Magnesium Supplements

Larry Law

​If you look to supplement with magnesium, it is nearly impossible to decipher all the combinations and sources. Names like magnesium oxide, carbonate, citrate, malate, chloride, glycinate, sulfate, taurate, gluconate, phosphate, glutamate, l-threonate, etc., are a few of the types of magnesium you will face at the store.

Many doctors recommend magnesium oxide as a supplement because it appears in so many scientific reports. But magnesium oxide has only a 4 percent absorption level. This low absorption level means that if you take 100 mg of magnesium oxide, your body will only absorb 4 mg. The rest goes to create a laxative effect in your intestines. The reason it was used in so many studies is because a magnesium oxide supplement company donated truckloads of their supplement for free so that was the form researchers used! It turns out to be one of the least effective forms you could select.

​Dr. Dean, who is an expert on magnesium supplementation states, "On the advice of neurosurgeon Dr. Russell Blaylock, I do not recommend magnesium aspartate or magnesium glutamate because they can break down into the single amino acids aspartic acid and glutamic acid, which can act like dangerous excitotoxins in the brain...1000 mg of magnesium citrate, the most commonly used form of magnesium, offers 125 mg of elemental magnesium--the other 775 mg is the citrate component."

​​What all this means, is you don't get as much magnesium in these supplements as you think you get from reading the label. It can be very deceptive. For more information on excitotoxins, see my book.

​Another popular form of magnesium is called magnesium threonate and is a patented product developed by researchers at MIT. Their research claimed to demonstrate actual restoration of function in aging neurons in laboratory animals. Because of this finding, they market the product as possibly "the only form of magnesium that significantly increases the levels of magnesium within the brain." However, the actual research is less impressive. 

Dr. Dean states: "Personally, when I take magnesium l-threonate, I get the laxative effect, which means to me that it is not fully absorbed at the cellular level. Also, most capsules of magnesium l-threonate contain less than 50 mg of elemental magnesium. I would have to take about a dozen capsules a day to meet my magnesium requirements, but I would never get past 1 or 2 capsules because of the laxative effect."

​Dr. Dean's personal recommendation is a pico-size magnesium chloride product. Because the magnesium is plant-size, it seems like the best option to reach therapeutic levels of magnesium supplementation at the cell level without the laxative effect kicking in too early. There are limited benefits to all forms of magnesium but her research and expertise resonates with me. To request more information on safe and trusted sources for magnesium supplements, send an email to [email protected].