Magnesium: Prevent Cramps, Poor Sleep, and Low Energy Ep89

Every endurance athlete remembers the moment when things finally click. Your swim feels smoother, your pacing makes sense, your fueling works, and suddenly the sport feels not only easier, but more fun. And for many athletes, that moment happens at training camp. That's exactly why we created the Endurance Edge Triathlon Training Camp happening April 22nd through 26th at Lake Jocassee in South Carolina. For 4 incredible days, you'll train in a small group with expert coaches, sports nutrition support, and sports psychology guidance, all designed to help you train smarter, race stronger, and finally connect the dots in your performance. We swim in crystal clear mountain water, ride beautiful and challenging roads, run scenic trails, and spend the rest of the time recovering, learning, laughing, and eating some seriously amazing chef-prepared food. Mm-hmm. Camp is intentionally small, just 20 athletes, so you get real coaching, true connection, and amazing breakthroughs. So if you want an experience that can transform your entire season, we invite you to join us. Head to theenduranceedge.com and click training camp and reserve your spot with just a $100 deposit. Come train hard, learn a ton, and leave stronger than you ever imagined. I'll see you there. Hey, y'all, and welcome back to the Find Your Edge podcast. I am your host, Coach Christina Fiumara Newport, and I am happy that you are listening today. Today's topic is all about magnesium, which is one of my favorite topics. And I definitely have to thank our dietetic intern. His name is Patrick. He is with us for the next couple of months. He is from the UNC program, which I won't hold that over his head because I went to NC State and Meredith. But beyond that, we've been doing a ton of different stuff, everything from gut health to zonulin to travel nutrition on airplanes to travel nutrition in the car, and of course magnesium. So he made this really fantastic handout for our longevity program that puts together and explains different types of magnesium, their bioavailability, their common uses and potential side effects, and then recommended brands, products, and pricing. So we break everything for you down in the Longevity Program. And this is also really relevant for certain genetic SNPs, making sure that you get adequate amount of magnesium. So I wanted to dive into that a little bit and also note, if you want to learn more about the Longevity Program, you can join anytime. It involves the genetic tests, it involves live accountability calls, a monthly genetics-only call, a private call with me to go over your genetics, a protocol that includes lifestyle, nutrition, and supplement. All kinds of great stuff. Check it out, theenduranceedge.com/longevity, and in there you will find a magnesium module all about this. It's pretty amazing. Similarly, the same module will be in our upcoming Fueling and Hydration Bootcamp. So if you want to know how to sweat properly, all of you guys are probably really good at that, but hydrate and fuel according to your sweat and according to whatever activity is that it is that you're doing and whatever intensity you're doing, cuz that changes, then get on the waitlist for our upcoming Fueling and Hydration Bootcamp. That's theenduranceedge.com/bootcamp. You can get on the waitlist and be the first one to know when it opens. All right, and before we jump too deeply into this, just a quick reminder that this is for informational and educational purposes only and is not designed to replace information from your healthcare provider. All right, so magnesium, love it. It's one of the most important minerals for health and wellbeing. It's involved in well over 300 biochemical reactions in the body, so it's really critical. What I did is a quick search on how many people are actually getting appropriate magnesium levels in their diet, and it actually matches that of what endurance athletes are getting. So we all get somewhere around 50 to 60%. That's male and women, um, endurance athletes or not. We're all getting about that much of the recommended dietary amount in our diets. So, uh, we could be doing better, you know what I mean? Right? So the recommended dietary allowances for men are 400 to 420 milligrams per day, and for women it's 310 to 360 per day. So I feel like I'm pretty good about getting my leafy greens, my spinach and my almonds and black beans and peanut butter and whatnot, but Still, if I actually did the data, I'm probably falling short too. Full disclosure, I do take a supplement for magnesium and it is fantastic, but that's for me personally. But just to give you a couple of ideas as to food sources of magnesium, pumpkin seeds, such a great one, easy to put into everything from your oatmeal to your cookies to your smoothie even. So 1 ounce of pumpkin seeds have 168 milligrams. How about that? And pro tip, keep your seeds and nuts if you can, either in the fridge or the freezer, especially if you don't use them that often. And make sure that you buy them from good quality sources because nuts and seeds, because of their high fat content, can go rancid, especially if you are keeping them in light colored containers or out like where they might be exposed to the heat. Other things that are good sources of magnesium are spinach, half a cup of cooked spinach, 78 milligrams. So that's great. Cashews, dry roasted, serving size 1 ounce, 74 milligrams. Here's some other things you may not think of. Oh, dark chocolate. Everybody loves their dark chocolate. Okay, let me rephrase that. I love my dark chocolate, but 60 to 69% cacao, a 1-ounce serving is 50 milligrams. So there's certainly, uh, good places where you can get it in your diet. But again, are— do you think you're getting more than 50 to 60%, which is what most people and certainly what endurance athletes are mostly getting? So that might be something interesting to explore in your own diet. Another thing I ran across was the effect of endurance training on copper, zinc, iron, and magnesium status. This is a 2021 research study that looked at how is endurance training actually affecting your magnesium status. Now, considering that you lose magnesium in your sweat, that's one thing, especially for all you heavy sweaters out there. I know who you are. Don't forget to get on the waitlist for our fueling and hydration bootcamp. So that's gonna be really important for you so that you can know exactly how to fuel yourself with the right amount of electrolytes and with the right strategies. Anyhow, they found in this particular research study that in erythrocytes, so those red blood cells, a significant decrease was observed for magnesium and zinc. So we love those minerals. You know, endurance training takes a little bit of a toll on you. So if you wanna do some quick back of the napkin math, if you're doing endurance training and you're sweating a lot, add at least 10% on to that existing needs that we were already talking about with the recommended dietary allowance. Now those numbers kind of go up a little bit more. So other things that make magnesium helpful, it supports healthy bones. So in the genetic test, there is not only a section on bone health, but also a section on vitamin D. And that's really critical to see how you need to care for yourself as it relates to your bones and as it relates to vitamin D status. Over your lifetime? Are there certain genetic SNPs that reduce your ability to absorb vitamin D and actually use it in its active form? So magnesium also assists in the activation of vitamin D, which helps regulate your calcium and phosphorus levels, critical to bone health, which of course is bringing me back to my renal days from my dietetic internship. So if you are menopausal, this is something you need to be thinking about too. Okay, so have a discussion with your healthcare provider about your magnesium status. You can actually get that tested just like in your regular physical. You can ask for it and just say, hey, I'm an endurance athlete, and maybe you're also menopausal or whatever, and see if they'll test it for you. Generally speaking, within the blood it's pretty tightly regulated, but yes, you can get low magnesium or hypomagnesium. That is generally pretty easy, easily fixed with a good quality magnesium supplement. We'll talk about that here in a moment. Another thing that magnesium helps with is is reducing inflammation. I have seen so many people recently in our longevity program that have high levels of inflammation just in general, and their genetic propensity for inflammation is high, and they most likely have low magnesium status or just aren't getting enough of it in their diet. So it can help, especially when it comes to reducing joint pain and muscle soreness, in fact. So especially if you've got some of those hard workouts, we, we need magnesium. Okay. So, and as you might imagine with magnesium and vitamin D status, anti-inflammatory effect, it also supports your cardiovascular health or your heart health. Pretty cool that it helps maintain a healthy blood pressure by relaxing those arterial walls and improving your circulation. So pretty awesome there. Similarly, it helps to regulate your blood sugar levels. So that's really important. It's also suggested that it enhances your mood. So recent research suggests that supplementing with a little bit of extra magnesium will get into the types here in a moment— may be beneficial for those struggling with depression or anxiety disorders because of its important role in serotonin production, which is a neurotransmitter that's critical for feeling good and regulating your mood. The biggest thing that I see helpful in my practice is that it promotes sleep. So it helps regulate several neurotransmitters that impact sleep and may be part of better sleep quality. So that's typically the biggest things that I see anecdotally from folks is that their sleep is improved with additional magnesium and their digestion is improved depending on what type they're taking or needing, and also that they cramp less. So especially again for my heavy sweaters, if we add in those extra magnesium, it might, we might just need a little bit of extra through the hotter months when you're sweating so much and when you, those red blood cells are really kind of seeping out of your magnesium, might just need a little bit more. Some of the best supplements, because we're thinking about bioavailability and we're also thinking about side effects, at the end of the day, whichever magnesium type you use that you consume, if you are going to consume some from a supplement, it is going to correct low magnes— low magnesium. So just want to make sure that that's clear. Pretty much doesn't matter which kind you take. But it may matter to you which type you take based on what you may be experiencing and why you are taking it. So that's one of the things I just generally want to note about supplements is that you should have a solid reason for whatever you are taking. So if you pick up a bottle and you're like, I'm taking this, and you don't know why, then you shouldn't take it. So make sure you have a good reason for the amount and the type of supplement that you are taking, because we can do more harm than good depending on what it is. So that's just like, you know, PSA: make sure whatever supplement you're taking, that it has a good reason for taking it. Otherwise, why are you taking it? Stop taking it. Let's save some— let's save some dough and also potentially doing something harmful to yourself. So first type of magnesium that I want to bring up is oxide. It is the lowest bioavailability, but this is what you're going going to get in the hospital if you are constipated, which pain relievers will oftentimes constipate you. Helpful perhaps in treating some heartburn or indigestion. So it's not super well absorbed, but again, if you have low magnesium, any of these types will correct that. Another common form that we see is citrate. That is another helpful one that is great in assisting with regular bowel movements. Maybe a little bit of constipation, and again, improving that magnesium level. Some other types that we typically are using in our practice is glycinate. That is very bioavailable. Same thing with the citrate form. Glycinate, because it's chelated— magnesium is chelated to a molecule of glycine, which is a wonderfully relaxing amino acid. It can help facilitate a little bit more relaxation. Great great option for more the anxiety and depression or stress or insomnia. So, and if you have a tendency more towards faster bowels, you may want to lean more towards a glycinate versus a citrate. But again, have a conversation with your licensed healthcare provider and a knowledgeable supplement person. We are happy to help you in this. Again, we do this in our Longevity Program, theenduranceedge.com/longevity. Longevity. Another common form that we like to use is malate. So in terms of the bioavailability, still pretty bioavailable, definitely more so than oxide. This one is a common one that's used for more fibromyalgia, more muscle type of pain, chronic fatigue syndrome, or anybody who struggles with more like, uh, muscle soreness, things like that. I, I take one personally that's a combination glycinate glycinate malate. It's a great one. Other ones that are available, there's chloride. I typically don't, in fact, we don't even have one that's, you take orally. Chloride is magnesium attached to a molecule of chlorine, which I feel like we get enough of that, friends, between us being in the pool, if you're a triathlete, and the little bit of chlorine in your water, unless hopefully you're doing some great filtered water. I mean, why do we need to put those things in our body? I, Yeah, no thanks. But again, you make that decision and have that conversation with your knowledgeable supplement healthcare provider. Uh, but chloride is an option. What I more see the chloride is with topical applications. So you might have issues with your, your calves cramping at night, or you might be about to go into a particular race and you're worried about your adductors or your calves or your hamstrings cramping or whatever. You can literally pump a little bit into your hand and rub it directly on your muscles. So that's a great use for chloride. We like to suggest a product, it's from Designs for Health, it's MagnaGel. And if you guys go to the link that is provided in the show notes, you guys will be able to see all of these and you can order them directly from the site. You just have to create an account. We use Fullscript for our products that we suggest. And then also going back to the citrate one, Pure Encapsulations has a, a great option. They have both a capsule option and just be forewarned also, if you're somebody who's not great at taking pills, magnesium is just, it's big, it's very large. It's just a large mineral. So in turn, the pills are, or the capsules are also very big. So for example, the Pure Encapsulations magnesium citrate, 90 capsules and they're 150 milligrams per capsule. Usually I like to start people on the lower end and then work their your way up. I have heard of people who start off with, say, 400 milligrams or 600 milligrams and then go, oh man, I don't know why I was in the bathroom for the last 3 days. Like, ah, magnesium is the worst. No, it's not. We just gotta start a little smaller or we need to change the type you're on. So anyway, magnesium, uh, citrate from Pure Encapsulations. Again, this will be on our website, but 90 capsules for, uh, about 22 cents per serving, which is pretty cool. You can also get in a powder version if you don't like swallowing big pills. Citrate is a really easy, uh, and cheaper version of powder that you can mix in a drink, and that's about 52 cents per serving with 250 milligrams per scoop. So that's pretty cool. Oxide, there is some Pure Encapsulations Ultra Mag. Douglas Labs makes a, makes a magnesium oxide as well. These are pretty cheap. Douglas Labs version is 12 cents a serving. Pure Encapsulation has an Ultra Mag, which is like a combination, and that's 40 cents per serving. So again, not as well absorbed, but cheaper certainly, and will correct low magnesium. And again, just keep an eye on some of those potential side effects, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, or abdominal cramping. Typically the one that I hear the most about is that it may just cause loose stools. All right, what else do we like to suggest? L-theanine, of course, I cannot re— forget that one. That is highly bioavailable. It crosses the blood-brain barrier the easiest. So that's a really great one that they are doing some additional research on for anxiety and cognitive function and brain health. B4. Be warned that on the package it looks like you are taking an excessive amount. I'll give you an example. I had a client once who was taking this particular type of magnesium for some elevated anxiety and goes in to get her blood work done. I think she went in maybe for surgery, and the nurse said, you know, what supplements are you taking? She said magnesium. She said, how much? And she said like 1,000 milligrams. And that made the nurse's eyeballs pop out. So that's a lot, but the actual part absorbed is actually only like 145 milligrams or 144, no more than like 200. So very similar. If anybody has ever taken iron, you get 325 milligrams, but it's only 65 milligrams of ferrous sulfate. So it can be a little confusing. I hate it for you guys. But anyway, L3 and 8, some of the ones that I like, there's a Protocol for Life Balance Magtein. That's a great one. 90 capsules, that's $1.87 per serving. So keep that in mind compared to like the citrate. But again, L-3,8 may be a really great option and it's really fantastic for a lot of people. Uh, Zymogen is another one of my favorites that I like to use. They've got a powder version and they have a capsule version. Again, if you prefer like getting yours as like a drink, might be a nice like ritual at night kind of thing. Other products that we really like, glycinate. So Thorne has a good one that's NSF certified, uh, that's a magnesium bisglycinate. It is a, another drink version. And then Pure Encapsulations and Designs for Sport. Sport is another really good one. Those are anywhere, uh, the Pure Encapsulations one is 30 cents a serving. The Designs for Sport is 60 cents a serving. So other things that I wanna make sure that you guys know about in terms of types, there's also magnesium lactate, not quite as highly bioavailable, but maybe might be great for those with some more sensitive tummies. I don't see that one commonly. And in fact, the one that we would recommend is, is from Standard Process, great company. It's $1.27 per serving. I feel like I would lean on other types a little bit more than that one. And the final one is torate. So that's a good one for supporting cardiovascular health and blood sugar control. Pretty well bioavailable, not as much as glycinate, L-threonate, or the citrate for sure. So something to think about. Clare Labs has a good one, it's called Mad Complete. And again, those are oftentimes you're gonna see some mixtures with different types of magnesium. At the end of the day, again, they're all gonna raise a low magnesium. It's just what is easy for you to get down, what maybe is the most cost-effective for for you. Because if you can do the oxide or you can do the citrate, okay, knock yourself out, it's totally fine, and you're not going to have any side effects from that. All right, if you want more to lean into some of those more muscle benefits or sleep benefits or anxiety benefits, you might think about a different brand for you. So that's all about magnesium. So much fun. Like I said, all of this information is in our Longevity Program as well as in our Fueling and Hydration Boot Camp. So again, you can sign up anytime for a longevity program. It includes a genetic test, includes a private session with me to review your genetic test and go over any supplements that will serve you best, as well as lifestyle, any functional foods. And then we get multiple weekly accountable accountability calls per week, a monthly genetics-only call where we dive deeply into some of your genetics and everybody gets to look at their different genetic SNPs and see some of the— and dive deeper into them. It's really fun. You get access to an entire program just on longevity for nutrition, like I'm talking about with this magnesium. We talk about everything from meal planning to travel nutrition to, oh my goodness, menopause. So much in that. I mean, seriously, like, it's insane how much content is in there. Uh, in fact, we were just talking with one of the people in the Longevity Program, and he just discovered that there's a whole nother program in there that's called our Genetic Edge, and that literally goes into category by category of the genetic test goes into all of the different information about all these dietary SNPs, what supplements might be helpful to discuss with your healthcare provider, and if there's any particular foods that you need to lean into, including literally thousands of recipes that help with everything from blood pressure to ApoE4, cardiovascular health, mood, behavior, all kinds of stuff. So all the related— not only do you know what to eat and drink, but you also know what you need to lean into from a lifestyle perspective instead of just being like, oh my gosh, I have to do it all. No, you don't. You just need to do the things that are very specific to you and what's showing up with you and what might show up in your blueprint. So anyway, that's all about our longevity program, theenduranceedge.com/longevity. And magnesium is also crucial for sweat. So again, you can check that out at theenduranceedge.com/bootcamp. We're gonna be starting that in the next couple of weeks, so get on the waitlist. and that is all about sweat testing and more. We go into all different ergogenic aids from beta alanine to creatine to magnesium and caffeine and when to time your fuel, how to time your fuel. So great. Anyway, I look forward to seeing you guys there. As you can see, I like to nerd out on this stuff and I know that you do too. So check it out, theenduranceedge.com. Hope you guys have a great day and thanks again for listening. Catch you next time. Thanks for listening to the Find Your Edge podcast. If you like what you heard, don't forget to subscribe on your favorite podcast platform so you never miss an episode. And if you're interested in learning more about our endurance coaching, sports and wellness nutrition, metabolic and sweat testing, triathlon training team, or our triathlon training library, be sure to check us out at theenduranceedge.com. And don't forget to follow us on social media at The Endurance Edge. Thanks again, and we'll catch you next time.