Magnesium

Optimal dose 200 mg/day

Magnesium is involved in hundreds of different body functions, but is routinely low in the American diet as a result of food processing. The average American diet supplies less than 300 milligrams of magnesium per day, while the average Asian diet supplies over 600 milligrams per day. If you have fatigue or pain, you should take 1,800 milligrams of malic acid and 200-450 milligrams of magnesium glycinate a day for eight months, and then cut back to 200 mg. If diarrhea and cramps are not a problem, you can take up to twice this amount of magnesium. An exception is if you have kidney failure with a blood creatinine level well over 1.6 milligrams per deciliter (mg/dL) — in which case your doctor will have told you to avoid potassium and magnesium. If you get uncomfortable diarrhea from the magnesium, cut the dosage back and then slowly increase the dose as is comfortable.

See Magnesium for more information on its key functions.

More Information Online

Nutritional primer

We have a 20,000 word primer on nutrition at our website that provides more detail with study references on each nutrient. Click here to visit the "Magnesium" section of our primer.