Magnesium Oxide - MgO (240mg elemental magnesium x 60 Caps @ 1.2 cent per mg)

MgO is the best kept secret in SA:

Gram for gram, it is the cheapest magnesium supplement in South Africa! Delivering more absorbable elemental magnesium per dose than any other form of magnesium!

So how much magnesium do we need?

There are at least two answers to this question: The RDA (Ridiculous Daily Allowance) and what our ancestors absorbed from healthy water from wells and rivers.

The RDA hovers somewhere between 300 and 420 mg daily, depending on age, gender and pregnancy status. However this number is based on science from a century ago, but has never been revised.

The RDA intake were based on how much magnesium adults lose in their urine daily. In other words, if you lose 400 mg in your urine daily, you need 400 mg, right? Wrong! That would only have been a fair assumption if all ingested magnesium got absorbed and all of absorbed magnesium was excreted via the kidneys.

It turns out that only a fraction of ingested magnesium is absorbed. Two thirds or more are lost in stool. Of absorbed magnesium, a significant amount is lost in sweat. If you plug these numbers into magnesium requirements, you end up with a daily dietary requirement of about 1000 mg elemental magnesium.

How much magnesium did our ancient ancestors get?

Magnesium forms part of our teeth and bones (along with calcium, boron and some trace minerals). That means we can measure average magnesium intake by looking in the bones of ancient humans. When archaeologists compared the magnesium content of ancient teeth to modern teeth, they estimated that our distant forebears got about 600+ mg elemental magnesium on a daily basis. That’s absorbed magnesium, not ingested magnesium.

Adding insult to injury…

Compare this historic intake to the South African government’s limit of NO MORE than 250 mg of elemental Magnesium per person per day allowed via supplementation. How does that make sense?

O wait, these were the same kind, concerned folks who locked us down from loved ones to flatten the curve, forced us to sanitise our hands to destroy healthy bacteria, wear suffocating mouth gags to deprive us from oxygen and who didn’t mandate the mandatory injections. So yes, they are really, really concerned about our well-being. They don’t want us to die from an overdose of good health.

Elemental, my dear Watson

So what is “elemental” magnesium?

Magnesium in food is always bound to other substances. The weight of these other substances must be deducted in order to figure out how much “magnesium only” is in that nutrient or supplement. “Magnesium only” is called “elemental magnesium”.

For example, Magnesium Glycinate contains only 14% elemental magnesium. In other words, if you take 500 mg of Magnesium glycinate, this translates to 70 mg of elemental magnesium. 

500mg Magnesium L-Threonate contains 40mg of elemental magnesium. Which absorbs very effectively through the blood brain barrier. 

500mg Magnesium Citrate contains 55mg of elemental magnesium.

500mg Magnesium Malate contains 60mg of elemental magnesium.

500mg Magnesium Oxide (in capsule form) contains 240mg of elemental magnesium. 

And just when you thought it can’t get any worse:

Most magnesium supplements are combined with calcium. The idea is to boost bone density. But study after study shows that calcium supplementation does not boost bone density, while magnesium and vitamin D3 supplementation does. In fact, studies show that if you take more than about 200 mg of elemental calcium daily via supplements, your risk of dying early (from any cause) increases significantly. The more calcium you take, the higher your risk of dying prematurely. If you’re eating dairy, you do not need supplemental calcium.

And that’s not all. Calcium is known to block magnesium absorption from the gut. So why on earth would you want to combine calcium and magnesium in one supplement?

Knight in shining armour

In the case of magnesium, the mortality curve looks very different, compared to that of calcium. Study after study shows that, the more magnesium you take daily, the longer (and healthier) you can expect to live. The highest dose studied in this regard was 500 mg elemental magnesium daily. But the trend at that dose was still pointing strongly upward. Yet nobody bothered to study what happens to mortality when we supplement with even higher doses of magnesium. Maybe people will die from too much health? We have every reason to believe the trend to a longer life continues upward for quite some more (but we will never know for sure until the science is done).

Where do I find magnesium?

Let’s go back to our ancestors. If their teeth show 600 mg daily elemental magnesium absorption, where did that magnesium come from?

* Ten medium-sized avocados?
* One cup of cashews?
* 3.5 cups of black beans? Sheez.
* Four cups of cooked spinach? Yuck!

You get the picture? It is pretty impossible to get that much magnesium EVERY DAY from food. So where DID it come from?

The well that makes you well

Until the fairly recent arrival of purified tap water, everyone got drinking water from wells. These wells provided loads of minerals, including (especially) magnesium. In fact, all natural spas have water high in magnesium. The more magnesium, the more “miraculous” healing claims are made for that spa. Coincidence?

So, do I need magnesium?

Measuring magnesium deficiency is not so easy, and quite expensive. A study among US adults found that four out of five (~80%) of them were magnesium deficient. Remember that “sufficient” refers to 300-400 mg magnesium daily. If we take the ancient average of 600 mg magnesium daily, that figure will be even higher.

Short answer: We all need more magnesium.

A quick recap

* Most adults have too little magnesium in their bodies.
* The Ridiculous Daily Intakes for magnesium are based on poor and outdated science.
* You have to take magnesium daily, since your body absorbs little and excretes lots.
* It is almost impossible to get enough magnesium from food alone.
* Our water supplies are not helping us get magnesium any more.

In other words, to get enough magnesium every day, your only option is … supplement.

That’s where it gets tricky and somewhat icky. Everyone will tell you THEIR magnesium is the best. Of course. So here we go:

Magnesium oxide (MgO), one of the cheapest forms of magnesium, is generally reviled for its low bioavailability (about 8% of what is taken ends up in your body). But… that study was done with tablets. Magnesium oxide dissolves fairly well in stomach acid, which increases the availability a lot. A 1994 study explains what this means. Where MgO was presented in capsule form (instead of compacted, tablets), availability rose to 22.8%. Capsules rapidly dissolve in stomach acid, tablets don’t.

In that same study, magnesium glycinate (commonly regarded as the best absorbed form of magnesium), scored an availability of 23.5%. In other words, for all practical purposes, MgO in capsule form is as good as the best absorbed form of magnesium out there.

The truth is, magnesium is absorbed in ionic form in the first few inches of the gut (the duodenum). You don’t need “slow” Mg, you need one that instantly dissolves in the stomach.

Taking it up a notch

We added D-Ribose to our MgO. D-Ribose is known to significantly boost the absorption of magnesium from the gut. The result is that even one capsule of MgO gives you a noticeable lift in energy within hours of taking the first dose.

Who needs magnesium?

* Everybody.

What is magnesium good for?

* Muscles: Improves strength, endurance, acceleration, reduces cramping
* Bones: Anti-osteoporosis, faster fracture healing
* Brain: Sleep, calm, attention span, memory, happy mood
* Stress: Lowers cortisol (stress hormone), increases GABA (calming hormone)
* Immune system: Improved immune response, “balances” immune system

Magnesium is beneficial in many conditions, including cancer, auto-immune disease, asthma, depression, insomnia, ADHD, nerve injury, bone fractures, etc.

Frequently asked questions

How much magnesium do I need?

Each of our MgO capsules provides 240 mg elemental magnesium. Taking two capsules a day along with the 105mg elemental magnesium in your 50g of Nucleo, gets you close to 600mg elemental Magnesium per day.

That will already make a huge difference to most people's wellbeing and energy levels. Some high performance athletes take up to 5 MgO capsules daily, with no ill effects. 

How much is too much Magnesium?

Humans happen to have a nifty magnesium regulating mechanism. It is called diarrhoea (scientific term: jippo guts). If you take in too much magnesium, you get the runs and the excess is excreted in the form of runny diarrhoea. This mechanism is so effective, it is virtually impossible to get a magnesium overdose via oral intake.

1 - Each capsule of MgO supplies 240 mg elemental Magnesium – more than any other magnesium supplement available in South Africa!

2 - Gram for gram, MgO is by far the cheapest magnesium supplement in South Africa.

3 -  MgO is well absorbed, thanks to some clever biochemistry.

4 -  MgO is highly unlikely to cause diarrhea, a common side effect of many magnesium supplements.

Perfect for athletes, students, mothers, executives and the elderly.

For more on the benefits of Magnesium during pregnancy click here

Every body craves MgO!