Hi, I'm Dr. Tracey Marks, a psychiatrist, and I make mental health education videos. Today, I'm talking about the critical role magnesium plays in your mental health that you probably didn't realize. Magnesium is considered one
of the essential minerals that's involved in more than
300 different body processes, including keeping your heart beating and maintaining electrical
stability of your nervous system. Magnesium is used by the body to regulate serotonin and
other neurotransmitters, and some researchers
believe that low magnesium is the problem behind
treatment-resistant depression. How could that be? Well, magnesium is an
NMDA receptor blocker. Blocking NMDA increases the
brain chemical called BDNF, which is brain-derived neurotropic factor. BDNF is like fertilizer
for the brain cells. Neuro means brain and
trophic is Greek for feeding. BDNF is one of the
chemicals that's responsible for cell regrowth and neuroplasticity. Neuroplasticity is the ability
to improve nerve connections by destroying damaged
nerves and growing new ones. Think of it as neuro-flexibility. There's another popular NMDA
blocker called ketamine. Ketamine was approved as a medication for treatment-resistant
depression in 2019. Ketamine is a hallucinogen, and so it's not very easy
to take for depression, but it works very fast by its powerful effect on increasing BDNF. I have a video talking more
about ketamine for depression. Magnesium also helps
anxiety, and here's how. You have NMDA receptors in your amygdala. Those receptors control fear conditioning and avoidance behaviors. Avoidance is key in maintaining phobias. I talk a little bit about it in the video that I did
on safety behaviors. So blocking the NMDA receptors in the amygdala and the
rest of your limbic system decreases your fear
response and avoidance, thus reducing anxiety. Another way magnesium helps anxiety is it decreases glutamate, which is a brain chemical that stimulates and excites the cells, and it increases GABA,
which slows cell activity. Benzodiazepines and
most sleeping pills work by increasing GABA. Now, you may be thinking
if magnesium is so good and it's already in our food, why would anyone be depressed or anxious? We all eat magnesium, right? Wrong. According to the National
Institutes of Health, 68% of the population
doesn't eat enough magnesium, and that's most of us, and
therein lies the problem. Even if you consume enough magnesium, stress and anxiety
deplete magnesium levels, and here's how that works. When you have a physical stress,
like an illness or anxiety, you get an increase in your
sympathetic nervous system. You get elevated levels of
cortisol and adrenaline. These elevations make you
excrete more magnesium through your urine, so during times of stress and anxiety, even people with normal
levels of magnesium can become temporarily
magnesium deficient. In one of the studies that I have referenced in the description, the researchers saw this phenomenon when they studied a
group of college students during final exams week. The students had normal levels
of magnesium before the exams and became deficient while
under the stress of exams. And if you have a temporary situation that can make your magnesium dip, you can recover when
that stress goes away. But imagine the person who
has an anxiety disorder or who's depressed. That person becomes magnesium deficient, and the magnesium deficiency keeps them anxious and depressed. It's like a loop that feeds on itself. So anxiety depletes your magnesium, and low magnesium makes
you anxious or depressed. How much magnesium do you need? The recommended daily amount for men is 400 to 420 milligrams, and for women, it's 310 to 320 milligrams, and it's always best to get
your vitamins and minerals from nutrient-dense food. Nutrient-dense food is food
that has a lot of minerals relative to the calories. The highest natural source of
magnesium is pumpkin seeds, carrying a whopping 156
milligrams for one ounce. Three ounces of cooked chicken breasts only contains 22 milligrams. There are good reasons
to take supplements. Supplements are good if you just can't eat
enough through your food, or if you have digestion problems, and as we get older, we
have less stomach acid, which can lessen how
much of it you absorb. Another reason to take
magnesium supplements is if you have depression or anxiety. Having those conditions suggests that you may still have
reduced magnesium levels. Antidepressants do
increase magnesium levels, but as I mentioned before, some people whose depression doesn't get much better
with antidepressants may be stuck in depression
because of low magnesium. We still don't have that
much research evidence to support using magnesium
as an add-on agent, so your doctor may not
have recommended magnesium because nutrition and mental health are relatively new focus in medicine, but the research evidence is growing. Here's what 225 milligrams
of magnesium looks like, at least for the brand I use. They're pretty big capsules, and it still doesn't meet
my daily requirement. I'd still have to eat my
ounce of pumpkin seeds to get closer to my requirement. If you take other supplements, it can be a chore getting
down all these pills. There are several different formulations of magnesium supplements. Here's some of the popular options. Magnesium oxide has a lower absorption but a higher concentration
of elemental magnesium. Because it's not absorbed
well, it can cause diarrhea. Sometimes it's paired with
calcium as a combination tablet, because calcium is constipating. Magnesium hydroxide is
sold as the laxative called Milk of Magnesia. You don't want to take it
as a nutritional supplement, because you don't want to
have diarrhea every day. Magnesium citrate is the most common form of magnesium supplementation, and it's better absorbed. Magnesium diglycenate
and magnesium aspartate are more biologically
available than magnesium oxide, but still less than the citrate version. Biologic availability refers
to how much of the pill your body actually uses. Magnesium L-threonate is
supposed to be more absorbed by the brain, but the research on this is still new. The most common side effect
associated with magnesium is diarrhea, and you see this most often with the oxide and hydroxide forms. So that's magnesium, an important nutrient
for your brain health. If you haven't already seen it, take a look at this video on
gut health and depression. Thanks for watching. See you next time.
