Hormone creation - magnesium actually makes your hormones progesterone, estrogen and testosterone, so if you're getting into perimenopause or are just off the Pill and your levels are low, it can be your best friend.
Magnesium Key Role in Sex Hormone Production
Magnesium has been shown in many studies to be a regulating mineral. If your estrogen levels are too high or too low, then magnesium can help bring them back to stable levels, which will positively impact testosterone and progesterone.
Magnesium has a clear positive impact on hormonal health, offering support for things like sleep, mood and premenstrual syndrome. From regulating your sleep cycle to increasing sleep efficiency, why not discover the benefits of magnesium on sleep for yourself?
Magnesium Glycinate: great for calming, helping with sleep and hormone balance.
The Estrogen Decline Causes Neuroinflammation Through Producing Magnesium Deficiency in Ovariectomized and Aged Female Mice. Clinical data show that serum Mg2+ is decreased in postmenopausal women.
Magnesium is anti-aging – Magnesium is essential to the production of steroid hormones such as Testosterone, DHEA, Progesterone and Estrogen. It has been shown to enhance glutathione production, prevent telomere shortening and reduce oxidative stress – slowing down the aging process.
Cortisol regulation – magnesium calms your nervous system and prevents the creation of excess cortisol, the stress hormone. When your stress hormonal system is in balance, your levels of progesterone, estrogen, testosterone, FSH and LH will be too.
Some of the vitamins linked to better estrogen balance include vitamin D, the B complex, and vitamin C. Minerals such as calcium and boron may help protect against the effects of low estrogen, while some herbal supplements, including dong quai and black cohosh, are also known for their hormone-balancing effects.
Boron, a mineral that helps your body absorb testosterone and estrogen. Vitamin B, which helps your body create and use estrogen. Vitamin D, which functions as a hormone in the body and helps with estrogen production. Vitamin E, because research shows vitamin E may help reduce hot flashes and insomnia.
The best dose of magnesium
A therapeutic dose of magnesium is at least 300 mg which usually equates to three capsules.
People with diabetes, intestinal disease, heart disease or kidney disease should not take magnesium before speaking with their health care provider. Overdose. Signs of a magnesium overdose can include nausea, diarrhea, low blood pressure, muscle weakness, and fatigue. At very high doses, magnesium can be fatal.
Large doses might cause too much magnesium to build up in the body, causing serious side effects including an irregular heartbeat, low blood pressure, confusion, slowed breathing, coma, and death.
Too much magnesium from foods isn't a concern for healthy adults. However, the same can't be said for supplements. High doses of magnesium from supplements or medications can cause nausea, abdominal cramping and diarrhea.
Risk Factors
Age is the number one risk factor for low estrogen. As a person with ovaries approaches age 47—perimenopause age—they experience fluctuating estrogen levels for several years until full menopause. Some other risk factors associated with low estrogen include: Extreme dieting or eating disorders.
Magnesium
An incredibly important mineral, magnesium is involved in hundreds of chemical reactions throughout the body, many of which affect your hormonal balance. Magnesium supports your liver in detoxification so that excess estrogen is eliminated from your body.
Having a high percentage of body fat can lead to high estrogen levels. Stress: Your body produces the hormone cortisol in response to stress. Producing high amounts of cortisol in response to stress can deplete your body's ability to produce progesterone. The estrogen in your body is left unchecked by progesterone.
A Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center study involving postmenopausal, overweight, and obese women who took 2,000 IUs of vitamin D daily for a year found that those whose vitamin D blood levels increased the most had the greatest reductions in blood estrogens, which are a known risk factor for breast cancer.
Estrogen imbalance: Vitamin D deficiency may lead to lowered estrogen levels, which can cause depression, hot flashes, mood swings and more.
Zinc can rebalance these hormone levels through its antiandrogenic activity which will raise estrogen and progesterone back to baseline.
Most women today are juggling so many responsibilities that stress and fatigue is not uncommon. To make matters worse, the body uses more magnesium when under chronic stress, making the need for magnesium even greater. The Recommended Daily Allowance for magnesium for adult women is 320 milligrams.
One study. View Source of older adults with insomnia found that magnesium supplementation at a dose of 500 milligrams daily for eight weeks helped them fall asleep fast, stay asleep longer, reduced nighttime awakenings, and increased their levels of naturally circulating melatonin.