4 ms·

This is in line with what I've heard about sodium in the diet, which is that it's not bad in itself, but in proportion to your potassium intake. I'd guess most

This is in line with what I've heard about sodium in the diet, which is that it's not bad in itself, but in proportion to your potassium intake. I'd guess most Americans are deficient in magnesium and potassium, especially anyone who exercises regularly. If you're a male athlete, your actual magnesium need for example is about 800mg, which is twice the RDA of 400mg, which you're probably also not meeting. I've helped people cure their chronic anxiety by noticing that they ran for an hour most days, and were taking zero supplemental magnesium.

deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
BiteCode_dev 3y ago
I thought 300mg supplementation was the max your body could absorb each day. If you do a lot of sport, you should take more than that?
- pc86 3y ago
  I don't know about magnesium specifically but I know there were experiments with calcium showing that supplementation both a) didn't absorb 100% of whatever you took, and b) had an upper limit for what could be absorbed over N hours. At a certain point you just have to eat food with calcium in it. I wouldn't be remotely surprised to find that's true for most/all micronutrients. Supplementation can help, sometimes, but will always be a fraction as impactful as a healthy, well-rounded diet.
  - voldacar 3y ago
    You can also take vitamin D3 to increase your calcium absorption.
  - biomcgary 3y ago
    IIRC, calcium uptake from the intestines is boosted by the presence of fatty acids. Different types of magnesium supplements have different absorption rates (e.g., magnesium oxide vs magnesium glycinate).
  - klodolph 3y ago
    Calcium and magnesium share some pathways for absorption and compete with each other. Not only is there a limit to how much calcium or magnesium you can absorb, but if you have a high-calcium diet, your body will absorb less magnesium. There are other minerals which have this kind of competition, so supplementing with one mineral can cause problems with absorption of another.
- danaris 3y ago
  Even to the extent that that may be true, it is going to be an average: different people's bodies will be different in what they can absorb, and the same body at different times will be different. Sometimes dramatically, particularly if you have a deficiency.
pc86 3y ago
Where do you get 800mg of magnesium from? I just checked my multi-vitamin and it has 0 potassium and only 120mg of magnesium - my guess is to limit how much you end up just pissing out the first few hours after taking it.
- kragen 3y ago
  coincidentally i spent much of monday investigating the answers to that question supposedly magnesium costs about 25¢/kg as caustic-burned magnesia https://pubs.usgs.gov/myb/vol1/2018/myb1-2018-magnesium-comp.pdf https://pubs.usgs.gov/myb/vol1/2018/myb1-2018-magnesium-comp..., but that includes lots of impurities, probably including lead; you wouldn't want to eat it the cheapest reasonably food-grade source i've found is probably food-grade magnesium chloride for supplements; it's hard to tell how much you're getting because magnesium chloride exists in various hydration states here in argentina it costs 3.6 dollars per kilogram, which works out to somewhere between 11 and 36 dollars per kilogram of magnesium the carbonate, the dead-burned oxide, and the hydroxide are also sold by the kilogram as food supplements; they don't have the hydration problem, and the prices i came up with were respectively - 20 dollars per kg of carbonate and thus 70 dollars per kg of magnesium - 15 dollars per kg of dead-burned food-grade oxide and thus 24 dollars per kg of magnesium - 23 dollars per kg of hydroxide and thus 54 dollars per kg of magnesium other non-food-grade sources i found in my search included galvanic protection anodes for hot-water heaters (35–44 dollars per kg); magnesium sulfate for bath salts, laxative, or fertilizer (17 dollars per kg of magnesium for the fertilizer, 24 for the bath salts); dolomite as fertilizer (20 dollars per kg of magnesium); and magnesium carbonate chalk as exercise equipment (91 dollars per kg of magnesium) (my reason for this search was for formulating carbon-neutral cements, not supplementing my dietary magnesium, so i'd be delighted to find a non-food-grade source that was closer to 24¢ than 24 dollars) 24 dollars per kg of the oxide is 2.4¢ per gram the chloride is highly water-soluble (you have to store it in a hermetically sealed container to prevent deliquescence; i bought a kilogram hermetically sealing jar from the health food store) so it's very easy to add to food. unfortunately it makes the food taste like horse shit, or more precisely like chewing on rubber bands, because those magnesium ions are extremely bitter the oxide and hydroxide are almost perfectly insoluble in water, and the carbonate nearly so, and consequently they will not make your food taste like an accident in a quinine factory. they're just a little chalky. stomach acid converts them to the chloride, which is why mylanta is largely magnesium hydroxide the other thing to keep in mind, aside from disturbing your stomach acid homeostasis, is that magnesium is a laxative. mixing it with food instead of taking it by iteslf helps with this. however, you don't want to mix it with food which is a good source of phosphate, such as coca-cola or high-phytate plants like flaxseed or beans, because the magnesium phosphate thus produced in your stomach has basically zero bioavailability. it doesn't matter if the phytate gets broken down by cooking because what it gets broken down to is phosphate the oxide brand is a local argentine thing called 'natural whey', so you won't be able to find it abroad https://articulo.mercadolibre.com.ar/MLA-1165077489-oxido-de-magnesio-grado-usp-999-apto-consumo-1kg-_JM https://articulo.mercadolibre.com.ar/MLA-1165077489-oxido-de...
hinkley 3y ago
Most endurance athletes I knew equated bananas with potassium and carbs, but they're not a bad source of magnesium either.
- sound1 3y ago
  Bananas are okay, nothing magical, speaking as a pretty good badminton player. Genetics is a big deal in athletics. You have to supplement whatever your parents didn't pass on to you.
- nobleach 3y ago
  Bananas are a passable source of potassium only when ripe. That quickly converts to sugar in a day or two. By the time light brown spots appear, most potassium is gone. Sunflower seeds and avocados are far better sources.
  - philipkglass 3y ago
    Are you thinking of fiber? Potassium is a metallic element. It can't be turned into sugar.
    - nobleach 3y ago
      I think I am, yeah. The potassium benefit vs sugar content lessens as they ripen. They never actually LOSE the potassium as I stated.
sound1 3y ago
Thank you! Probably sodium makes blood heavier and the heart has to work harder to pump it. I've had the same thinking about higher haemoglobin numbers (which I do, i am at too high HB for men) and I do suffer from borderline higher blood pressure since my adolescence (not to mention anxiety). Probably I should start taking more Magnesium to balance the minerals. Read somewhere on the internet that we need to balance the metals in our blood. Sodium, Potassium, Magnesium, Iron and Calcium lead to a healthy CVS system.
birriel 3y ago
Not medical advice, but for folks looking to supplement with Mg, it's best to avoid Magnesium oxide, as it is very poorly absorbed. Magnesium chloride and Magnesium bisglycinate are much better absorbed.
- arcanemachiner 3y ago
  There are charts out there showing the bioavailability of different compounds. As a rule of thumb, the oxide versions of a mineral (e.g. magnesium oxide, zinc oxide) are often the cheapest and least bioavailable versions.
- runnerup 3y ago
  I’ve had the best luck with magnesium threonate.
biomcgary 3y ago
Furthermore, magnesium levels in soils are typically fairly depleted, so the FDA labeling for fruits and vegetables is often incorrect (having been measured a long time ago).
darkclouds 3y ago
What doesnt make sense is the role the kidneys are not playing in a high sodium diet. Sure there is the sodium potassium pump in cells, but what are the kidneys doing as they should be clearing the sodium, maintaining the balance.

deleted 3y ago

[deleted]

BiteCode_dev 3y ago

I thought 300mg supplementation was the max your body could absorb each day. If you do a lot of sport, you should take more than that?

pc86 3y ago
I don't know about magnesium specifically but I know there were experiments with calcium showing that supplementation both a) didn't absorb 100% of whatever you took, and b) had an upper limit for what could be absorbed over N hours. At a certain point you just have to eat food with calcium in it. I wouldn't be remotely surprised to find that's true for most/all micronutrients. Supplementation can help, sometimes, but will always be a fraction as impactful as a healthy, well-rounded diet.
- voldacar 3y ago
  You can also take vitamin D3 to increase your calcium absorption.
- biomcgary 3y ago
  IIRC, calcium uptake from the intestines is boosted by the presence of fatty acids. Different types of magnesium supplements have different absorption rates (e.g., magnesium oxide vs magnesium glycinate).
- klodolph 3y ago
  Calcium and magnesium share some pathways for absorption and compete with each other. Not only is there a limit to how much calcium or magnesium you can absorb, but if you have a high-calcium diet, your body will absorb less magnesium. There are other minerals which have this kind of competition, so supplementing with one mineral can cause problems with absorption of another.
danaris 3y ago
Even to the extent that that may be true, it is going to be an average: different people's bodies will be different in what they can absorb, and the same body at different times will be different. Sometimes dramatically, particularly if you have a deficiency.

pc86 3y ago

Where do you get 800mg of magnesium from? I just checked my multi-vitamin and it has 0 potassium and only 120mg of magnesium - my guess is to limit how much you end up just pissing out the first few hours after taking it.

kragen 3y ago
coincidentally i spent much of monday investigating the answers to that question supposedly magnesium costs about 25¢/kg as caustic-burned magnesia https://pubs.usgs.gov/myb/vol1/2018/myb1-2018-magnesium-comp.pdf https://pubs.usgs.gov/myb/vol1/2018/myb1-2018-magnesium-comp..., but that includes lots of impurities, probably including lead; you wouldn't want to eat it the cheapest reasonably food-grade source i've found is probably food-grade magnesium chloride for supplements; it's hard to tell how much you're getting because magnesium chloride exists in various hydration states here in argentina it costs 3.6 dollars per kilogram, which works out to somewhere between 11 and 36 dollars per kilogram of magnesium the carbonate, the dead-burned oxide, and the hydroxide are also sold by the kilogram as food supplements; they don't have the hydration problem, and the prices i came up with were respectively - 20 dollars per kg of carbonate and thus 70 dollars per kg of magnesium - 15 dollars per kg of dead-burned food-grade oxide and thus 24 dollars per kg of magnesium - 23 dollars per kg of hydroxide and thus 54 dollars per kg of magnesium other non-food-grade sources i found in my search included galvanic protection anodes for hot-water heaters (35–44 dollars per kg); magnesium sulfate for bath salts, laxative, or fertilizer (17 dollars per kg of magnesium for the fertilizer, 24 for the bath salts); dolomite as fertilizer (20 dollars per kg of magnesium); and magnesium carbonate chalk as exercise equipment (91 dollars per kg of magnesium) (my reason for this search was for formulating carbon-neutral cements, not supplementing my dietary magnesium, so i'd be delighted to find a non-food-grade source that was closer to 24¢ than 24 dollars) 24 dollars per kg of the oxide is 2.4¢ per gram the chloride is highly water-soluble (you have to store it in a hermetically sealed container to prevent deliquescence; i bought a kilogram hermetically sealing jar from the health food store) so it's very easy to add to food. unfortunately it makes the food taste like horse shit, or more precisely like chewing on rubber bands, because those magnesium ions are extremely bitter the oxide and hydroxide are almost perfectly insoluble in water, and the carbonate nearly so, and consequently they will not make your food taste like an accident in a quinine factory. they're just a little chalky. stomach acid converts them to the chloride, which is why mylanta is largely magnesium hydroxide the other thing to keep in mind, aside from disturbing your stomach acid homeostasis, is that magnesium is a laxative. mixing it with food instead of taking it by iteslf helps with this. however, you don't want to mix it with food which is a good source of phosphate, such as coca-cola or high-phytate plants like flaxseed or beans, because the magnesium phosphate thus produced in your stomach has basically zero bioavailability. it doesn't matter if the phytate gets broken down by cooking because what it gets broken down to is phosphate the oxide brand is a local argentine thing called 'natural whey', so you won't be able to find it abroad https://articulo.mercadolibre.com.ar/MLA-1165077489-oxido-de-magnesio-grado-usp-999-apto-consumo-1kg-_JM https://articulo.mercadolibre.com.ar/MLA-1165077489-oxido-de...

hinkley 3y ago

Most endurance athletes I knew equated bananas with potassium and carbs, but they're not a bad source of magnesium either.

sound1 3y ago
Bananas are okay, nothing magical, speaking as a pretty good badminton player. Genetics is a big deal in athletics. You have to supplement whatever your parents didn't pass on to you.
nobleach 3y ago
Bananas are a passable source of potassium only when ripe. That quickly converts to sugar in a day or two. By the time light brown spots appear, most potassium is gone. Sunflower seeds and avocados are far better sources.
- philipkglass 3y ago
  Are you thinking of fiber? Potassium is a metallic element. It can't be turned into sugar.
  - nobleach 3y ago
    I think I am, yeah. The potassium benefit vs sugar content lessens as they ripen. They never actually LOSE the potassium as I stated.

sound1 3y ago

Thank you! Probably sodium makes blood heavier and the heart has to work harder to pump it. I've had the same thinking about higher haemoglobin numbers (which I do, i am at too high HB for men) and I do suffer from borderline higher blood pressure since my adolescence (not to mention anxiety). Probably I should start taking more Magnesium to balance the minerals. Read somewhere on the internet that we need to balance the metals in our blood. Sodium, Potassium, Magnesium, Iron and Calcium lead to a healthy CVS system.

birriel 3y ago

Not medical advice, but for folks looking to supplement with Mg, it's best to avoid Magnesium oxide, as it is very poorly absorbed. Magnesium chloride and Magnesium bisglycinate are much better absorbed.

arcanemachiner 3y ago
There are charts out there showing the bioavailability of different compounds. As a rule of thumb, the oxide versions of a mineral (e.g. magnesium oxide, zinc oxide) are often the cheapest and least bioavailable versions.
runnerup 3y ago
I’ve had the best luck with magnesium threonate.

biomcgary 3y ago

Furthermore, magnesium levels in soils are typically fairly depleted, so the FDA labeling for fruits and vegetables is often incorrect (having been measured a long time ago).

darkclouds 3y ago

What doesnt make sense is the role the kidneys are not playing in a high sodium diet. Sure there is the sodium potassium pump in cells, but what are the kidneys doing as they should be clearing the sodium, maintaining the balance.