Is there good evidence highly active people need magnesium supplementation?

Orphia
Orphia Posts: 7,097 Member
edited November 19 in Food and Nutrition
I've got some magnesium tablets you dissolve in water that are promoted as "good for muscles and nerves". Well, so is protein and oxygen.

I looked a while ago online and couldn't find any high quality meta-studies that supported this claim.

Have you seen any?

Replies

  • Orphia
    Orphia Posts: 7,097 Member
    Anyone know anything about this?
  • JeromeBarry1
    JeromeBarry1 Posts: 10,179 Member
    You're not going to find high quality studies on supplements that cannot be patented. Know, though, that magnesium is easily obtained from a variety of vegetables, which is precisely the food source that our population least uses. Most people are deficient in magnesium, hence the healthy sales of tablets and Epsom salts. All I have is an anecdote: My wife's skin and mental state improved dramatically after soaking her legs in an Epsom salt bath for 20 minutes.
  • ninerbuff
    ninerbuff Posts: 48,988 Member
    Magnesium is for strong bones and nerves. Lack of it can lead to cramps, but overdosing on them could lead to issues on your nervous system.
    https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1855626/

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  • belinda_73
    belinda_73 Posts: 149 Member
    magnesium helps me sleep, i take it every night. I buy the kind made from food, not the chalky stuff. tho those have worked too.
  • livingleanlivingclean
    livingleanlivingclean Posts: 11,751 Member
    I just go on my own experience. If I take it, I sleep better, I don't wake up to pee, I don't get cramps or restless legs....i also stay more regular when I do take it.
  • hjg0989
    hjg0989 Posts: 17 Member
    After doing long, hard hikes and backpacking trips I use to wake up with restless leg type of feelings. After researching I discovered that depleting magnesium by exercising hard could cause this. I now take magnesium citrate before and after hard exercise and no longer experience the discomfort in my legs. If you take too much your system will eliminate it quite quickly, so tread lightly until you find the right dose.
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