Magnesium: cramps, sleep, and sugar cravings

Three hundred reactions in the body: relaxing muscles after contraction, transmitting nerve signals, sleep, energy production, insulin sensitivity, and converting vitamin D into its active form. When there is too little, the muscle contracts and cannot relax — a cramp. The nervous system cannot slow down — poor sleep and anxiety. The body asks for a quick way to raise magnesium and serotonin — chocolate.

300-400 mg of elemental magnesium per day, in the evening an hour before bed — it relaxes you. For cramps, the effect appears in 3-7 days; for sleep, in one to two weeks. Look for “elemental magnesium” on the label, not the weight of the salt: 1000 mg of magnesium citrate contains about 160 mg of magnesium itself. Food provides some: leafy greens, pumpkin seeds, almonds, avocado, 85% dark chocolate, and oily fish. Fully meeting your needs through food on a low-carb diet is difficult, so a supplement is one of the few justified options.

Only one percent of magnesium is in the blood; the rest is in cells and bones. The body keeps the blood level stable by taking magnesium from the bones, so a test may show a normal result despite a real deficiency. Use symptoms and diet as your guide. If confirmation is really needed, test magnesium in red blood cells, but two weeks of supplementation and observation is simpler. How this relates to other electrolytes — cramps and headaches.