Is magnesium good for mental health?
For Dr. Martin it is one of the first things to check. He spent years testing patients who came in anxious or depressed, and the same handful of deficiencies kept showing up: vitamin D, B12, and magnesium.
Dr. Martin, The Doctor Is In, Episode 1128There's very little of it, but your brain needs magnesium. It does. It's an essential mineral for your brain to function properly.
His word for it says most of what he means.
Dr. Martin, The Doctor Is In, Episode 1238Think of magnesium. Relax. Always remember that. Magnesium relax, it relaxes your muscles, it relaxes your brain, it relaxes your anxiety, magnesium, okay, I love it.
Magnesium and anxiety
When a patient came in with obvious anxiety, he looked for hormone imbalances, cortisol above all, and he looked for deficiencies. Low magnesium was one of the regulars, almost without exception, he says, alongside low vitamin D and low B12.
He ties it to the adrenal glands, the two small glands on top of your kidneys that respond to stress. They are built for short bursts, not years of it.
Dr. Martin, The Doctor Is In, Episode 1334So when you get the effects of low magnesium, you can develop anxiety and fatigue, exhaustion.
Thirty years ago he wrote a book on chronic fatigue syndrome, which he saw far more in women than men. Those patients, he says, had anxiety coming out the wazoo, and poor sleep with it. For more on anxiety after 60, see anxiety in women over 60.
Magnesium and depression
He did not see anxiety and depression as two separate problems.
Dr. Martin, The Doctor Is In, Episode 1238Anxiety, depression, same sources, okay? And same deficiencies.
In another episode he says of magnesium:
Dr. Martin, The Doctor Is In, Episode 1037I used to see it especially in anxiety, but also in depression.
In depression he also tested cortisol every day in his office, and says it was almost always high. That ties back to magnesium through the adrenals. He covers the cortisol side in can high cortisol cause depression.
Magnesium was never his only answer. His protocol was the diet first, then cortisol, B12, vitamin D, magnesium and the gut. If you take medication for anxiety or depression, he is clear he is not telling anyone to stop it.
How magnesium calms the brain: GABA
GABA is one of the brain's calming messengers. Dr. Martin links low magnesium straight to low GABA.
Dr. Martin, The Doctor Is In, Episode 1334And when you don't have enough magnesium, you get a decrease in gaba.
Then, he says, you do not relax and you do not calm down. In another episode he lists mood among the five things magnesium does.
Dr. Martin, The Doctor Is In, Episode 1531And mood, big time. Because magnesium elevates your GABA and it helps your body to relax. It helps your brain to relax.
It was his go-to for children with ADD, he says, alongside DHA and pine bark. And for the brain long term, he notes magnesium helps keep calcium out of the blood vessels up there too.
Magnesium, stress, cortisol and sleep
Stress uses magnesium up, and he says we live in a world of stress that starts young. It can come from relationships, money and family, or from plastics and chemicals your body reads as stress.
Dr. Martin, The Doctor Is In, Episode 1334We're so stressed today, and what is the stress mineral? Magnesium.
Cortisol is meant to rise in the morning to wake you up and fall to almost nothing by evening so you can sleep. When magnesium is low, he says, GABA drops and you do not settle. Some people, he says, take magnesium before bed and find it helps them sleep. See why you can't sleep after 60.
Why so many people are low in magnesium
He puts 60 to 70% of the population low, for three reasons:
- The soil. There is very little magnesium left in it, so there is less in the food grown in it, and in what animals eat.
- Medication. Acid reducers (PPIs) cut the stomach acid you need to absorb it. Diuretics for blood pressure strip it out.
- Stress. The stress mineral gets used up.
He is not telling anyone to stop a prescription, just to know the side effect is there. More on why women over 60 run low in magnesium for women over 60.
Why a blood test can miss low magnesium
If your magnesium came back normal, he would not take that as the final word.
Dr. Martin, The Doctor Is In, Episode 1334See, magnesium belongs in your tissue more than your blood.
Most of your magnesium sits in your tissues, not your blood, so a blood level is not a good indicator in his view.
Which magnesium is best, and how much
He likes two forms, citrate and bisglycinate, because the "ate" ending means the magnesium is chelated and better absorbed. Citrate also relaxes the bowel, which suits people with constipation. If citrate loosens your stool, he switches to bisglycinate. He takes both himself.
Magnesium oxide he keeps for a rub on the legs, never as a supplement. An Epsom salt bath is another way he likes to get it. On amount, he says somewhere between 500 and 1,000 milligrams a day, and loose stools are the sign you have taken more than you need. If you have kidney problems or take medication, check with your doctor before adding magnesium.
Common questions
Is magnesium good for mental health?
Dr. Martin says yes. In his clinic low magnesium showed up again and again in anxiety, and in depression too.
Can low magnesium cause anxiety?
He says the effects of low magnesium can include anxiety, fatigue and exhaustion, through the adrenal glands and lower GABA.
Does magnesium help depression?
He saw low magnesium in depression as well as anxiety, and treated it as one part of a wider plan with diet, cortisol, B12, vitamin D and the gut.
What kind of magnesium is best for anxiety?
Dr. Martin likes citrate and bisglycinate. If citrate loosens your stool, he switches people to bisglycinate.
Will a blood test show if I am low in magnesium?
Not reliably, he says. Magnesium belongs in your tissue more than your blood, so a normal blood result can miss it.
Magnesium for every day
Food comes first for Dr. Martin. If you want a daily magnesium on top, Martin Clinic's Magnesium Bisglycinate gives you 400 mg per serving of one of the two forms he likes.
60-day money-back guarantee. If you take medication or have kidney problems, check with your doctor before adding magnesium.
