Magnesium Self-Experiments
80 comments
·March 9, 2025kvhdude
sizzle
Seems like you would benefit from magnesium no? Our bodies don’t produce it (correct me if I’m mistaken).
Magnesium Glycinate makes me sleep like a baby at night.
ggm
Increasingly hard to get Mg tablets without Vitamin B and so increasingly easy to get excess B12. Australian formulations of magnesium sold by Swisse don't have B. The same branding in HK does. I wrote to them about it, interesting response: "check the therapeutic goods administration site for canonical ingredients we don't commit to labelling the jar" they do list the neutral filler and Mg they just don't say "no B12"
B is typically included for synergistic uptake reasons I believe.
Excess B12 is really bad. Neuropathy. Considering you take Mg to get rid of muscle cramps (pain, conducted by nerves), a bit ironic. It's increasingly common in Australia now.
Excess Mg is unlikely. I think the body chucks it out in Urine pretty rapidly. I still take it, the cramps after sport return within a few months when I stop. I have a fruit and veg rich diet, I get plenty of natural Mg and K which is also good for muscle cramps. Age related insufficiency I suspect (63) malabsorption comes with age.
manmal
Maybe you mean B6, which is associated with small fiber neuropathy.
B12 has to jump through a number of hoops before it‘s even converted into a usable form [1].
I‘m sure you‘re meaning well, but B12 deficiency is a wide spread problem [2], and it’s questionable that excess is worse than deficiency.
1: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19832808/#&gid=article-figur...
2: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7792587/
EDIT: After posting, I saw your other comments. Maybe you can update parent.
Jarmsy
And one reason for taking B12 is actually to prevent neuropathy.
qwerty456127
> Excess B12 is really bad. Neuropathy.
How much really is dangerously excess? How do methylcobalamin vs cyanocobalamin compare in this regard? I noticed B12 supplements usually exceed the RDA by some orders of magnitude.
> Increasingly hard to get Mg tablets without Vitamin B
Same problem with iron supplements. Not particularly easy to find iron without folic acid. Folic acid can be very harmful for people with methylation problems (an extremely widespread genetic thing) who should supplement methylfolate instead. Whoever feels stimulated and harder to sleep after taking a folic acid pill - beware.
mint2
There’s a fair number of brands selling mg alone and fe alone. Maybe it’s hard outside the US? Or maybe places like target and CVS don’t carry them - those places do have limited options.
chiefalchemist
CVS’ own brand has Mg only
https://www.cvs.com/shop/cvs-health-magnesium-glycinate-200m...
dhedberg
> Excess B12 is really bad. Neuropathy.
Do you have any source for this? I can find some "it-might-be-bad" studies through a quick googling, but in general the idea seem to be that excess B12 is thought to be unproblematic ("it's just peed out").
ggm
B6 not B12. My bad.
mft_
Maybe you should edit your original post?
DavidPiper
Can confirm, overdosing on Vitamin B6 is bad. Lots of very scary symptoms.
I accidentally poisoned myself with B6 from Magnesium tablets over the course of a year: https://davids.town/vitamin-b6-overdose (my levels were 38x the healthy range).
tl;dr: Always check your Magnesium for what else the tablet includes. If it contains Pyridoxine hydrochloride (i.e. Vitamin B6) or another Pyridoxine compound, find one that doesn't. Since then, Swisse is the only brand I've found that consistently sells "pure" Magnesium tablets here in Australia.
Beijinger
Whatever you desire:
https://purebulk.com/search?type=product&q=magnesium
Or grab these next time in Europe. 0.50 Euros effervescent tablets https://www.rossmann.de/de/gesundheit-altapharma-brausetable...
I never heard about the B12 problem. But effervescent tablets without artificial sweetener are unheard off.
freedom_dev
Excess B12 is also very easily excreted in urine being a water-soluble vitamin so it's really hard to "overdose" on
ggm
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-01-08/vitamin-b6-toxicity-p...
I got my Bs mixed up it's Mg + B6
viraptor
It's still hard to get a high enough dose to dangerous level from other supplements. Bad b6 effects typically start over 500mg/day. Usual pills of just b6 are 100mg in countries that don't limit it otherwise. The reviews that I've read normally described the issues as going away within days of stopping.
I wish there was better research on this, because so far only weird isolated cases make the news.
giantg2
How about Epsom salt? I've never known that to have B added.
justinator
Don't eat epsom salt.
giantg2
Technically you can (or as a suppository). The great part is that you don't need to.
chinathrow
My doc said there is no scientific proof that Mg works against cramps. Is that true?
haltcatchfire
As always with supplements, a deficiency might cause the issue (cramps in this case) and the supplement gets you back to normal levels, preventing cramps. If you’re experiencing cramps but don’t have a magnesium deficiency, taking magnesium supplements won’t make the cramps go away.
sschueller
When I have a cramp in my calf and I take mg in powder form it goes away within a minute. I am also no longer able to trigger a cramp which I can before taking mg. I don't think a placebo would work that quick and that well.
PeterStuer
From experience it does work in cases where through intensive training and very high 'sweating' both from cardio training and saunas you temd to lose a lot of minerals.
ggm
I'd always believe a doctor over anonymous internet experiences. If your doctor thinks it's not helpful, follow their advice. I found my cramps stopped, but anecdata is not evidence.
askvictor
While _on the whole_ I would side with doctors over random people on the Internet, I've had a number of cases where the doctor has been outright wrong, whether misdiagnosis, or not being up to date with current research.
oweiler
When I started running I had horrible cramps and the mg made them much less severe.
Running for a year now, it doesn't seem to make a difference.
borgdefenser
I mean you should take magnesium if you are deficient on a blood test. If you take too much magnesium you will just get diarrhea.
The non-blood test way would be to take magnesium until you get diarrhea and then take less but that is obviously not a pleasant experience.
I take magnesium because it is really obvious when I track micro nutrients that I don't get enough in my diet. It mostly depends though on how much spinach I am eating.
canucker2016
Blood test may not be reliable indicator of magnesium in the body.
from https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6316205/
Of clinical importance, around 0.3% of total body magnesium is found in serum. Thus, total and/or ionized magnesium concentrations measured in plasma or serum are not reliable markers of total magnesium levels in the body; as serum magnesium does not reflect the total magnesium content at the tissue or organs, and is also a poor indicator of intracellular magnesium content.
Emerging evidence suggests that the serum magnesium/calcium quotient (0.4 is optimal, 0.36–0.28 too low) is a more practical and sensitive indicator of magnesium status and/or turnover, than the serum magnesium level alone [19]. In chronic latent magnesium deficiency, magnesium levels in the blood are within a normal range, despite there being severely depleted magnesium content in the tissues and bones. Therefore, using magnesium levels in the blood to determine total magnesium levels in the body can result in underestimation of magnesium deficiency in healthy and diseased populations. Recent studies have shown that individuals with serum magnesium levels around 1.82 mg/dL (0.75 mmol/L) are most likely to have a magnesium deficiency, while those with serum magnesium level more than 2.07 mg/dL (0.85 mmol/L) are most likely to have adequate levelsddorian43
Go train hard in heat/summer until you get cramps. Then get electolytes to fix it in a couple of minutes.
Source: I can reproduce this on demand.
mantas
But it works for me and I know more anecdata cases.
Maybe it depends on technical cause of what seems to be cramps. And maybe it helps indirectly by helping some other process in the body. But in ny experience there’s direct correlation between magnesium intake and cramps and nail health.
I’ve a feeling genetics may be involved since my kid also has similar tendencies. And doctor we went to for his night cramps did suggest magnesium which worked. So whether there’s research or not, doctors do suggest it and it does seem to help at least in some cases.
elric
Some more anecdata: magnesium greatly reduces annoying muscle twitches for me. I get them quite frequently when I don't take magnesium for a while. Magnesium citrate is easily available here, without added vitamin b6. No side effects from what I've observed over the years.
jbotz
Also muscle cramps. I like to stretch out all my muscles when I first wake up while still in bed and when I don't supplement magnesium this has sometimes triggered cramps in leg muscles. When supplementing magnesium this never happen, and the stretched muscles feel better, more relaxed.
jnellis
I find this to be true as well. I have nerve damage/pressure from bad back. If I miss a dose before bed, I almost invariably get a calf cramp in the early morning hours before waking. Very annoying, only way to get rid of it is get out of bed and stand up on it. I think flooding the body with the magnesium before bed, before it has a chance to maybe get rid of excess perhaps, because taking it too far from bedtime I'll still have twitches and cramps.
K0balt
Also lowers blood pressure for me.
dr_dshiv
Magnesium — cheap & plain-as-possible magnesium pills — are a great laxative. I suspect that this has follow-on psychological effects. All the expensive pills are just to avoid the laxative effect. No further benefit. So if you think a good dump contributes to your wellbeing, consider the plain stuff.
beagle3
There is no such thing as “plain”. You can’t eat pure magnesium. mg oxide is cheap, but apparently mostly laxative. Mg citrate is part laxative but also absorbed. Mg glycinate is more expensive but avoids the laxative effect.
For the muscle relaxant effect (other than perhaps bowel muscles), mg oxide is hardly useful.
dr_dshiv
> For the muscle relaxant effect (other than perhaps bowel muscles), mg oxide is hardly useful.
This is what I’m questioning. Most of these variants are claiming subtler psychological effects — when the basic stuff has a very direct effect that I think is positive.
I always just buy the magnesium pills that just say “magnesium.”
mint2
Well please read things more carefully in the future.
No one sells pills of pure magnesium - that would be eating metal shavings or metal beads.
It is ALWAYS a magnesium ion paired with an anion of some sort. Is that what you mean? Ones with only magnesium salt or oxide - I.e citrate, carbonate etc
qwerty456127
> All the expensive pills are just to avoid the laxative effect. No further benefit.
Different substances may have seriously different subjective (e.g. on mood, sleep) effect in at least some people (e.g. me). I may be a good idea to try bisglycinate, orotate, threanate to check whether some of them act the way you like.
colordrops
Theonate gives scary NDE style dreams/out of body experiences. It is supposedly a nanoparticle formulation that crosses the blood brain barrier. Makes me wonder about safety.
qwerty456127
> Theonate gives scary NDE style dreams
Not to me, gives me a full night of deep uninterrupted sleep instead.
> out of body experiences
I would pay thousands of dollars for a pill which would give me an out of body experience. To me it seems among the most important things to have experienced before you die.
justinator
When I started Mag, I had the most incredible psychotic dreams -- didn't matter the type for me.
They've gone away unfortunately.
cyrillite
Ah. I just checked a formulation for my old supplements v my new ones. I see increased magnesium. This was helpful
xattt
> avoid the laxative effect
Why not consider that it might alter the gut flora?
codethief
> There are no published human trials as of October 2015
This has changed: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9786204/
Notably, though, their results indicate effects on cognition and memory, which the OP's experiments don't seem to address.
Amekedl
Refer to Magnesium-based Lifeform from Disco Elysium, it is very accurate.
_0ffh
Another thing why magnesium oxide could not be the optimal compound for you: It's a laxative. That might be good to know before you start daily supplementation. Personally, I have bisglycinate.
lifty
I’ve tried probably most forms of Magnesium and they all upset my digestion, unless I take a small dose.
ANarrativeApe
My understanding is that the human body stores magnesium, said stores sufficient for approximately 30 days. As such, daily magnesium is far less important that the 30 day moving average.
mattlondon
This is great and all but how can you objectively measure something like "mood" or "productivity"?
There are a lot of variables, even in your day to day work activities (e.g. you never debug & implement a fix for the exact same bug twice...one bug might be a satisfying and enjoyable activity, another might be a frustrating, difficult, and tedious pain in the ass)
I've done similar trials with magnesium glcyinate and personally not noticed any difference. But then I have not found any way to accurately measure differences between what a "good day" is Vs a "bad day". Even without supplementing, it feels like dice roll at the best of times
seer
I haven’t seen any cognitive / mood difference for me when taking magnesium supplements in any form.
But then I went to one of those sensory deprivation chambers, where they use magnesium salts to change the water’s buoyancy.
I felt the most content and happy in my life for a week after. It was really bizarre - I would “just not care” about pressures at work, failing personal relationships, any stress really.
And I remained effective, just with a higher EQ because I wouldn’t overthink things.
Tried it some more times with similar effect. So now when I end up in a situation where I build up stress and can’t seem to get to a chill state - just go for a deprivation tank and align myself back, though I try not to get into a situation where I need one altogether.
vasco
> There are a lot of variables, even in your day to day work activities
I consistently find the only thing I can correlate reliably is sleep quality assessment upon waking up. If I feel great and rested I know my performance during the day will be better at pretty much everything.
guerrilla
I don't know but we can measure stress reliably by HRV. It correlates extremely well with fatigue in general. For me personally, I think it correlates with mood and productivity directly, or at least the preconditions for them.
justlikereddit
The same guy concluded that LSD microdosing is without any effects so I'm ready to dismiss his ability to reach any conclusion worth listening to.
But he do excel at making a site a pain in the ass to navigate and bulking up the volume of text without adding anything useful to it.
It reeks of some effective altruist flavored breed of pomposity.
Mistletoe
Maybe it has no effect?
roenxi
Those charts aren't very clear; given that GGPlot is already on the scene it'd probably pay dividends to bin the data in some form. I'd be starting with geom_boxplot grouped by week myself. Trying to interpret that sort of wild squiggling in the 2nd plot is not the path to happiness.
hiAndrewQuinn
Always love to see a Gwern article on the front page. I threw some cash his way for changing my life over a decade ago with his page on spaced repetition, and more recently for his page on using pure nicotine to form other habits.
derektank
I've been advised that Magnesium supplementation improves the efficacy of ibuprofen and acetaminophen in treating tension headaches by my physician.
my own anecdotal experience with magnesium : i was generally prone to leg cramps even when young that usually subsides when i take salty water. i had developed hyperthroidism in late 90s that was treated eventually with radio-iodide. subsequently i went into hypothyroid state. soon after was a violent cramps episode which became regular that even if i took few hundred steps my legs would start cramping up. A steep descent into quality of life had me try many many tests as the initial suspicion was some kind of clot. Quite painful nerve conduction velocity tests were done. I was the subject of academic curiosity at stanford hospital. I was on codeine and other pain medications. After a year of this, one day happened to talk to a regular doctor (no specialization), who treats patients from asian subcontinent. He said that i may have magnesium deficiency which was apparently common for my ethnic background. Since by that time i had tried everything, this was an easy choice. Just a couple of weeks in with cal-mag citrate (400mg/day), felt something different in my legs and the whole nigthmare just lifted. I was able to return to hikes etc and would only occasionally need magnesium. It has been 2 decades since, and i dont take magnesium anymore and do strenous workouts and never again triggered any cramps episode.