Impressively, magnesium is involved in hundreds of reactions in the human body. It’s a wonder mineral for women everywhere. Naturopath Jennifer McLennan explains.

Already a member? Login

312,014 Members and growing Join Now for FREE

Why Join Blackmores?

Discover all of the features available to members only, including interactive tools, community participation and a free welcome gift.

Watch a quick video Watch a quick video

Members Wellbeing Goals

What do you want to achieve? Motivate yourself and others to better health.

Lose weight and have more energy Debbie, NSW

I want to lose weight for my engagement day Rina

Lower my medication needs Eloise, WA

Get fit and tone up kay, ACT

Lose weight Trish

Set your goal Prev | Next

Hot topics

Blackmores Community Forum

Join health discussions, share experiences and get wellbeing tips and advice. Start a discussion now.

View all

Print

Why women may need magnesium

2 November 2012

Impressively, magnesium is involved in hundreds of reactions in the human body. It’s a wonder mineral for women everywhere. Naturopath Jennifer McLennan explains.

Was this helpful?
  • Add to bookmarks
Most of us know that magnesium may be good for muscle cramps and bone health, but it’s also important for energy metabolism.

5 reasons to take magnesium for women’s health

#1 Bone health
Women are susceptible to bone loss, particularly after menopause, when bone loss increases. Magnesium is an important mineral in helping to maintain healthy strong bones. Along with calcium, magnesium is very important in maintaining bone health, and helping to prevent calcium levels in the blood from getting too low.

#2 Menstrual cramps
Magnesium can be used for the relief of painful menstrual cramps. Magnesium is thought to reduce mediators that can cause cramps and pain, and help with muscle relaxation.

#3 PMS
Symptoms of bloating, breast tenderness and weight gain pre-menstrually may be improved with taking magnesium. Adding vitamin B6 to magnesium for help with anxiety symptoms during the pre-menstrual days may have added benefits.

#4 Mood and anxiety
Women suffer from a greater incidence of low mood throughout their lives, possibly due to hormonal fluctuations. And unfortunately those of us who experience feelings of low mood may have higher amounts of pain and inflammation in the body. Lower than normal magnesium levels have been associated with lower dopamine levels. Dopamine helps with feelings of relaxation and attentiveness, whereas low dopamine levels can increase anxiety, and irritability symptoms.

#5 Menstrual migraine
Many of the women suffering from migraines report a link between their migraine headache attacks and their menstrual cycle with longer and more sever attacks also occurring during this time. Magnesium may help minimise the number of menstrual migraine attacks experienced by women.

What foods is magnesium found in?
Magnesium is commonly found in a wide variety of wholefoods, including grains, nuts, seeds and cereals.

Table of foods adapted from Food Standards Australia

 Food  Magnesium/100 g
 Bread, mixed grain 37 mg 
 Rolled oats (boiled) 24 mg 
 Flour, wholemeal, plain 103 mg 
 Flour, white, plain 34 mg 
 Rice, brown, boiled, with added salt 49 mg 
 Rice, white, boiled, with added salt 13 mg 
 Hazelnut 160 mg 
 Sesame seed 340 mg 
 Cashew nut, raw 250 mg 
 Almonds, raw 260 mg

High amounts of calcium (eg over 1000 mg) can interfere with magnesium absorption. Therefore to maintain adequate magnesium levels it’s important to take magnesium in conjunction with your calcium to help maintain healthy bones.
References available on request

Comment

Male Female

I have read and agree to Blackmores Terms of use


* Your post may appear online after a member of the Blackmores Online Team has reviewed it.

Notification

Your post is pending approval

Your post has been sent to a Blackmores Administrator for approval as it contains words or phrases that may not comply with our Posting Guidelines and Terms of Service. A Blackmores Administrator will review your post to determine whether or not it can be published.

You will be notified via email when your post is published or if it has been declined.

For further information about what can and can't be discussed within the Blackmores Community, please view our Terms of Service and Posting Guidelines.

X

Browse the Learning
Centre with the

Learning Assistant

You might be interested in...

  • Add to bookmarks
Default tooltip content in here
Del.ic.ious Facebook MySpace Digg Twitter