Do you recommend supplements to your patients? Good, you should as they can provide significant benefit to their life. One supplement that most people should take is magnesium.

Magnesium is an amazing supplement and extremely safe. Cases of hypermagnesemia in people without kidney disease are very rare, therefore supplementation is safe.

Be aware though, that patients with kidney disease could either have hypomagnesaemia (lack of intake) or hypermagnesemia. With impaired kidney function, the excretion of magnesium becomes impaired which could lead to dangerously high levels of magnesium if the patient is supplementing it, but this appears to be rare.

Magnesium plays an important role in various neuromuscular processes, bone metabolism, ATP production (ENERGY!), neurotransmitter health, and regulation of vascular tone and heart rhythm.

Therefore, magnesium has multiple clinical benefits:

It stabilizes heart muscle and can prevent arrhythmias (If I don’t take it daily, I have frequent palpitations. My cardiologist wants me to take it daily.)

It can lower blood pressure by dilating and relaxing blood vessels.

It improves bone density and can reduce the risk of developing osteoporosis (especially in combination with calcium and vitamin D).

It can prevent muscle cramping (A great supplement for athletes).

It softens stools.

It improves protein metabolism.

It improves blood glucose regulation.

It can reduce inflammation.

It can reduce migraine severity.

It can support healthier sleep if taken in the evening.

Because of all the benefits, I recommend to all my patients that they should be supplementing magnesium before bed daily.

The standard dose is 500mg-1000mg daily. The type of magnesium is not that critical, but I personally like the magnesium complexes that contain a variety of different types of magnesium compounds.