The #1 Deficiency Behind Insomnia, Anxiety & Hormone Imbalance in Women | Magnesium Explained

Magnesium is one of the most abundant minerals in the entire body. I'm sure that you've heard that it is responsible for more than 300 enzymatic reactions. It is a supplement and a mineral that I have been focused on throughout my entire career because of just how powerful it can be for improving certain symptoms and supporting the body. In today's episode of the Being Brigid Show, I'm going to do a deep dive into magnesium. We're going to talk about key symptoms of deficiency, the amount of magnesium that you want to strive for, food sources, different types of supplements, what the latest research on magnesium shows, and how to know what's best. So get ready, we're going to dive right in. Again, as I said, magnesium is one of the most abundant minerals in the body. It acts as an electrolyte. You'll see this in a lot of electrolyte packets where they have sodium, potassium, and magnesium being that third electrolyte that's often in a lot of supplement or electrolyte packets. It's also a cofactor for more than 300 enzymes, and because of it being a cofactor for so many different functions in the body, it is required for a lot. So let's go through the list of what magnesium is required for, just as a place to start, so that you can understand all the ways that our body— and these are actually just some of the ways that the body uses magnesium. So first we have energy production, which is your ATP, uh, which is produced by your mitochondria. Energy is converting your protein, fats, and carbohydrates that you eat from food into ATP, which is our cellular energy and magnesium is a rate-limiting nutrient that is required in order for you to generate efficient ATP from breaking down those macronutrients. So it's required for energy production. It's also very important for glucose metabolism. It's been shown to improve insulin sensitivity and supporting metabolic health. It's involved in DNA and protein synthesis, for nerve conduction, for nervous system regulation. Influencing glutamate and GABA signaling. We're gonna talk more about nervous system regulation and the ways that magnesium can help with that. It's also really important for bone health. So most people focus on vitamin D for bone health, but a lot of people don't realize magnesium is also a key nutrient for our bone health. It participates in bone formation, it helps with vitamin D absorption, and it also helps with improving calcium levels. So a lot of people think it's just about calcium and vitamin D, but there's a number of different nutrients like magnesium that play a role in improving absorption and supporting those nutrients going into the bone. Cardiovascular regulation, because it helps regulate calcium, and regulating calcium, which controls muscle contractions and relaxation. It is very important for muscle contraction and relaxation. And many people, I'm sure you may be— you may have experienced the benefits of taking magnesium. The number of clients that I have worked with in the last 12 years, one of the first nutrients that we talk about that I add in order to support sleep, in order to support relaxation, in order to support nervous system health and all the other things that I just listed out, one of the first places that I start is magnesium. And I have consistently started with that over the last 12 years. So let's talk about key symptoms that are red flags for me. If someone is saying that they're experiencing them, that may indicate that it could be a magnesium deficiency. The number one most common sign that we see is muscle cramps, spasms, and twitches. So this is a very common early symptom of low magnesium. Low magnesium levels can disrupt your neuromuscular signaling and also your electrolyte balance. So this can start— what I commonly see is that people report having leg cramps. Maybe they're experiencing eyelid twitching or facial, facial muscles that, um, they're experiencing changes to. So magnesium can be sometimes a very easy incorporation either from food or supplements to help with that symptom in particular. But definitely a warning sign of magnesium fatigue is another very common symptom. Of course, fatigue can lead to— can be driven by many things, but magnesium, given that it's a cofactor in over 300 enzymatic reactions including our ATP production, it means that without having adequate adequate magnesium, that our cellular energy metabolism becomes less efficient. So fatigue can be a very common one as well, also because magnesium helps with sleep. So if you're having a lot of sleep disruptions, that's another symptom of magnesium deficiency, with sleep being improved by a lot of people through supplementation or adequate levels of magnesium in the diet. Magnesium, it regulates GABA, the primary inhibitory neurotransmitter that's responsible for calming our central nervous system. So it can either show up— I see it sometimes in people that have difficulty falling asleep, or people that are waking up often throughout the night, or people who are just having poor sleep that's indicated on their, their sleep scores the next day if you're wearing some kind of a tracking device that's looking at your sleep. But sleep disturbances are definitely a common sign of magnesium deficiency. Number 4 would be anxiety and mood changes. Magnesium stabilizes the HPA axis. Deficiency has been shown I'm going to get into some of the studies, but it has been associated with anxiety, irritability, and depressive symptoms. So that can be another one. Constipation is an incredibly common sign of magnesium deficiency. Magnesium helps with relaxing the smooth muscle in the GI tract, so deficiency can commonly contribute to constipation. That can oftentimes be improved through supplementation or again getting adequate levels in your diet. Cardiovascular symptoms. Magnesium regulates your cardiac electrical activity, so mild deficiencies can produce palpitations. And sometimes when people are experiencing that and their doctor is recommending magnesium, or, uh, we increase their food sources of magnesium, they'll see an improvement in those symptoms. Um, another one that people are less common with is PMS and menstrual symptoms for women who are still menstruating. So magnesium deficiency exacerbates menstrual cramps. It can also contribute to more mood swings and other symptoms that are tied to PMS. And we know actually that need for magnesium can increase when a woman is actually— when their hormones are changing through perimenopause because of changes in the HPA axis system as a whole, and can make a, a woman more susceptible to magnesium deficiency. So these are the most common signs and symptoms that we see of magnesium deficiency. And again, you can't always know if if it's one nutrient or one particular thing. There's a number of things that can cause fatigue or brain fog, um, including blood sugar imbalances and many other things. But these can absolutely be signs of magnesium deficiency, and if you have several of them, then it may be an indicator that you want to look at how much magnesium you're consuming and whether you're getting enough. More than half of adults in the United States don't meet the needs for magnesium, meaning they are not meeting the recommended daily intake for magnesium, putting them at a greater risk for deficiency. So magnesium deficiency is extremely common, one of the most common nutrient deficiencies that I have seen in my 12 years of clinical practice. There's a few reasons for why people could be set up for higher levels of deficiency. One is that the Western diet as a whole tends to be low in magnesium-rich foods and high in processed foods that are not going to be a great source of magnesium. A lot of stress— there has been studies that show that when we have higher levels of stress or we're chronically stressed, that it increases our need for magnesium. Gastrointestinal conditions can also increase our need for magnesium or decrease the actual absorption of magnesium that's being consumed. Common medications like proton pump inhibitors, diuretics, certain antibiotics can accelerate magnesium loss, or it can also impair absorption. You also lose some magnesium through sweat, making it an important electrolyte to be replacing if you're sweating a lot, you're very physically active, you're in the sauna a lot, etc. That's increasing that need. Now, because of having more magnesium deficiencies and it being so common, this can increase risk of a number of different conditions— obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, metabolic syndrome, osteoporosis, many, many chronic conditions that are tied to magnesium deficiencies. And I'm going to get into some of the research behind that. One of the other things is that people will typically go in, they have their serum magnesium run, and then it looks like they don't have a deficiency. The issue with that is that 55% of your magnesium is stored in bone, and then 25% of it is estimated to be stored in your muscle. The rest is then distributed across organs and soft tissue, which means that less than 1% is actually circulating in your bloodstream. So getting a red blood cell magnesium level can be a start, but if you're getting a serum magnesium test and it's coming back normal, that doesn't necessarily rule out the fact that you have a deficiency. We see this very commonly. So when you're testing for magnesium, you want to look at an RBC magnesium— that's a red blood cell magnesium test that measures the amount of magnesium that's inside of your cells. This is going to be considered more sensitive. We also run urinary markers of magnesium, which can be an additional indicator of magnesium need. Okay, so let's talk about what is actually adequate as far as what you wanna strive for when it comes to your daily intake for magnesium. So when it comes to the population of 19 to 30-year-olds, the recommendation for males is 400 milligrams, and then for females is 310 milligrams. That increases if you're pregnant to 350 milligrams per day. From 31 to 50, they— the needs only increase slightly. So it increases for men from 400 to 420 milligrams, and then for women from 310 to 320 milligrams. For pregnant women, from 350 to 360 milligrams. And then for breastfeeding women, it goes from 310 to 320. And then that also stays consistent after the age of 50. So for both men and women, the recommended daily intake is 420 milligrams for men, in addition to 320 milligrams for women. So it's not actually that high as far as our needs go. It's really focusing on magnesium-rich food sources and then additional supplementation. What I will say is that this recommended dietary allowance is the minimum that you want to strive for when it comes to magnesium, because sometimes having more magnesium than what this baseline recommendation is can be additionally valuable as far as symptoms. And a lot of times leading by testing in addition to symptoms can help you better understand what your actual dosage should be. So let's first talk about food sources, because I'm always an advocate of trying to use a food-first approach before supplementing. Supplements, although I do believe that for many people getting food sources of magnesium will not be enough, um, compared to then what you can get in addition to a supplement. But let's start with food because we always want that to be the starting place. You can never supplement your way out of a nutrient-deficient diet. So dietary sources, some of my favorites— we're going to talk about sources that are jam-packed with magnesium. The first are pumpkin seeds. Just 3 tablespoons has 165 milligrams of magnesium, which is approximately 40% of the daily value, which is really insane. So just 3 tablespoons gives you 165 milligrams. You can add pumpkin seeds, 3 tablespoons, into a yogurt bowl. You can add them to a salad. You could add them to a chia seed bowl, a chia seed pudding bowl. There's so many different ways that you can incorporate pumpkin seeds into your diet. I also love them as a snack, just that you can get the roasted pumpkin seeds and bring them with you to the airport or when you're traveling as a great way to get fiber, protein, in addition to a great source of magnesium. Number 2 Next on the list is black beans. Just 1 cup of black beans has 120 milligrams of magnesium, which is about 30% of your daily value. So if you just added 3 tablespoons of pumpkin seeds and 1 cup of black beans to your diet, that would give you 70% of the total daily value for the day. So 1 cup of black beans— that would be cooked black beans— you could easily add to so many different recipes. And this is something that we do in my membership, The Bean Collective. People are always amazed by all the ways that we incorporate beans and lentils into recipes, not just as a great way to get magnesium, but also polyphenols that are important for metabolic health, in addition to your protein sources, and an amazing source of fiber. Really one of the best, best forms of fiber. So 1 cup— and maybe 1 cup will give you more digestive issues— if you're doing half of a cup, that would obviously give you 60 milligrams of magnesium. But you could add that to scrambled eggs, you could add it to a salad, you could add it to taco You can add it to a shrimp stir-fry or a chicken stir-fry. We— I just had a TBC chicken stir-fry for dinner last night with black beans being added to it, and it's such an easy way to get that fiber and magnesium. Number 3 on the list is chia seeds. Just 2 tablespoons of chia seeds has 110 milligrams of magnesium. My favorite way to eat chia seeds is in chia seed pudding and incorporating that with protein powder and and other ingredients like peanut butter, and you can make a ton of different flavor profiles. Like in The Bean Collective, we have a chocolate peanut butter, um, chia pudding, we have a strawberry cheesecake chia pudding, we have so many different flavor profiles that make it really fun to experiment with throughout the week. But 2 tablespoons, you could also easily add to a smoothie. That'll give you 110 milligrams of magnesium, which is about a fourth of what you need for the Basil seeds are another great source. Zen Basil Seeds— Zen is like the company that I know of that makes basil seeds— 2 tablespoons equals 90 milligrams, so that's 20% of your daily value. Zen Basil Seeds are also very high in a ton of different micronutrients. Chia seeds are as well, but Zen Basil Seeds are— they really are incredible with how many nutrients they pack in. So if you've never tried them, that's an easy add to an Amazon cart. You could also get them from Whole Foods. A number of different places that you can get the Zen basil seeds, and then you could add them to your salads. I don't prefer them as a chia seed pudding replacement because I don't love the, the flavor profile for it to be in the chia seed pudding, but you can add it to a ton of other things—salads, smoothies, etc. The next is almonds. Just 23 almonds has 80 milligrams. So adding almonds to your snack, having a handful of almonds every day can give you 18 to 20% of the daily value of magnesium. Cooked Swiss chard is one of the dark leafy greens that has the most magnesium, with 75 milligrams coming with just 1/2 of a cup of cooked Swiss chard. Dark chocolate— if it's 70 to 80% dark chocolate, 1 ounce has 70 milligrams of magnesium, which is pretty amazing. Quinoa— just 1/2 a cup of cooked quinoa has 60 milligrams. You can easily add quinoa on the side of a chicken stir-fry. You could add it to— we have a Jennifer Aniston Mediterranean quinoa salad, where quinoa is added to the salad. There's a lot of options there. And then lastly, we have edamame. 1/2 of a cup of edamame will give you 50 milligrams of magnesium. I love dry roasted edamame, which is a great snack. They just came out with dry roasted edamame with avocado oil from Costco, which is not only a great source of protein and fiber when you're on the road, but you also get 50 milligrams of magnesium in just 1/2 of a cup. Cup. So just listing out these sources that I just went through, you can see how you could get close to 320 milligrams in a day by just being strategic with some of these additions that you're adding to your diet. The other thing that I'll add is that processed foods like breakfast cereals and breads are sometimes fortified with magnesium, and that would not be the preferred source that I would recommend getting your magnesium from. I think that goes without saying, but I want to just add it in case anyone is reading a box of breakfast cereal with a bunch of refined grains and added sugar and thinking that they, they're trying to work on their magnesium, and that justifies the blood sugar spike that you get from that bowl of cereal. Okay, let's talk about forms of magnesium. So I'm going to address 3 different forms of magnesium because there's many. Um, you can do magnesium citrate, magnesium glycinate, magnesium L-threonate. There's also magnesium chloride, magnesium gluconate, magnesium lactate, magnesium aspartate. The ones that I would steer away from very particularly are magnesium oxide and magnesium carbonate. So they— these both are not well absorbed and they also present more gastrointestinal side effect risk. The 3 forms that I like the most are magnesium citrate, magnesium glycinate, and magnesium L-threonate. And I'm going to go through why I like each of these 3 and instances that you may want to use them. Magnesium citrate is one of the most well-studied forms of magnesium and has consistently been shown to be associated with bioavailability, meaning that you're able to absorb that form of magnesium. This type of magnesium I find to be particularly effective for when clients have constipation. Magnesium citrate has a laxative effect because it's able to draw water into the intestine, which makes it particularly useful for constipation and if you're in need of support with digestive regularity. There's a lot of inexpensive forms of magnesium citrate. Magnesium Calm is a company— I have no affiliation with these brands that I'm going to go through— but Magnesium Calm is a powder form of magnesium citrate that you can get at a lot of different stores, and that could be a good option. You can also get magnesium citrate in supplement form if you're interested in taking the supplement. Magnesium glycinate is one of my most preferred forms of magnesium. This is by far the magnesium form that my dietitians and I recommend most often when working with clients. It's bound to glycine. The magnesium is bound to glycine, which is an amino acid, and glycine on its own has its own calming effects that help to support the nervous system. The other reason that I like magnesium glycinate is because it's easy on the digestive system, and it's really my go-to when we're looking at starting magnesium for someone that's trying to feel more rested that is trying to support their central nervous system and feel more relaxed, that's trying to improve sleep, taking magnesium glycinate can also be very effective for improving sleep. And this is something that a lot of our clients will see on their Oura or Garmin or Whoop data, that just after 1 to 2 nights of adding magnesium glycinate before bed, they see significant improvements in their sleep scores, meaning they're getting into more deep and REM sleep, and they're able to have higher levels of restoration throughout the night. Magnesium glycinate also has a high bioavailability, which is another reason that I love it. Okay, the third form of magnesium that is really popping up because of a lot of, a lot of the research behind it for brain health benefits is magnesium L-threonate. Magnesium L-threonate, it has been shown to support benefits like memory and cognitive function, and this is because the research has shown that magnesium L-threonate is likely able to cross the blood-brain barrier more effectively than some of the other forms of magnesium. So the way that magnesium L-threonate is formed is by binding magnesium to L-threinoic acid, which is a metabolite of vitamin C. So if you're particularly focused on brain health and brain health optimization and you're concerned that magnesium glycinate doesn't benefit you to the extent that you would like, like, then magnesium L-threonate could be a good option as well. And sometimes you can even find combination products when it comes to supplements. So these would be 3 different supplement forms: magnesium citrate, magnesium glycinate, and magnesium L-threonate. The dose that we typically start with is anywhere from 120 milligrams to 400, 500, 600 milligrams. When you go above 400 milligrams of supplementation, that's usually when I I also like to work alongside a doctor to ensure that it's the right dose of, of the magnesium, but 120 milligrams is typically where we start out. That is, for instance, like, I typically will recommend Pure Encapsulation, the magnesium glycinate by Pure Encapsulation. Again, I have no affiliation with Pure Encapsulation, but it is one that I've been recommending for the last 12 years, and it is one that has 120 milligrams in one capsule. So if we're starting out with 2 capsules at night before bed and then adding one in the morning, then that's going to be 360 milligrams of magnesium. And then you may also be getting magnesium from other vitamins like multivitamins, etc., that you want to pay attention to as well, to just to add the total of magnesium. But as you can see, if you're supplementing with 360 milligrams of magnesium in addition to getting some of these really amazing food sources, you're going to be well beyond that 320 milligram minimum threshold holds that exists for that recommended daily value. And a lot of times people benefit from having more magnesium. The other thing that I want to add is that magnesium, while it has been shown to be supportive of sleep, it doesn't mean that taking magnesium in the morning makes you tired. So when I'm working with people who have a lot of cortisol dysregulation, a lot of HPA axis dysregulation, where they need to support their nervous system more effectively, adding magnesium in the morning can actually help to improve energy levels because it helps to calm you and relax you. And if you are overly tired because you're like hyper, you're overly active, your cortisol is high, magnesium can help with bringing you down to a more even level where actually feeling more relaxed improves and steadies your energy. So I want to just add that because sometimes people think that since the research shows that magnesium helps with sleep, that that's the only time that you can take that is before bed. Let's get into some of the research studies. There's so much interesting research that's coming out on magnesium. I went through a bunch of new papers and I wanted to call out a few. So the first is magnesium for stress and anxiety. A really amazing paper that, um, I've quoted often is a 2016 paper that looked at rugby players, 23 rugby and they found that these athletes who are performing physically stressful tasks, that supplementing with magnesium helped to suppress the release of stress hormones. And what this suggests is that magnesium may have an important influence on changing of parameters of HPA axis activity and reducing of immune response activations following strenuous physical exercise like a rugby game. So they found that the magnesium supplementation helped to improve HPA axis activity and to suppress the release of stress hormone, which can be increased during physical activity, which can also lead to an overactivation of the immune response, which, which can generate more inflammation. So the researchers are pointing out that magnesium may play a role in changing those parameters of the HPA axis activity and improving immune response. From that workout. Another very interesting category of research is magnesium for blood sugar. This has been studied in a number of different research studies showing a pretty significant improvement, a small but significant improvement in blood sugar and insulin sensitivity. So one paper showed that decreases in fasting insulin appear to occur over long-term supplementation with magnesium in people that are at risk for diabetes or already have the disease state. So they found that decreases in insulin may not happen in people who don't have diabetes. This was a meta-analysis that was conducted looking at research studies that had been done between 1 to 6 months of time, with the average age between 30 to 64, happening in both men and women. And they found that— this was a 2021 meta-analysis— they found that decreases in fasting insulin were the most significant for people who were at risk for diabetes or already had diabetes. That doesn't mean that people that don't have diabetes don't have additional benefits. Sometimes it's about being more proactive with nutrients that mechanistically have been shown to improve blood sugar control, and it just means that, that wasn't shown— they didn't look at that population of people who didn't have diabetes in this particular meta-analysis. They also, in a separate study, showed that people that had pre-diabetes that were insulin resistant and obese that were not magnesium deficient experienced a reduction in fasting blood sugar after 365 milligrams of magnesium aspartate chloride for 6 months. So that showed that you didn't have to have diabetes in order to see an improvement. This was done in a population that had prediabetes and that the people were categorically obese from a BMI standpoint. They did not have a magnesium deficiency but still experienced improvements in that fasting blood sugar level. Now, the reason that they specified that is because sometimes the reason that things will work is because a population is deficient in a nutrient, and then the only time that they see those improvements is when the person is deficient. So they're showing that these people didn't even have magnesium deficiency, and they still had improvements in, in reducing their fasting glucose after supplementing with 365 milligrams for a 6-month time period. Another very interesting area is magnesium for blood pressure and magnesium for preeclampsia. So let's start with magnesium for blood pressure. Magnesium supplementation has been shown to lead to significant reductions in blood pressure, and the studies are most consistent when the person either has low magnesium levels or has an elevated blood pressure, meaning that their blood pressure is above 140 over 90. When a person has high blood pressure, over 140 over 90, they don't have to have a magnesium deficiency in order for them to experience improvements in lowering blood pressure from magnesium supplementation. So this is definitely an area where, in working with clients or even recommending to family and friends, if a person has high blood pressure or is at risk of high blood pressure, this is one of the first nutrients that we'll recommend. In addition to, of course, working on food-based sources of magnesium that can be increased in the diet. It's so amazing. Just one example of how much food really can be medicine when looking at the importance of these micronutrients. The next was a study that was done— it was a meta-analysis that was done on preeclampsia, looking at females between the ages of 18 to 44, and they found an improvement in preeclampsia. This was a study from 2022 that was titled Oral Magnesium Supplementation for the Prevention of Preeclampsia: A Meta-analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials. It says 7 RCTs with 2,653 pregnant women were included. Pooled results showed that oral magnesium supplementation during pregnancy significantly reduced the risk of preeclampsia. And then it shows, um, and it shows some of the ways that that happens, the statistics behind it. So the conclusion from the paper was that oral supplementation of magnesium may reduce the risk of preeclampsia, which may be more remarkable in high-risk pregnant women, seeing that the outcomes were, were more significant there. Now, in any research study, they need to use words like may, because even if they show an outcome, it doesn't necessarily mean that that is going— that can be applied for every instance moving forward, which is why research is always always has so much caution around saying like these study— these findings can't be interpreted across every potential pregnant woman, etc. More research is needed. Some of those disclaimers that are typically added. But the fact that they concluded that oral supplementation of magnesium may reduce the risk of preeclampsia and that the findings were most remarkable in women that were high risk, I think, is a great case for continuing to think about magnesium, especially from a proactive to decrease the risk of preeclampsia. And then if there are situations where a woman is in a higher risk situation, absolutely thinking about magnesium as an easy addition. Okay, next I want to get into a 2026 paper titled Magnesium Supplementation as an Adjunct to Fluoxetine Therapy for Depression. So this trial took a magnesium supplement that went alongside the medical treatment for depression. And what they found was that the addition of magnesium in addition to the medication can help to alleviate symptoms, at least in the short term, that were measured. So they found that depression symptoms meaningfully improved with magnesium plus medical care compared to medical treatment alone, compared to the group that were just taking their medication for depression. Adding that magnesium in addition was able to show improvements. This study was done— it wasn't a randomized control trial. It was done in 80 participants. 80% of them were women, 20% were men, and the age range was 18 to 45 years old. And all these people had depression. And after 6 weeks, the participants that had standard care, which was just the anti-depression medication, was one group. And the second group was that people who took 250 milligrams of magnesium daily in addition to their medication. And the results showed that taking magnesium improved depression symptoms to a large degree. They also tested plasma serotonin levels, thinking that that could mechanistically be an explanation, but they found that the plasma serotonin levels were no different between the two groups. So the depression symptoms may be tied to other things mechanistically that were impacted by the magnesium supplementation. Okay, the next study is on cognition and sleep quality. Which is looking at magnesium L-threonate. I told you that magnesium L-threonate is one of the strongest magnesium forms that's been shown for brain health. So what the researchers looked at here was whether magnesium L-threonate could support cognition. This was a 6-week randomized controlled trial in 100 participants that had an average age of 37, and they had self-reported sleep problems. What they found was that magnesium L-threonate improved cognition but significantly improved sleep quality. So the participants took 1 gram of magnesium L-threonate, or the other group took a placebo, and they did the placebo twice per day. So compared to the placebo group, the magnesium L-threonate group experienced a number of different symptom improvements, which included overall cognition, age-adjusted cognition, working memory, reaction time, heart rate, heart rate variability, which is the measurement of, uh, time in between your heartbeats that you want to have more variability behind. Minds in order to have higher levels of resilience, better cardiovascular health, better longevity, etc., and also sleep deprivation symptoms. But what they found was that when they measured the sleep quality, the sleep duration, the sleep efficacy, and the sleep latency, that there were no difference between the two groups. So there were improvements in sleep deprivation symptoms but not in measurable outcomes for sleep. So what they found as their takeaway was that magnesium L-threonate might support cognition, but in this study, it was not able to show that magnesium L-threonate could improve the objective sleep metrics, meaning that more studies are needed. The other thing that I would say is that the study was funded by the manufacturer of the magnesium supplement, um, and that can always impact the results. Of course, here it still didn't lead to a bias that led to like absurd improvements in um, sleep metrics, but that can be something that influences outcomes for the study. I do want to read from this paper because there's a few really amazing things that these researchers highlighted. In addition to calling out the fact that magnesium is involved in more than 300 enzymatic reactions and that approximately 50% of the United States population doesn't consume enough magnesium, they also noted that the decline in magnesium concentrations in modern food crops may be contributing to reduced magnesium intake, which is potentially increasing the risk of magnesium deficiency in chronic health conditions like cardiovascular disease and metabolic syndrome. What they identified is that low blood magnesium concentrations have been identified in many conditions like depression, anxiety, cardiovascular disease, cardiometabolic syndromes, and type 2 diabetes. Moreover, lower blood concentrations of magnesium have been identified in with a— with reduced cognitive performance, mild cognitive impairment, and Alzheimer's disease. However, it is important to note that these correlation studies do not confirm causality, as these health conditions are associated with several factors that may influence magnesium status, such as poor dietary habits or gastrointestinal changes that affect magnesium absorption. But they did call out the fact that according to, um, the National Health and Nutrition Survey, which comprised 2,508 participants aged 60 years and older, a higher magnesium intake was independently associated with higher global cognitive scores. Then they went on to list some of the other research studies that have shown significant outcomes, listing in another 12-week randomized controlled trial on older adults with mild cognitive impairment, Magtein supplementation was associated with a significant improvement in the total cognitive score, which was equivalent to an approximate 9-year cognitive improvement, suggesting a meaningful reversal result of age-related cognitive decline. So I think then they go on to talk about sleep quality and other things that have been correlated with sleep, showing 4 observational studies indicated that low magnesium status was associated with reduced sleep quality, including delayed sleep onset, daytime sleepiness, and reduced sleep duration, but that there needs to be better quality studies, randomized controlled trials, that are able to better understand this correlation between magnesium sleep. So the research consensus from magnesium and sleep is still out. Um, while some studies have shown improvements, and even this initial study that I had, um, linked to that we initially talked about, about magnesium L-threonate improving those qualitative measurements of sleep, leading to fewer sleep deprivation symptoms, we definitely do need more research on the sleep front. What I will say in working with thousands and thousands of clients is that magnesium supplementation can absolutely help with improving sleep metrics and working with regular people on a regular basis, looking at measurements that I see in their Oura data, in their Whoop data, and in their self-reported feelings of not waking up in the middle of the night and those sorts of things. And so hopefully the research will catch up on that to continue to better understand that connection between magnesium and sleep. Okay, we covered a lot today. I wanted to be able to go high level with some of the things that you wanna know and then a little bit deeper into the research so that you really understand the research that's being done and the way that, that can impact the choices that you're making. My takeaways for you are that one, magnesium deficiency is one of the most common deficiencies that we see across the board in clients that we worked with after working with thousands and thousands of clients. Two, there are very apparent symptoms that can show up when you have magnesium deficiency. Deficiency that you want to look for. We went through some of them: muscle spasms and cramps, headaches, constipation, fatigue, insomnia, anxiety, irritability, etc. Can all be linked to magnesium deficiency. You want to be strategic about making sure that you're getting enough food sources that have great sources of magnesium in order to try to meet the minimum magnesium needs, knowing that a lot of people actually need higher levels of magnesium because of changes to our food crops, changes in our stress levels with higher levels of chronic stress that lead to higher need for magnesium. Not all magnesium is created equal when it comes to the supplement front, and looking at supplements between magnesium citrate, magnesium glycinate, and magnesium L-threonate can be effective. And then when we're looking at the research, we've seen correlations between magnesium for stress and anxiety in addition to depression, improvements in blood sugar and metabolic health and insulin resistance in addition to improvements in blood pressure and preeclampsia. Lastly, we did just announce the Being Collective, my membership. You now have the ability to join. We have a monthly payment plan option, and you get the Being Collective Kickstarter, which is the first 4-week on-ramp, a 4-week course, 4-week meal plan, 4-week guides, 4 weeks of guides that are created by my team of dietitians and I, in addition to 3 email check-ins from our dietitians. You get all of that 100% for free This is something that we typically sell for $297 that you now have access to as part of your membership. So you can join us for $97 per month, or we have an annual payment plan that gives you a discount. But we are so thrilled to welcome so many new faces of women who are working towards health optimization and want a no-fluff, science-backed approach to doing so, where we generate weekly meal plans for you from my team of dietitians and I, increases 10 new blood sugar balancing recipes. Brigid Titgemeier, which is an AI bot trained through my methodology, asks me anythings with me every month, uh, deeper dives into coaching calls with my team of dietitians in an incredible community of women who are wanting to have conversations about magnesium and other things that are impacting their health, knowing how much control we can take over feeling good on a daily basis and aging well. Well, thank you for being here with me today to talk all things magnesium on the Being Brigid Show. I will see you next time.