Magnesium

Altered magnesium balance can be found in diabetes mellitus, chronic renal failure, nephrolithiasis, osteoporosis, aplastic osteopathy, and heart and vascular disease. ¹³

Dr. Brownstein’s Iodine Protocol suggests we should get about 200-400mg per day of magnesium while taking iodine. I have a feeling this is due to iodine allowing more biological processes to be carried out, which each depend on and use magnesium, and also because iodine may allow us to kill off old defunct cells, so they can be replaced, which also takes a ton of magnesium. Magnesium is part of everything mentioned above because it’s such an integral part of our body’s construction system.

I did not notice any benefits from magnesium when I started taking it. But after several months of small amounts of iodine, and the other supporting nutrients, I tried some magnesium for the first time in a while and felt a rush of energy. Then over time, as I tried other forms, I would notice the same thing from several of those.

Magnesium can get a little complex

There are about a dozen types of commonly supplemented magnesium, some better than others, some more cost effective than others. Some people only use one form of magnesium, some use several, some use all of them. I started with Malate and slowly branched out trying more and more. I eventually tried some magnesium hydroxide and felt so much energy when I took one, that made me realize I need to get in the habit of trying small amounts of all types of magnesium. If I were still confused about which magnesium to take, I would probably just stick with malate like I did when I started, or use something like Magnesium Breakthrough which has 7 common forms.

Several memes, pages and people around the net claim that various forms of magnesium are not good, or not as good as others. This may be true to some degree, but it has a lot to do with how our body is setup, so it may be a lot different for each of us. My personal view is to get as many different forms as possible while I am re-balancing my body. Then once I know my magnesium levels have been replenished a good bit, I’ll work on refining with the ‘proper’ forms of magnesium. But if I can take various forms, and feel energy that I didn’t notice with a form I’ve taken for months, I’m not going to avoid that form, I’m just not going to take it long term.

The common nutrients recommended with iodine are doses that consider we are taking 50mg of iodine. But since most of us are at very low amounts of iodine and slowly working up, 200mg-400mg of magnesium might be more than we need for a while. So what I do now, is take breaks from supplements and pay attention when I restart them. If I don’t feel any benefits when I restart them, and I don’t feel and negatives when I go with out them for a few days, I probably don’t need them. So I take less and less of them while still trying them every once in a while to see if they have started working with my body. My chemistry is constantly changing as I provide the nutrients it needs to rebuild itself.