Magnesium for PCOS?

UPDATED OCTOBER 2021

Until now, magnesium for Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS) has been a little-tapped resource. It’s shocking really since women with PCOS are 19 times more likely than the average person to have low magnesium and its depletion touches on so many common symptoms of PCOS.

Magnesium is proven to help with blood sugar management, taming inflammation, managing anxiety, and helping get a quality night’s rest among other things.

Magnesium is an essential mineral found in all of our tissues, but mainly in our bones, muscles, and brain. It is a critical factor in over 300 body processes including muscle building, maintaining nerve function, keeping a healthy heartbeat, sustaining optimal immune system function, and facilitating sleep. Magnesium is a natural anti-inflammatory, making it particularly critical for women with PCOS.

Assuring that you are getting an adequate amount of magnesium in your diet is definitely the place to start. Many find that supplementation is necessary and extremely helpful.

Why do you need Magnesium for PCOS?

• Magnesium helps manage insulin secretion. We must have magnesium for our cells to make energy.  Magnesium enhances insulin secretion which facilitates sugar metabolism. Without magnesium, glucose is not able to transfer into cells. In a recent study, people with diabetes who took magnesium supplements had improved insulin and glucose levels.
• Magnesium is necessary for maintaining a healthy heart.  This important mineral aids in the proper transport of potassium, calcium, and other nutrient ions across cell membranes. These nutrients help promote healthy nerve impulses, muscle contraction, and a normal heart rhythm.
• Magnesium helps keep anxiety and depression at bay and relaxes our muscles.
• Adequate levels of magnesium help promote sleep.

How do you become magnesium deficient?

• When we are stressed, our bodies become depleted of magnesium. Magnesium regulates cortisol (stress hormone) as it calms our nervous system and prevents excessive cortisol. We burn through magnesium because it helps support our adrenal glands, which get exhausted when making cortisol. When we are under loads of stress, it means we are also losing magnesium.
• The amount of magnesium most of us are getting has plummeted by over 50% during the last century. It is estimated that 80% of us are deficient in magnesium. Dr. Carolyn Dean, author of Magnesium Miracle explains, “Magnesium is farmed out of the soil…A hundred years ago, we would get maybe 500 milligrams of magnesium in an ordinary diet. Now we’re lucky to get 200 milligrams. People do need to supplement with magnesium.”
• Many women with PCOS are on the birth control pill, which depletes magnesium.
• Adding to the problem, many women with PCOS have sugar and simple carb cravings. To process excessive sugar in our diets requires a great deal of magnesium, and a refined diet that is based mostly on white flour, meat, and dairy (all of which contain no magnesium) adds insult to injury.
• Magnesium deficiency has even has been linked to inflammation in the body and higher C Reactive Protein levels.

Lifestyle and diet are the first line of defense for managing PCOS. Supplements are also important. To help you learn which supplements are right for your unique needs, I created a comprehensive PCOS Supplement Guide that you can download by clicking on the image below.

Signs of Magnesium Deficiency

Most of the magnesium in your body is inside your cells, so you can’t measure it with a blood test.

Only 1% of magnesium in your body is distributed in your blood, so a serum magnesium blood test is highly inaccurate.

It is important to look at symptoms. Magnesium is often referred to as the “relaxation mineral.” So if anything is tight, irritable, crampy, or stiff, whether it is your body or your emotions/moods, it is often a sign of magnesium deficiency.

Here is a list of some magnesium deficiency symptoms.

• Anxiety
• Depression
• Diabetes
• Insulin Resistance
• Fatigue
• Sugar, alcohol, carbohydrate cravings
• Infertility
• Polycystic ovaries
• Insomnia
• Irritability
• Constipation
• Migraines
• Diabetes
• Obesity
• High blood pressure
• PMS
• Menstrual cramps
• Sleep Disruption
• IBS
• Reflux

RELATED: For more about magnesium and anxiety, depression, insomnia, and sleep disruption, read
3 Signs You Are Magnesium Deficient.

What foods contain magnesium?

Food is medicine, and you can get magnesium by eating more magnesium-rich foods.

Add some of the following to your PCOS diet – kelp, dulse and seaweeds, almonds, cashews, buckwheat, Brazil nuts, hazelnuts, millet, pecans, walnuts, pumpkin, sunflower and sesame seeds, chocolate, raw cacao brown rice, figs, dates, collard greens, spinach, halibut, shrimp, avocado, parsley, beans, dandelion greens, mineral water, and garlic. Homemade bone broth is another excellent source.

What type of magnesium supplement should I use?

Before you buy a supplement, remember that not all forms of magnesium are the same. When you want to increase magnesium levels, it is important to choose the right form.

Magnesium bisglycinate is a chelated form of magnesium that tends to provide the highest levels of absorption and bioavailability and is typically considered ideal for those who are trying to correct a deficiency. The usual dosage is 500-1000 mg magnesium daily. Spread out the dosage and take it with meals to slow down transit time through the intestines and enhance absorption. PCOS Diva Super Magnesium supplement is the best possible quality magnesium supplement you can find.

Besides taking a supplement, another way to improve your magnesium levels is to take regular Epsom salt baths or foot baths. Epsom salt is a magnesium sulfate that can absorb into your body through your skin. Magnesium oil (from magnesium chloride) can also be used for topical application and absorption. Here is my favorite Epsom Salt Bath recipe.

NOTE: If you have heart disease or kidney problems, consult with your physician before taking magnesium supplements, as they can adversely affect these conditions.

Amy Medling, best-selling author of Healing PCOS and certified health coach, specializes in working with women with Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS), who are frustrated and have lost all hope when the only solution their doctors offer is to lose weight, take a pill, and live with their symptoms. In response, Amy founded PCOS Diva and developed a proven protocol of supplements, diet, and lifestyle programs that offer women tools to help gain control of their PCOS and regain their fertility, femininity, health, and happiness. 

Resources:

(1) Biol Trace Elem Res. 2013 Apr;152(1):9-15. doi: 10.1007/s12011-012-9592-5. Epub 2013 Jan 16. Altered trace mineral milieu might play an aetiological role in the pathogenisis of polycystic ovary syndrome.

Chakraborty P¹, Ghosh S, Goswami SK, Kabir SN, Chakravarty B, Jana K.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23322284

(2)  Gynecol Endocrinol. 2012 Jan;28(1):7-11. doi: 10.3109/09513590.2011.579663. Epub 2011 Jun 23. Serum magnesium concentrations in polycystic ovary syndrome and its association with insulin resistance

Sharifi F¹, Mazloomi S, Hajihosseini R, Mazloomzadeh S.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21696337

(3) Gynecol Endocrinol. 2001 Jun;15(3):198-201. Divalent cations in women with PCOS: implications for cardiovascular disease.

Muneyyirci-Delale O¹, Nacharaju VL, Dalloul M, Jalou S, Rahman M, Altura BM, Altura BT.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11447731