Latest / So That's Why / Why Does Your Body Need Magnesium and Are You Getting Enough?

Transcript

Why Does Your Body Need Magnesium and Are You Getting Enough? · So That's Why

• 0:04
  Jen Oliver: Welcome to the, so That's Why podcast where we unpack the science
• 0:08
  behind everyday health questions.
• 0:10
  I'm Jen.
• 0:11
  Chris Smith: I'm Chris.
• 0:12
  Matt Edmundson: And I'm Matt.
• 0:13
  Jen Oliver: I don't know if you've noticed, but Magnesium has had
• 0:18
  quite a moment recently, hasn't it?
• 0:19
  Matt Edmundson: It has.
• 0:20
  Jen Oliver: It went from sitting on the pharmacy shelves to becoming one of the
• 0:24
  most talked about supplements of 2025.
• 0:28
  So today we're asking.
• 0:29
  Why do we actually need it?
• 0:32
  Matt Edmundson: Yeah.
• 0:32
  From where I sit on the e-commerce side of things, the growth data on this one
• 0:36
  has been quite extraordinary really.
• 0:38
  So search volumes up, sales figures are up, customer questions, everything
• 0:42
  seems to be spiking and it seems like a lot of this momentum started from
• 0:47
  what we can tell with a viral bedtime drink recipe, and it just kept building.
• 0:52
  Jen Oliver: Yeah, that's the sleepy girl mocktail, which I'm not sure
• 0:56
  Instagram algorithm or TikTok will have shown either of you, but there's
• 1:00
  actually real science behind white.
• 1:02
  It caught on that said there's considerably more to
• 1:06
  magnesium than a bedtime drink.
• 1:08
  Chris Smith: Yeah, much more.
• 1:09
  So.
• 1:09
  Magnesium is involved in over 300 enzymatic reactions in the body.
• 1:15
  It's one of the most widely needed minerals that we have
• 1:17
  yet it's one of the most.
• 1:19
  Consistently under consumed
• 1:21
  Matt Edmundson: over 300.
• 1:23
  That's not mineral, is it?
• 1:24
  That's like a superhero, uh, mineral, A captain.
• 1:28
  Maybe you should call that one.
• 1:29
  The Captain Mineral, I dunno, like a full-time employee doing
• 1:33
  300 jobs simultaneously with no pay rise and no, no recognition.
• 1:38
  Jen Oliver: Yep.
• 1:38
  It really is a hero.
• 1:40
  But here's what surprised me in the research.
• 1:43
  Somewhere between 10 and 30% of people may have what's called
• 1:48
  subclinical magnesium deficiency.
• 1:50
  So that's a level that's low enough to affect how they feel day to
• 1:54
  day, but not low enough to actually show up on a standard blood test.
• 1:57
  Chris Smith: Exactly.
• 1:58
  And which is part of why it often goes undetected.
• 2:00
  So standard blood tests, um, measure serum magnesium, but only about 1%
• 2:06
  of the body's total magnesium is actually circulating in the blood.
• 2:10
  The rest is stored in bones and soft tissue.
• 2:12
  Yeah,
• 2:13
  Matt Edmundson: so the test you take, uh, to check your magnesium then might
• 2:17
  not even tell you if you're running low, which is I guess like checking
• 2:21
  whether your car needs more oil by looking at the color of the body work.
• 2:25
  Jen Oliver: Yeah, that analogy works well, captain analogy, but actually, um,
• 2:30
  because just like with your car, you often don't notice the problem until several
• 2:35
  things start behaving oddly at once.
• 2:38
  So.
• 2:39
  What is magnesium actually doing in there, Chris?
• 2:42
  Chris Smith: Okay, so at its core, magnesium is what is known as a co-factor.
• 2:48
  So it's essential for activating enzymes.
• 2:50
  And enzymes are what drive almost every biological process in the body.
• 2:56
  So that's, uh, from muscle contraction to, uh, nerve single.
• 3:00
  Transmission protein synthesis, uh, blood sugar regulation.
• 3:04
  All of these things depend on magnesium being present to
• 3:07
  trigger or complete the reaction.
• 3:09
  Jen Oliver: And that list alone, it covers most of what people mean when
• 3:12
  they talk about just feeling well.
• 3:14
  But there's one more connection worth pulling out.
• 3:17
  Specifically, and that is magnesium is needed to convert
• 3:21
  vitamin D into its active form.
• 3:22
  So we've covered vitamin D in a previous episode, but even if your
• 3:26
  levels look fine on the blood test, without adequate magnesium, your
• 3:31
  body can't actually use what it has.
• 3:34
  Chris Smith: Absolutely.
• 3:34
  And um, studies will confirm this.
• 3:36
  So magnesium deficiency can significantly reduce how effective vitamin D is.
• 3:41
  So the two are genuinely inseparable in practice.
• 3:45
  Matt Edmundson: So they're functionally interdependent.
• 3:48
  So someone who's been diligently taking vitamin D all winter and still
• 3:52
  wondering why they feel a bit off may just be simply missing magnesium.
• 3:56
  Um, and that might be the explanation, right?
• 3:58
  Jen Oliver: Yeah.
• 3:58
  And surprise, surprise.
• 4:00
  Matt Edmundson: Alright, Cilla.
• 4:01
  Surprise, surprise.
• 4:02
  It's Silla.
• 4:03
  Yeah.
• 4:03
  Chris Smith: Okay.
• 4:04
  Jen Oliver: People be such up
• 4:06
  Chris Smith: for our younger viewers or American, you'd have no idea who Cilla
• 4:08
  is, but do look her up 'cause she was a,
• 4:10
  Matt Edmundson: she was a legend.
• 4:11
  British treasure.
• 4:11
  Yeah.
• 4:11
  Jen Oliver: Part particularly.
• 4:12
  Surprise, surprise,
• 4:13
  Matt Edmundson: surprise, surprise was great.
• 4:14
  Jen Oliver: But surprise, surprise.
• 4:15
  There's, um, a sleep connection too, which could be added
• 4:19
  into people not feeling great.
• 4:21
  So magnesium.
• 4:22
  That regulates the activity of something called the GABA receptors.
• 4:26
  And GABA is a neurotransmitter that essentially signals to your nervous
• 4:30
  system to stand down and relax.
• 4:33
  Chris Smith: Yep.
• 4:33
  And um, when magnesium levels are low, that calming signal is weaker, which can
• 4:38
  make it harder to switch off at night.
• 4:40
  So research has shown associations between low magnesium status and
• 4:45
  difficulty both falling asleep and a poor overall sleep quality.
• 4:50
  Matt Edmundson: So the spike then in people asking about this isn't just noise,
• 4:54
  there's an actual neurological mechanism.
• 4:57
  Behind the sleep connection, which makes a lot more sense, um, of why it's sustained
• 5:01
  well beyond this sort of one viral recipe.
• 5:04
  Jen Oliver: Yeah.
• 5:04
  And that mechanism, it really does explain the trend and it makes even
• 5:08
  more sense when you understand why deficiency is so widespread because.
• 5:13
  And people will be glad to hear this.
• 5:14
  It is not simply a case of people just making poorer food choices.
• 5:19
  Chris Smith: Yeah, exactly.
• 5:20
  There are several structural reasons why it's hard to get enough.
• 5:22
  So one of the more surprising reasons actually is soil depletion.
• 5:26
  So intensive farming over the past several decades has significantly or
• 5:32
  meaningfully reduce the mineral content of agricultural soil, which in turn means
• 5:36
  that magnesium rich foods contain less magnesium than they historically would've.
• 5:42
  Matt Edmundson: So we need to eat significantly more spinach.
• 5:44
  There's the spinach then, I guess, than previous generations, just to
• 5:48
  get the same amount from an equivalent portion, which is, uh, brilliant
• 5:52
  news given the cost of living crisis.
• 5:55
  Jen Oliver: And on top of that,
• 5:57
  Matt Edmundson: as if that wasn't
• 5:57
  Jen Oliver: enough.
• 5:57
  Yeah, as if that wasn't enough.
• 5:59
  There's also, um, factors like food processing.
• 6:01
  So when a grain is refined, the outer brand layers, um, where most
• 6:06
  of the magnesium sits is removed.
• 6:09
  So white bread or white rice, they can tra, contain a fraction of
• 6:13
  what their whole grain versions do.
• 6:16
  Chris Smith: That's right.
• 6:17
  And then.
• 6:18
  As often is the case, there's a stress factor too.
• 6:20
  So under physiological or psychological stress, the body excretes more
• 6:26
  magnesium through the kidneys.
• 6:28
  So people under consistent pressure are depleting their stores faster
• 6:32
  than they're replacing them.
• 6:33
  Matt Edmundson: So the more stress you are, the more magnesium you
• 6:36
  lose, which makes the stress response harder to manage.
• 6:41
  Which depletes more magnesium, which is one of those spectacularly useful loops.
• 6:46
  Our bodies seem to have.
• 6:48
  Jen Oliver: It really is.
• 6:49
  And caffeine and alcohol add to it too.
• 6:52
  So because they both increase magnesium excretion through the kidney.
• 6:57
  So if you are using a coffee to survive a stressful week and then a glass
• 7:02
  of wine to wind it down, you could actually be pushing your levels in the
• 7:07
  wrong direction from multiple angles.
• 7:10
  All at once.
• 7:11
  Chris Smith: And on top of that, as if that's not enough already, um, we've
• 7:15
  gotta think about calcium because.
• 7:17
  Um, very cal High calcium intake, particularly from supplements.
• 7:20
  It can actually compete with magnesium for absorption.
• 7:23
  So the balance between those two matters more than most people think.
• 7:26
  Matt Edmundson: So minerals in competition with each other.
• 7:29
  I guess going back to surprise, surprise, then it's a bit like a talent show
• 7:33
  where one of them gets through and the other one's sent home on the bus, right?
• 7:36
  Jen Oliver: Mm-hmm.
• 7:36
  It's not far off, and it doesn't stop there.
• 7:39
  'cause certain medications, they deplete magnesium as a side effect too.
• 7:42
  So you've got proton pump inhibitors, which are widely prescribed for
• 7:46
  things like acid reflux, um, and then you've got diuretics as well.
• 7:51
  They both mag, um, increase magnesium excretion through the kidneys.
• 7:55
  Chris Smith: Yeah, that's a really important one to flag actually, because
• 7:57
  that long term PPI use is, um, in particular is associated with clinically
• 8:02
  significant magnesium depletion.
• 8:04
  So it's a well documented, but still under-recognized in practice.
• 8:09
  Jen Oliver: All that said the good news.
• 8:11
  I think I should be like,
• 8:12
  Chris Smith: finally,
• 8:13
  Jen Oliver: captain Good News or something.
• 8:16
  the Good news is that food sources for magnesium are genuinely excellent and
• 8:21
  most people have already got them in their kitchens, like pumpkin seeds.
• 8:24
  They're one of the richest sources available and you get around 150
• 8:29
  milligrams of magnesium per 30 gram serving of pumpkin seed.
• 8:33
  Chris Smith: Yeah, pumpkin seeds really are a good source.
• 8:34
  And then you've also got, uh, dark leafy greens, uh, legumes, almonds,
• 8:39
  cashews, cheer seeds, and dark chocolate.
• 8:43
  They're all very strong sources too.
• 8:45
  And then, um, whole grains.
• 8:46
  So oats in particular are a solid everyday contributor.
• 8:50
  Matt Edmundson: I just heard dark chocolate.
• 8:52
  That's enough for me.
• 8:53
  I'm happy.
• 8:54
  Jen Oliver: Yeah.
• 8:55
  We need to eat it.
• 8:57
  Matt Edmundson: We need more dog chocolate in our lives.
• 8:59
  Jen Oliver: Yeah, we knew that one would be popular.
• 9:01
  Um, so to give you some context on quantities, the recommended daily
• 9:06
  intake is around 300 milligrams for women and 400 for men.
• 9:11
  So a handful of pumpkin seeds, maybe with some leafy greens and a bowl of oats.
• 9:17
  It does actually get you a meaningful way there across the day.
• 9:21
  Chris Smith: Yeah, I, I'd say, um, variety helps too.
• 9:24
  So no single food covers the needs entirely, but I think a reasonably diverse
• 9:29
  diet with Whole Foods gets most people closest to or closer to what they need.
• 9:33
  Jen Oliver: And that's without even factoring in water.
• 9:36
  So hard water areas have higher magnesium content than soft water.
• 9:40
  So where you live can actually influence your baseline intake without
• 9:44
  you ever really thinking about it.
• 9:47
  Matt Edmundson: Yeah.
• 9:47
  So two people eating identical diets could have different magnesium
• 9:51
  intake just based on their postcode or zip code for our American
• 9:55
  cousins, which kind of feels like.
• 9:58
  You know, an important variable that we should think about
• 10:01
  when tackling our nutrition.
• 10:02
  Chris Smith: Yeah, it's a genuinely unappreciated factor, which is kind
• 10:06
  of part of why supplements exist as a reliable, consistent way of
• 10:10
  closing that gap re regardless of geography or kind of diet variation.
• 10:15
  Matt Edmundson: Yeah.
• 10:15
  I think we've all seen how many magnesium supplements are out
• 10:18
  there in all very different forms.
• 10:20
  Mm-hmm.
• 10:21
  I guess my question is, is there a reason for all of them because.
• 10:25
  It can be genuinely baffling for anyone just trying to pick one.
• 10:29
  Right?
• 10:29
  Jen Oliver: Yeah.
• 10:29
  So the different, um, forms of magnesium basically come down to what the
• 10:33
  magnesium's bonded to because that affects how well it's absorbed and then how
• 10:38
  efficiently your body can actually use it.
• 10:41
  Chris Smith: yeah.
• 10:41
  And um, magnesium citrate is one of the most well researched
• 10:44
  and widely used forms.
• 10:45
  It's highly bioavailable, meaning the body can absorb and utilize it
• 10:49
  effectively, and it works well as an all round daily form for energy.
• 10:54
  For sleep and for nervous system support.
• 10:57
  Jen Oliver: And then you've got magnesium oxide, which has got a much
• 11:01
  higher concentration of elemental magnesium per unit of weight.
• 11:04
  So it's often used in combination with citrate.
• 11:07
  Citrate brings the bioavailability oxide, brings the potency in.
• 11:11
  Together.
• 11:12
  You actually get more magnesium delivered per capsule than
• 11:16
  either form could achieve alone.
• 11:18
  Matt Edmundson: So it's less about choosing the best single form and
• 11:21
  more about how they work together.
• 11:23
  Which is why I suppose well formulated supplements tend to combine them
• 11:28
  rather than just picking one.
• 11:29
  Chris Smith: Exactly.
• 11:30
  That and, and developing supplements is always a balancing act between achieving
• 11:35
  a specific level, such as, you know, 375 milligrams or 500 milligrams of.
• 11:40
  Magnesium and achieving optimal bioavailability.
• 11:43
  So we've done a lot of work with a combination of magnesium
• 11:46
  citrate and magnesium oxide.
• 11:48
  And as Jen says, the citrate has the superior bioavailability, but it's much
• 11:54
  more dilute in actual elemental magnesium.
• 11:57
  Um, whereas magnesium oxide isn't as bioavailability, uh, bioavailable, sorry.
• 12:02
  Um, but it's much more concentrated in magnesium.
• 12:05
  So the two work together well as a combination.
• 12:09
  And another ingredient worth mentioning here is vitamin B six, which
• 12:13
  research has shown enhances magnesium absorption uptake into the cells.
• 12:18
  So that's why you often find B six in good quality magnesium based formulas.
• 12:24
  Jen Oliver: So the form and the formulation you choose does depend
• 12:27
  on what you're actually hoping to address, but across all of them, the
• 12:32
  evidence is strongest when there's actually a deficiency to correct.
• 12:36
  This isn't a case of where more is simply better.
• 12:40
  Matt Edmundson: So it's good to know that the formulation does some of the
• 12:43
  heavy lifting here, like you say, Chris.
• 12:45
  So what does sensible supplementation actually look like in practice, guys?
• 12:49
  Because I guess that most people, uh, either take nothing.
• 12:54
  Or go straight for the highest dose they can possibly buy.
• 12:58
  Mm-hmm.
• 12:58
  Chris Smith: Yeah, it's a really good point.
• 12:59
  And the right dose depends on where you're starting from.
• 13:01
  So someone with a significant deficiency needs more than someone topping up a
• 13:06
  kind of generally half decent diet.
• 13:08
  So quality formulations tend to sit in the range of 300 to 500 milligrams
• 13:14
  of elemental magnesium, which is enough to meaningfully address
• 13:17
  shortfalls without it being in excess.
• 13:21
  Jen Oliver: So once someone's chosen their supplement, the next
• 13:24
  question that we always get asked in Vegetology is when to take it.
• 13:28
  Um, but with magnesium, taking it in the evening generally works
• 13:32
  well for people, both for the sleep and nervous system benefits.
• 13:36
  And because taking it with food rather than an empty stomach improves absorption.
• 13:42
  It's great to take when you're having your.
• 13:45
  Dinner or your supper or your tea, depending on where you live
• 13:49
  in the world, um, that works well for most people, doesn't it?
• 13:53
  Matt Edmundson: So I've got my supplement.
• 13:54
  I know when to take it, right?
• 13:57
  But another question then, is it safe?
• 14:00
  Because I know some nutrients are, you know, your kidneys kind of handles the.
• 14:05
  Um, and then others very much aren't.
• 14:08
  Chris Smith: Yeah, it is safe.
• 14:08
  So magnesium, um, from food carries essentially no risk.
• 14:13
  The kidneys are very efficient at clearing out any surplus and
• 14:17
  supplemental, uh, magnesium is also considered very safe because the
• 14:21
  body is quite good at signaling when intake is higher than it needs.
• 14:25
  So we sometimes get this digestive sensitivity, and that tends to
• 14:29
  be the natural feedback mechanism rather than anything more serious.
• 14:33
  Jen Oliver: Which is another reason why the citrate and oxide
• 14:36
  combination works well in practice.
• 14:38
  It's designed to maximize how much your body actually absorbs and
• 14:42
  uses, rather than just delivering like a high number on the label
• 14:46
  that just passes straight through.
• 14:47
  Matt Edmundson: The way the body can self-correct levels by getting rid of
• 14:51
  excess is something I've always found fascinating, and it's something that
• 14:55
  comes up a lot in these topics, right?
• 14:58
  But also, it also strikes me that magnesium.
• 15:01
  Um, it kind, there's a thread, I suppose, through some of our previous
• 15:05
  episodes, isn't it like vitamin D, sleep quality, uh, stress, energy, metabolism.
• 15:11
  It just keeps turning up everywhere.
• 15:13
  Jen Oliver: Yeah, it does.
• 15:14
  And that's because it operates at the enzyme levels.
• 15:16
  What's involved in like how cells produce energy, how the body responds
• 15:20
  to insulin, how bone density is maintained alongside calcium, and how.
• 15:25
  Your cardiovascular system functions.
• 15:27
  Like we said earlier, it's involved in 300 processes.
• 15:31
  Chris Smith: I know it really is a kind of hero mineral.
• 15:34
  Um, and going back to it, deficiency, the solid research
• 15:39
  linking how low magnesium status.
• 15:42
  Um, increases the risk of type two diabetes, but also cardiovascular
• 15:46
  disease and osteoporosis.
• 15:49
  And it's not because it's necessarily treatment for those things, but it's
• 15:52
  because it plays a vital role in making sure that the biological processes
• 15:56
  associated with them work properly.
• 15:58
  Jen Oliver: Absolutely.
• 15:59
  And you know, people may not realize that magnesium is directly
• 16:02
  involved in regulating muscle contractions and relaxation.
• 16:06
  So low levels, they're often associated with cramping.
• 16:11
  Um, slower recovery after exercise and well, let's be honest, those
• 16:15
  aching muscles that it's just easy for us to dismiss as being unfit.
• 16:19
  Matt Edmundson: Yeah.
• 16:20
  Which actually connects to, um, what a lot of people in
• 16:23
  weight training report, don't.
• 16:24
  They?
• 16:25
  They notice a difference in recovery when they start taking the magnesium.
• 16:29
  Um, and when they take it consistently, it's of those things where the mechanism.
• 16:33
  I think explains the experience rather than it just being
• 16:36
  some kind of weird placebo.
• 16:38
  Jen Oliver: Mm,
• 16:38
  Chris Smith: yeah, I totally agree.
• 16:39
  And that's exactly what the research suggests.
• 16:41
  So there was a study in 2017 and it found that magnesium supplementation,
• 16:47
  uh, significantly reduced muscle damage markers and improved recovery in athletes.
• 16:52
  So the effect was measurable, not just subjective.
• 16:54
  Matt Edmundson: So it's the nutrients, uh, that, that seems to me this
• 16:57
  nutrient never gets the headlines, is it the big headlines because it's.
• 17:01
  I guess it's not doing one flashy thing, but like you say, doing 300
• 17:05
  unglamorous, but important things.
• 17:08
  Quietly and without credit, a bit like myself, Chris,
• 17:12
  Chris Smith: I'm saying absolutely.
• 17:15
  But you're right, and the the data reflects it.
• 17:17
  I mean, you alluded to it earlier that this category, the magnesium category,
• 17:20
  grew by over a thousand percent in 2025, which for a mineral that has been
• 17:25
  around forever is pretty remarkable.
• 17:27
  Um, and that kind of sustained growth usually means that people are genuinely
• 17:31
  notice something, not just kind of catching a, a short term trend,
• 17:35
  Jen Oliver: which makes sense because the mechanisms are real, aren't they?
• 17:38
  You know, the sleep connection, the stress loop, the energy and muscle recovery.
• 17:43
  These aren't wellness myths.
• 17:44
  The evidence base, it's pretty solid.
• 17:47
  Matt Edmundson: So for once then the trend and the science seemed to
• 17:51
  be pointing in the same direction.
• 17:54
  Um, I'll be honest, I was hoping for.
• 17:57
  More nonsense to pull apart.
• 17:58
  It would've been more fun to debunk.
• 18:00
  Jen Oliver: It really would.
• 18:01
  But this one holds up.
• 18:03
  So back to our original question, why do we need magnesium?
• 18:08
  Chris Smith: So we need magnesium because it's the co-factor behind
• 18:12
  hundreds of biological processes and without adequate levels.
• 18:16
  The enzymes managing your energy, your nervous system, your muscles,
• 18:21
  even your vitamin D status.
• 18:23
  Can't do their jobs properly.
• 18:25
  Matt Edmundson: because modern life has worked against our levels
• 18:27
  from multiple directions at once, depleted soil, process, food, stress,
• 18:32
  caffeine, often without us making the connection to a single, single mineral.
• 18:37
  Jen Oliver: So that's why magnesium has earned its moment, not because
• 18:41
  of a pink drink, but because the science of what it does and what
• 18:45
  happens when we don't have enough.
• 18:48
  So that's it for this week.
• 18:50
  Hit subscribe wherever you're listening or watching, and drop
• 18:53
  us your questions in the comments.
• 18:55
  We really do read them.
• 18:57
  Thanks for geeking out with us.
• 18:59
  But for now, that's it from me.
• 19:00
  Matt Edmundson: That's it from me.
• 19:02
  Chris Smith: And that's it from me.
• 19:03
  Jen Oliver: Bye for now.