Supplement Magnesium for a Healthy Brain

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The Importance of Magnesium

Magnesium is one of Earth’s most abundant elements, with each of us containing about 25g of magnesium in our bodies. 90% of that magnesium is found in muscle and bone tissue, where it plays a vital role in over 300 enzymatic reactions. Some of these reactions include stabilizing ATP, a major player in energy metabolism, DNA and RNA synthesis, and it plays a role in maintaining cellular ionic gradients.

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Magnesium Intake

The recommended daily intake of magnesium is 400-420mg/day for males and 310-320mg/day for females, yet over 20% of the youth in the United States are not reaching this RDI value. During puberty, many changes happen, stimulating bone and muscle growth, meaning micronutrient intake needs to be sufficient. In Taiwan, men and women were consuming only 68%–70% of the recommended dietary reference intake of magnesium.

The recommended dietary intakes (RDIs) for magnesium, like for other nutrients, are established by a group of independent experts called the Food and Nutrition Board (FNB) of the National Academy of Medicine in the United States. However, these values seem to be relatively static and new research is showing the need for higher RDIs for specific nutrients such as magnesium. New research in nutrition found that a daily intake of magnesium at 550mg had better brain health and could lower the risk of dementia.

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Magnesium and Dementia

The link between magnesium and dementia may seem hard to imagine. I mean, how can a simple element contribute to such a horrible and complex disease? Well, earlier research has found that magnesium in the brain plays a crucial role in maintaining neuronal health by limiting oxidative stress, enhancing synaptic plasticity, and lowering neuroinflammation. These findings have led researchers to investigate magnesium levels in a variety of neurodegenerative diseases, metabolic diseases, and cancers. However, nutrition research is quite daunting as it is hard to account for multiple variables and it is hard to get adequate funding for a proper testing scenario. Both together have made nutrition research very controversial and often nonreproducible.

Despite the pitfalls of nutrition research, this article published in the “European Journal of Nutrition” had over 500,000 participants and had quantifiable measurements like blood pressure, gray matter, and white matter lesions.

Overall, the study found that magnesium did not significantly affect blood pressure but did positively impact brain volume. In particular, the authors concluded that magnesium intake upwards of 550mg per day was associated with larger brain volumes and lower white matter lesions. Together, this data shows magnesium intake is higher than the RDI, resulted in a healthier brain compared to participants consuming less magnesium.

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Increase your Magnesium Intake

This is not the only research that supports taking magnesium at ~500mg per day. In fact, several studies have found similar results, albeit with much less evidence. To hear that you should increase your magnesium intake is one thing, but getting enough in your diet is another. The easiest way to go about this is to supplement with magnesium threonate/glycinate, start with 50mg per day and slowly titrate up to your desired dose. If you are not the supplement kind and want to find dietary sources of magnesium, start by incorporating pumpkin seeds, chia seeds, and almonds into your diet.

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