The Magnesium in Your Cabinet Is Doing Nothing — Here's the Right Form

0:00The magnesium sitting in your cabinet right now is probably one that is barely going to be absorbed. If you're going to the drug store and picking up a generic bottle of magnesium, it's probably doing nothing. You might have bought it for sleep, for anxiety, for leg cramps, for constipation, and you might have felt nothing. And then you said magnesium doesn't work for me, or magnesium doesn't even work. And here's the truth. Magnesium does work. It's one of the best supplements you can take. You just bought the wrong kind. And nobody told you that there are different forms out there. I'm going to tell you the exact right form for your specific problem. And the one form that actually crosses into your brain. Yes, magnesium can cross into your brain and work wonders. I'm Dr. G. I'm a functional and naturopathic doctor. This whole channel is about education and empowerment. I am telling you what are the best brands? What are the best forms? What are the best doses of supplements out there to take? So you're not wasting your money and you're getting yourself and your loved ones safe supplements. That's what we do on this channel. Really quick, really important. This is education, not medical advice. Always talk to your doctor before you take anything,

1:01especially if you're on medication or have any issues with any organs. Let me kill the scam. First, here it is. If you walk into any store, the cheapest, most common form of magnesium on the shelf is magnesium oxide. It is the one form that most drug stores are carrying, most cheap multivitamins have inside of it. And your body is only absorbing four, four percent of magnesium. The other 96% moves right through you and mostly loosens your stools. So the magnesium, most people are taking 70% of us being deficient in it. Never is really getting into our blood. And magnesium is not just one supplement. It's a family of forms. And the form of the label decides the whole job that it does for you. So you have to remember, if you have an issue and you're taking magnesium for it, Lord knows you got to take the right form. The one most people actually need is magnesium glycine. This is the calming form. It's bound to a amino acid called glycine. And this is the one that settles your nervous system. And in a randomized placebo controlled trial, it measurably improves sleep and adults with poor sleep in about two weeks. But here's a catch.

2:03There's an exact amount to take in the exact time to take it. And most bottles, unfortunately, are dose strong. I'm going to give you the number, the timing, and the label trick that is used to scam you in just about a minute. And it gets worse. The form that fixes your sleep is not the same form that fixes your cramps. And it's not the same form that reaches your brain. So you take the wrong one for your problem and you're going to swear magnesium failed you before I match each form to your exact problem. If you want the whole thing in one place, I built a free guide of all the magnesium forms, which magnesium form is for what the exact dose and which ones need to be skipped. That guide is right now in the show notes. You can just click it and download. So here's what glycine is actually doing and the dose that I promised magnesium helps regulate something called NMDA receptors in the cells. And it helps regulate the calcium channels that keep your nervous system switched on. And it's bound to glycine. And that in itself is calming. It's an inhibitory neurotransmitter. So the two together quiet and overstimulated brain. It helps downshift your stress at night. And the trial I mentioned gave people 250 milligrams of elemental magnesium as a bisclicinate

3:11form. And their insomnia scores dropped over two to four weeks. And most of the gain for the sleep was in the first week. The dose is 200 to 400 milligrams of elemental magnesium taken at night and glycine is so gentle that it's not going to send you to the bathroom the way that the cheaper forms do. When it comes to the scam of it, the front of the bottle can say magnesium 500 milligrams. But it won't name a form at all, which almost always means that it's magnesium oxide. Remember, 4%, that's all you're getting of it. And even real glycine bottles can play a trick. They can print the weight of the whole compound, but not the elemental magnesium inside of it. So you're going to get a big number in the front and actually in the back, a small dose of actual magnesium, which is crazy. So in the label, it must say magnesium glycine or bisclicinate. And you read the elemental magnesium number, not the compound weight. You want a third party tested. And this is for people who can't fall asleep. If you're wired, if you're anxious or if stress is running your body all day, skip it. You have to clear this with your doctor, especially if you have kidney

4:12disease, but glycine is interesting because it's not going to do anything for that cramping that wakes you up at 3 a.m. That's a different form. And it's the one that most people actually get wrong. Number two is magnesium. Mally. Now, this is the one I love. This is the one that I take. This is the one that's for your muscles. And here's a logic. Magnesium is what lets a contracted muscle, like when you're working out or walking, actually relax. And the malleate is bound to malic acid. And it feeds straight into your cell's energy cycle, which is why this is one of the most used forms of magnesium for muscle pain for cramps for daytime tiredness rather than sleep. The dose is 200 to 400 milligrams of elemental magnesium because it could be mildly energizing. You want to take this one earlier in the day. You don't take it before you're going to sleep. Now, the evidence for malleate specifically is lighter and more mechanistic than the others. We theoretically know how it works, but we don't have enough large trials to say this exactly will do this. But when I say it's muscle and energy, that's honest footing on what this magnesium is.

5:16The scam is the same trick. You can see a blend that hides the form and prints the compound weight in the back. So look for magnesium malleate. It should say it plainly. That's the form that's going to get into your muscles for cramping tension, heavy day time fatigue. And again, the same caution to taking it if you have kidney issues. I take this one because I work out. I take this one because my muscles can get dehydrated. I take this one for recovery. Now, the third one is another form that I personally take to. And it's actually the one that can cross your blood brain barrier. And it's awesome for brain fog and memory. Number three is magnesium L3 and A or you may have heard of mag team. And it's special for a particular reason. Most magnesium struggles to cross the blood brain barrier. You have a big barrier between your blood and your brain, and not everything's getting to your brain purposefully. This form is actually designed to get through it and actually raise magnesium levels inside your brain, where it supports the connections between the neurons. So in randomized controlled trials in humans, around two grams a day of branded magnesium 3 and 8 improves memory and cognition scores over

6:20several weeks. Now, the dose is about two grams of 3 and 8 compound daily. And note that two grams of a compound is a smaller amount of elemental magnesium. So you have to follow the form here. It's not just a raw number. It has to say magnesium 3 and 8. 3 and 8 is more expensive. So cheap bottles of 3 and 8 are probably going to be underdosed or they might slip in a magnesium oxide to pad the weight. So this is for you. If you have brain fog, slipping memory, if you feel your brain is aging, your cognition is going down. It is the priciest of all forms, but it's one that's fantastic if you're suffering with those. And the last form of magnesium is not for anything that I just mentioned, but a lot of people need it. Number four is magnesium citrate. This is one that I also have in my cabinet. This is the one for your gut. It pulls water into your intestines and gets things moving. I always take this with me when I travel. So it's fantastic for constipation. It absorbs far better than oxide. So it doubles as a decent general magnesium too for the body. And for occasional constipation, it works within a few hours. And it's awesome for a gentle regularity

7:24of your stools, even just that smaller doses. You can see how your body responds. But the scam here is people buying citrate for sleep and wondering why it didn't do anything for the sleep. Remember, that's glycinate. The magnesium form you're taking is any of the bathroom. It's probably either citrate or oxide. So you want to look for magnesium citrate named plainly in its elemental amount. And you want to match it to the problem. Now you know the forms. Now you know the issues. This is for you. If you're contemplated, skip it or dial it back. If your stools are getting really loose, you don't want to take this if you have constant diarrhea or kidney issues. But even the perfect forms will underperform if you are burning through magnesium faster than your body can replenish it. And I'm going to tell you something really important right now. You need to hear me on this. There's a reason why so many people are low in magnesium in the first place. 70% of us, chronic stress, sugar, alcohol, heavy caffeine, all make you dump magnesium out of your urine. So if you're running high on any of those, you're pouring it out faster than you can put it back in. And magnesium is proven to do more than most people realize. It's fantastic. A lot of us,

8:28most of us need magnesium across dozens of randomized controlled trials. It modestly can also lower blood pressure. It can help with migraines. It can help with anxiety. You can get it from food too, pumpkin seeds, leafy greens, dark chocolate, beans can support you, especially if you're draining your magnesium reserves over and over and over from stress, sugar, alcohol, heavy caffeine, whatever it is. And here's a piece that almost no doctor is going to tell you I don't know why we haven't caught up in medicine. The same stress response that keeps you wired at night is the same thing that is burning your magnesium through the day. So being stuck in fight or flight will drain your mineral content across the board because your body needs minerals when you're in fight or flight. In my practice, the people who pair the right form of magnesium with a healthy nervous system downshifting practice like slow breathing, meditation, being in nature, actual rest, and turning off begin to see the benefits of magnesium in its true glory. And I really mean it's so many of us need magnesium. It's one of those supplements that people take and they go, oh my god, actually feel this one. It made a major difference in my health. Most people should be in magnesium.

9:31Of course, always talk to your doctor. Speaking about people who should talk to their doctor, if you have kidney disease, your body cannot clear extra magnesium that well. So you want to talk to your doctor, of course, if you're on antibiotics or have thyroid issues, talk to your doctor, of course. And if any forms give you loose stools, that's a simple sign that you might be taking too much. So here it is. Glacinate for sleep and anxiety, malate for your muscles and daytime energy, three and eight for your brain, especially brain fog or memory, and citrate for your gut. An oxide that 4% absorption one, that's for almost no one. Magnesium is not one supplement. It's multiple different forms that do different things. Your first step tonight is go to your magnesium in your cabinet and read the form. If it says oxide or has no names of forms at all, you found an issue. And remember, my full guide had a up level, your magnesium levels is in the show. Let's go check it out. Thank you, everyone, for listening to the show, rate, review, and subscribe. Thank you for your presence. I love you all.