4 ms·

what do you take magnesium for?

bitL 10y ago
My doc told me to always take magnesium if I take vitamin D. I've just found an article about why to do it: http://www.easy-immune-health.com/magnesium-and-vitamin-d.html http://www.easy-immune-health.com/magnesium-and-vitamin-d.ht... Seems like magnesium is needed to convert D to its active form.
- m00dy 10y ago
  Are you sure it is not for post mdma effects ? :)
- walshemj 10y ago
  Funny my nephrologist hasn't mentioned it I have kidney failure and take 4x250ng D 3 times a week,
  - passive 10y ago
    Fascinating. Maybe I'm misinterpreting your units, but I have no related health condition (other than living in Canada), and I take 3x1000 every day (in months with an R in them). Maybe you're somewhere particularly sunny?
    - walshemj 10y ago
      Stage 4/5 Kidney failure will do that unfortunately - it messes with your biochemistry.
  - DiabloD3 10y ago
    ng? as in nanograms? 1000 nanogram = 1 microgram (mcg), 40 IU = 1 mcg. I take 5000 IU a day, or 125 mcg.
- jcranmer 10y ago
  That website smells hokum to me. The prominent ads for magnesium supplements on that page are disconcerting, as are several references to "Dr. So-and-So" with no links to anything even pretending to be peer-reviewed articles. (Actually the "About Me" page is pretty much a flashing red neon sign when you go to it). But even discounting that, the claim that magnesium is "used up" converting Vitamin D sounds, well, wrong. The closest thing I can find to a need to convert vitamin D into an "active form" is the conversion of cholecalciferol to calcidiol and thence calcitriol. The relevant enzymes all seem to be heme cofactors using iron in the heme, not magnesium. I also don't see any peer-reviewed articles looking at magnesium impacts on vitamin D uptake. There's a few old ones (~1991, with some even earlier) that suggest that vitamin D might affect magnesium intake. It might be that magnesium is associated with the vitamin D precursor enzymes, since magnesium is a fairly widespread inhibitor of certain enzymes (in particular, it looks like it impacts parathyroid hormone, which is also impacted by Ca²⁺ ions in the normal case of action for vitamin D). But if that's the case, it's not that magnesium is being "used up" by vitamin D but rather you need a certain amount of it in your bloodstream to keep your calcium metabolism working.
  - js2 10y ago
    If I'm reading https://examine.com/supplements/magnesium/ https://examine.com/supplements/magnesium/ correctly: Vitamin D is currently the only Essential Vitamin or Mineral which appears to have deficiency rates at a similar level to Magnesium, if not greater. The metabolism of Vitamin D inherently is linked to Magnesium. Magnesium levels in the brain can be negatively regulated by an excess of parathyroid hormone (PTH), where PTH causes release of calcium into the blood (being met with an increase of magnesium to retain homeostasis) possibly being a contributing factor to chronic depletion of magnesium concentration in neural tissue. As vitamin D reliably suppresses excess PTH, it may exert neural benefits secondary to preservation of Magnesium levels in the brain. A Vitamin D deficiency could lead to magnesium depletion (Vitamin D deficency allows excess PTH, releases calcium, depletes magnesium). So in fact, the opposite is the case right? At sufficient Vitamin D levels you shouldn't have to supplement magnesium, assuming no dietary deficiency of it. Right?
    - 10y ago

bitL 10y ago

My doc told me to always take magnesium if I take vitamin D. I've just found an article about why to do it: http://www.easy-immune-health.com/magnesium-and-vitamin-d.html http://www.easy-immune-health.com/magnesium-and-vitamin-d.ht... Seems like magnesium is needed to convert D to its active form.

m00dy 10y ago
Are you sure it is not for post mdma effects ? :)
walshemj 10y ago
Funny my nephrologist hasn't mentioned it I have kidney failure and take 4x250ng D 3 times a week,
- passive 10y ago
  Fascinating. Maybe I'm misinterpreting your units, but I have no related health condition (other than living in Canada), and I take 3x1000 every day (in months with an R in them). Maybe you're somewhere particularly sunny?
  - walshemj 10y ago
    Stage 4/5 Kidney failure will do that unfortunately - it messes with your biochemistry.
- DiabloD3 10y ago
  ng? as in nanograms? 1000 nanogram = 1 microgram (mcg), 40 IU = 1 mcg. I take 5000 IU a day, or 125 mcg.
jcranmer 10y ago
That website smells hokum to me. The prominent ads for magnesium supplements on that page are disconcerting, as are several references to "Dr. So-and-So" with no links to anything even pretending to be peer-reviewed articles. (Actually the "About Me" page is pretty much a flashing red neon sign when you go to it). But even discounting that, the claim that magnesium is "used up" converting Vitamin D sounds, well, wrong. The closest thing I can find to a need to convert vitamin D into an "active form" is the conversion of cholecalciferol to calcidiol and thence calcitriol. The relevant enzymes all seem to be heme cofactors using iron in the heme, not magnesium. I also don't see any peer-reviewed articles looking at magnesium impacts on vitamin D uptake. There's a few old ones (~1991, with some even earlier) that suggest that vitamin D might affect magnesium intake. It might be that magnesium is associated with the vitamin D precursor enzymes, since magnesium is a fairly widespread inhibitor of certain enzymes (in particular, it looks like it impacts parathyroid hormone, which is also impacted by Ca²⁺ ions in the normal case of action for vitamin D). But if that's the case, it's not that magnesium is being "used up" by vitamin D but rather you need a certain amount of it in your bloodstream to keep your calcium metabolism working.
- js2 10y ago
  If I'm reading https://examine.com/supplements/magnesium/ https://examine.com/supplements/magnesium/ correctly: Vitamin D is currently the only Essential Vitamin or Mineral which appears to have deficiency rates at a similar level to Magnesium, if not greater. The metabolism of Vitamin D inherently is linked to Magnesium. Magnesium levels in the brain can be negatively regulated by an excess of parathyroid hormone (PTH), where PTH causes release of calcium into the blood (being met with an increase of magnesium to retain homeostasis) possibly being a contributing factor to chronic depletion of magnesium concentration in neural tissue. As vitamin D reliably suppresses excess PTH, it may exert neural benefits secondary to preservation of Magnesium levels in the brain. A Vitamin D deficiency could lead to magnesium depletion (Vitamin D deficency allows excess PTH, releases calcium, depletes magnesium). So in fact, the opposite is the case right? At sufficient Vitamin D levels you shouldn't have to supplement magnesium, assuming no dietary deficiency of it. Right?
  - 10y ago