Dealing with magnesium intolerance

You’ve got enough to worry about. You don’t need magnesium-induced diarrhea to add to your worries.

An occasional person who tries to supplement magnesium reports being intolerant to every form at any dose. Take a tablet of, say, magnesium malate or drink 4 ounces of Magnesium Water and you experience several hours of diarrhea. Break the tablet in half, reduce Magnesium Water to 2 ounces and you still end up sitting on the toilet re-reading old magazines and breaking your toilet paper budget. Some people really struggle with trying to obtain a healthy intake of magnesium.

In the Wheat Belly and Undoctored worlds, we choose forms of magnesium that are best absorbed and least likely to result in loose stools: magnesium bicarbonate (Magnesium Water), glycerophosphate, malate, chelates, etc. We supplement magnesium because we must filter drinking water nowadays, given the contamination of water with sewage, farm runoff with herbicides and pesticides, and other factors. And you consume mass produced vegetables and fruits, often raised in hydroponic gardens or other artificial settings, lacking magnesium. This combination of events leads over time to magnesium deficiency that, in turn, leads to greater potential for high blood pressure, heart rhythm disorders, muscle cramps, osteopenia/osteoporosis and other common chronic health problems. It would be wonderful if we could go to the nearest river or stream, rich in minerals as water flows over soil and rocks, and obtain magnesium simply by drinking water and eating wild foods. But modern waterways are all contaminated and wild foods are hard to come by in the modern setting.

We therefore supplement magnesium to compensate for the deficiencies of modern life. An occasional person, however, reports that, regardless of what form of magnesium they try, it results in loose bowel movements, even with low doses. If this applies to you, how do you obtain the magnesium that your body needs but is limited by gastrointestinal intolerance?

Mimic the natural situation. It doesn’t mean going to the river or stream and drinking. It means obtaining magnesium all throughout the day in small quantities. It means using your drinking water as a source for magnesium. For example, add 1/2 teaspoon of powdered magnesium glycerophosphate to 8 ounces of (filtered) water, keep it on your kitchen counter and sip throughout the day. Or add 1/2 teaspoon of the Garden of Life Relax & Restore product to 8 ounces of water and likewise sip over the day. (There are a number of effervescent tablet forms of magnesium, also, but all the products I’ve reviewed–Nuun, Kruger, Trace Minerals and others–all contain undesirable ingredients such as cornstarch, sugar, or saccharine. They are therefore not among the best choices.) In other words, spread out your intake of magnesium just as humans living in the wild do, not taking a bunch of magnesium all at once, but obtaining magnesium in a trickle over time. This way, you obtain the magnesium you require for heart, bone, and metabolic health but are spared the aggravation of sitting on the toilet with the indignity and magnesium-losing effect of loose stools.

It means having to consume 3 cups of water containing magnesium glycerophosphate or the Garden of Life product over the day. But, over time, you will restore body-wide magnesium that facilitates so many health advantages, all without having to endure the loose stools that magnesium consumed all at once can provoke.