Magnesium for Muscle Cramps, Migraines, and More
It’s tough to overestimate how much good magnesium does for us. Unfortunately, it is one of the most commonly lacking nutrients in the diet. So while supplementation is critical, it must be done wisely. The right magnesium, plus synergistic vitamin B6 and zinc, can help your patients in a variety of ways:
- Reduce muscle cramps
- Energize the mind and body
- Speed exercise recovery
- Reduce migraine incidence and severity
- Prevent and treat symptoms of depression and anxiety
- Strengthen the cardiovascular system
- Reduce risk of stroke
- Promote fluid homeostasis
Is Magnesium Missing from Your Patients’ Regimens?
Magnesium seems common, but this one mineral is vitally important. It energizes us, helps our muscles recover easily after heavy exercise, assists thyroid metabolism, and promotes clear thinking.
Many people think that they get enough magnesium and other minerals from their diets alone. But that could be a potentially dangerous mistake. In fact, magnesium has been depleted from soils and is often stripped from foods during processing, so it’s not as prevalent in the diet as was once thought. Some experts estimate that up to 80 percent of Americans are deficient in magnesium – an alarming possibility, because this one mineral alone supports a strong mind and body in virtually every way.
Improves Exercise Performance, Speeds Recovery, Relieves Cramps
Magnesium enhances physical performance in a variety of ways. A clinical survey in Portugal found that magnesium helped elite basketball, handball, and volleyball players score highly in strength and movement tests, including trunk flexibility, rotation, and jumping. Magnesium relieves post-exercise pain and muscle cramps too. It’s a great nutrient for your patients to have on board if they have intensive workouts or a physically demanding job.
Plus, magnesium also prevents cramps triggered by other conditions , as well. For example, women who are pregnant may experience painful cramping in their legs that can’t be treated with conventional, over-the-counter medications. Fortunately, a double-blind, placebo controlled clinical trial found that 300 mg per day for four weeks of a chelated magnesium – a better absorbable form that is easy on the stomach –significantly reduced the frequency and intensity of leg cramps.
Another clinical trial found that magnesium also relieved premenstrual symptoms when it was paired with vitamin B6.
Mitigates Migraines, Promotes Calm, Alleviates Stress and Depression
Because magnesium is so closely tied to how the mind and body functions, deficiencies can make individuals more susceptible to feelings of depression, prevent people from dealing with stress in a healthy way, and make individuals more prone to migraines.
The resulting tension of deficiencies coupled with stress can send adrenal and pituitary glands into overdrive and crank up cortisol and insulin levels. If your patient is deficient in magnesium, they may feel less able to cope, and could be at increased risk for insulin resistance and high blood pressure.
Stress and magnesium deficiency can be a vicious cycle – stress can lead to magnesium depletion and the magnesium depletion then leads to greater stress levels and risk of depression. But on a positive note, some case histories have shown that magnesium supplementation – including with a glycinate chelate form, a preferred form for efficient absorption – can speed recovery from depression symptoms in as little as seven days.
Magnesium also appears to help children who have trouble calming down and staying focused. While there are still more clinical trials needed to determine exactly how magnesium works for this, case histories support its use. And magnesium also seems to have similar effects for adults.
Additionally, depression, migraine, and magnesium deficiencies may also be interconnected. Clinical studies have found that for children and adults, including women who suffer from menstrual migraines, preventative supplementation with magnesium significantly reduced the incidence of headaches. The fact that magnesium can work so well for headache relief or prevention may sound surprising – many people have been led to believe only over-the-counter pain relievers can do that – but it is estimated that about half of all migraine sufferers are deficient in the mineral.
Common tests for deficiency don’t always provide a complete picture. Because almost two-thirds of the magnesium in the body is incorporated into skeletal tissue, and another third is tied up helping the body perform normal functions, there’s very little left for all of the other work it needs to do. And that can make it tough to get solid, measurable numbers from routine blood tests.
An Essential for the Heart
For a healthy heart, magnesium is a must. A study of over 9,000 participants in the Netherlands found a link between low magnesium levels, coronary heart disease risk, and cases of sudden cardiac death. They found that without enough magnesium, arteries thickened, and the tone and overall health of blood vessels declined. A Finnish study reported that low magnesium is, on its own, a risk factor for heart failure in men–aside from lifestyle, blood pressure, and weight.
The good news is that it’s never too late for your patients to start supplementing with magnesium. A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition showed that after just six months of supplemental magnesium, older adults who were overweight or obese had healthier arteries. Ultimately, that means better blood pressure and less strain on the heart.
The combination of chelated magnesium with P-5-P can help prevent fluid retention, which also reduces strain on the heart. Fluid homeostasis is an important component of treating hypertension, and better fluid elimination reduces stress on the heart patient’s lungs as well.
Other Reasons to Recommend Magnesium
One of the positive “side effects” of magnesium’s ability to reduce inflammation is that it also helps people sleep at night. That’s not to say that it induces sleep, but rather that low magnesium intake tends to correspond with higher body mass index (BMI), higher levels of inflammatory markers, and a tougher time getting restorative sleep. Since a lack of sleep is also associated with cortisol (stress hormone) spikes and weight gain, magnesium is a must. It’s also likely that low levels of the mineral are partially responsible for the conditions associated with metabolic syndrome, including high blood pressure, high glucose, and obesity.
For overall healthy aging and longevity, a clinical study found that men in their 50s who were dealing with chronic inflammatory stress and low magnesium saw their C-reactive protein levels – a standard marker of inflammation – drop significantly after supplementation.
Partner Nutrients for Magnesium
Recommend Active Vitamin B6 as P-5-P
For magnesium, one of the best partner nutrients is vitamin B6. Vitamin B6 helps magnesium absorb better and is often recommended as a second nutrient to relieve muscle cramps, stress, and other conditions.
Vitamin B6 differs greatly between forms.. Common forms need to be converted by the liver into pyridoxal-5-phosphate (P-5-P) before they can do much good. Individuals that struggle with this conversion include people with liver disease, fatty liver, using certain medications that stress the liver, type 2 diabetes, obesity, alcoholism/drug addiction or a history thereof, and certain inherited genetic insufficiencies. That’s why starting with P-5-P as your supplemental form is best.
For example, vitamin B6 has been recommended for carpal tunnel and other nerve and muscle ailments for some time. And although the results with standard forms of vitamin B6 can be positive, there is a possibility of actually creating the very symptoms of nerve and muscle conditions that you’re trying to treat and prevent when using high dosages.
That’s because pyridoxine – the inactive form of vitamin B6 found most often in mass-market supplements – can actually block the body’s ability to use active P-5-P. A recent Dutch laboratory study found that pyridoxine induced neuropathy symptoms by inhibiting P-5-P dependent enzymes, essentially competing with the active form of vitamin B6. Surplus doses of pyridoxine, over time, paradoxically causes the same conditions as having a deficiency of B6.
And that’s just one reason for starting with supplemental vitamin B6 as P-5-P. Other work has shown that individual blood levels of the nutrient can determine risk of inflammation, heart conditions, blood sugar levels, and of course, carpal tunnel syndrome. Plus, inflammation alone can deplete vitamin B6 levels causing more damage and pain. Patients with rheumatoid arthritis have been found to have lower levels compared to healthy individuals. Robust P-5-P levels may protect the brain and cognitive abilities as people age. Clinical work has found that lower P-5-P levels were associated with a 3.5 higher risk of accelerated mental decline.
Additionally, researchers from the Department of Neurology, Massachusetts General Hospital have found that levels of P-5-P in stroke patients are about half that of other individuals. These low P-5-P levels have been shown to increase the risk of stroke four-fold, or up to 400 percent.
You may also consider recommending P-5-P to patients dealing with nerve pain, diabetic neuropathy, carpal tunnel syndrome, symptoms of premenstrual syndrome, or water retention.
Zinc: An Essential Synergistic Mineral
Zinc is another nutrient that works well with magnesium and P-5-P. It is well-known for its role in healing muscle and tendon damage and fortifying immune defenses, but like magnesium, deficiencies have been linked to depression, and anxiety disorders, and increased incidence of migraines. In fact,, an 8-week clinical study found that supplementation with zinc reduced migraine frequency, so it is another key mineral for patients dealing with that condition. Also like magnesium, a glycinate chelate form of zinc can provide the best absorption and utilization.
Daily Magnesium, P-5-P, and Zinc for Optimal Vitality
Some of your patients may become complacent about getting their basic nutrients, but you can help them avoid deficiencies with the right forms of magnesium, vitamin B6, and zinc. Even if they have healthy diets and lifestyles, incorporating all three into their daily regimens can make a profound improvement in their overall health and vitality. Consider recommending a formula that combines 100 mg of magnesium bisglycinate chelate, 10 mg of vitamin B6 as P-5-P, and 5 mg of zinc bisglycinate chelate.
Ahmadi H, Mazloumi-Kiapey SS, Sadeghi O, Nasiri M, Khorvash F, Mottaghi T, Askari G. Zinc supplementation affects favorably the frequency of migraine attacks: a double-blind randomized placebo-controlled clinical trial. Nutr J. 2020 Sep 14;19(1):101. doi: 10.1186/s12937-020-00618-9. PMID: 32928216; PMCID: PMC7491175.
