Dave Asprey and Andrew Huberman explain why magnesium threonate crosses the blood-brain barrier and raises BDNF and NGF, sharpening daytime focus and learning. Take it in the morning, not at night, since elevated BDNF disrupts sleep. Other magnesium forms like bisglycinate work better for evening relaxation.
As much as we don't think of magnesium per se as an adaptogen, but healthy magnesium intake. And by the way, various individuals respond differently to the various salts of magnesium. Don't think that magnesium is just magnesium bisaglycinate or magnesium nitrate. Okay, so there are different salts of it. Specifically one of them to call out a shout out to magnesium threonate, which is the magnesium that can cross the blood brain barrier and improve bdnf, brain derived neurotrophic factor. But just FYI, vitamin D, we don't want to be consuming most of the magnesiums we can and should potentially take at nighttime. Magnesium threonate we take earlier in the day because it's involved in ramping up that awareness. You take too much magnesium threonate just before bedtime, you're telling your body surge BDNF surged. BDNF is not a good proposition for a healthy night's sleep.
That's interesting. Cause when I take three and eight and I take a ton of lion's mane, the Australian, the life cycle stuff, which raises BDNF dramatic. I take it before bed, I get three times more REM sleep. Yeah. And if I don't take it, I get way less REM sleep. It was the hack. I hacked my deep sleep with the truedark glasses and it hacked my REM sleep. I mean after hundreds of different things with little tiny bits, these are like the 2 or 3x improvements specifically.
So David gave and. Well, for all of the listeners, this is why. No, well, that might be it, but this is why Dave Asbury is Dave. So Dave, you've just talked, so all physiologic, what we call logic, flow physiology. Logic, flow physiology. We don't want to ramp up BDNF before bed.
Generally speaking, that I did not know. That's super useful. And nerve growth factor, same thing. Those are daytime only.
Well, they are earlier. They're earlier day circadian rhythm things. Right. So generally speaking, they're just simply what, Hyper awareness. Now maybe that factors into the REM sleep, but generally speaking, you would want those fast faculties, that sense of how you are earlier rather than later. So many of my patients, when I talk to them and they'll talk about learning about magnesium threonate and then they'll say I started it, but I noticed my sleep is off the first. Wow, you're taking it at nighttime, aren't you? Well, yes, that's when I take magnesium. Yes, you take magnesium. The bisaglycinates and the citrates and the nitrates. Those you can take later in the day from a relaxation muscle relaxation perspective and mood relaxation. Magnesium threonates earlier in the day. That's generally what I go off of.
