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Collectively, magnesium and calcium are essential to bone well being and different essential bodily features. However the way in which your physique makes use of them means the minerals should work in tandem to be absolutely efficient.
Why magnesium and calcium are essential for good well being
Magnesium helps bones type and stay robust. It allows the small mineral crystals that comprise a part of your bone construction to extend in density and achieve energy. It additionally permits your bones to soak up calcium extra readily, which has a number of advantages (see Calcium beneath).
Except for strengthening your skeleton, magnesium contributes to:
Calcium
Of all of the important minerals present in your physique, calcium is probably the most considerable, and practically all of it’s saved in your bones and enamel.
Like magnesium, it’s very important to bone well being. It allows bones to develop and develop, conserving them robust and dense as much as the age of round 25, after they start to lose density as a part of the ageing course of. Calcium helps gradual this decline.
Calcium additionally contributes to regular:
Why calcium wants magnesium to be efficient
Your physique doesn’t depend on magnesium to soak up calcium. However with out it, calcium can develop into poisonous, depositing itself in tender tissues, kidneys, arteries and cartilage fairly than in bones the place it has the best profit.
This will result in some fairly extreme well being situations. Balancing calcium with the correct amount of magnesium stops these doubtlessly dangerous points occurring.
Magnesium helps keep a steadiness of hormones
Having an excessive amount of calcium in your blood stimulates your physique into releasing a hormone referred to as calcitonin, whereas stopping it from secreting the parathyroid hormone (PTH).
Your physique wants to have the ability to regulate the steadiness of those hormones, and it will probably try this with the assistance of magnesium. Ample quantities of magnesium suppress PTH and stimulate calcitonin, sending calcium to the bones fairly than the tender tissues and stopping sure bone ailments.
Magnesium helps regulate the heartbeat
Calcium makes muscle tissues contract, whereas magnesium lets them chill out. Collectively, they regulate the heartbeat. Electrical impulses provoke the calcium inside the cells of the center muscle, stimulating a contracting motion. Magnesium helps the cells—and, due to this fact, the muscle tissues—to chill out.
Magnesium helps enzymes convert nutritional vitamins to facilitate calcium absorption
Your physique wants two nutritional vitamins to correctly take up calcium:
How your physique absorbs magnesium and calcium
Your physique will get the magnesium and calcium it wants by way of the meals you eat and any dietary supplements you are taking. Dietary supplements are available in:
With meals and oral dietary supplements, the minerals go by elements of your physique often known as the gastrointestinal tract, which includes your:
Transdermal dietary supplements, alternatively, take up into your pores and skin, bypassing main processing by the digestive system. Learn extra in regards to the transdermal methodology beneath.
How successfully your physique absorbs and retains a mineral is dictated by that mineral’s “bioavailability”—that’s:
Magnesium’s bioavailability varies from complement to complement. These dietary supplements that dissolve properly in water or different liquid are usually extra utterly absorbed than much less soluble types.
And a few research have discovered that magnesium chloride—which BetterYou’s dietary supplements use as a supply—is extra bioavailable than magnesium oxide and magnesium sulphate, for instance.[ 1 ]
Calcium absorption varies from individual to individual too, however on common is round 30% of general consumption. That is why the really useful recommendation is commonly to take smaller doses of calcium a number of instances a day fairly than a single giant dose.
Components that have an effect on mineral absorption
Consuming sure meals and drinks
If you happen to eat/drink the next, it’d have an effect on how properly your physique absorbs minerals:
Digestive issues
In case you have low ranges of gastric acid or undergo with digestive complaints, your physique might not be capable to absolutely take up magnesium or calcium.
For optimum absorption, you must take calcium dietary supplements with meals.
Ageing
As you become old, your physique releases calcium by sweat, pores and skin cells and waste. Due to this, calcium absorption can differ relying on how outdated you’re.
Figuring out what meals to eat
A food plan wealthy in each magnesium and calcium can have a variety of well being advantages.
Magnesium
Meals sources that comprise excessive ranges of magnesium embrace:
Calcium
The next meals and drinks are wealthy sources of calcium:
Sorts of dietary supplements, how a lot to take and when to take them – “calcium with magnesium”
What to take
Magnesium and calcium dietary supplements are available in a variety of types—as capsules, capsules, tablets, powders and liquids.
And that’s simply the sort you are taking by mouth—there are additionally many kinds of transdermal dietary supplements (these you take up by the pores and skin). We clarify transdermal magnesium beneath.
If you happen to select to take an oral complement, attempt to keep away from carbonates (i.e. magnesium carbonate or calcium carbonate), as these are the toughest on your physique to soak up. As a substitute, search for magnesium chloride (probably the most bioavailable type of magnesium) or citrates (magnesium citrate or calcium citrate).
If you happen to take calcium dietary supplements, be sure you additionally take magnesium so your physique can correctly metabolise the calcium.
Transdermal magnesium
Somewhat than take magnesium dietary supplements as tablets or capsules, as an example, you possibly can apply them on to your pores and skin, in types reminiscent of:
The concept is that the mineral absorbs rapidly into the extremely porous higher layer of your pores and skin (the dermis), by to the blood vessels and muscle tissues beneath.
At no level does it must journey by your gastrointestinal tract, that means you take up the mineral in better quantities and keep away from the danger of digestive issues.
Learn extra about transdermal magnesium right here and about BetterYou’s magnesium and calcium bone lotion right here.
How a lot to take
As a result of magnesium and calcium work so carefully collectively, it’s essential to take them within the right quantities.
A rule of thumb usually used is a ratio of 1 half calcium to 1 half magnesium. So, should you take 500mg of calcium you also needs to take 500mg of magnesium. Most calcium and magnesium dietary supplements observe this ratio.
The really useful each day quantity of magnesium is 300mg for males (aged 19–64) and 270mg for girls (aged 19–64 years).[ 4 ]
With calcium, it’s at the very least 1,000mg per day for adults. Girls aged 51 and older, and males over the age of 70, are suggested to extend their each day consumption to 1,200mg.[ 5 ]
As magnesium competes with calcium at doses greater than 250mg[ 6 ], in case your calcium ranges are already low it’d trigger you to develop a calcium deficiency. Typically, although, taking each minerals of their each day really useful quantities is totally high-quality.
When to take
No matter dietary supplements you select to take, when it comes to dosage at all times observe the instructions on the packaging.
Magnesium
If you happen to’re taking transdermal magnesium dietary supplements—these you apply on to your pores and skin, like lots of BetterYou’s merchandise—you possibly can take these everytime you like. Many individuals wish to take them a short while earlier than mattress, to help sleep. Learn extra about taking magnesium to help sleep right here.
It’s greatest to take oral magnesium dietary supplements with a meal to scale back the danger of you struggling an upset abdomen or diarrhoea. If you happen to’re taking them that will help you get to sleep at night time, achieve this round 20 to half-hour earlier than you go to mattress.
Calcium
Like magnesium, calcium might be taken transdermally, at any time of the day.
With oral dietary supplements, as a result of your physique can’t absolutely take up greater than round 500mg of calcium at a time, the really useful recommendation is to divide your doses and take them at completely different instances of the
What causes a magnesium or calcium deficiency
Your physique tends to retain calcium and both retailer it or reuse it. With magnesium, nonetheless, it sometimes makes use of up all its shops, that means you will need to replenish it day-after-day. That is why you’re extra more likely to develop a deficiency in magnesium fairly than calcium.
As your physique will get most of its vitamins from the meals you eat, the most typical reason for any deficiency is food plan. Consuming sure kinds of food and drinks hinders your physique’s capacity to soak up minerals and impacts their bioavailability.
One other issue is overfarming. The intensive nature of at present’s agriculture means the soil through which fruit and greens are grown is much less wealthy in vitamins.
Magnesium deficiency
Having low ranges of magnesium is called hypomagnesemia. To learn extra about what causes this situation, click on right here.
Calcium deficiency
The next are often known as potential causes of hypocalcaemia (calcium deficiency):
If you happen to observe a vegan food plan, you may develop into poor in calcium should you don’t eat sufficient calcium-rich or calcium-fortified meals.
If you happen to’re lactose illiberal, you will need to eat loads of non-dairy meals which might be wealthy in calcium to keep away from growing a deficiency.[ 7 ]
Attainable uncomfortable side effects of magnesium and calcium dietary supplements
There aren’t too many uncomfortable side effects from taking magnesium and calcium dietary supplements, whether or not by mouth or transdermally (by the pores and skin).
With oral magnesium dietary supplements, you may undergo a laxative impact should you take an excessive amount of. Taking complement with meals helps reduce these results.
Alternatively, you possibly can take these minerals transdermally—for instance, by making use of a lotion, spray or cream to your pores and skin. This can be a quick and efficient different to tablets and capsules.
As a result of the magnesium doesn’t undergo your digestive system, you don’t must take it with meals or drink and also you gained’t undergo any antagonistic results.
With calcium, you may really feel bloated or constipated or undergo with wind. Once more, to keep away from this, take your dietary supplements with a meal and unfold them all through the day. Calcium citrate often has fewer or much less intense uncomfortable side effects than calcium carbonate.