The Power of Magnesium

Do you remember as kids when you used to run around with a secret and go up to all of your friends and say “I know something you don’t know?” It was typically followed with sticking my tongue out and squinting my eyes at them before running away laughing. Well, that practice has come and gone with maturity, but I had the same youthful giddiness after I learned about all the many benefits of magnesium for our bodies. Instead of desiring to keep it is secret and run away laughing, I find that it is much more fun to shout these great health secrets from the rooftop.

Here is the long and skinny about magnesium: we burn up our magnesium storage when we are stressed, and we replace the magnesium typically with green leafy veggies, nuts and seeds. The truth is that most of us have more stress than we do spinach and over time, we become deficient. Other causes of deficiency could be: some drugs (diuretics, antibiotics, oral contraceptives, insulin, cortisone), heavy exercise, diabetes, gastrointestinal disorders and too much calcium in the diet.

There are many options for supplementing magnesium. I really enjoy Natural Calm, which I know you can pick this up at Natural Grocers and Clovers. This product is a powder that you add it to a cup of warm water (it will fizzle a bit and then settle down). Then you drink it like it was hot tea, so taking the product is relaxing in itself. I do recommend sticking to the warm water, as I experimented once with some cold bottled water, and it was pretty sure it was unpalatable 🙂

So, what are the signs of having less magnesium in your body than you should? Here are a few signs that say you could benefit from a magnesium supplement:

• stress
• fatigue or low energy
• inability to sleep
• muscle tension,spasms or cramping
• anxiousness and nervousness
• irritability
• headaches
• weakness
• PMS and hormonal imbalances
• weakening bones
• abnormal heart rhythms
• calcification of organs

Whew! That is quite a list. The first time I read it, I thought, yeah, sure…everyone has one of those things don’t they? Then I thought, oh yes, and everyone of us has stress. And it’s probably more than we want, so it makes sense that we would run out of this very helpful functional item in our body if stress burns it up.

How much is too much? Well, toxicity of magnesium is very unlikely if you are following the recommended dosages on the supplement label. This is because the kidney is really efficient at processing magnesium. Also, there is a rule of thumb with regard to magnesium that if you get a loose stool, you probably have a little more than what your body would be able to us. Slightly reduce the dosage, and enjoy. Just to be extra safe though, here is a link

for signs and symptoms of toxic doses of magnesium. So, happy hunting for a great supplement and enjoy some relaxed muscles and less stress. That sounds  great to me!