Have you ever wondered why a mineral most of us have never thought twice about ends up in nearly every conversation I have in the shop?
In my practice, magnesium comes up again and again. Someone arrives talking about sleep that won’t come, a jaw that clenches all night, calves that cramp at 3am, a heart that flutters when life gets busy. Different stories, same quiet thread running underneath.
Magnesium is involved in more than 300 enzyme reactions in the body. I think of it as the spark plug behind almost every system — your nervous system, your muscles, your hormones, your energy production, even how your body uses vitamin D. When it’s low, things don’t break dramatically. They just start to fray at the edges.
So why are so many of us low?
A few reasons, layered on top of each other.
Our soils aren’t what they used to be. Decades of intensive farming have stripped minerals out of the food we eat, so even a “good” diet doesn’t deliver what it did a generation ago. Add in stress — and most people I see are carrying a fair load of it — and the body burns through magnesium faster than it can be replaced. Caffeine, sugar, alcohol and certain medications all pull magnesium out too.
It’s not that people aren’t trying. It’s that the modern world quietly drains this mineral while asking more and more of it.
How it tends to show up
I often see a pattern. Tension that lives in the shoulders and jaw. Sleep that’s broken or shallow. Restless legs. Anxiety that sits just under the surface. Period cramps that feel disproportionate. Constipation. Headaches. Heart that races for no clear reason.
None of these on their own scream “magnesium” — which is part of why it gets missed. It rarely shows up as one loud symptom. It’s more like a low hum across several systems.
Why the form on the label matters
This is where I see people waste money. They pick up “magnesium” off a shelf, take it for a month, feel nothing, and conclude it doesn’t work for them.
Often, it’s just the wrong form.
- Magnesium oxide is cheap and very poorly absorbed. Most of it passes straight through. If your tablet is mostly oxide, you’re paying for something your body can’t really use.
- Magnesium citrate is gentler, absorbs reasonably well, and tends to loosen the bowels — useful if constipation is part of the picture.
- Magnesium glycinate is my go-to for sleep, anxiety, muscle tension and the wired-but-tired feeling. The glycine itself is calming, so the two work together.
- Magnesium malate can suit people whose main complaint is fatigue and muscle pain.
Same word on the label. Very different experiences in the body.
Magnesium doesn’t work alone
Here’s the piece that often gets left out. Magnesium works in partnership with other minerals — calcium, potassium, sodium — and with vitamin D and the B vitamins. Throw any one of them off and the others struggle too.
This is why I’m cautious about anyone taking a single high-dose nutrient in isolation for long periods. The body works as an orchestra, not a soloist. If one section is loud and the rest are silent, the music doesn’t come together.
A wholefood diet, mineral-rich broths, leafy greens, seeds, and the right form of magnesium in the right amount for you — that’s usually where I start.
A gentle question
If you read this and several of those quiet symptoms felt familiar, it might be worth asking whether your body has the minerals it needs to actually do its work.
I’d rather we look beneath the symptom than chase it.
If any of this sounds like something you’ve been carrying, come and have a chat. We can look at what’s actually going on for you.
The Good Health Shop
Email: michelle@thegoodhealthshop.co.za
Phone: 039 315 5351
01 Surfbay Centre, Cnr. Marine Drive & Spink Road, Shelly Beach, 4265, KZN