Magnesium for Stress and Anxiety

Stress and anxiety are nothing new to many of us (approx. 40 million Americans struggle with one or both), however, it has been almost a year into a pandemic that continues to add more stress than many of us have ever experienced.  Working from home, distant learning, childcare and/or homeschooling our children, social isolation from family, friends, and coworkers, and must juggle much of it all at the same time.  Understandably, stress and anxiety can increase, sometimes drastically, during it all.  However, our bodies cannot handle it and burnout and mental exhaustion can cause us to feel maxed out.  Serious and prolonged stress and anxiety should always be discussed with a mental health professional.  However, other ways of calming down exist including meditation, calming practices, and supplements – magnesium have been long known for its calming properties.  Think of it like vitamin C, which many people take to boost their immune system.

What is magnesium?

Magnesium is a mineral that is essential to health, it is important to over 300 biochemical processes in the body.  These include regulating muscle function, nerve function, maintaining blood glucose levels, maintaining blood pressure levels, making protein, bone, and DNA, and energy production.

Magnesium is found in many foods naturally including:

• Nuts and seeds
• Whole grains
• Legumes
• Dark leafy greens
• Fortified cereals
• Milk
• Yogurt

Surprisingly, up to 50% of the American population has a magnesium deficiency.  This is concerning because it is such an important nutrient for so many bodily functions.  Also, studies show that other nutrients, such as Vitamin D, cannot be properly metabolized without adequate magnesium levels.

Historically, our ancestors would have had a consistent supply of magnesium in the form of organ meats, seafood, mineral water, and ocean swimming.  According to Psychology Today, “Magnesium is an old home remedy for all that ails you, including “anxiety, apathy, depression, headaches, insecurity, irritability, restlessness, talkativeness, and sulkiness.” So it may have been the original “chill pill”.

What are the benefits of magnesium supplementation?

Since magnesium is involved in hundreds of biochemical reactions in your body, it would be difficult to list them all.  However, the main purposes are:

• Helps convert food into energy
• Helps regulate neurotransmitters
• Helps regulate muscle movement and the relaxation of muscles
• Helps create and repair DNA and RNA
• Helps create new proteins from amino acids
• Plays a crucial role in brain function and mood – low levels can lead to depression

There are over 3,700 magnesium binding sites in the human body and any deficiencies can affect your wellness and wellbeing in a variety of ways.

What is the connection between magnesium levels and stress and/or anxiety?

First, magnesium plays a role in our parasympathetic nervous system, which is responsible for bringing our body back to a calm state after a fight-or-flight response due to stress.

Second, magnesium influences our GABA or the main inhibitory neurotransmitter in the brain.  GABA receptors are involved in anxiety and are what pharmaceutical benzodiazepine drugs like Xanax target.

Studies show that magnesium can help to manage stress, improve the sense of calm, increase feelings of contentment, and helps with resilience.  All beneficial for anxiousness and stress symptoms.  This calming effect also has a connection to neurotransmitters that play a role in mood control and relaxation – dopamine and serotonin.

How does magnesium help reduce anxiety?

Magnesium may help to regulate your HPA axis.

Your stress response is a complicated process and your HPA axis, or your hypothalamic pituitary adrenal axis is at the center of it.  Your HPA axis encourages hormones to be released, such as cortisol (the stress hormone) which makes anxiety worse.  Magnesium can help to reduce hyperactivity of the HPA axis and reduce your cortisol levels as a result.

GABA levels rely on magnesium for function support

Gamma-aminobutyric acid, or GABA, is your brain’s primary inhibitory neurotransmitter.

GABA helps:

• Your mind and body relax
• Supports sleep
• Prevents anxiety

When GABA is low, insomnia and anxiety occur.  Magnesium can bind to your GABA receptors and stimulate their action – helping to support normal GABA levels.

Magnesium’s effect on tryptophan and serotonin

Serotonin supports a healthy mood balance and helps regulate sleep patterns.  Poor sleep and low mood can contribute to anxiety, therefore serotonin is super important!  The precursor to serotonin is the amino acid tryptophan, magnesium helps your body convert tryptophan into serotonin.  Balancing this important mood and sleep hormones and reducing anxiety

Vitamin D absorption and magnesium

Vitamin D, also known as the sunshine vitamin, is another source of mood as low levels have been correlated with low mood.  Vitamin D deficiency symptoms also include bone loss, muscle cramps, bone pain, joint pain, and fatigue. Because vitamin D doesn’t naturally occur in many foods, the only way to get it into your body is to spend time in the sun or supplement it into your diet.

Magnesium is the essential cofactor in vitamin D synthesis and helps to absorb it into your body effectively.  Vitamin D can also increase the absorption of magnesium in the intestines.

Magnesium for calmer and more relaxed children

Various studies have shown how important magnesium is for children, looking at the hundreds of biochemical processes it is involved in, it is surprising.  Magnesium can be helpful for any child that is experiencing anxieties, sensory issues, autism, ADHD, hyperactivity, and sensory overload.

Anxiety doesn’t only affect adults, but it does present differently.  Persistent and extreme forms of fear and sadness may be due to anxiety and depression.  During the last year of social isolation and disruption of normal school routines, after curricular activities, and family routines; this can be more common.

Ways anxiety disorders can manifest in children include:

• Separation anxiety – being very afraid of being away from their people – such as parents, grandparents, and other caretakers.
• Having an extreme fear and worry about something such as insects, dogs, or other phobias.
• Afraid of going to school or experiencing other social anxiety
• General anxiety – very concerned about the future and that bad things will happen
• Symptoms such as heart pounding, trouble breathing, dizziness, sweating or shakiness are a sign of a panic disorder and can occur suddenly with repeated episodes of intense fear.
• Anxiety can also make children angry, irritable, cause sleeping issues, fatigue, headaches, stomachaches.

Children can be magnesium deficient due to:

• Fluoride binds to magnesium
• Gut microbiome issues that disrupt magnesium absorption
• Stress that depletes the body of magnesium
• A diet full of processed foods

Magnesium supplementation can help your child

Research shows that the therapeutic use of magnesium for children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and autism (autistic spectrum disorders family, ASD) has shown positive results.

Children with sensory processing dysfunction have also been shown to soothe a child’s nervous system and reduce the more frequent and intense stress response that children with a sensory processing disorder often experience.

Children with ADHD often have low magnesium levels which are linked to impulsivity, inattention, and hyperactive behavior.  Magnesium can help improve cognitive function, reduce hyperactivity and soothe the nervous system in children with low magnesium levels including those with ADHD.

Sleep improves as well with adequate magnesium levels since magnesium reduces stress and encourages calmness and relaxation.

How much magnesium for anxiety?

The amounts of magnesium that would be most effective for you, vary on your age, sex, and dictated other lifestyle or conditions, such as pregnancy or breastfeeding.

According to the National Institutes of Health – the daily recommended amounts for magnesium are as follows:

• Birth to 6 months  30 mg
• Infants 7-12 months  75 mg
• Children 1-3 years 80 mg
• Children 4-8 years 130 mg
• Children 9-13 years 240 mg
• Teen boys 14-18 years 410 mg
• Teen girls 14-18 years 360 mg
• Men 400-420
• Women 310-320 mg
• Pregnant teens 400 mg
• Pregnant women 350-360 mg
• Breastfeeding teens 360 mg
• Breastfeeding women 310-320 mg

Does magnesium have side effects?

Magnesium is safe for most people when taken as recommended. However, large dosages of magnesium can be unsafe as it can build up in the body and cause side effects that include an irregular heartbeat, low blood pressure, confusion, slowed breathing, coma, or death.

You should contact your healthcare professional if you are pregnant or breastfeeding.

Magnesium is safe for most children when taken in the recommended amounts but is unsafe at higher dosages.  Please check the daily recommended amounts by age as per your child’s pediatrician or healthcare professional.

Conditions that you should discuss how to take magnesium supplementation with your healthcare provider include:

• Alcoholism
• Bleeding disorders
• Diabetes
• Heart block
• Myasthenia gravis
• Kidney problems
• Kidney failure

Does magnesium interact with anything?

Magnesium can interact with certain medications and you should discuss with your healthcare provider:

• Aminoglycoside antibiotics
• Quinolone antibiotics
• Tetracycline antibiotics
• Bisphosphonates
• Blood pressure medications
• Muscle relaxants
• Potassium-sparing diuretics