Magnesium Puts Psychiatric Antidepressants to Shame

A clinical study shows that magnesium, costing pennies a day, offers an effective, safe and affordable alternative to dangerous and relatively ineffective antidepressant drugs.

Depression is one of the most frequently diagnosed conditions of our time, with more than 3 million cases in the US each year and 350 million people worldwide who believe they are affected.

Conventional medicine considers antidepressants a first-line treatment, including the recently approved injectable postpartum drug that costs $34,000 per treatment, adding up to $16 billion in global sales by 2023 alone. Despite their widespread use, these drugs carry a battery of serious side effects, including suicidal thoughts and completed suicide, the last two things you would hope to see in a condition that already carries suicidality as a comorbidity. For this reason alone, the need for natural, safe and effective alternatives is greater than ever.

A 2006 study titled: Rapid recovery from major depression using magnesium treatment

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16542786/ published in PubMed

Quotes from the study:

“Case histories are presented showing rapid recovery (less than 7 days) from major depression using 125-300 mg of magnesium (as glycinate and taurinate) with each meal and at bedtime. Magnesium was generally found to be effective in treating depression in routine use….”

“Magnesium deficiencies in the diet, together with excess calcium and stress, may cause many cases of other related symptoms, including agitation, anxiety, irritability, confusion, asthenia, sleeplessness, headache, hallucinations, hallucinations and hyperexcitability, each of which has been documented before. The possibility that magnesium deficiency is the cause of most major depression and related mental health problems, including IQ loss and addiction, is enormously important to public health and is recommended for immediate further research. Fortifying refined grains and drinking water with bioavailable magnesium is recommended...”

It is rare to find a high-quality human clinical study on this subject published in respected journals. That is why a powerful study published in PLOS One titled “Role of magnesium supplementation in the treatment of depression: A randomized clinical trial” is so promising (published in 2017).

Role of magnesium supplementation in the treatment of depression: A randomized clinical trial

https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0180067

The conclusion is that magnesium is not only safe, affordable and easily accessible, but according to this recent study, it is effective in treating mild to moderate symptoms of depression.

While earlier studies examined the link between magnesium and depression, this is the first placebo-controlled clinical study to assess whether using over-the-counter magnesium chloride (248 mg of magnesium a day for 6 weeks) improves symptoms of depression.

Research relevant to magnesium has been accumulating over the past 40 years at a steady rate of about 2,000 new studies a year. For the sake of brevity, I'll address seven more key therapeutic applications of magnesium, as follows:

Premenstrual syndrome:

Magnesium deficiency has been observed in women who suffered from premenstrual syndrome. So it is no surprise that magnesium was found to relieve the premenstrual symptom of fluid retention, and also to broadly reduce related symptoms by about 34% in women aged 18-45 who were given 250 mg tablets over a 3-month observation period. Combined with B6, magnesium supplementation was found to improve anxiety-related premenstrual symptoms.

Fibromyalgia:

Not only is magnesium deficiency common in those diagnosed with fibromyalgia, but relatively low doses of magnesium (50 mg), combined with malic acid in the form of magnesium malate, have been clinically proven to improve pain and tenderness.

Type 2 diabetes:

Magnesium deficiency is common in type 2 diabetics, with a prevalence as high as 47.7% according to a 2007 study.[13] Studies have also shown that type 2 diabetics with peripheral neuropathy and coronary artery disease have lower intracellular magnesium levels.[14] Oral magnesium supplementation has been shown to lower fasting plasma glucose and raise HDL cholesterol in patients with type 2 diabetes. It also improves insulin sensitivity and metabolic control in subjects with type 2 diabetes.

Migraine disorders:

Blood magnesium levels have been found to be significantly lower in people who suffer from migraine attacks. A paper published in the Journal of Neural Transmission titled “Why all migraine patients should be treated with magnesium” pointed out that routine blood tests do not accurately reflect the body's true magnesium stores, since less than 2% is found in the measured extracellular space, “67% is in the bone and 31% is located intracellularly.” The authors argued that since “routine blood tests are not indicative of magnesium status, empiric treatment with at least oral magnesium is justified in all migraine sufferers.” Indeed, oral magnesium supplementation was found to reduce the number of headache days in children who experience frequent migraine headaches, and combined with L-carnitine, it is effective in reducing migraine frequency in adults as well.

Cardiovascular disease:

Low serum magnesium concentrations predict cardiovascular mortality and all-cause mortality.

There is a wide range of ways in which magnesium may exert its protective effects. It lowers blood pressure, it is antispasmodic (which may protect against spasms in the coronary arteries), and it is antithrombotic.

In addition, heart muscle cells are very densely packed with mitochondria (up to 100 times more per cell than skeletal muscle), the “powerhouses” of the cell, which require enough magnesium to produce ATP through the citric acid cycle.

Atrial fibrillation:

There are now several studies showing that magnesium supplements reduce atrial fibrillation.

The best source of magnesium is food:

One way to identify foods that contain magnesium is to look for the green ones, meaning those rich in chlorophyll. Chlorophyll, which allows plants to capture solar energy and convert it into metabolic energy, has a magnesium atom at its center. Without magnesium, in fact, plants could not make use of the sun's light energy.

This is further evidence of how important the sun is to vital processes in both plants and humans.

Magnesium in its elemental form is colorless, and many foods that are not green contain it as well. The point is that when it is bound to other components of food, it is absorbed and used more efficiently than in its elemental form, when it is extracted from limestone as magnesium oxide.

The following foods contain especially high amounts of magnesium. The servings described are 100 grams, or a little more than three ounces.

This list is partial, with the richest in magnesium at the top:

Raw rice (781 mg)

Seaweed, agar, dried (770 mg)

Chives, freeze-dried (640 mg)

Spice, coriander leaf, dried (694 mg)

Seeds, pumpkin, dried (535 mg)

Cocoa, dry powder, unsweetened (499 mg)

Spices, basil, dried (422 mg)

Seeds, flaxseed (392 mg)

Spices, cumin seed (366 mg)

Nuts, Brazil nuts, dried (376 mg)

Parsley, freeze-dried (372 mg)

Seeds, sesame meal (346 mg)

Nut butter, almond (303 mg)

Nuts, cashews (273 mg)

Bananas (108 mg)

For those who need higher doses, or who don't tend to eat magnesium-rich foods, there are supplemental forms widely available on the market. If you want to take advantage of a side benefit of magnesium therapy, namely its stool-softening effect, magnesium citrate or magnesium oxide will provide this extra property. For those looking to maximize absorption and bioavailability, magnesium glycinate is ideal, because glycine is the smallest amino acid commonly found bound to magnesium, and so it is highly absorbable.

Sources:

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