that I learned a whole lot more about this special mineral and how the majority of people are not getting their recommended intake.

And the most at-risk groups of being deficient in this mineral include:

  • Those with alcohol dependencies
  • Those with type 2 diabetes
  • Those with gastrointestinal diseases
  • Older adults

Magnesium is excellent for heart health and can actually prevent heart attacks, but its the calming, and mood-boosting properties that really had me interested to learn more.

Recommended Reading: Does Clonidine Help With Anxiety

What Is The Best Form Of Magnesium For Anxiety And Depression

The best magnesium supplement for anxiety and depression would probably be magnesium threonate because of its unique ability to cross the blood brain barrier. It is also absorbed well unlike many of the other forms of magnesiums on the market. At least for brain benefits magnesium threonate would be our best bet.

supplementing with magnesium for anxiety and depression is a good thing to do, especially considering most people are deficient in this precious mineral to begin with and a deficiency for people with any kind of mental issues are particularly troublesome.

Even people who do no not suffer from any anxiety issues would benefit from adding a little extra magnesium, so with that in mind, the answer to the question: should i supplement with magnesium for anxiety and depression becomes a resounding yes!

Thank you for reading the blog post Can magnesium help with anxiety and depression

-Admin / Natural Health Evolution-

The Effects Of Too Much Magnesium

7 Ways Magnesium Relieves Stress &  Anxiety

Magnesium is a muscle relaxant. If you take too much magnesium, it will potentially relax your intestines and you’ll get diarrhea.

An advantage of using transdermal magnesium sources is that you are going to get your blood level of magnesium up before it hits your intestines with its relaxing effect. With oral magnesium, it hits your intestines first — so your blood level might still be deficient even if you are getting diarrhea.

Oral magnesium can be more or less diarrhea-causing depending on what it is bound to.

For a long time, I was suggesting that my anxiety clients who already tended toward loose stools avoid magnesium supplements, but more recently I am getting feedback from clients who had suffered for years with diarrhea that taking magnesium made their diarrhea go away. My assumption is that it had a calming effect on a cramping intestinal tract or that their diarrhea was anxiety-induced.

Read Also: How To Improve Social Anxiety

How Does Magnesium Work

Remember the sodium-potassium pump from school? Teachers talked about it in almost every science class.

Magnesium helps keep the sodium-potassium pump working. When it comes to the nervous system, the sodium-potassium pump helps keep your nerves functioning and messaging properly.

Magnesium also plays a role in the HPA axis, interacts with serotonin and GABA. All of which are important in regulating anxiety.

Why Pandemic Depression Is Not Going Away

Let’s look at the mechanisms first. Magnesium hangs out in the synapse between two neurons along with calcium and glutamate. If you recall, calcium and glutamate are excitatory, and in excess, toxic. They activate the NMDA receptor. Magnesium can sit on the NMDA receptor without activating it, like a guard at the gate. Therefore, if we are deficient in magnesium, there’s no guard. Calcium and glutamate can activate the receptor like there is no tomorrow. In the long term, this damages the neurons, eventually leading to cell death. In the brain, that is not an easy situation to reverse or remedy.

And then there is the stress-diathesis model of depression, which is the generally accepted theory that chronic stress leads to excess cortisol, which eventually damages the hippocampus of the brain, leading to impaired negative feedback and thus ongoing stress and depression and neurotoxicity badness. Murck tells us that magnesium seems to act on many levels in the hormonal axis and regulation of the stress response. Magnesium can suppress the ability of the hippocampus to stimulate the ultimate release of stress hormone, it can reduce the release of ACTH , and it can reduce the responsiveness of the adrenal glands to ACTH. In addition, magnesium can act at the blood-brain barrier to prevent the entrance of stress hormones into the brain. All these reasons are why I call magnesium “the original chill pill.”

Don’t Miss: What Is An Anxiety Attack Like

Research On Magnesium For Depression

While promising, the exact effects of dietary magnesium on depression are not yet well understood. There is research that supports the potential use of magnesium supplementation for depression:

  • A 2015 study found a significant link between low magnesium intake and depression in adults.
  • A 2017 randomized clinical trial published in the journal PLoS One found that supplementation with magnesium chloride resulted in significant improvements in depressive symptoms. The study also found that the participants who were taking an antidepressant experienced stronger benefits when taking magnesium, which suggests that it might be useful when used in conjunction with antidepressant medications.
  • A 2019 study found that low serum magnesium levels were associated with depressive symptoms. Such findings suggest that measuring magnesium levels may be useful as a way to identify people who might respond best to magnesium supplementation.

One benefit of magnesium as a treatment option is that it is relatively affordable, fast-acting, and well-tolerated by most people.

Recent Research Confirms The Benefit Of Magnesium For Depression And Anxiety

Magnesium L Threonate Review – Best Magnesium / Magtein Anxiety, Sleep, Depression, Brain Health!

Does magnesium help with depression and anxiety? From the available evidence, it appears that magnesium supplementation is well-tolerated and enhances the efficacy of conventional antidepressant treatments.

According to a 2016 review published in the journal Magnesium Research looking into magnesium and depression:

The mood-improving potential of magnesium compounds have been confirmed by the results of numerous pre-clinical and clinical studies .

A 2017 systematic review examining the effect of magnesium supplementation on subjective anxiety and stress concluded that:

Existing evidence is suggestive of a beneficial effect of Mg on subjective anxiety in anxiety vulnerable samples .

An even more recent systematic review of the role of magnesium in mental disorders was published in June 2020 in the journal Nutrients. These researchers concluded that from the available evidence, it emerged that supplementation with magnesium could be beneficial . They also recommended more studies to evaluate the efficacy of magnesium alone and in combination with other drugs in order to establish correct use.

Read Also: How To Calm Chest Anxiety

Choosing A Magnesium Supplement

Magnesium is available in many different forms, known as salts. These salts have varying bioavailability rates, meaning the body can absorb some more easily than others. Therefore, choosing the best magnesium supplement for anxiety is not straightforward.

We will discuss some of the most suitable options below.

Most Cases Of Major Depression Are Resistant To Drug

The unfortunate reality of treating mental disorders , is that drugs often dont work and can actually make things worse in some cases. Studies have found that most cases of major depression are actually resistant to drug-based treatments anyway, a pathology thats officially known as treatment-resistant depression .

Some antidepressant drugs have been shown to provide minimal benefits, but this may be simply because they work to increase magnesium levels in the brain. In other words, magnesium is the active ingredient in the remedy, while said drugs merely act as delivery vehicles to get that magnesium to where it needs to be.

Since there is no pharmaceutical in existence that is free from side effects, it may be worth exploring with your doctor if magnesium supplementation is beneficial for addressing your anxiety or depression.

You May Like: What To Do When You Get Anxiety At Night

What Does Magnesium Do

Magnesium is involved in over 325 different biochemical reactions. Because of this, it has far-reaching benefits when it comes to health. Conversely, when youre not getting enough magnesium, it can take its toll and a functional deficiency can show up in many ways.

Broadly speaking, magnesium

  • is needed by the pancreas to make and use insulin an important hormone in blood sugar regulation.
  • the body needs magnesium to activate vitamin D into its active form without enough magnesium, the body cant use all the vitamin D it gets.
  • further, magnesium helps to release any vitamin D you have stored. Often, just increasing magnesium intakes will increase vitamin D concentrations in the blood .
  • magnesium helps with the movement of calcium, potassium & sodium ions across cell membranes
  • a process thats important to nerve impulse conduction, muscle contraction and normal heart rhythm .
  • it supports biochemical reactions such as protein synthesis, muscle and nerve function
  • helps to regulate blood pressure, is needed for neurotransmitter synthesis and function
  • is part of the bone matrix and is needed for energy production
  • its required for the synthesis of DNA and RNA, important features of cellular repair and growth
  • For all the hats that it wears, magnesium reduces the risk for many common health conditions such as cavities, stroke, diabetes, dementia, depression, osteoporosis, kidney stones, heart disease, high blood pressure, migraines, asthma, muscle cramps and more.

    Relaxing Diy Foot Soak Recipe

    Can Magnesium Relieve Anxiety And Depression Elektra

    Here’s a quick summary of how to make an easy stress-relieving foot bath.

    Doing your foot bath in the evening helps reduce stress and improve sleep.

    Foot Soak Recipe:

  • Get out a container that is big enough to place your feet into.
  • Put a couple of inches of warm water in the container so that your feet will be covered up to about your ankles.
  • Add either 1 cup of Magnesium chloride flakes or 2 cups of Epsom Salts. Stir it into the water with your hand so that it dissolves.
  • Optional: If you like, add a calming essential oil.
  • Soak your feet for 20 minutes or longer.
  • Calming Essential Oils:

    For more info about essential oils, check out this post: 9 Best Essential Oils for Relieving Anxiety, Stress and Insomnia

    Recommended Reading: How To Stop Chronic Anxiety

    Mood Disorders Were Rare In The Early 1900s

    Consider the fact that people born around 1900 rarely experienced depression, either in childhood or adulthood. The depression rate was barely one percent.

    In 1935, however, it jumped to one percent by the time a person reached 15 years old, and two percent by the time they reached 25. By the age of 45, a comparatively whopping nine percent of those born in 1935 were determined to suffer from depression.

    Studies Show Magnesium Can Reduce Feelings Of Stress & Improve Mood

    One of the first studies on magnesium treatment ever published for agitated depression back in 1921 found that 88% of those who received it had successful outcomes. More recently, a randomized controlled trial found that older adults with type 2 diabetes who took 450mg of magnesium daily improved their mood to the same degree or better than if they took an antidepressant pharmaceutical .

    Another study that looked at athletes who took magnesium for four weeks found that they experienced dramatic improvements in their ability to run, cycle, and swim during a triathlon. More importantly in terms of brain health, these athletes saw notable decreases in levels of insulin and the stress hormone cortisol, resulting in decreased stress and anxiety .

    Don’t Miss: How To Reduce Anxiety To Sleep

    How We Ranked The Top Magnesium Supplements

    Here is how we ranked this magnesium product review to make sure you find the correct magnesium product.

    Types of Magnesium

    All these supplements contain several magnesium types that provide a range of effectivity.

    Magnesium Oxide

    Most magnesium supplements contain this magnesium oxide element. It not only helps with insomnia but also provides a pleasing laxative effect. So, incorporating magnesium oxide into your diet can be helpful.

    Magnesium Citrate

    Incorporating magnesium citrate will be a great option if you want to strengthen your heart, muscle, and bone health.

    Magnesium Sulfate

    This form of magnesium is essential for both plant and animal foods. In the case of animal foods, it primarily provides a laxative effect.

    Magnesium Chloride

    The magnesium chloride form helps deal with depression, lowering blood pressure, and can even help with inflammation.

    Magnesium Glycinate

    This popular magnesium glycinate form helps with your sleep problems. Since magnesium glycinate can enter the blood-brain barrier, it improves your brains health.

    Overall, magnesium aspartate, magnesium oxide, magnesium sulfate, bis-glycinate, malate, etc., help manage your body.

    RELATED ARTICLES
    - Advertisment -

    Most Popular

    - Advertisment -