by Matt Jarosy
How Stress Affects Your Magnesium Levels
One of the questions we get asked is do we neeed more magnesium if we’re stressed? To answer that question, we have to consider how stress works. Stress has a profound effect on the body. The sympathetic nervous system response drives the body into fight and flight at the expense of many other bodily processes. Calcium shuttles into our muscles for contraction and cortisol streams round our body along with adrenaline. Energy stores become liberated and glucose becomes instantly available for our body to burn. This is an amazing response which has allowed our species to survive. If we didn't have cortisol, we wouldn't be able to wake up in the morning. However, this stress response is also very demanding on the body. Stress is a very energy intensive process and magnesium is the major cofactor for energy production. The very energy currency of the body ATP, must always be complexed with magnesium to be active. It's important to remember that magnesium is the fourth most abundant cation in the body and the second most abundant intracellular cation. This means that the majority of magnesium is found within our cells. Cells are where the action is and where most of our energy is required. This is one of the reasons why magnesium status is interversely associated with stress levels, that is to say as stress goes up, magnesium goes down. Both stress and hypomagnesemia potentiate each other’s negative effects. Indeed, hypomagnesemia has been associated with stressful conditions such as photosensitive headaches, fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue. Acute stress has been shown to be associated with increased plasma magnesium levels and increased urinary magnesium excretion which highlights how magnesium responds to stress. Sometimes it can be hard to step back and think about how much stress we experience in a given day. Stress can be physical, such as from exercise, or mental, such as from work or personal relationships. Stressful events, both major and minor, can also take a toll on our magnesium levels. Take a minute to think about all the stressors in your day. You can increase your magnesium through various foods such as fruits, dark chocolate, leafy green vegetables, nuts and seeds (don't forget to soak them!), brown rice and avocados amongst others. You can also get magnesium from water in the form of magnesium chloride or magnesium bicarbonate but typically you will have to make this yourself as most tap water contains very little magnesium. One of the most gentle ways to increase magnesium is to have a bath with magnesium flakes. This is because magnesium can absorbed transdermally, through the skin. When you have a bath with magnesium chloride flakes, you are essentially giving yourself an IV push of magnesium because it's readily absorbed. Baths are also great for relaxation which has a knock-on effect of helping to reduce stress. In terms of supplements, take a look at our magnesium blends here. Each capsule provides 100mg of magnesium per capsule. Don't be fooled by other manufacturers stating 1500mg servings in supplements, they are listing the total weight of the compound (including what the magnesium is chelated too) and not the actual magnesium that is usable. Our magnesium products is also vegan, non-GMO and free from gluten, soya, dairy, artificial colours and flavours. We would recommend trying different forms of magnesium to which one works for you. If you want to learn more about the different forms of magnesium, checkout our comprehensive guide here. References https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6316205/?ref=ZwOb90Mpn4WO https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29920004/
