Morning everyone!
Welcome to another edition of the Doctor's Note, where we talk about what's on our mind when it comes to your health. This week, I want to talk to you about one of my favorite vitamins, Magnesium.
But before I get into that, I want to explain the difference between a drug and a supplement. Think of a vitamin as food in a capsule that gently nudges your body in a direction that you want to go in. Towards something your deficient in.
A drug is a chemical that's synthetic. It's not natural. I'm not opposed to drugs and medications by the way. We use them everyday. There's just a difference between medications and vitamins/supplements.
Magnesium is one of my favorite vitamins. It's a very important mineral that's involved in over 600 reactions in your body. Reactions like:
- Metabolism of food
- Muscle movement
- Transmission of nerve impulses
- Synthesis of fatty acids of proteins
- Maintenance of genes
- Controls stress in your body
Why is magnesium important?
Well, so many of us are deficient in it! Around 50% of adults are deficient in magnesium. This is largely due to our soil being depleted of magnesium more so than it used to be. It's also due to the use of chemicals like fluoride and chlorine in water. They compete with magnesium. Sugar and caffeine also compete with magnesium.
Magnesium deficiencies can cause:
- Calcium deficiencies (Osteoporosis)
- Poor heart health
- Arrhythmia's
- Diabetes
- Poor memory
- Constipation
- Poor sleep
- Depression
- Migraines (also migraines in women during menopause, PMS)
What are the signs you're deficient?
- Anxiety
- Depression
- Muscle cramps
- High blood pressure
- Hormone problems of every kind
- Sleep issues
- Low energy
- Low Vitamin D and Vitamin K
How do you check your magnesium levels?
I like to check an RBC (red blood cell) magnesium level.
Ideally, you get your magnesium from food. The foods that are highest in magnesium are:
- Spinach
- Chard
- Chia seeds
- Pumpkin seeds
- Flax
- Almonds
- Cacao (dark chocolate)
- Bananas
- Coffee
Because it's difficult to get the amount of magnesium we need from food alone, there are many magnesium supplements. In fact, there's 9 different magnesium supplements out there.
Magnesium supplements
- Magnesium Oxide (For acid reflux)
- Magnesium Citrate (laxative)
- Magnesium Orotate
- Magnesium Sulfate (epsom salts)
- Magnesium carbonate
- Magnesium glycinate (This is my favorite. It's great for stress)
I personally take the Life Extension Magnesium 500 mg. It's a combination of several types of magnesium, and it has the benefits of all of them. It's the chelated form of magnesium, which means it's attached to amino acids and gets into your cells.
Take it at night. It tends to make you tired. It also relaxes you and eases your stool for bowel movements the next day. It also prevents cardiac arrhythmia's. If you are taking calcium, take it with your magnesium.
That's it for this week! Hope this helps! If you want to go a little deeper into magnesium, check out the
podcast conversation.
Upcoming Specials
On October 30th and 31st (depending on the office) we will be having specials on Botox as a way of saying Happy Halloween. We won't be doing prepays for this, so in order to take advantage of the low price you'll have to come in to get your BOOtox.
If you're interested, please don't hesitate to give one of the offices a call. We'd love to set you up with a BOOtox appointment or talk with you more about magnesium.
Thanks so much for reading!
