What happens in the body if we take magnesium every day and at what time should it be consumed

Although they are all important in their own way, today we are talking about a nutrient that you have surely heard about lately, since it intervenes in multiple crucial aspects. for the proper functioning of our body.

This is magnesiumwhich is one of the essential minerals for the body. Among some of the aspects in which it intervenes we find the correct functioning of the muscles, brain and nervous system health, and blood glucose regulation. Below we will tell you more about this nutrient, how taking it affects the body and what time it is most recommended to ingest it.

What happens in the body if we take magnesium every day?

According to the ‘MedlinePlus’ website, magnesium is necessary for more than 300 biochemical reactions in the body. If we take it daily, we will be helping, as we mentioned, our muscles and nerves to function well, it helps our immune system to be healthy, it keeps our heartbeat constant and it helps our bones to be strong. In addition, it helps regulate blood glucose levels, protecting against diabetes and is necessary for the production of protein, also providing us with energy.

At what time should you take magnesium?

Applied especially to people who take supplements of this mineral, Frank Suárez, specialist in Obesity and Metabolism, explained the time at which it is best to take magnesium.

«After using magnesium for 18 years, we have worked with more than 120,000 people, I found that there are some people who if they took magnesium instead of putting them to sleep it woke them up. […] What is the reason? The body works in a cycle, the circadian cyclewhich is like an internal clock that the body has and, magnesium, is a mineral, and like all minerals, it is a metal, since it is a metal, it is difficult to digest,” he begins by explaining.

“The time you take it has everything to do with it, that was the discovery…” he says. «For the body to use it, that magnesium has to enter the stomach, and it produces hydrochloric acid.. That acid is what allows you to digest metals like magnesium. […] People who have an excited nervous system or have hypothyroidism have a condition, hypochlorhydria, little acid production in the stomach to be able to digest things like magnesium,” he says.

Thus, it indicates that especially for people with this condition, although it affects everyone, it must be taken into account that: “the production of this acid stops working after the six in the afternoon. After that hour the body prepares to sleep and no longer digests well. That’s why people with an excited nervous system don’t sleep if they eat late at night. And people who have a passive nervous system, they can eat a greasy thing at two in the morning and I sleep the way I want. If you are going to take magnesium and you want the effect and it is not going to wake you up, you have to digest it, and to do this you have to take it at six in the afternoon or earlier. That way your body is still producing acid, it can digest it and the magnesium will give you the benefits that you deserve to have,” concludes the expert.

The amount of magnesium each person needsor determine both your age and sex and, from the National Institutes or Health (NIH), they indicate the following:

Foods rich in magnesium

We must keep in mind that, whenever possible, it is healthier to take magnesium naturally through food than to take supplements, and the latter should be taken under the supervision of a doctor. So, before considering taking supplementsit may be good to increase your intake of foods rich in magnesium.

Some of them are: legumes, nuts, pistachios, hazelnuts, green leafy vegetables such as spinach or chard, snails, seeds, whole grains, milk, yogurt, fruits, chocolate, sardines or shrimp.