Today, let's talk about the unique benefits of magnesium glycinate. Now, as you may know already, magnesium is involved in over 300 different enzymes, including making energy as ATP, including all sorts of things with your muscles and the nervous system, as well as your DNA. But it's important to understand that magnesium comes in a lot of different forms.
So if we look at what magnesium glycinate really is, it's really a combination of magnesium and the amino acid glycine together combined. And when you combine those, you get a much better absorption in the intestine versus using a type of magnesium that's not well absorbed, like magnesium oxide or sulfate or carbonate or even magnesium hydroxide. Those are all poorly absorbed, but other forms like magnesium glycinate are very easily absorbed. And magnesium glycinate is very gentle on your stomach. It won't...
cause the diarrhea that some other forms can create like magnesium citrate. So it has a much lesser laxative effect. It's good for overall relaxation, muscle relaxation, especially at night, preventing cramps.
So it's really good for sleep, improving insomnia, and it also is good for improving energy. Now, it's not going to keep you up at night, but it's going to allow you to get into a much deeper sleep to have energy during the day. Magnesium glycinate also has an effect as a vasodilator, so it's really good for blood pressure.
It's also good to help regulate calcium and prevent calcium from accumulating because magnesium and calcium work together. And since it's involved with calcium, it can also reduce the risk of kidney stones. And it's also been known to help increase insulin sensitivity to help blood sugars and people that have problems with insulin resistance, which could even be a pre-diabetic or even a diabetic. Magnesium glycinate also has been known to help people with migraine headaches and states of lower mood like depression and anxiety. So it's a really good form of magnesium that overall helps reduce stress.
Now, if you get this as a supplement, I would try to get one that also has vitamin D3 and B6 because both of those nutrients will help the absorption even more. And sometimes people have a question of what's the difference between this magnesium glycinate and magnesium glycinate? Glycinate versus Magnesium Bis-Glycinate, well, there is no difference.
They're the exact same supplement. So by adding that little bis behind the name does not change the chemistry at all. Now, since we mentioned Magnesium Citrate, I will say that's a really good one for leg cramps at night. It's a good one for stress. It's a good one for blood pressure, but Magnesium Citrate can create a laxative effect.
So it might be better for people that... have a tendency to be more constipated. But if you compare the two, magnesium glycinate is just a little bit better for various reasons. It won't create a laxative effect. And magnesium glycinate is not dependent on the pH. In other words, you can take it on an empty stomach or with food.
You don't even need a strong stomach acid to absorb it, which is unique because most minerals need that strong stomach acid. So as people get older and they lose their stomach acid, They're not going to absorb minerals, but if you take magnesium in the glycinate form, it will be absorbed regardless of the pH of your stomach. Now, the best time to take this form of magnesium would be right before bed because it's going to help you sleep.
It's going to relax you. It's going to prevent those leg cramps. However, if you take it to other parts of the day, it's not going to necessarily make you tired. It's going to just make you feel more relaxed.
Should you take in an empty stomach? It doesn't really matter. You can take it with meals or without. Now, the normal... dose I would recommend would be anywhere between 100 milligrams to 400 milligrams per day.
And that would depend on what kind of problems are you trying to solve. Do you have severe muscle cramps? Let's say you have severe high blood pressure or you have sleeping problems.
Well, just take a little bit more. But if you don't, take a little bit less. Like I said before, magnesium glycinate is a combination of magnesium and glycine. So now let's talk about the benefits of glycine. It creates a calming effect.
It will help you sleep. It helps the neurotransmitters in your brain, thereby increasing cognitive function. It's even good for collagen support and blood sugar control.
And sometimes it's used as an anti-inflammatory because it can help get rid of inflammation. It can even help improve bile production, which can help your absorption, especially of fats. It's also related to increasing energy, just like magnesium.
So you just might find that your energy starts to increase over a period of time. And lastly, it's a precursor for something called glutathione. to help you detoxify.
Now, another form of magnesium that a lot of people are taking is called magnesium L-threonate. That specific type of magnesium is a bit more expensive, but it's a little bit better for your brain. So if you're trying to take magnesium for more cognitive improvements, then that would be the form that I would recommend.
Are there any side effects for magnesium glycinate? And there's really only two that I found. And one would be low blood pressure. But you'd have to take a lot of it over a period of time, and you might end up with a lower amount of blood pressure. So this might be good for someone with high blood pressure, but it's not going to be significant.
It just might be a little bit lower than it should, which might be a good thing because it causes this vasodilation effect, which actually will increase circulation. The other thing about magnesium glycinate is it does tend to interfere with certain medications. So you want to check with your doctor. It can inhibit the function or the effectiveness of certain medications. But as far as the laxative effect, it's not going to create much of a laxative effect as other types of magnesium, but that also depends on your dosage.
If you're taking a lot of it with all this magnesium from the food and maybe in other supplements, it could contribute to more of a diarrhea situation, in which case you're going to have to kind of reduce the dosage from one of your supplements. or this one specifically. Now, where do we get magnesium from the diet?
Primarily, it is involved in chlorophyll. It's at the heart of the chlorophyll molecule. That's that green stuff in plants, as in leafy green vegetables. The chemistry of this green chlorophyll is very similar to the chemistry of our own blood, but with some very unique differences. So with chlorophyll, we have this magnesium that tends to be on the green side.
And then with blood, we have iron, which is on the red side. But one of the best sources of magnesium is just by consuming enough leafy greens, as in salads and other leafy greens. So even if you took three cups of dark leafy green vegetables every single day, you would probably get the amounts of magnesium you would need as the recommended amounts.
But of course, you have to realize that you're not going to absorb 100% of that. It's going to be a portion of that. So you might need to have more.
But my point is that the RDAs for magnesium for men is roughly about 420 and for women is about 320. That's just the amount of magnesium that you need to prevent a deficiency, but not necessarily the therapeutic dosage that you might need if you have a severe imbalance. And one of the problems with magnesium as far as testing it in the blood goes, you're not going to be able to really detect a magnesium deficiency because the majority, I'm talking about 99% of all the magnesium is inside the cell, not outside the cell in the blood. So a blood test is not going to give you a lot of information.
You'd want to do what's called an intracellular magnesium test. And I will put a link down below for that information. Magnesium is also in other foods as well. It's in fish, it's in nuts like cashews.
So I hope you now know more about this magnesium glycinate. It's a fascinating supplement that has huge benefits. And there's a lot more to know about magnesium.
If you have not seen my other video on magnesium, I put that up right here. Check it out.