Magnesium is a source of energy and health. You can get it from food like leafy greens, nuts, whole-grain foods, and legumes to keep your magnesium levels up. Or you can use a magnesium supplement. Dissolved in water, magnesium is the best drink in the world. It works to enhance the functions of the muscles and the nervous system, making it the most important mineral for maintaining calmness, strength, energy, and blood pressure.
Magnesium also helps prevent or relieve muscle cramps, relaxes muscles following a marathon, and is an important cofactor in around 300 enzymes. Calcium is important as well, but you can’t measure magnesium levels in your body. Instead, you can check magnesium levels in your urine (which you are likely to be doing if you’re not eating enough magnesium). It’s recommended that you take a magnesium supplement for magnesium deficiencies.
Magnesium is in everything we eat, from vegetables and fruits to nuts and grains. Broccoli contains the highest amount of magnesium.
Some of the Benefits that We get from Magnesium are:
Reduces insomnia
Calming the nerves reduces anxiety and any stress that may keep you from falling asleep. Mnemonic devices that help you remember magnesium include: “Magnesium: Calm nerves and relax muscles.” Magnesium calms nerves and muscles, which help you relax and fall asleep at night.
How to improve your sleep: Add magnesium to your food or take a magnesium supplement before bedtime. Adding magnesium at night might help by creating a “muscle relaxing” effect. You can include foods rich in magnesium: green vegetables, beans, and nuts. Magnesium can also be a supplement. If you take it before bedtime and it helps you fall asleep, your body starts using less and less of it before bedtime and falls asleep sooner.
Magnesium L-threonate is an amino acid derivative of magnesium (Mg2+) which may help to support cellular communication and neuronal activity. This natural supplement may also help cognitive function and memory.
Protects heart
Magnesium is best known as the “master mineral” that can help you lose weight, be less stressed, reduce your risk of heart disease, keep diabetes under control, and much more. But Magnesium is also the master antioxidant — it prevents cell damage, improves athletic performance, and fights off the free radicals often produced by alcohol, smoking, unhealthy fats, and other heart-damaging factors.
Helpful in Asthma
Your body’s stores of magnesium are usually adequate, and dietary supplements are an effective way to boost the level of magnesium in your system. One in four people with chronic, severe asthma has a magnesium deficiency, and it can make your asthma worse. On the other hand, magnesium can ease breathing difficulties that seem like a mild asthma attack. For example, if your breathing is short, shallow, and fast, you likely need magnesium. The first line of defense against a magnesium deficiency is eating a diet rich in magnesium. Fresh whole foods like whole grains, legumes, and nuts are all rich sources of magnesium.
Improves constipation and other digestion problems
Your body can’t tell what you’re eating until it has digested your meal. Without magnesium, your body can’t process amino acids, vitamins, minerals, enzymes, and proteins. The body doesn’t know how to process minerals, so it takes them straight out of your body without a lot of thought.
Your body processes or digests food in four ways:
- By chewing food and mixing it (saliva)
- By digesting food with enzymes in your stomach and intestines
- By absorbing nutrients through your intestinal wall
- By filtering and getting rid of waste through your kidneys, liver, and other organs
Most of your body’s minerals, including magnesium, come from the food you eat. So with a magnesium deficiency, eating certain foods can sometimes help. For example, eating many rich buttery foods can cause constipation by irritating the digestive tract, which can also reduce the absorption of magnesium. A magnesium supplement can also be used to promote good bowel movements.
Bone health
Magnesium is also pivotal to the proper functioning of muscles and the nervous system. Magnesium is the third most abundant mineral in the body. It is a major component of cells and components of bone, muscle, and nerves. Thus, it has been implicated in the regulation of several body functions, including muscle contraction, nerve function, and absorption of calcium in the bones.