Dhru Purohit Show - #258: The Super Nutrient Most of Us Are Missing with Dhru Purohit

Episode Date: January 17, 2022

This episode is brought to you by Rupa Health and Pendulum.  Magnesium participates in over 600 enzymatic reactions in the body—it’s used for so much, yet 60% of Americans aren’t getting enough of this key nutrient. So what’s the deal? Why is magnesium so essential? What makes us so deficient? What does deficiency look like? And, most importantly, what can we do to bring up our levels? Today on The Dhru Purohit Podcast, Dhru walks us through all of that and more. In this episode, we dive into:     -What magnesium does in the body (8:08) -Why we’re so deficient in magnesium (10:00) -Signs of magnesium deficiency (16:02) -How to test magnesium levels (18:12) -Stress and magnesium deficiency (20:08) -Muscle cramps and magnesium (24:12) -Magnesium and the cardiovascular system (28:02) -How magnesium can help with constipation (28:59) -How to resolve magnesium deficiency (30:11) -The top forms of magnesium (32:24) -Vitamin B6 and magnesium absorption (46:14)   Also mentioned in this episode: Try This: The Ultimate Magnesium Cheat Sheet - https://dhrupurohit.com/try-this-magnesium-cheat-sheet/ For more on Dhru Purohit, follow him on Instagram @dhrupurohit, and on YouTube @dhrupurohit. Text Dhru at [phone]. Sign-up for Dhru’s newsletter at https://dhrupurohit.com/newsletter/. This episode is brought to you by Rupa Health and Pendulum.  Rupa Health is a place for Functional Medicine practitioners to access more than 2,000 specialty lab tests from over 20 labs like DUTCH, Vibrant America, Genova, Great Plains, and more. You can check out a free live demo with a Q&A or create an account at RupaHealth.com.   Pendulum is the first to figure out how to harness the amazing benefits of Akkermansia in a probiotic capsule. To receive 20% off your first purchase of Pendulum’s Akkermansia probiotic supplement, go to Pendulumlife.com and use code DHRU20. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hi everyone, Drew Brod here. There's a key nutrient out there that's connected to almost every single major chronic disease that people are suffering from and daily symptoms that a lot of people are suffering from, including sleeplessness, muscle cramping, and even lack of focus. This key nutrient is so essential that it's responsible for over 600, 600 enzymatic reactions in the body. That means when you don't have it, there's 600 things that aren't happening or aren't happening as efficiently. And by the way, get this. In North America, 60% of people are not getting enough of this key nutrient.

What is it? Stay tuned for today's conversation. I've done a lot of digging into my health over the years, and I'm sure most of you could say the same. I know many of you are even practitioners who help people go through this process using the framework. of integrative, precision medicine, or even functional medicine. What I've learned through my experience in pursuing better health and from the guidance of people like my business partner, Dr. Mark Hyman, and other experts on the podcast is that a big part of understanding what kind of support each individual body needs is testing.

That's why I'm excited to tell you about Rupa health. Looking at hormones, organic acids, nutrient levels, inflammatory factors, gut health, and so many other interval variables can help. us find the most effective path to optimizing health and reversing disease. Up until now, that meant most functional medicine practitioners had to order from multiple labs to get a comprehensive assessment for each and every single patient. I'm sure many of you can relate to how time-consuming this process is and that it can feel like a lot to keep track of. Well, now there's Rupa Health, a place for functional medicine practitioners to access more than 2,000 specialty lab tests from over

20 labs like Dutch, Vibron America, Genova, Great Plains, and many more. Rupa Health is 90% faster than traditional lab orders, letting you simplify the process of getting the functional test that you need and giving you more time to focus with your patients. This is really a much needed option in the functional medicine space. It means better service for you and your patients. You could check out a live demo with a Q&A or create a free account at Rupa health.com. That's R-U-P-A-health.com. I want to talk to you about a groundbreaking flagship bacterial strain that's been linked in thousands of scientific publications from everything from weight loss

and better blood sugar control to lowering overall levels of inflammation. So what's this strain called? It's called Acrimancia and it's made by the company Pendulum. So why the heck do we want acrimandcy and what does it do for our overall gut health and microbiome? So acrimancia feeds on our intestinal mucosal layer and modulates its thickness. That's a good thing. In exchange for providing acrimancia with the house and food, it pays us back by producing short chain fatty acids like propionate and enabling other strains to produce puterate, which is super important for healing a leaky gut, supporting the immune system, and maintaining overall health.

I first heard about acrimancia for my business partner, Dr. Mark Hyman, when he got really sick a few years ago and his gut help took a turn for the worse. He said that building up his acrimancia was critical for helping him heal and support his overall gut restoration and getting his health back on track. Because acrimancia can only survive in an oxygen-free environment like your gut, it has been difficult for scientists to formulate it into a probiotic until now. Pendulum is the first company to figure out how to harness the amazing, benefits of acrimancia in a probiotic capsule, which is why I've been taking the probiotic

daily ever since I got introduced to the company. Right now, if you're interested in acrimancia, this flagship bacterial strain, Pendulum is offering my community 20% off your first purchase of their pendulum acrimancia probiotic supplement. All you have to do is go to their website, pendulumlife.com. That's pendulum p.m. N-D-U-L-U-M-L-L-I-F-E dot com and use the code Drew 20 spelled D-H-R-U-T-R-U-20 for 20% off your first purchase. Hi, everyone, Drew Prode here again, and I'm joined with my co-writer and co-host for today's podcast, Taylor Groff, who is a nutritionist trained in functional nutrition. She works with me on my Try This newsletter, and today we are bringing you one

of our top newsletters, and it's all on the key nutrient that's out there that is responsible for over 600 enzymatic reactions in the body, and that key nutrient is magnesium. And on today's episode, we're going to go into a whole bunch of topics on magnesium, a true deep dive, including why magnesium is so important, what functions in the body it supports, why we're so chronically deficient in magnesium, especially living in our modern society that we live in today, what sources magnesium can be found in in food and what sources it can't be found in in food

or maybe not in nothing, top supplement recommendations that are out there from companies that we both trust, and what you can do today to start making progress in filling the gap of magnesium that might be in your life. life related to these deficiencies. Let's jump right in.

By the way, before we do, go to drewproet.com, and you can sign up for our newsletter every Friday morning. You get a newsletter, a deep dive. This is one of them that we're covering on the podcast where we go deep into a particular topic and we'll help you take your help to the next level. Drewpro.com. You can find them in the show notes and you can sign up for free there to get the newsletter every Friday.

Okay, let's jump into today's topic on magnesium. So there's a question that I get on a regular. basis for my friends, family, and newsletter and podcast listeners. And that question is, Drew, I always hear how important magnesium is, but can you give me a deeper breakdown? Can I get it from food? And if I can get it from supplements, there's so many different forms that are out there, which ones would you recommend? Now, each form of magnesium has its purpose. Some share similar functions. Others have totally unique ones. The actions of a particular form of magnesium largely depend on the molecule it's bound to. We'll explain a little bit more about that in a second.

That's why I wanted to create today's episode and newsletter to back it up. You can find the newsletter in the link below to clear up any confusion around two major things, understanding the importance of magnesium overall. That's most important thing for today's episode. And then B, helping you decide which magnesium supplement is best for you, including which form based on your specific needs. And as always, if you're under any medical supervision at all for anything, always check in with your health care practitioner. You know the deal on that. Now, I'm not going to get into every single form of magnesium that's out there. There are a lot. But we will, myself and Taylor included, we will touch on eight of the main ones that we think people can get the most benefit from.

Now, before we get into that, I want to highlight some of the major functions of magnesium in the body to get you excited about the role that magnesium plays and where symptoms of deficiency might show up and where proper supplementation could be potentially helpful in alleviating those symptoms. So what does magnesium do in the body? Magnesium is the electrolyte gatekeeper of our cells. It lets potassium and calcium into the cells to conduct electrical currents that are responsible for our heartbeat, the contractions and relaxations of muscles, nerve firing, neuroplasticity, ATP production, which is central in us producing energy, DNA repair, and so much more. We also need magnesium for vitamin D to be

converted into its active form, which serves so many critical functions in the body. We all have heard about the importance of vitamin D over the last 18 months to two years, especially in regards to COVID. So we need to know that vitamin D needs its helper magnesium. Without magnesium, vitamin D can't do its job. And low vitamin D levels increase our risk of infections, broken bones, hormonal imbalances, and chronic diseases. Because magnesium is responsible for so many functions in the body, a deficiency means that at least 600 different processes are negative. affected. As a result, we can develop symptoms that make us feel like we're not functioning at our highest potential. It's not something that you immediately pass away from if you don't

have enough magnesium. You just slowly over a period of time get less and less optimal in your function, which is truly harder to notice, which is why we're sounding the alarm about this key nutrient. So the question is, why are we so deficient in magnesium in the first place? The U.S. food and nutrition board recommends 420 milligrams of magnesium daily for men and 320 milligrams for women over 30 years old. Most people aren't consuming anywhere near these guidelines. Getting enough magnesium for food is tough. We'll talk more about that in a second. And most people aren't even supplementing with a high quality magnesium to begin with.

And if they are supplementing, they might not be supplementing with the correct form. What's more, the RDA for magnesium hasn't been updated and get this, 20 freaking years. The current guidelines don't account for all the new research that's out there on everything it's involved in. Plus, stress, exercise, coffee, and a diet high in sugar and refined carbs depletes magnesium even further. Now, to talk a little bit more about magnesium and getting it from food sources and some of the nuances around it, I'm going to invite in Taylor Groff, my co-writer on the Try This Newsletter,

and the co-host for today's podcast to chat a little about this. Taylor, take it away. Thank you, Drew. So it was actually a lot easier for our ancestors to get magnesium than it is for us today. So how could that be, right? While our ancestors were constantly coming in contact with mineral-rich lakes and streams and rivers. So they bathe in them, they drank from them. And these all naturally contained magnesium from the sediment, from the rock that just naturally made its way into the water. So they were getting their magnesium that way. And not to mention, the plant foods that they were consuming at the time were grown in magnesium-rich soil. So the problem today is that our agricultural practice of modern day, it's very much so industrialized. And because of that,

our soils have become depleted of essential minerals like magnesium. So it's a lot harder for us to get these same nutrients that our ancestors got from food from our modern day food supply. And so even if we were to eat, you know, double what our ancestors ate triple. We're still going to have a really hard time meeting that RDA that you mentioned, Drew, from food alone. Now, Drew, today our agricultural practices that we use are using a ton of pesticides. We're constantly tilling the soil. And as a result of this, our soil has become incredibly nutrient depleted. and magnesium is one of those essential nutrients that is really hard to get from our food.

And that's especially plant-based foods. That's where magnesium we get magnesium from the most. And in order to reach that RDA that you have mentioned just now, we'd have to eat double, maybe even triple the amount that our ancestors did just to get those same benefits of magnesium. And like I had mentioned, magnesium is found in a lot of plant-based foods. So the reason being that magnesium is abundant in plant foods is because magnesium is located at the center of plants, chlorophyll molecules, which is why leafy green vegetables, avocados, nuts, almonds are a really great source of magnesium. Seeds, they're all great sources.

However, only 30 to 40% of magnesium is actually absorbed by the body because magnesium is bound to these things that we call antinutrients. And antinutrients, in this case, I'm talking about phytates. They bind to the magnesium and they make it a lot harder to be absorbed and used by the body. So despite its low absorption rate, the food matrix does play a really, significant role in raising our magnesium levels. Research shows that diets rich in magnesium containing foods can effectively boost your levels and prevent against chronic diseases, like pancreatic cancer that's been in the research a lot recently, and dementia. Some other good sources of magnesium include dark chocolate and pumpkin seeds. Dark chocolate contains 50 milligrams

per ounce and pumpkin seeds contain 168 milligrams per ounce. Again, they might not all be bioavailable and taken and used by the body, but they're still pretty significant sources, food sources. Taylor, just to jump in here, I know that for a lot of people, they get excited when they hear that dark chocolate is a good source of magnesium. And I know that it's one of my favorite sources, something that is low sugar, high in organic, uh, cacao. and other things like that, I prefer dairy-free. That's my go-to for dark chocolate. So we'd love to give the audience here that's listening out of what you just covered,

what's the bottom line when it comes to food and magnesium? Great question. So the bottom line, Drew, is that you can get magnesium from food, and it could be effective enough to raise your levels. But if we're looking to correct magnesium deficiency, you're not going to be able to do that just with eating magnesium-rich food sources, alone. Yeah. Food is essential. It always starts off with food. Food first. Food first. And then you can look at other aspects. All right, Taylor, next section I'd love to jump into. A lot of people have questions,

which are, if I am deficient, or, you know, what does that look like? Or how should I think about deficiencies? Or how do I even know if I'm deficient? Would love you to jump into that topic. Right, Drew, because magnesium is involved in so much, like you had mentioned earlier, symptoms of magnesium deficiency can show up just about anywhere. And some chronic, some telltale chronic magnesium deficiency signs would be, you know, loss of appetite, fatigue, nausea. But a bigger thing to understand are that there's other things that can contribute to magnesium deficiency, and I'm going to cover a few of them as well. One of those being eating a high

sugar, high starch Western diet. We talk about this a lot in our newsletters, but it's because it's so relevant. The high sugar, high starch diet does deplete us of essential minerals, magnesium being one of them. Also, drinking alcohol frequently, alcohol is a diuretic. It makes us go to the bathroom more. So with that, you know, we're losing magnesium as well. Certain medications, proton pump inhibitors, major, major link there to magnesium deficiency, diuretics, like we had mentioned with alcohol, any diuretic sort of medication, even caffeine, coffee can deplete us of magnesium, laxatives, of course, and they deplete magnesium at a much, faster rate. And even if you are, you know, suffering from a gastrointestinal condition,

which causes you to go to the bathroom more frequently, like IBS, Crohn's, ulcerative colitis, those can result in magnesium deficiency as well. I'm going to get into a few of the common and also lesser-known symptoms of magnesium deficiency in just a sec. But before I do that, Drew has some comments that he wanted to share about magnesium testing. So, Drew, if you want to take it away? Absolutely. You know, magnesium testing is a little bit tricky. And there's a few things to keep in mind. The main test that most doctors are going to use for looking at magnesium is a serum magnesium test. That's the main test that they're going to use. The thing, though, is only 1% of the magnesium in our bodies is in the serum. The rest is in the red blood cells. Now, it's not that you shouldn't get that test. Definitely

get that test. And if it's low, you're probably super low in magnesium because if it's showing up in the serum, then it's definitely low in the red blood cells. If it's normal, you still could be low in magnesium. But the tricky part is most doctors that are out there don't have access or aren't trained in some of the more advanced test that are out there to give you a true nutritional profile. But you're working with an integrative or a functional medicine doctor, they often have access to other tests that are out there from more advanced labs that will look at not only magnesium, but your full spectrum of all the key nutrients that are there. So still get the test done, but if it comes back as normal and your doctor pats you on the back and says, see, you shouldn't

be worried your magnesium levels are okay. They could still actually be deficient. Just the test are not sensitive enough to look at. That's why we advocate when possible to work with an integrative or a functional or at least an open-minded doctor that's willing to research or go through the latest research that's out there. You know, there was a big study, Taylor, that came out a few years ago. We'll link to it in the show notes that showed on average it can take 17 years, 17 years before the latest well-validated clinical research that's out there in the world makes its way to your doctor's office. 17 years before it ends up getting there. That's why we have to look out for some of this information on our own and maybe seek out practitioners that can help us

meet the health goals that we're looking at. So Taylor, I'd love to hear about your experience, working with your clients, and a little bit of more about how stress plays into magnesium deficiency. Thanks, Drew. A common thread I see with a lot of my clients is that they are chronically stressed, super anxious, and I mean, for good reasons. reason, life throws a lot at us, right? Especially these days. So if we're not dealing with our stress, it can wind up causing a whirlwind of negative effects like inflammation and hormone imbalances, blood sugar imbalances. But one of the most underestimated effects of chronic stress is how it depletes our magnesium. And that's because magnesium is so key in modulating our

stress response. It calms the hypothalmic pituitary adrenal axis, that HPA axis, and increases GABA. So GABA is our neurotransmitter that's responsible for promoting a sense of calmness, relaxation. It helps us fall asleep at night. And magnesium, so magnesium increases GABA, which is great. And then it also inhibits glutamate. And glutamate is our main excitatory neurotransmitters. So a lot of times people dealing with chronic stress and anxiety are really low in GABA and they have really high glutamate levels. And in a low magnesium state, this is exacerbated. So GABA plummets and glutamate continues to go up. So this can show up in a lot of different ways. but the most common I've seen is, you know, anxiety, panic disorders, depression, fatigue's a major one,

a lot of people suffering from chronic migraines, and the list goes on. Because magnesium is so calming and has such a calming effect on our body, when we don't have enough of it, stressful situations can feel way more intense. When we're stressed, we deplete magnesium. And when we're magnesium depleted, we get more stressed. So this is a vicious cycle that makes these symptoms a whole lot worse if we're not intercepting and supplementing with magnesium and eating magnesium rich foods. Taylor, just jumping in here, I think that is such a key takeaway from what you just covered

is that it's a downward spiral. You know, in health, we have two options. We're either in an upward spiral or we're in a downward spiral. And when we don't feel good, when we have the blues, even if we're not clinically diagnosed with depression or one of these disorders that you mentioned, we are more likely to be stressed out, which depletes us, and we get depleted, which stresses out. And we just feel stuck. How many people are out there today? I'm not saying everything out there connects to magnesium or that magnesium deficiency. If that's just corrected, then all your problems go away. No, that's not what we're saying here. We're saying that magnesium is one important piece of the puzzle, but how many people are missing this important piece and have no clue, have no clue that what they're experiencing today may not get 100% better by fixing their magnesium, but could even get 10, 20, 30, 40, 50% better by addressing this key deficiency. I think it's such an important point and something for us all to remember.

So, Taylor, it's not just mood disorders. There's other areas that we talked about in the newsletter. Again, you can find that in the show notes below and you can sign. up for the newsletter and you can see the references that we have to put together this newsletter. I think for the magnesium newsletter, there were almost about 35 total references inside of there. Just in case you want to fact check and look into any of the research. Speaking of the research, let's talk about the next one, which is muscle cramps. Taylor, as people get older, they think of muscle cramps as just being a part of normal life.

Tell us about muscle cramping and its connection to magnesium. Yes. Muscle cramping is super common, as you said, as we age, and we're much more likely to be depleted in magnesium as we age too, because we're using it for so much. It's constantly being used by the body. But another key point with the muscle cramping is athletes, people who are physically active.

You know, Drew, have you ever had those days where you're going out for a hike or, you know, you're going to play tennis with your friends and you just feel like, like you just feel like your muscles have no energy? Absolutely. Growing up, that was the story of my life. I played in soccer. I played tennis. I was very, very active.

And even though I was young, I had muscle cramping all the time. And I had no idea how deficient I was in so many key nutrients. I didn't do magnesium testing at the time, but I'm sure I was deficient in that as well. Right. And you were also eating your vegetarian diet, right? Which was like high starch, high sugar, which depletes magnesium. Absolutely. Processed vegetarian food during the day, healthy, home-cooked Indian vegetarian meal at night.

Shout out to my mom for keeping me alive with at least one healthy meal in the evening. But, oh my gosh, junk food day and night. Vegetarian junk food day and night during the day. which definitely contributed to my muscle cramping for sure. Yeah, for me, I notice it, even when I'm out walking my dog, like I'll take her for a long walk around the neighborhood, and I'll just feel fatigued. And there's no rhyme or reason to it.

But when I do have those feelings, I know, hmm, maybe it could potentially be that I'm running low on magnesium. And again, like you mentioned, Drew, there's no silver bullet here. There's no end-all, be-all. solution. Magnesium isn't the cure for everything, but it does play a huge role, especially when it comes to muscle cramping. And here's why. We need magnesium to contract and relax our muscles. We need magnesium to absorb glucose from our bloodstream and bring it into our muscles. We need magnesium to get rid of lactate, this stuff that builds up when we're working out a bunch.

When we're doing long bouts of exercise, we are depleting our magnesium, as well as other essential electrolytes like potassium, sodium, calcium, through our sweat. You know, we're using these to power our muscle movements. And this causes lactate to build up. It causes dehydration. And it also causes these muscle cramps. Because it's needed to produce ATP, magnesium. magnesium gets used up during an intense workout. That, combined with lactate buildup and dehydration, can

really make your muscles feel fatigued. Another way magnesium deficiency is related to cramping is in the context of PMS. I see a lot of menstruating women, you know, from 18 young teens to their 40s, these women have horrible, horrible PMS symptoms. And a lot of this could be rooted in magnesium deficiency. At least that could be a part of the equation. So we're always supplementing with magnesium and women who are dealing with painful PMS symptoms. The next role that magnesium plays in our body is regulating our cardiovascular system. It's a key nutrient that's involved in having a healthy heartbeat and smooth blood flow. And the reason being is magnesium enhances nitric oxide production. And nitric oxide is what dilates our blood vessels and allows blood flow to flow smoothly

and freely throughout our body. And if we don't have enough magnesium and there's too much calcium in the bloodstream, that is going to cause our blood vessels to constrict. It's going to cause our blood pressure to go up and it can contribute to plaque formation in the arteries. So magnesium deficiency is a serious risk factor for heart disease. The last and final bullet point, Drew, I want to talk about is constipation. And even though constipation might not be caused by magnesium deficiency, magnesium definitely, definitely can play a role in the solution. It's such an important reminder, Taylor, because we live in this constipation nation. So many people are constipated and they think that they need coffee to go to the bathroom.

They think that they need some laxative. Often they're taking habit-forming laxatives that are out there. But I've seen so many people see improvements in their bowel movements by just supplementing with magnesium. There's one that's really popular that's out there that was originally designed for stress. levels. It's a brand called Natural Calm that you can find out Whole Foods. And what people started to notice when I would recommend magnesium for them to take is that a lot of people would come back and say, this is a little weird, but it's easier for me to go to the bathroom first thing in the morning. I'm like, yep, magnesium is related to our ability not to get constipated. So I appreciate you

noting that in. And thank you, Taylor, for covering all those different areas. High blood pressure, muscle cramping, anxiety, headaches, insomnia, magnesium is the common link. All right. Now that we know how magnesium deficiency can present, let's talk about how to resolve it. If you're in the wellness space, which you probably are, if you're watching this on YouTube, or you're listening to this on Apple Podcast, you've probably known that there are a million different forms of magnesium that are out there. Not exactly a million, but it can feel like a lot.

Magnesium is magnesium, right? Like most things, it's a little bit more nuanced than that. The form you supplement with matters. Whatever molecule magnesium is bound to, usually an amino acid, will enhance its absorption and function inside of the body. In addition to eating magnesium-rich foods, food first, that's always an important place to start off with, I want to introduce you to eight different forms of magnesium, popular forms that are out there that have a lot of research behind them.

And you can think of this as your own magnesium cheat sheet. hopefully this will help you decide which one is the right one for you depending on your goals and by the way i have some links to my go-to brands that are in the show notes to check out and in the newsletter but you can always support your local health food store or co-op to see if they carry them as long as they're from the high-quality brands that we know and trust that are out there And if you're looking, by the way, just to increase your overall magnesium levels, don't worry, I got you with my recommendations that I'll cover in just a second. So let's get into the protocol, which is our magnesium cheat sheet. I know everyone knows this, but I have to say it anyway.

Even though magnesium supplementation is extremely safe, it's always best to consult with your healthcare practitioner before taking any supplements and deciding on the appropriate dose that's out there. Everyone's different, but a good place to start is around 200 milligrams once per day and slowly increase your dosage based on recommendations from the brands or, again, your health care provider. As you'll see, some of the forms of magnesium have a laxative effect, some of the forms that we'll be covering. So you'll want to be extra careful and ease your way into those so you don't have to be scrambling to the bathroom at random times during the day. All right, my top forms of magnesium. Let's start off with the first one. Magnesium glycinate. Magnesium glycinate is a form of magnesium bound to the amino acid glycine that has a high bioavailability

without a laxative effect. This is why so many functional medicine doctors use it when it comes to boosting just general magnesium levels that are there. Taking a higher dose, 500 milligrams or more, can help you raise your blood levels of magnesium. Magnesium glycinate also has a calming effect that's great for people that are suffering with anxiety and sleeplessness. And if you end up taking it for sleeplessness, you have a hard time falling asleep or staying asleep.

It's best to take that dosage if you're taking 500 milligrams later on at night to get the maximum effect of relaxation before you go to sleep. Now, for each of these forms of magnesium, we have a recommended suggestion out there from a brand that we know and trust. And where we have a partnership with them, we'll let you know. We always want to be transparent with that. In general, what I want to share is this. because quality matters, we generally steer people towards ordering from what we call

the doctor's brands. These are brands that are out there that many doctors that are in hospitals or private clinics or seeing patients, they trust these companies to do really source testing to make sure that the end supplement that they produce actually is what it says. There's a lot of shadiness in the world of supplementation, and that's because supplements aren't regulated. Now, I'm not advocating that they should be regulated. I'm just saying because they're not regulated, you can pretty much put anything in a bottle

or you can get anything from a different country that's out there, and nobody's really looking at it to vet it to see if it's actually the case. There are companies that are out there that produce higher quality products that are here. And again, the doctor's brands that are out there are a good general recommendation. That includes companies like peer encapsulations, metagenics, Thorne, Designs for Health, Claire Labs, just to name a few. and there's many more than I'm sure we'll include in the show notes.

For magnesium glycinate, pure encapsulations, magnesium glycinate is a great source. Okay, let's go to the next form of magnesium. It's called magnesium l-threanate, a form of magnesium bound to the amino acid threanine that helps treat anxiety, depression, and PTSD. magnesium threonate crosses the blood-brain-brain barrier and has been shown to improve cognition, memory, and enhance neuroplasticity. Here's something that's pretty cool. Stanford University is currently conducting a clinical trial on magnesium 3 and 8

as a treatment for Alzheimer's and dementia. That's pretty interesting. Speaking of Stanford, my friend Dr. Andrew Huberman talks a lot about this form of magnesium. It's one of his favorites for its brain boosting and anti-anxiety effects, making it an excellent option for day and night. I know I've been taking magnesium three and eight since Andrew Huberman talked about it. Taylor, I think you've been taking it too. Do you have a little personal anecdote that you want to share about it?

Yeah, I would love to chime in about magnesium three and eight because after listening to Dr. Huberman talk about it so many times on your podcast and a few other podcasts, I had to give it a try because I do struggle with anxiety during the day. and I thought anything that I could take that would sort of calm me down but not be so relaxing that you want to take a nap. So I thought I'd give it a try. And I have to say, Drew, I have noticed a significant difference in how I feel throughout the day. I feel a lot calmer.

And I think a lot of that, like we mentioned before, could be due to the magnesium increasing those GABA levels. and inhibiting the glutamate. So it's helping to modulate that HPA axis and the stress response. And I actually started taking the life extension version. It's called Neuromag. And it's super high quality. Life extension is another really, really great brand. I recommend it all the time to clients because, like you mentioned,

a lot of supplements aren't fact-checked. And life extension runs all of their supplements through clinical trials. and I have definitely, definitely noticed a difference with taking magnesium three and eight. Also, one more thing, it is really amazing for focus and cognition. So being a writer and a researcher, it's helped me a lot stay focused throughout the day at the task at hand. And yeah, I really can't say enough good things about magnesium three and eight. Always love when either one of us shares a little personal anecdote. the audience loves it as well too. Yes, life extension, great company and one of the links that we

have to Amazon. And I'm sure you can find it in their website as well too. All right, let's go to the next one. The next form of magnesium is magnesium citrate. It's a form of magnesium bound to citric acid that's used for constipation relief. I have a lot of experience, not because I myself have really struggled with constipation, but because I used to have a company and we had a protocol. It was called the Clean Program with Dr. Alejandro Younger, who was my former business partner. And we had hundreds of thousands of people every year going through a protocol that we designed that he wrote about as bestseller Clean. And inside of that, we would talk to people about the importance of if they were constipated,

they were slowing down their body's natural ability to detoxify itself. Going to the bathroom, especially when you first wake up in the morning and having a bowel movement, is a part of your body's natural detoxification process. But there's some people that are out there that actually don't go to the bathroom for a few days and sometimes even a week, which is not good. If that's you and you're listening, we need to address this. We're slowing down your body's detox process. And one way to potentially safely try something at home that's non-habit forming is magnesium citrate.

Taking higher doses of it often relaxes the bowels and creates a sense of release. Now, if you take too much of it, that can give you a little bit of diarrhea for some time. So it's all about finding out that right dose that's there. And there's a brand that we've linked to, which is Thorn, another trusted company. They have a magnesium citrate product that's available. And be careful with magnesium citrate because taking too much of it on an ongoing basis regularly every single day could cause a depletion of other essential minerals. So it's something to help lightly push people who lean towards.

constipation, but we got to get to the root of constipation and why it's happening in the first place. We'll talk about that more in a future episode, but it's okay and it's generally regarded as safe to give you a little bit of a nudge in the right direction if you suffer from constipation or being backed up. All right. We have one more bonus form of magnesium that we're going to chat about, and that is magnesium oxide. And I'm going to pass it back over to Taylor to chat about this form of magnesium.

Magnesium oxide. This is a great form of. of magnesium for preventing migraines, especially those who experience that aura or that sensitivity to light and sound when they feel a migraine coming on, magnesium oxide is really, really amazing for this. And it's also great for daily supplementation in order to prevent the onset of a migraine. The American Migraine Foundation knows this, and they recommend taking 400 to 500 milligrams of magnesium oxide daily for preventing migraines. Because, again, it really doesn't stick around in your system for very long, not like

magnesium glycinate, which is really great for raising your blood magnesium levels. Magnesium oxide doesn't really stick around for that long, so you have to take it every day. And if you aren't really used to taking a high dose of magnesium, like the American Migraine Foundation recommends the 400 to 5.5. 500 milligrams. We want to avoid those disaster pants that Drew was mentioning earlier about the laxative effect of magnesium. So starting low, 150 to 200 milligrams and working your way up is the best possible way to avoid any potential gastrointestinal side effects. Speaking of magnesium oxide, I want to give a shout out to Global Healing Center.

We don't know them, no affiliation with them, but they actually have a really great magnesium oxide that people use primarily for constipation. And that's another option in addition to citrate. It's a lot, sometimes a little bit more gentler than citrate. So it's another option for people to try. And it's not a habit forming as well, which is great. So Taylor, I know we have a few more bonus sections on other types of magnesium that we want to cover.

So I'm going to pass back over to you to talk about those. Thanks, Drew. Magnesium melee is the next one. wanted to cover, and that is a form of magnesium that's bound to malic acid. And magnesium malate has been shown to be really helpful for supporting energy production, and therefore it's been really awesome for athletes to use to help enhance athletic performance, their athletic performance, to reduce muscle fatigue, and it also promotes a feeling of calmness without so much so that you're feeling sleepy. And this is great for athletes and other people that are really active, constantly in the

gym. And this is a great form for them to take during the day for their workout or for energy production. And as a bonus, it also helps with anxiety. I know, Drew, we personally don't supplement with magnesium malate on its own, but it's a good one to know about, especially if you're really active. The next form of magnesium to cover is magnesium torate. And this is a form of magnesium that's bound to torane, and that's an amino acid that's really helpful for energy production, for muscle recovery, and for stabilizing blood glucose. And it's also been shown to help regulate blood pressure in animals. There's no human studies that we're aware of right now with magnesium Tore, but there are animal studies that show that it can also help regulate blood pressure.

The next form of magnesium to cover is magnesium orotate. And this is a form of magnesium, Drew, that is bound to erotic acid, and that promotes heart health, calmness, cardiovascular fitness, and it also helps repair tissue damage. The evidence for magnesium orotate points towards it being useful in the prevention and treatment of heart disease, but again, we definitely need more studies on this. And the final forms of magnesium I wanted to mention are those that are very popular for their absorption transdermally. So that means through the skin.

That's magnesium sulfate and magnesium chloride. These forms of magnesium are primarily absorbed through the skin. And the primary form of magnesium sulfate, that's a very form of magnesium sulfate. to your Epsom salt. So that's what we use for soaking, for muscle relaxation, for just all around relaxation, if you're taking a bath, or just soaking some sore muscles. And magnesium sulfate and magnesium chloride are also very effective for promoting a state of calmness and relaxation. And that's why we love to use them when we're taking a baths because it just adds to the overall aesthetic of calmness. Now, magnesium chloride is used for soaking, but it can also

be taken in supplement form. And we want to be careful for this one too, Drew, because it can have a laxative effect as well. So just like magnesium oxide, where we want to start low and work our way up, same applies here. So a low dosage around 150 to 200 milligrams would be perfect for magnesium chloride. We want to make sure that we're getting a high-quality source if we are using Epsom salts or the magnesium chloride. They come in flakes if we're using them to soak with. So trying to find one that's organic. The one that we have recommended in our newsletter is Sky Organics, Epsom Salt. And then for magnesium chloride, ancient minerals, magnesium chloride, is also.

a really high quality brand. And again, we just want to make sure that it's coming from a good source if we're soaking our whole body and do it and absorbing it through our skin. All right. Thanks, Taylor. Those are all the different forms of magnesium. There's plenty more that are out there. But we wanted to cover some of the top ones that people could be paying attention to and

know what's out there in the marketplace with some of the recommendations. Again, you want to find the references and you want to find the product links. Check out the newsletter below so that you can see the direct link to find those ones. Taylor, there is one component that we want to mention in the context of magnesium, which is another nutrient that plays a sort of co-factor role when it comes to magnesium. And there's a clinical study that you've pulled together that you'd like to highlight that demonstrates this. So I'm going to pass it over to you to chat about vitamin B6. Yeah, a clinical study that came out of France found that a combination of,

of 300 milligrams of magnesium daily, combined with 30 milligrams of vitamin B6, was more effective at improving symptoms of severe stress than supplementing with magnesium by itself. Now, the takeaway there, Drew, is that vitamin B6 is critical for magnesium absorption. In order to absorb magnesium, we need vitamin B6. And here's another really key point. The magnesium and vitamin B6 duo are very key in supporting women with PMS as well. You just need to make sure that you're getting the active form of vitamin B6, which is pyrodoxyl-5-phosphate, P5P.

That's what you'll typically see on the label. And that's the active form of vitamin B-6, and that is ensuring that it's in, its bioavailable form to be absorbed by the body so that you can absorb all of that beautiful magnesium as well. Awesome. Thanks for that breakdown, Taylor. And I know Thorne has a great version of that product that you just mentioned. So there's a link to that in the show notes.

All right. One more recommendation in our newsletters, we call this the splurge section. Even though we've talked about a lot of different brands, this is a brand that we've worked with before. They have been a past sponsor of this podcast. They did not sponsor us to put them here or to mention them. We'd love to be transparent with you guys. And here's a little story about how this magnesium came to be one of our favorite magnesiums.

I saw my brother-in-law, who's a cardiologist, Dr. Neil Patel based in San Diego. When I was staying down with him and his wife, who's my older sister, Herschel, I saw him one evening taking this magnesium supplement at night. And I used to take a magnesium supplement. supplement night and he asked me, do you want some magnesium? I said, no, I took some a little bit earlier. He's like, yeah, but which form of magnesium did it have? I was like, oh, it just had glycinate. He said, well, let me tell you about this other one. True story. And this brand, which is a bio-optimizer's magnesium breakthrough, had seven different types of magnesium that were

all part of the combination that their research team had put together. So it ended up being a brand that I was so excited about that I tried it for a few weeks. I just borrowed one of his bottles. And I liked it and I reached out to them. I said, hey, do you guys want to sponsor the podcast? Because I'm talking about you anyway. So I would have told you about these guys, regardless, even if they weren't a sponsor of this show. But definitely magnesium breakthrough by bio-optimizers has become one of our favorite forms of magnesium. It's in the same price range as many of the supplements that we mentioned above. And we again recommend many of those brands. We have no allegiance to one brand. And we are also willing to drop any.

brand recommendation if that brand would change their formula or cease to be a high quality supplement. But you know, this is really important, especially for people who no knock on the big box stores that are out there, no knock on Costco, Walmart, and other places that are there. But often the forms of supplements they sell are so low quality. And none of those companies, or I should say rather, very few of those companies, if any, are actually testing the final product to make sure that it's free of impurities and actually does what it says it does or has exactly a type of magnesiums that are in there. So if you want to check out magnesium breakthrough by bio optimizers, you can find the link in the show notes below or go to mag breakthrough, M-A-G-B-R-E-E-A-K-H-R-U-G-H.

dot com back slash true, and you can check out magnesium breakthrough from bio-optimizers. All right, now that we've given you all the recommendations that are out there and all the different top magnesiums that are there, I want to talk a little bit final thoughts as we conclude today's episode. Because magnesium is so involved in so many biological processes in the body, we need to make sure we're getting enough of it. Diet is a great way to get your magnesium levels up, but as we mentioned, it can be a challenge for a lot of people to meet the RDA from food alone. Food first, but also we want to address where there might be some gaps when it comes to food. If we aren't eating enough magnesium-rich foods and are experiencing any of the

symptoms mentioned above, it might be a good idea to consider taking a magnesium supplement to bring your levels up. Well, that's the conclusion of today's episode. I hope you've enjoyed this breakdown, which comes from an article that we wrote for our newsletter, myself and Taylor, called Try This. Each week we feature an evidence-based protocol. evidence-based recommendations that anyone can try to take their health to the next level. You can sign up for it for free to get that newsletter every week on Fridays. And occasionally we'll take those episodes and we'll record them for the podcast right here. If you enjoyed this, let us know.

The text message number is in the show notes as well. And we'd love to hear feedback. Taylor, it was such a blast to record this episode with you and put the newsletters together. And I hope people found a lot of great value for it. Thank you again for being part of this episode. I had so much fun, Drew. Thank you so much. It was a pleasure to be here.

And audience, thank you for listening all the way through. If you know someone in your life who's struggling and trying to make sense of their supplementation game or magnesium as a topic or even their mood and food forward them this episode and the newsletter, we truly appreciate it. And we'll see you next week.