What is Magnesium?

Magnesium is an alkaline metal with an atomic weight of 12. It is often depicted as the letters ‘Mg’. As an element, it plays an important role in as many as 300 enzyme reactions around the body, without sufficient magnesium the body’s systems simply wouldn’t function.                        

Magnesium is used and stored all around the body, however, of the 25grams stored in the body, 50-60% of it is stored in bone and soft tissues.

What food can it be found in?

Fortunately, magnesium is naturally abundant in many foods. For example, you can find magnesium in nuts and seeds, dairy, beans, legumes, spinach, wholemeal foods, meat and fish.

Here are some examples of how much magnesium is found in each of these foods:

• Almonds (28grams) - 80mg
• Soymilk (250ml) - 61mg
• Cow’s milk (250ml) -27mg
• Kidney Beans (120grams) - 35mg
• Salmon (85grams) - 26mg
• Chicken (85grams) - 22mg
• Rice (100grams) - 42mg
• Banana (1 medium) - 32mg
• Broccoli (45grams)- 12mg
• Avocado (75grams)-22mg
• Potatoes (100grams)-43mg

Daily Requirements for Magnesium

The daily requirement for magnesium is 375mg for an adult in the UK. To reach these requirements this is what a full day's food this is what it may look like:

Breakfast:

1 banana, 250ml of soy milk and 28grams of almonds

Lunch:

100grams of Rice, 120 grams of kidney beans and 85 grams of chicken

Dinner:

85 grams of Salmon, 100grams of potato, 45grams of broccoli and 75 grams of avocado

For some, this level of intake is unmanageable and unsustainable. This is why dietary supplementation exists it allows people to supplement what they may be missing in the diet.

Taking magnesium as a dietary supplement

There are many different forms of magnesium such as glycinate, citrate, oxide, sulphate and many more. Each of these ingredients only contain a small percentage of elemental magnesium.

Maintaining your daily intake is easier said than done in a tablet or capsule form. Most supplemental tablets are made up of active ingredients alongside excipients that bind the tablets. Additionally, a 1g tablet is around 18mm, which is considered a large tablet that many will struggle to swallow.

Often this leads to magnesium supplements requiring a large daily dosage of 3-5 tablets/day.

The Vytaliving Magnesium powder only contains magnesium citrate and no other excipients. In addition, the magnesium powder is compatible with food and drinks for ease of taking.

In terms of bioavailability magnesium citrate and glycinate are thought to be the most bioavailable, this means the most absorbable. The higher the bioavailability, the more of the dosage the person receives.

Health Benefits of Magnesium

According to the official list of authorised health claims by the European food standard, the below bullet points represent the health benefits of magnesium in the body:

• Magnesium contributes to a reduction of tiredness and fatigue
• Magnesium contributes to electrolyte balance
• Magnesium contributes to normal energy-yielding metabolism
• Magnesium contributes to normal functioning of the nervous system
• Magnesium contributes to normal muscle function
• Magnesium contributes to normal protein synthesis
• Magnesium contributes to normal psychological function
• Magnesium contributes to the maintenance of normal bones
• Magnesium contributes to the maintenance of normal teeth
• Magnesium has a role in the process of cell division

Sleep and Magnesium

Magnesium is widely considered to be an excellent natural sleep aid. Studied for its many benefits for sleep, and disorders such as insomnia, magnesium makes a great addition to your night-time routine

Our sleep hormone builds up over the day, this is created from dietary tryptophan. In order to convert dietary tryptophan into our sleepy hormone magnesium must facilitate the chemical changes. Without magnesium, this conversion couldn't happen. One study gave a group of elderly patients with problematic sleep a daily dosage of magnesium dietary supplement for 8 weeks. The results showed that the patients who took the magnesium supplement fell asleep faster than those who didn’t. They also slept for longer and reduced awake time during the night. Lastly, they demonstrated a clinical difference in serum concentrations of the hormone associated with sleep.

New Product Feature – Magnesium Powder

Vytaliving has launched a brand new Magnesium Citrate powder with 30 servings. It is not easy to take in a tablet or capsule as magnesium is not potent in its natural form. For example, Magnesium citrate contains, 14.5% elemental Magnesium. Therefore, magnesium powder gives you a maximum strength dosage. Simply sprinkle your dosage on food, in drinks or smoothies – simple.

Vytaliving’s Magnesium powder comes in handy 30-day servings for 1 months' supply of health benefits. Simply take up to 1.7grams of magnesium citrate powder each day for up to 30% of your daily requirements. We recommend that you measure your daily dosage with an electric scale, as this is more accurate.

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