Q&A. What Type of Magnesium Should I Take?

In this short Clarity Session Q&A, Joanne explains the key differences between common magnesium forms and how to choose the right one for symptoms like anxiety, sleep issues, constipation, migraines, fatigue, muscle pain, or brain fog. Learn when each type may help—and when to avoid certain forms if you’re sensitive. 

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Transcript

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Hi everyone. Today's question is what form of magnesium should I take? And the real answer is, well, it depends on what you are treating. Because different forms of magnesium are used for different clinical reasons. So let's start with magnesium glycinate. Magnesium glycinate is magnesium bound to glycine. Glycine itself is a calming amino acid. It acts as an inhibitory neurotransmitter in the central nervous system. It can lower core body temperature, slightly support parasympathetic tone, promote a deeper sleep. So when you combine magnesium, which relaxes muscles and calms the nervous system with glycine, you get a very soothing combination. And this is why magnesium glycinate is often used for anxiety, insomnia, muscle tension, PMS, perimenopause and nervous system dysregulation. It's one of my go-to forms for that wired but tired patient. However, in oxalate sensitive individuals, glycine can convert into glyoxalate, which can convert into endogenous oxalate. That doesn't happen in a problematic way for everyone, but for patients with B6 deficiency, history of kidney stones. They already know they're oxalate sensitive. They've had mold exposure, they have a lot of gut dysbiosis. Then there is a potential for their oxalate load to increase with the glycine. So for patients like this, magnesium glycinate isn't always the best choice. So if someone can't tolerate glycinate, what about other forms of magnesium? So let's move on to magnesium citrate. So this is often thought of as purely the constipation, magnesium, and yes, it does draw water into the bowel so it's really helpful for constipation. But it's also used for other symptoms as it's really well absorbed systemically. It's really great for headaches and migraines. Muscle tightness, general magnesium deficiency, sleep support, stress support. It can absolutely help with sleep and muscle relaxation. Especially if constipation is also part of the picture. So clinically, if someone has a lot of constipation and they also need help with sleep. I will give them magnesium citrate over magnesium glycinate as I need to get their bowels moving. And it just does have a really calming effect and people usually sleep really well on magnesium citrate as well. Now, if someone has really loose stools or diarrhea, I absolutely won't be giving them magnesium citrate. Usually I won't give them sort of any magnesium until we fix that issue. Unless there's a really good clinical reason why.'cause if someone comes to me with diarrhea, like we, we need to fix that ASAP as they're not absorbing any of their nutrients. So there is a nuance for histamine patients. These are the very sensitive patients, and that is that citric acid is often manufactured using a fermentation process involving aspergillus. Now it's meant to be purified and not be reactive. But clinically, I have seen this in some histamine sensitive patients. I've seen them react. These are often patients that already know they're reacting to the citrate. There can be other reasons that people can react to citrate'cause it's used in the citric acid cycle. But I'm just flagging it as I have had sensitive patients actually contact the manufacturers and have discussions about this. And sort of found out that it is fermented and that they potentially are having a histamine reaction from it. So I just wanted to flag that. So obviously if you are super histamine sensitive or if you have an oxalate problem, then magnesium glycinate and magnesium citrate might not be the right forms for you. Luckily we've got some more forms. Let's move on to magnesium malate. So malate feeds into the Creb cycle, which is energy production. So I often use magnesium malate for fatigue, fibromyalgia, chronic muscle pain, post exertional soreness. It tends to be really well tolerated and it's also less likely to stimulate the bowel and cause like loose stools. So if someone's already got loose stools, I don't wanna add to that because I need to fix the loose stools. So I need to understand that what I'm doing clinically with my prescription has stopped the loose stools. And if I give them all this magnesium citrate, it might counterbalance that. There's also magnesium threonate. So magnesium threonate is particularly interesting for cognitive support because it appears to cross the blood-brain barrier more effectively. So I think about magnesium threonate for brain fog, memory issues, mental fatigue, cognitive decline, concussion recovery, or really high stress professionals. In really sensitive patients that don't tolerate glycinate or citrate, then threonate can often be a really good form. So the malate or the threonate, depending on what their other symptoms are. So finally, let's talk about magnesium oxide. So magnesium oxide is very common in over the counter products. It's inexpensive and it acts primarily as a laxative. It's used for chronic constipation because it pulls water into the bowel. But it's really poorly absorbed systemically and it can bind to other minerals in the gut, so interfering with absorption of other minerals. So it's definitely not my first choice if I'm trying to correct a magnesium deficiency. But if someone is desperate. If they are chronically constipated and that's all that they can get, then it's fine just to help get the bowels moving at that point in time. But we don't wanna stay on magnesium oxide long term. So let's just summarize this in a practical way, saying you've got no histamine issues, you've got no oxalate issues. Then if you're anxious, not sleeping, or highly strong, glycinate is ideal. If you're constipated and need bowel support, citrate is ideal. Oxide if it's the only thing available and you need it for acute care. If you're having migraines, muscle tensions or general deficiency, citrate works really well for many people. If you're fatigued and have sore muscles, then malate is a really great form. If you're dealing with brain fog, cognitive strain, then threonate is a really good form for you. So thank you for joining me. I hope you found this episode beneficial. Be sure to subscribe to the histamine well so you don't miss an episode. Leave a review and you can also share this episode with someone who could benefit. If you have any questions you'd like answered or have a topic you'd like me to discuss, please go to my website, joanne kennedy naturopathy.com, where you can provide us with that information. Until next time, take care and be well.