More than 300 enzymatic reactions in the body require magnesium. Magnesium is good for you because you need it for the basic maintenance that keeps your body running. Magnesium is more than good for you: It’s required to keep you alive.
Magnesium is good for metabolism
Energy creation
The process that creates adenosine triphosphate (ATP), the fuel for pretty much all your body’s metabolic processes, needs magnesium. ATP is mostly found in a complex with magnesium. It’s not even that magnesium is good for you in its role in energy creation; if you don’t have magnesium, you won’t have energy. And if you don’t have energy, you won’t be living.
Blood sugar
Magnesium helps move sugar out of the blood and into your working muscles. That’s where you need sugar — to make energy — instead of sitting in your blood and causing all sorts of problems. Researchers at the Academy of Micronutrient Medicine and St. Anna-Hospital in Germany administered a magnesium supplement to obese individuals — with normal magnesium levels — for six months found that it helped to support healthy insulin sensitivity.
Magnesium is good for brain health
The brain stores new information by building networks of neurons, and synapses are the connections that let the neurons talk to each other. Synaptic connections in the hippocampus decline with age, which correlates with impaired memory functions. Strengthening them (increasing the density) is critical to maintain the ability to learn at any age. Researchers from Neurocentria Inc., Ohio State University, University of Southern California and Tsinghua University have found that “Elevating neuronal intracellular magnesium can increase functional synapse density and plasticity in cultured hippocampal neurons.”
These researchers applied that early finding to a double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled study in which they administered a special type of magnesium — Magnesium L-Threonate, the only compound proven to raise magnesium levels in the brain — to older adults. The subjects given the supplement reversed the ages of their brains, as evidenced by completing tests in various cognitive domains before and after the trial, demonstrating superior learning and memory capabilities than at the onset of the trial.
Magnesium is an electrolyte
These electrically charged particles maintain the correct levels of fluids in your body. Magnesium is good for you in this capacity because it keeps the fluid levels optimal in your cells so they stay alive.
Magnesium creates critical components of our body
The process that makes the “Master Antioxidant” glutathione requires magnesium. As you age, the process already slows, causing you to have lower levels of this antioxidant that not only protects you from the damaging effects of free radicals but also supports a healthy liver. You can read more about glutathione in several other articles.
Magnesium also plays a necessary role in making proteins.
Magnesium supports healthy blood pressure
Magnesium regulates blood cell relaxation as well as cellular levels of potassium and sodium. When these electrolytes are out of balance, blood pressure changes can happen. Magnesium also regulates calcium levels in the serum and between the cells.
Magnesium helps the bones
The majority of your body’s magnesium content is found in the skeleton where it regulates calcium and Vitamin D. Magnesium is necessary for converting Vitamin D to its active form that enables calcium absorption into the bone. So, in order to get the bone benefits of those Vitamin D and calcium supplements, you also need magnesium.
Magnesium is good for relaxation
According to Michael J. Breus, PhD, aka the Sleep Doctor, “Magnesium plays a role in supporting deep, restorative sleep by maintaining healthy levels of GABA, a neurotransmitter that promotes sleep.” GABA facilitates relaxation and low levels are associated with difficulty relaxing.
Magnesium supports the nervous system
Magnesium is a critical component in how nerve cells communicate with each other, which is how you control your body.
Magnesium is good for muscles
Magnesium regulates how your muscles work, and that includes the heart muscle. Research has also shown that magnesium helps to remove lactic acid from the muscles, which can enable longer duration exercise. Some studies have also correlated magnesium supplementation to increases in muscular strength.
Magnesium is good for 300+ processes
It’s not just nice to have, magnesium is necessary to make these processes work. Magnesium is good for you, sure, but it’s also required to keep you going.
