5 Things That Are Depleting Your Magnesium Levels

1) Drinking too much caffeine - Whether it’s coffee, energy drinks or a pre-workout, caffeinated beverages can impair absorption and facilitate the excretion of certain minerals and vitamins - including magnesium. This is largely because they act as a diuretic - causing our body to flush out nutrients rapidly and all too frequently. The result? Our cells are left deprived and depleted of critical nutrients needed for normal body functions due to this increased urinary loss. While we would never tell you to cut out coffee altogether (let’s be real here!), we would encourage you to consider sticking to one serving a day, switching to decaf or hot chocolate (see our favourite recipe below!) where possible, having some caffeine-free days and replenishing your levels with our Mag oil every day to offset any potential depletion happening.

2) Letting stress get the better of you - Chronic exposure to stress (like many of us face with a demanding workload, financial strains, intense exercise routines,  the pressure of juggling multiple responsibilities etc) can result in a dramatic depletion of various resources - including magnesium. Indeed, in response to stress, the body releases an excess of stress hormones, the production of which uses up stored magnesium in the body. As more and more stress hormones are being pumped throughout the body, magnesium levels continue to take a nose-dive - often to the point of a symptomatic and unpleasant deficiency (check here for some signs you may already be at this point).  Not only that, but stress can work havoc with your digestive system and reduce your stomach acid levels, meaning that you are less able to effectively absorb and assimilate nutrients from your diet or supplements that would otherwise safeguard you from a potential deficiency. This is another reason we love recommending our Magnesium oil or bath salts as a transdermal form of supplementation - because it can effectively top your body up with this mineral even when your body is in a stressed or compromised state. The more you can gently increase your magnesium levels, the less vulnerable you’ll be to stressors - breaking the vicious cycle of low magnesium and heightened stress.

3) Eating a nutrient-poor diet - While a lot of us pride ourselves on having a healthy diet, the reality is most of the population are still engaging in detrimental eating habits that when compounded, create a catastrophic deficiency in magnesium levels throughout the body. For example, a diet high in saturated fats reduces magnesium absorption in the intestines, a high sugar intake increases excretion of magnesium by the kidneys and a habit of frequently drinking carbonated drinks (e.g. soft drinks or soda) - even if they’re sugar free - adds phosphates to your system, which bind to magnesium and render it unusable for your body to reap the benefits from.  Even for those of us who are avoiding these common diet pitfalls and making healthy choices - unfortunately intensive farming practices have caused a significant depletion of the mineral content of the soil. including a decrease in magnesium of up to 30%. This means that even when we’re filling our plates with seemingly nutrient-dense foods - we’re actually still missing out on most of the nutrients themselves because they’ve been stripped from the food entirely. Again, this is where supplementation can give you that extra boost on top of a healthy, whole-food diet!

4) Enjoying a few too many alcoholic beverages - Firstly, we promise we’re not trying to make you give up coffee AND alcohol! But it is worth not in that a consistent and chronic intake of alcohol leaves you vulnerable to a magnesium deficiency. This is because alcohol makes our organs work a bit slower, become sluggish and produce less enzymes - meaning we aren’t able to break down minerals like magnesium from our foods as effectively. The strain alcohol places on organs like the liver also cause these organs to uptake more magnesium in response, leaving the cells depleted.  Like caffeine, alcohol also acts acutely as a diuretic, causing a prompt, vigorous increase in the urinary excretion of magnesium, along with electrolytes.  Lastly, most of us know that we don’t always make the smartest food choices when we’ve had one too many drinks - so not only are we depleting our magnesium stores by drinking, but we’re also setting ourselves up to consume less magnesium because of poor dietary decisions in the aftermath. It’s a recipe for disaster!

5) Taking certain prescription medications daily - such as birth control, diuretics, antibiotics, painkillers and cortisone - these medications deplete magnesium levels in the body by impairing absorption or by increasing excretion by the kidneys. While it may understandably be unavoidable to stop taking these medications (especially when they’ve been prescribed with good reason by a healthcare professional), it is worth being aware of the increased risk of magnesium deficiency. To offset this risk, make sure you implement some of the above changes to the rest of your daily habits and do consider investing in a topical and effective magnesium supplement like our Magnesium Oil or Bath Salts so that any potential deficiency is intercepted before it can ever become problematic for your wellbeing.

While some of these are unavoidable, some we are able to minimise, and others we may just not want to. The best thing we can do is be mindful of our lifestyle and influencing factors and top our bodies up with what we are depleting. Our Magnesium Oil Spray is the fastest way to replenish depleting magnesium levels in our bodies, bypassing the digestive system and allowing our body to absorb what it needs with no nasty side effects.