The Big Magnesium MISTAKE 50%+ People Are Making
Dr. Berg’s Healthy Keto and Intermittent Fasting Podcast
Dr. Eric Berg
4.6 • 1.6K Ratings
🗓️ 26 May 2025
⏱️ 6 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
You can have normal magnesium blood levels and still have a magnesium deficiency! This is because only 1% of magnesium is in your blood! The other 99% is inside your cells.
Common magnesium deficiency symptoms include:
•Muscle spasms
•Muscle twitches
•Anxiety
•Poor sleep
•Sugar cravings
•Charley horses
Almonds, spinach, and chocolate contain magnesium, but you would need to consume a lot to meet your requirements!
Gut inflammation can decrease magnesium absorption by 60 to 70%. High-carb diets, alcohol, caffeine, and certain medications can deplete magnesium.
Top-selling magnesium products often have poor absorption and can cause diarrhea. Take magnesium glycinate for the best absorption rate and to avoid the laxative effect.
Magnesium is the master controller of calcium in the body, which is the primary communication signal between cells. Calcium often over-accumulates in the cells, which can lead to cellular damage. Magnesium is vital in regulating excess calcium in the body. It also helps prevent kidney stones.
Calcium causes your muscles to contract, while magnesium causes them to relax. Tight muscles signify too much calcium and not enough magnesium. Magnesium also prevents heart attacks and problems with the heart’s rhythm.
Correcting a magnesium deficiency takes time, and you need to make sure you’re taking enough. You may need 1000 to 1500 mg of magnesium daily to correct a deficiency. People with migraines, chronic pain, mood disorders, and diabetes may need more magnesium.
Vitamin D won't work without magnesium. When you increase your magnesium intake, also increase your vitamin D. Vitamin B1 is also dependent on magnesium. Magnesium is vital in ATP production, so your magnesium intake directly affects your energy levels.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The big mistake most people are making regarding magnesium. Your blood levels show normal magnesium |
| 0:06.3 | levels. What a lot of people don't know is only 1% of all your magnesium in your body is inside |
| 0:11.2 | your blood. 99% is deep in your cells. When your body is deficient magnesium, it will rob |
| 0:17.2 | magnesium from your bone, your muscle, and put it in the blood, giving you the illusion that |
| 0:21.9 | you have enough magnesium if you're just relying on the blood test. There are more sophisticated, |
| 0:27.2 | advanced ways to determine if you're magnesium deficient, but I'm going to give you this simple |
| 0:30.5 | way to figure it out if you have any muscle spasms in your body. Muscle twitch underneath the eyelid, |
| 0:36.0 | anxiety, poor sleep, sugar cravings, and definitely |
| 0:39.3 | Charlie Horses are all clues that you're deficient in magnesium. Typically with the diet, you need |
| 0:43.9 | about 400 milligrams of magnesium every single day. Almonds are high in magnesium, but you would |
| 0:48.4 | have to consume five cups of almonds to get that 400 milligrams. Or you can get your magnesium from spinach, but you would |
| 0:55.7 | have to consume five big handfuls of spinach just to get 400 milligrams. What about chocolate? Isn't |
| 1:02.1 | that high in magnesium? It's sort of high, but you would still need about four bars of chocolate |
| 1:06.5 | to get your daily amount of magnesium. On top of that, there are many things that don't allow us to |
| 1:12.3 | absorb even the magnesium from the food that you eat. For example, if you have inflammation in the gut, |
| 1:17.1 | that's going to greatly reduce your absorption rates by up to 60 to 70%. Grains in your diet, |
| 1:22.6 | refined foods, like refined sugar, starches, that's depleting your magnesium. And then other things will |
| 1:28.1 | deplete your magnesium like alcohol, caffeine, and also many medications. And of course, the top-selling |
| 1:33.6 | magnesium products are not the best ones to take because not only do they create diarrhea, |
| 1:39.1 | because they're a laxative, but you really don't absorb much. Like with magnesium oxide, |
| 1:43.2 | you only absorb like 3 to 4%. The one I would recommend is magnesium glycinate, because that's the one that you really don't absorb much. Like with magnesium oxide, you only absorb like 3 to 4%. The one I would |
| 1:45.4 | recommend is magnesium glycinate because that's the one that you absorb 80% and it doesn't create a laxative |
... |
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