Magnesium for Anxiety Report

People who have been diagnosed with an anxiety disorder know the signs all too well. 
The increase in temperature, tunnel vision, racing heart, and the inevitable ‘fight or 
flight’ response. 

Unfortunately, many people have anxiety, without ever realizing it. Even more so, is 
when you know you have anxiety, but don’t realize something as simple as looking at 
the nutrients you get each day could have such a large impact.

Not only can a magnesium deficiency make anxiety worse, but taking more magnesium 
each day can actually reduce many of your anxiety symptoms.
   
 
It's not all in your mind  
 
It's incredible what our minds can do to wreck our bodies when we have a mental health 
issue, like anxiety. But did you know those same symptoms can also be symptoms of 
magnesium deficiency?  
 
Low magnesium causes heart issues. Low magnesium causes muscle tension. Low 
magnesium makes it difficult or impossible to relax and fall asleep. Low magnesium 
interferes with mental function in various ways, including concentration.  
 
You've probably heard the term psychosomatic. It's basically the idea that our state of 
mind can cause physical symptoms, such as a racing heart.  
 
But you may not know the lesser known term somatopsychic. This is the term for mental 
health symptoms that are a side effect of physical ailments.  
 
It's news to a lot of people that the state of the body can strongly impact the state of the 
mind. But it really shouldn't be.  
 
Your brain is a physical organ in the body and a lot of what we feel physically 
corresponds to emotional states. So it really shouldn't be a surprise at all that physical 
health and mental health are intricately interrelated.  
 
Surely, you've heard the expression "A sound mind in a sound body." If you suffer from 
anxiety, it's time to start taking that more literally and get your body in better shape as a 
first line of defense against your anxiety. 




 
 
1. Magnesium Deficiency  
 
Magnesium is a mineral essential to good health. It's very easy to end up deficient. 
Being deficient has significant health consequences. Many of those consequences can 
promote a sense of anxiety.  
 
Magnesium deficiency impacts the heart, promoting both Long QT Syndrome (LQTS) 
and arrhythmia.  
 
Both electrolyte disorders are associated with an increased risk of LQTS and TdP. 
Hypokalemia and hypomagnesemia are commonly seen in patients on antiarrhythmics.  
 
-- Causes and management of drug-induced long QT syndrome  
 
Magnesium deficiency causes muscle cramps. Although this is very well established, it 
is often overlooked and underdiagnosed.  
 
Magnesium deficiency is more common than is believed. This article discusses florid 
magnesium deficiency in two patients and the results of treatment. While neither case 
was difficult to diagnose, the severity of symptoms was unusual. Magnesium deficiency 
should always be included in the differential diagnosis of patients who present with 
persistent or severe muscle pain.  
 
-- Muscle cramps and magnesium deficiency: case reports.  
 
Insomnia and sleep issues are strongly associated with anxiety and other mental health 
issues, such as depression. Supplementing magnesium has been shown to improve 
sleep.  
 
As compared to the placebo group, in the experimental group, dietary magnesium 
supplementation brought about statistically significant increases in sleep time (P = 
0.002), sleep efficiency (P = 0.03), concentration of serum renin (P = 0.001), and 
melatonin (P = 0.007), and also resulted in significant decrease of ISI score (P = 0.006), 
sleep onset latency (P = 0.02) and serum cortisol concentration (P = 0.008).  
 
-- The effect of magnesium supplementation on primary insomnia in elderly: A double-
blind placebo-controlled clinical trial.  
 
So a lot of the physical symptoms associated with anxiety can be due to magnesium 
deficiency. The simplest way to find out if some of your symptoms of anxiety are really 
rooted in magnesium deficiency is to improve your magnesium status and see how that 
impacts your symptoms. 


 
 
2. How to Get More Magnesium  
 
Even if you don’t think you have an actual deficiency, increasing your magnesium daily 
can still reduce your anxiety symptoms, so it is a great choice for most people. There 
are two potential pathways to improving your magnesium status: diet and supplements. 
You can either eat more foods rich in magnesium or take supplements.  
 
The advantage of taking pills is convenience and ease of tracking. A lot of people find it 
to be a hassle to make dietary changes and it can be hard to figure out how much 
magnesium you are getting by eating differently. It also is just a lot more complicated 
than using supplements.  
 
So don't feel apologetic if you prefer to take supplements. There's nothing at all wrong 
with that approach.  
 
But there can also be advantages to making dietary changes. Lack of dietary 
magnesium is a root cause of magnesium deficiency, so dietary changes can fix one of 
the primary causes.  
 
Dietary changes also can be convenient for some people. You have to eat anyway. If 
you let your food be your medicine, you can stop taking a lot of pills.  
 
It's also a more stealth way to treat health issues if you don't want to explain things to 
people around you. Eating magnesium-rich foods can be chalked up to personal 
preference. You don't have to explain that it's treatment for a medical or mental health 
issue.  
 
Given the stigma of mental health issues, eating better to resolve associated symptoms 
may be one of the best ways to treat it. No one will stigmatize you or wonder if you 
aren't reliable because you eat healthy.  
 
But remember that this isn't an either/or situation. It's fine to start with supplements and 
then move on dietary changes later. It's also fine to make some dietary changes and 
take some supplements. You don't have to be a purist about this detail.  











 
3. Supplementing Magnesium  
 
First, anytime you use any kind of supplement, you should make sure it is a bioavailable 
form. Many commercially available supplements are not readily absorbed by the body. 
These are largely a waste of money.  
 
The gold standard for magnesium is the chemical form magnesium glycinate. It is the 
most readily absorbed. Magnesium citrate is another good option.  
 
But you don't necessarily have to take it by mouth. Some people prefer to get their 
magnesium transdermally. In other words, they prefer to absorb it through the skin.  
 
There are at least a couple of options here. The first is magnesium chloride, which is 
sometimes called magnesium oil, even though it isn't an oil. The second is Epsom salt.  
 
Epsom salt is magnesium sulfate. Assuming you don't have a problem with sulfur, you 
can add it to your bath at night as a means to get more magnesium into you.  
 
Second, some things need to be taken together. The body is a complex machine. It 
doesn't use nutrients in isolation. It uses them in conjunction with other nutrients to build 
organic tools for running this amazing machine.  
 
If you are magnesium deficient, you are pretty much guaranteed to also be calcium 
deficient. These two nutrients do a lot of opposite things in the body, yet work together.  
 
For example, calcium helps the blood clot. If you are prone to frequent nose bleeds, this 
can be a sign you are calcium deficient.  
 
In contrast, magnesium helps the blood flow freely. It is the opposite of a clotting agent.  
 
Yet, the body cannot properly absorb magnesium if you are calcium deficient. It is 
generally recommended that you take about twice as much calcium as you do 
magnesium.  
 
Again, you should look for bioavailable forms of calcium, such as calcium citrate. The 
most commonly sold form of calcium is calcium carbonate. It has relatively poor 
bioavailability.  
 
You may also need both Vitamin D and Vitamin K to properly absorb the calcium. 
Conveniently, some calcium supplements come with these two nutrients already 
added.  



 
4. Dietary Magnesium  
 
A simple rule of thumb is to simply eat more seeds and nuts. Seeds and nuts are the 
richest sources of dietary magnesium. Almonds, cashews, hazelnuts, sunflower seeds 
and sesame seeds are all good sources of magnesium.  
 
However, other good sources include beans, whole grains and leafy green vegetables. 
So if you have a nut allergy or simply don't like seeds and nuts, you should still be able 
to get what you need from foods like oats, pumpkin, spinach, squash, okra and black 
beans.  
 
A little known fact is that cocoa beans are a good source of magnesium. Yup, that 
means dark chocolate can help you treat a magnesium deficiency.  
 
Milk chocolate isn't a very good option. It's too sweet and doesn't have enough cocoa in 
it. But dark chocolate is actually good for you. It's mostly cocoa and cocoa has lots of 
good things in it, including magnesium.  
 
So you can stop feeling guilty about craving chocolate and using it as a comfort food, so 
long as you stop buying the cheap, low quality chocolate and begin splurging on the 
more expensive dark chocolates. It will get more good stuff into you and less sugar and 
can genuinely help treat the underlying cause of some of your problems.  
 
It's really not that expensive anyway. You may find that you eat less chocolate when 
you buy the good stuff because it's probably the cocoa you are actually craving.  
 
Dark chocolate has more cocoa, so you don't need to eat as much of it to get the 
amount of cocoa your body is craving. You might even find that switching to dark 
chocolate helps you lose a few pounds.  
 
A note about nutrient depleting medications  
 
If you have health issues and regularly take any kind of medication, you should look up 
information on nutrient depletion. Make a list of every medication you take regularly or 
semi-regularly and start googling "nutrient depletion and (name of medication)."  
 
You may be surprised what you find. You should make a list of any nutrients being 
depleted by your medications and look into supplementing those nutrients. You may find 
that a lot of your mysterious health and mental health problems start settling down once 
you do that.  
 
There are a great many drugs known to deplete magnesium. These include a variety of 
acid blockers, antacids, antibiotics, blood pressure medications and hormone 
therapies.  
 
The list is quite long, far too long to include here. Make sure you look up any medication 
you are on. 
 
 
Magnesium deficiency and sodas  
 
Drugs are not the only thing that can interfere with magnesium absorption. A common 
dietary culprit in America is the consumption of sodas.  
 
Sodas are high in phosphorous, which interferes with magnesium. Calcium, sugar and 
aspartame (an artificial sweetener) are also known to interfere. These are all found in 
sodas. 
 
 
There are possible side effects  
 
Sometimes people think that turning to natural remedies will help them resolve their 
problems without any downside, such as side effects. This is not true.  
 
Anything that causes a significant change in the body will have side effects. The side 
effects of natural remedies are often reported to be less unpleasant than drug side 
effects, plus treating the root cause of a problem is known to be a superior solution.  
 
So there are lots of good reasons to pursue natural remedies, like addressing a 
magnesium deficiency as one of the root causes of your anxiety. But you will still have 
some side effects.  
 
If you are magnesium deficient, you are probably prone to constipation. Improving your 
magnesium status will tend to cause diarrhea for a time. This is only logical if you think 
about the fact that milk of magnesia is a treatment for constipation.  
 
The good news is that you can manage this symptom by ramping up more slowly. If you 
are having too much intestinal drama, lower your magnesium intake.  
 
Don't worry: You won't always have diarrhea from taking magnesium. This will tend to 
resolve over time.  
 
This side effect is due the body going through changes. At some point, you will reach a 
new equilibrium where constipation is no longer your norm, but, no, you won't simply 
have diarrhea all the time.  
 
So, if you are suffering from anxiety, you should really look up all of your individual 
symptoms and check which ones can be due to a magnesium deficiency. If you want an 
okay from your doctor, a simple blood test can check your magnesium status.  

