Podcast episode (recorded April 18, 2025) in which Dr. Aaron Hartman explains that an estimated 80% of Americans are magnesium-deficient, outlines magnesium’s physiological roles (200+ enzymatic reactions, nervous system and cardiac calming, blood pressure and insulin regulation), and reviews common supplemental forms (glycinate/bis-glycinate, citrate, oxide, taurate, threonate/Neuromag), their uses, and typical dosing and safety notes. The episode includes practical dosing ranges (adult 200–1000 mg; migraine ~600 mg), cautions (excess causes diarrhea; consult provider if kidney disease), and a promotional ad for his book Uncurable.
Questions this episode answers
80%.
About 44% growth.
Approximately 2.4 million searches per month.
April 18, 2025.
200 to 1000 milligrams per day (adult range cited).
Chapters
Eighty percent of Americans are deficient in magnesium. So if you think about something just from the basic, you want to get people if they're deficient in it. If you don't, you want to throw something against the wall and see what sticks. 80% of people are deficient in magnesium. Then just give people magnesium and you'll see lots of people getting better. In this small mini series, I want to talk about magnesium. Evidently, magnesium is all the rage. I did not realize that interest in magnesium has grown over 44% in the last year and there's been over 2.4 million search per month about magnesium. So people want to know about it and so we're going to talk about it. Of note, we did do actually a blog on magnesium. I talked about the different forms of magnesium, which is. This is basically what we're currently doing right now. So you want a written version of this. It'll be available on our, our website. Magnesium is, is amazing for lots of reasons. The first thing is 80% of Americans are deficient in magnesium. So if you think about something just from the basic, you want to get people if they're deficient in it. If you don't, you want to throw something against the wall and see what sticks. 80% of people are deficient in magnesium. Then just give people magnesium and you'll see lots of people getting better. But magnesium is more important that it's helped with blood regulation. It actually has a very calming impact on your heart, on your nervous system. There's over 200 different chemical reactions in our body enzymes that magnesium is essential for. It's important for insulin resistance, blood pressure control and regulation nerve function. I remember my training early on we would use IV magnesium in the ER for people with asthma attacks, high blood pressure. Some comes in with ridiculous blood pressure to give them IV magnesium. Migraine headaches, People come in and actually use magnesium. Now with some migraine protocols. It does so many good things. And again, 80% Americans, deficient magnesium. As long as your kidneys are functioning. But again, talk with your healthcare provider. I cannot diagnose or treat anything. This is meant for educational purposes only. But if the kidneys are functioning okay and you take magnesium, if you get too much, just get diarrhea. So it's a pretty safe thing to take. And the reality is most of us are deficient in, then the question is what kind. Magnesium glycinate, which is one of my favorite kinds, has gotten a lot of popularity recently for lots of reasons. One, you want a magnesium that's a chelate so it's just magnesium plus something that's typically versus elemental magnesium, which is like the magnesium chloride, which is what's an Epsom salt good. And what's the most magnesium that you mine out of the ground. With magnesium glycinate, the glycine actually turns into gaba. So it has a very calming impact on you. So if you're taking magnesium to calm or help you sleep at night, I really like the glycinate form. There's actually a magnesium bis glycinate which is magnesium plus two glycine. So I prefer that one for its sleep because it gives you a big GABA like GABA boost. There's a magnesium citrate which is not as well absorbed as the glycine, so it's used more for constipation issues. I also will use magnesium citrate to help with kidney stones because the citrate helps alkalize your urine and which helps prevent calcium oculate storms and kidney stones from forming. The citrate form also can help with energy production. There's a thing called a redox potential which is how your body, how your cells hold their energy stores. And the. The citrate actually with me alkalized urine actually helps maintain that balance. And then the citrate man. Alkal engineering also helps excrete heavy metals. So I'll use potassium magnesium citrate. Where I'm trying to get people's. That's actually how I got my. Finally got my aluminum and my levels of detectable was using citrate forms of magnesium and potassium. There's magnesium oxide which is the cheape zinc oxide and magnesium oxide and titanium oxide are actually white. And if you look at paints, usually titanium oxide, sometimes these zinc or magnesium magoxide, but usually it's titanium oxide is the white thing. So when you see you see a pellet white, it's usually like a oxide of some sort, really poorly absorbed, super cheap. I don't tend to like that. But for all those reasons, there's magnesium taurate which the taurate or taurine actually helps with liver function, bile production. If you have cardiovascular issues, cardiomyopathy, heart issues, the taurine can be super helpful with that. And a lot of adults over a lot of adults actually have taurine, particularly males without taurine deficiencies. So if you have blood pressure issues, a refiki male, the taurine version can be helpful. There is a neuromag, which is actually a Mag 3 and 8 which has better penetration into your central nervous system. So if you're using it for particularly neurological issues, traumatic brain injury issues, kids with autism. Sometimes you can try the threonate. The issue with the threonate is there's not quite as much elemental magnesium, so you have to take more more pills and more capsules. That's the one downside. Am I missing a magnesium? Let me think here.
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There's a few other less common chelated forms, but those are the main ones. But I personally like magnesium glycinate. It's very popular right now for the reasons I mentioned. So typical dosing how you do so people ask me this all the time. For adult dosing it can be anywhere from 200 to a thousand milligrams. Again, if you get too much, you get diarrhea. When I get migraines I will do about 600 milligrams of magnesium with something else. Whether it's caffeine or aspirin or other stage you have. I take a bunch of magnesium usually that will in caffeine usually breaks my migraines because my diet's gotten a lot better. But of using it for BL pressure I've had patients use it for this. You really have to take it like four times a day because the effect magnesium is a calcium channel blocker. Calcium channel blockers can be used for blood pressure. They're stimulating up as well. So usually you can do that like two to 400 milligrams or four times a day. It's not really practical to do that, but some people will attempt to do that. It's not FDA approved either to do that. So it's better to do something once a day. For migraines instead of the dose you can do a one time dose, 600 milligrams plus or minus. And then for kids you basically need it based on the weight and I would just say talk with your pediatrician or pediatric provider because the weight makes all the difference and so a one year old would be dosed 100% differently than a 10 year old. We actually do IV magnesium in our office and that's some pretty good results with some of patients with migraines headaches and it actually helps with mitochondrial function. So some of my POTS patients combining magnesium has been really super helpful with them. So anyway, that's a little primer on magnesium and how useful it is. Hopefully this was helpful. If you have a topic you'd like to hear more about, just drop it below. Let us know what your thoughts about this are as we collect them. We based on responses. We'll all take a deep dive with that as well. So take care. We'll talk to you soon.
