Magnesium is an important mineral for all women, but low levels of magnesium is a common imbalance I see in midlife women. This typically goes hand in hand with high calcium since a magnesium deficiency can lead to more calcium loss. Calcium loss leads to bone health issues but can also slow down your metabolism and interfere with thyroid hormone signaling.

Low magnesium is a big concern for this population because of how it impacts crucial areas that menopause greatly impacts:

• Heart health
  • Supports heart function and helps to stabilize the membranes of heart cells
  • Helps prevent blood clotting
  • Keeps heart rhythms steady. Mag def increases the risk of arrhythmias and heart attacks
• Detoxification
  • Neutralizes toxins and assists the cells and body to excrete heavy metals
  • Detox also requires energy or ATP, which requires adequate magnesium
• Stress reducing and controlling the sympathetic nervous system (fight or flight)
  • Helps calm the adrenals and control the SNS response
  • Under stress we lose magnesium, yet with magnesium, we can more effectively respond to stress
  • Muscle relaxant–as opposed to calcium which constricts and contracts
  • Can help support sleep
• Bone health
  • When magnesium requirements rise (under stress, pregnancy, etc.), and reserves are low, it will be taken from the bone since 60% of it lives there. This can lead to thinning of the bone, which is a huge concern once we are no longer producing estrogen to protect bone health.
  • Without enough magnesium, calcium gets displaced and calcification occurs, which slows our metabolism and impacts thyroid health
• Magnesium also plays a huge role in blood sugar balance, which will impact our cholesterol, triglycerides, and sex hormones as well.

Supporting healthy magnesium levels will support all of these areas. If you’ve been here for a while, then you know that minerals don’t work alone. They are synergistic, which means they all impact each other. Magnesium is no different and actually has a big impact on sodium. Sodium is another big one for menopause. Low sodium levels can lead to insulin resistance and make it hard to get hormones and nutrients inside our cells. This is why we don’t want to over do any one mineral and I always recommend support sodium and potassium levels before adding in a magnesium supplement. Mainly because magnesium can make it hard to increase sodium levels. If you have done a hair test and your sodium is not low, you can talk with your practitioner about starting magnesium, but if it is low or if you are not sure, I recommend working on those two minerals first.

If you want to learn about other minerals that are important for menopause check out my podcast episode, 5 important minerals for menopause.

If you are ready to start supporting your minerals, check out my course, master your minerals!

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