Magnesium Stress and ENERGY
“Without the vital force the material organism is unable to feel, or act, or maintain itself […]. Without the vital force the body dies.”
Samuel Hahnemann (1833)
What is Energy?
The only difference between you and a dead body is the flow of energy. There are no intrinsic differences in the molecular composition of the living and dead. Energy is a natural property that can be transferred between different parts of a system to produce a change in that system. It is a fundamental aspect of nature that sustains the movement, chemical reactions, and dynamic changes in the position and organization of molecules that is required to think, feel, move, and execute every element of the stress response. Without energy, stress adaptation is not possible, and the body dies.
How Do We Make Energy?
We make energy from the food we eat. The food we eat gets broken down and turned into Adenosine Triphosphate (ATP) in the mitochondria. ATP consists of a nitrogenous base called adenine, a five-carbon sugar molecule called ribose, and three phosphate groups. What's important here is the phosphate groups. The bonds between these phosphate groups are high-energy. When this bond breaks all the stored energy between the phosphate groups is released. A constant supply of energy is required for all of life’s processes. ATP is being continuously broken down into ADP.
What Does Magnesium Have to Do With Energy Production
ALL ATP IS BOUND TO MAGNESIUM. That’s something that you don’t see when you google ATP. It's central to the structure and function of ATP. You can not remove the phosphate group and release energy without removing the magnesium. When that phosphate group comes off, some magnesium is lost, but what happens if there is not enough magnesium in the first place? You can't make energy! If we can't make energy we can't adapt to our environment. This is where you start running into problems.
So how do we become magnesium deficient?
1. Stress
Stress is a brain and body response aimed at promoting adaptation in the face of real or imagined threats to the organism.
This can include stressors like food allergies, nutritional deficiencies, environmental pollutants, and toxins, and of course mental and emotional stress. Every aspect of the stress response requires energy: energy-dependent enzymatic reactions, transcription, and translation enabling gene expression and protein synthesis, neurotransmitter release blah blah blah. You get the picture. Stress increases your energy demands.
Stress also burns through magnesium. The first things to go during stress are magnesium and B vitamins. Where do they go? Right into the toilet, you pee them out. The more stressed you are, the more magnesium you drain and the more you increase your "magnesium burn rate" (MBR). This is the speed at which you use up magnesium.
2. Food and Soil
The current RDA for adults is between 320 and 420 mg daily, and the average US intake is around 250 mg daily. This is because of mineral depletion in the soil and modern food processing methods. Mineral and vitamin levels in food have been falling for the last century. On top of this people are eating modern processed foods instead of “traditional” food. i.e. normal food. Pop Tarts and cereals instead of eggs and bacon.
Some experts estimate that upwards of 80% of people are magnesium deficient.
Magnesium Deficiency = A Vicious Stress Cycle
It's so important that we have access to energy to respond to stress. If you don't have magnesium, you don't have the response that you need. This starts a vicious stress cycle
Magnesium Deficiency Tests?
The most efficient and cost-effective way to get a reading on your current magnesium status is to test your Red Blood Cell Magnesium Level.
The current reference range is 4.2 – 6.8 mg/dL. It has been lowered since 1962 (before 1/3 people were obese or diabetic) from 5.0-7.0mg/dL. Based on the old range, any score below 6.0 mg/dL is a clear signal of magnesium deficiency.
Also, Low vitamin D is more often than not, it's a sign of low magnesium. Almost every step of the process of making vitamin D requires magnesium. Magnesium activates the enzyme to make the storage D. So a low D level might not mean you need vitamin D, it means you're very stressed, and you need more magnesium.
How To Replenish Magnesium Stores.
Diet – Start eating more magnesium-rich foods: seafood, kelp, and oysters; Fruits, Banana & Avocado; leafy greens, spinach, and kale (well cooked & with saturated fat); nuts, cashews, almonds (Soaked & Roasted). See The Food Guide
Mineral drops – Add mineral drops to your drinking water
Transdermal Magnesium – Use either magnesium chloride flakes or Epsom salts for magnesium baths. 2-3 times per week to replenish extreme magnesium deficiency. Otherwise you can use a Magnesium Gel/Lotion.
Magnesium Supplements – Take a magnesium supplement every day. My personal favorite forms are glycinate and taurate.
I do all 4 of these to maintain my magnesium. If you want to know what products I use, visit the What I Use page.
An Optimal Dose is ~5mg per pound per day or ~10mg per kg per day from all sources - Mildred Sealig P.H.D M.P.H
The focus here is on “optimal” dosing, not daily “minimum” intakes (RDA). However, experiment with how much you need based on your daily stress levels. See how you feel nothing is set in stone.
More on Magnesium Co-Factors
Vitamin B6: I currently get my B vitamins from food. My main sources are bee pollen, beef liver. Other good sources are stabilized rice bran and nutritional yeast (unfortified).
Boron: It helps to keep magnesium inside the cell. You can get boron from mineral drops, a supplement or add borax to a bath.
Bicarbonate helps get magnesium inside the mitochondria (You can make magnesium water).
Honorable Mention: The adrenal cocktail helps keep magnesium in balance with the other electrolytes.
What Replenishing Magnesium Feels Like
What people find as they start to replenish magnesium, is that they can “weather the storm” better. They find that they don't have the increase in symptoms or the tiredness that often comes after a stressful event. That’s not surprising considering Magnesium is responsible for over 3700/9,000 enzymatic functions in the body, with 42% of your enzymes being magnesium dependent. Without sufficient magnesium, 42% of the enzymes in your body do not function optimally.
Favorite Magnesium Forms
P.S: Supplements do not allow you to let go of the underlying stress which is driving the stress response, you cannot supplement your way to health you will need to change your environment too!
🥂
- Anton Roggo
