Can Magnesium cure anxiety? The whole truth about the trendy supplement

Magnesium is having a moment.

Found in everyday foods like spinach, almonds and soy milk, the necessary mineral — our bodies need it for energy production, as well as all sorts of other complicated reasons — has recently gained widespread popularity as a holistic treatment for anxiety.

The craze began picking up steam not long ago, with TikTok users like Tyler Wesley (@tylerjohnwesley) finding viral fame posting about their experiences with the supplement. Just 500 mg of magnesium per day put an end to a decadeslong panic problem, Wesley insisted.

Months later, TikTokers are still sharing their success stories — #Magnesium now boasts more than a billion views on the popular app, the Guardian first reported.

And while the swell of enthusiasm certainly has a lot of prospective users buying into the hype, what does the science say?

Two things, in summary. One, magnesium does appear to have an overall calming effect. And two, most Americans don’t get enough of the stuff in their daily diet. Which could explain, according to those in the know, why people who are bulking up are feeling less jittery.

Louise Dye, a professor at the school of food science and nutrition at the University of Leeds in the United Kingdom, told the Guardian that roughly 50% of Americans consume less than the daily recommended intake of 300 to 400 mg. Dye is co-author of a paper that reviewed a series of studies on magnesium — four out of eight found magnesium to be beneficial to anxiety sufferers.

Something experts know from research conducted on the topic is that magnesium has the capability to curb stress in the body by tamping down the impacts of excitement-making glutamate, too much of which can interfere with brain health and lead to mental health problems, according to Katie Holton, a nutritional neuroscientist at American University.

“We know a lot about how magnesium works in the body,” Holton said.

What we don’t know — yet — are things like how much magnesium people actually need, how it interacts with medications, or if the calming effects are mostly felt by those who don’t get enough of the mineral in their daily diets, versus those who do.

Which is why, Holton recommends, that curious parties first try upping your magnesium levels at the dinner table. Pumpkin and chia seeds are rich in the mineral, as are almonds and cashews. Spinach and salmon, soy milk and bananas — all winners.

If supplements are what you want, choose one — widely available chelated magnesium is fine — that’s been verified by the nonprofit US Pharmacopeia, which performs the quality controls the Food and Drug Administration won’t on largely unregulated supplements.

“Given its importance in the body, it might not be surprising to observe marked benefits after magnesium intake,” Dye said. “However, magnesium should not be seen as a ‘miracle’ molecule, capable of solving any issue.”

And don’t be surprised if you don’t notice any changes.

“In our research, as with any other intervention, it did not work for everyone,” Emily Tarleton, an assistant professor of health science at Vermont State University said.

And that, the experts agree, is the only real danger of relying on magnesium to cure a very real issue — the harm that can be done by promising major change to often-vulnerable anxiety sufferers.

People who are “epistemically adrift,” or struggling to know which cure is the one that will finally save them, says philosopher of psychiatry Jake Jackson, are particularly at risk. The promises being put out daily by TikTokers can wind up making someone with a crippling anxiety problem feel even worse, feeling “morally inadequate and pressured to do the right thing without clear direction,” Jackson said.

In other words, consult a medical or mental health professional first.