Magnesium Glycinate: great for calming, helping with sleep and hormone balance.
Magnesium is Essential to Balancing Hormones
Magnesium is one of the most essential minerals to help balance hormones. While you can take a supplement, and even spray your skin with magnesium spray, there's no better way of getting the magnesium you need than from the foods you eat.
Magnesium glycinate -- Magnesium glycinate (magnesium bound with glycine, a non-essential amino acid) is one of the most bioavailable and absorbable forms of magnesium, and also the least likely to induce diarrhea. It is the safest option for correcting a long-term deficiency.
Magnesium Glycinate
This means that magnesium is combined with the amino acid glycine. Overall, the glycinate form absorbs better and is least likely to cause digestive distress.
Magnesium promotes healthy estrogen clearance
By supporting the COMT enzyme (catechol-o-methyltransferase) in the liver, magnesium promotes the healthy excretion of estrogen (9). This may reduce the risk of the estrogen excess conditions (such as fibroids) associated with low COMT function (10).
Hormones like progesterone, estrogen and testosterone are created with the help of magnesium. The recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA) for magnesium is around 320 milligrams per day. However, stress and conditions like thyroid autoimmune disease can rob people of magnesium.
Magnesium aspartate, citrate, chloride, and malate are known for being the most bioavailable — or best absorbed — in the body to replenish magnesium levels. Still, your healthcare provider may suggest other types depending on your specific needs ( 35 ).
Magnesium citrate is a more common choice if you want to maintain magnesium levels for general whole-body health. On the other hand, magnesium glycinate has less bioavailability but can have a calming effect.
People often use magnesium glycinate instead of other magnesium supplements, as the body finds it easier to absorb magnesium in this form. It is also one of the gentlest supplements on the stomach. Unlike other forms of magnesium, it might not cause as many side effects, such as an upset stomach or loose stools.
Research has found that magnesium glycinate is one of the most absorbable forms, along with citrate, chloride, lactate, and aspartate5 . It is also important to note that zinc and calcium can reduce magnesium's absorption6 , so be mindful of what you take it with.
Magnesium glycinate is often used for its calming effects to treat anxiety, depression, and insomnia.
Therefore, magnesium supplements can be taken at any time of the day, as long as you're able to take them consistently. For some, taking supplements first thing in the morning may be easiest, while others may find that taking them with dinner or just before bed works well for them.
Magnesium Glycinate: great for calming, helping with sleep and hormone balance.
Liquids, powders, or some other forms of this product may contain sugar and/or aspartame. Liquid products may also contain alcohol. Caution is advised if you have diabetes, alcohol dependence, liver disease, phenylketonuria (PKU), or any other condition that requires you to limit/avoid these substances in your diet.
“Magnesium may help regulate neurotransmitters that are directly related to sleep,” Dr. Umeda says. Neurotransmitters are chemicals that transmit messages between nerve cells in your brain and body. (It's important to note that magnesium plays only a supporting role in their function.)
Magnesium citrate is most helpful for people suffering from constipation, while the glycinate form is more useful for conditions like anxiety, insomnia, chronic stress, and inflammatory conditions.
Magnesium citrate causes the intestines to release water into the stool. This softens the stool and relieves constipation and irregularity. Magnesium citrate is more gentle than some of the other magnesium compounds and found as the active ingredient in many commercially available laxatives.
Is magnesium citrate safe to take daily? Yes, as long as you take a low to moderate amount and not a high dose that causes loose stools repeatedly.
Magnesium fuels healthy mitochondria which are important for hormonal health because steroid hormones are made in the mitochondria. Magnesium normalizes the action of progesterone on the central nervous system, which is how it relieves symptoms of PMDD, migraines, and perimenopause.
Magnesium will not help you lose belly fat. You can't spot reduce fat. However, magnesium has a positive correlation with weight loss.
Foods high in magnesium
If you take magnesium as a supplement, studies that showed that magnesium can have anti-anxiety effects generally used dosages of between 75 and 360 mg a day, according to the 2017 review.