Magnesium is standard for my patients, and has been for the last 5-10 years.
And with good reason, suboptimal/low magnesium makes:
- Your immune system is hypersensitive, creating more inflammation.
- Your nervous system hypersensitive, creating more pain, muscle tension, and worrying/anxiety/depression.
- Fatigued due to reduced production of ATP
- Affects production of all proteins via reduced enzyme function
And is thus linked to a plethora of conditions and symptoms.
How common is it for the general public, or indeed patients presenting in clinic with symptoms, to be deficient in magnesium or suboptimal?
This is a slightly nuanced question because identifying magnesium deficiency is not as simple as you would think.
The standard medical test for magnesium is to test the serum magnesium levels.
But remember, the serum is the fluid that carries the red blood cells and other parts of the blood.
99% of the body’s magnesium is contained intracellularly, that is to say within the cells of your nervous, your bones, your organs, and your muscles.
Less than 1% is found in the serum, thus making it a very poor reflection of bodily stores of magnesium.
As a general rule, we can say that serum magnesium can rule in deficiency if the levels are below 0.5-07 mmol/L, this value for deficiency varies between labs considerably.
But we also recognize within the functional world and those who are au fait with the magnesium research that levels below 0.85 mmol/L are considered suboptimal or a chronic latent magnesium deficiency.
The challenge for serum blood magnesium level testing is that as levels drop, the body simply mobilizes magnesium from the bone into the blood as a buffer, maintaining magnesium within the “normal” levels.
FYI, the best test for magnesium bodily stores is a red blood cell magnesium. This is because red blood cells are, of course, cells and thus are reflective of the cellular levels of magnesium.
If we want to use the widely available research on magnesium levels in the population, we have to use serum levels because RBC magnesium levels are not routinely tested.
When I wrote the CCCN course, the biggest population study at that point was from 1971 to 1975.
I noted the official cutoff point of 0.65 mmol/L as well as using a cutoff point for suboptimal slash chronic latent status of 0.85 mmol/L.
Note, if we use the 0.65 cutoff point, maybe only 3-4% of the population aren’t efficient. However, if we extend it to include under 0.85, then suddenly we have 40-50% of the population (depending on which age range you use) with issues.
I noted at that point that people’s diets are far worse today than they were in the early 1970s.
The updated research from the same group, taking data from 2020 until 2023, has just been published.
From the introduction:
“Low serum magnesium status is also associated with increased mortality risk and accelerated disease progression among individuals with the aforementioned metabolic conditions. Although clinical manifestations of magnesium deficiency are thought to be relatively uncommon, chronic latent magnesium deficiency (CLMD), a condition in which serum magnesium concentrations may remain within conventionally defined reference intervals despite progressive depletion of magnesium stores, is a common occurrence that is higher among older adults CLMD is generally indicated by a serum magnesium concentration 0.85 mmol/L. Abnormalities in serum magnesium have been suggested to be one of the most underdiagnosed serum electrolyte disturbances in clinical practice. Approximately half of the US population consumes less Q4 than the estimated average requirement for magnesium, and some age groups consume substantially less.”
And the results are pretty shocking:
“Estimated prevalence of chronic latent magnesium deficiency (CLMD), represented by a serum magnesium concentration 0.85 mmol/L, was 67.8% in adults.”
Remember, 67% is the general population, far higher rates are found in those with metabolic issues like diabetes, CVD.
In migraine and fibromyalgia/CFS, depression, it is in reality often 100%.
Then we have to remember a key clinical rule:
Even serum bloods that are over 0.85 mmol/L can still mean on a cellular/functional level, the patient is low because we know that the body will buffer magnesium from the bone into the blood.
This is a patient of mine with early onset dementia, serum is 0.88 mmol/L.
But her RBC (remember the C stands for CELL), is low, very low.
Hence, I repeat:
In Magnesium DUO we use 50/50 split of citrate and glycinate.
Why?
Simply because they use two different transporters, and this theoretically gives us a better chance of more absorption, less chance of maxing out one transporter.
We do not use other forms because they are far more expensive and have no research to prove they are any superior or have any better benefits than a simple citrate or glycinate.
Is it because magnesium glycinate is especially calming to the nervous sytem?
Nope, magnesium is calming to nervous sytem and glycine the bonding agent, is calming, but the unit of magnesium glycinate does NOTHING.
It is a man made thing and has zero functions in the body, until the magnesium and the glycine disassociate and each do their thing.
The dose of glycine from magnesium glycinate is not enough to have a big effect. For that you need SIMPLE GLYCINE.
In fact, magnesium, along with glycine separately, is my initial approach to patients with insomnia who cannot get off to sleep.
Magnesium DUO PLUS x1/3 daily with last one 30-60 mins before bed and 3–5 capsules of SIMPLE GLYCINE at the same time.
Remember we have the magnesium infographic to use in clinic, just let me now if you want strut or flat and how many.
