Taking magnesium glycinate daily won’t transform your health overnight, but it can help your body meet its need for a mineral involved in hundreds of biological processes.
Filling the gap
Magnesium is essential for hundreds of bodily functions such as energy generation, nerve communication, muscle activity, managing blood sugar, and building proteins. If you’re not eating enough foods packed with magnesium, like nuts, seeds, legumes, whole grains, and leafy greens, you’ll probably benefit the most from a supplement.
Regularly taking magnesium glycinate could help boost your total magnesium intake to meet recommended levels. But people already consuming sufficient magnesium may experience minimal or no physical difference.
Better sleep
Sleep improvement is one of the most frequently cited reasons for taking magnesium. In a randomized controlled trial from 2012, older adults with insomnia showed improvements in measures of sleep efficiency, sleep-onset time and early-morning waking after eight weeks of daily magnesium compared with placebo.
Magnesium plays a role in the regulation of the nervous system, as well as other processes related to sleep such as melatonin and GABA. Additionally, glycine, the amino acid that magnesium is bound to in magnesium glycinate, has shown improvements in subjective sleep quality on its own in small studies.
Muscle and movement
Magnesium works with other minerals including calcium and potassium to help muscles contract and relax properly. Muscle weakness, tremors, spasms, and cramps can be symptoms of severe magnesium deficiency, so supplementing when deficient can help with some of these problems.
But just because you have muscle cramps does not mean you’re deficient in magnesium. Dehydration, medications, vigorous exercise, poor circulation, and other problems can cause cramps as well.
Bone health
Approximately 60% of the magnesium reserves in the body are found in bone tissue. Magnesium has structural roles in bone but is also active in calcium metabolism, parathyroid hormone metabolism, and vitamin D metabolism. Magnesium intake is associated with improved bone mineral density.
However, there is insufficient evidence that daily supplementation with magnesium glycinate by itself will significantly improve bone density in otherwise healthy adults. Adequate magnesium intake should be considered one factor in bone health along with calcium, vitamin D, protein intake, exercise, and resistance or weight-bearing exercise.
Blood pressure drop
One of the more reliably observed advantages of magnesium supplements is a modest fall in blood pressure. Results from a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials showed that magnesium supplementation decreased systolic and diastolic blood pressure by about 2 mmHg on average.
Magnesium is important for normal blood-vessel function and vascular tone, which may account for this effect. However, this decrease is small and should not replace blood-pressure medication (if prescribed), exercise, dietary changes, or other therapies.
Gentler digestion
Most magnesium supplements may lead to diarrhea. Magnesium that is not absorbed attracts water into the intestine. The laxative effect differs greatly depending on the form and dose taken.
People often opt for magnesium glycinate when they need magnesium but want to avoid the potent laxative effect of certain other magnesium supplements. But digestive problems may still occur, especially as supplemental doses are raised.
Glucose control
Magnesium is involved with insulin signaling and glucose metabolism, while low magnesium status impairs metabolic health.
Clinical studies have observed enhancements in certain aspects of insulin sensitivity or glucose management through magnesium supplementation, particularly within groups exhibiting low magnesium levels or metabolic risk factors.
However, results are not strong enough to claim that blood sugar will be lowered by magnesium glycinate in all users. For these reasons, it should be viewed as a form of nutritional support rather than diabetic treatment.
Sources: Please see here for a complete listing of all sources that were consulted in the preparation of this article.
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