The #1 Mineral for Sleep That 48% of People Lack

48% Of Americans aren't getting enough magnesium, which means if you're listening right now, there's about a 50% chance this episode is for you. Now, magnesium deficiency doesn't always show up as one dramatic symptom. It shows up as symptoms that most people assume are just stress or them getting older.

In this episode, you'll learn the 10 warning signs of magnesium deficiency, how to test for it, Which form of magnesium is right for you? Because so many people have questions about, do I take magnesium glycinate, magnesium threonate, magnesium chelate? I'll answer those questions and I'll get into 3 magnesium-rich meals you can start eating this week. Welcome to the Dr. Josh Axe Show.

So listen, we're living in a time in history where we have calorie excess and mineral scarcity. You know, our food environment is mineral poor and ultra-processed, and that shows up as symptoms in many, many people. You know, under the MAHA movement, this is finally being said out loud.

At a MAHA commission statement in September 2025, they framed nutrient deficiency as a downstream effect of the food environment, which has become an ultra-processed, processed displacement of nutrient-dense foods.

And new federal nutrition messaging— this came out last month in January— is explicitly pushing real food, less sugar, less processed foods, which naturally raises micronutrient density. You can see in the Eat Real Food Pyramid, this food pyramid has a big focus on just eating real food. It's lowering grains. That's at the bottom.

Now you see a high amount of organic high-protein meat, lots of vegetables. We see berries, we see lots of healthy fats, and that's predominantly what we're seeing here on the new food pyramid. Again, with an emphasis on eat real food, which I love.

In fact, some of you know this, not all of you, if you've been following me for a long time, my first book that came out, and this was back in like 2008 or '09, was called The Real Food Diet. And so, my big message to all of my patients and to all of my radio show listeners and podcast listeners was, listen, there's one thing across the board everybody needs to do more of, and it's eat real food.

And so, I love that messaging. And part of what happens when you're eating more real food is you're getting more vitamins and you're getting more minerals, you're getting more nutrients in your diet. And that should be a focus that everyone has. Listen, we're already at a disadvantage today because of modern farming practices.

Even if you're getting whole, real food, real foods today, oftentimes you're getting less minerals like iron and magnesium and zinc because of modern farming practices where we till the soil, we don't replace the nutrients, we only put 3 nutrients back in the soil when there's probably 80+ that should be put back there. And magnesium is one of those minerals that now we're getting less of.

So when you eat broccoli today, there might be 50% less magnesium, or at least 10% less than there was 100 years ago, at least to at least according to a few studies. So overall, our foods are less nutrient-dense than they were 100 years ago. And this is why it's important to eat whole foods, eat organic foods, and even shop at your local farmer's market whenever possible.

But today, I want to put the focus on magnesium. Magnesium is probably up there in the top 3 minerals, up there with iron, that we are the most deficient in today. And when I look at study after study, our magnesium intake is lower than it should be. Magnesium is literally the lifeblood of plants.

Now, where humans have iron at the center of our blood, magnesium is at the center of the blood, not truly blood, but chlorophyll, but it's at the center of the so-called blood of plants. And our blood has a superstar protein called hemoglobin. And the job of hemoglobin in humans is to pick up oxygen in the lungs and deliver it to every cell in your body.

And right at the center of hemoglobin is the mineral iron. And so iron is incredibly important for humans. In fact, if you look at third world countries, I believe it's iron and maybe vitamin A are the most— that's where people are the most nutrient deficient across the globe. Now, generally in the United States, iron is up there, But magnesium tends to be higher.

But overall, again, iron is at the lifeblood of humans. Well, magnesium is the lifeblood of plants. And so the way that hemoglobin or iron works in humans is it's at the core that makes oxygen transport possible. So no iron at the center, that means no oxygen delivery. That means no energy, no life. And here's where things get interesting.

Again, plants have their own version of a life-defining molecule called chlorophyll. If you remember the old movie, The Waterboy with Adam Sandler, you know, there's this, there's this, uh, this scene where he's in science class and he says, chlorophyll, more like bore-ophyll. Well, chlorophyll really isn't that boring.

It's actually pretty interesting from the standpoint of it is the blood of the plants. And here's what it does. It's pretty interesting. Um, chlorophyll, this is the green pigment that allows plants to capture light and turn it into energy through something called photosynthesis. And at the very center of chlorophyll is— Oxygen. Magnesium. So think about this.

Every plant, every green plant actually has chlorophyll in it, and it takes the sun, that energy from the sun, and that chlorophyll absorbs it and turns it into energy for the plant. Okay? And magnesium is at the center of that process of creating energy in plants.

So if iron sits at the center of oxygen, our oxygen-carrying system, magnesium sits at the center of the plant's energy capturing system. And here's kind of the poetic part. Iron is the center of animal blood. Magnesium is at the center of plant blood or chlorophyll.

Now, again, it's not literally blood, but this molecule that gives plants their life force, their ability to harness sunlight and build sugars and proteins and leaves and create fruit and oxygen, that whole ecosystem is built upon Magnesium.

Something to note here, the structures of hemoglobin and chlorophyll are surprisingly similar, almost like nature reused a blueprint but swapped the metal in the center, the mineral in the center. Hemoglobin, again, iron is in the middle, carries oxygen. Chlorophyll, magnesium's in the middle and carries sunlight energy.

And so the way this works in plants is plants breathe in light and give off oxygen. We breathe in oxygen and give off carbon dioxide. And maybe that's why so many people feel better when they spend more time outside breathing in fresh air, getting sunlight, and eating mineral-rich greens, as we are getting more oxygen and more nutrients.

Now, here is why magnesium is so incredibly important in the human body. Magnesium is involved in over 300 enzymatic reactions in the body. It calms nerve signaling. It allows muscles to relax after contraction. It stabilizes our heart rhythm. It helps convert food into usable energy, and it signals the brain that it's safe to rest.

Less than 1% of your body's magnesium is in the blood, though, so symptoms can show up long before your labs show you're deficient. Now, first off, most doctors don't run magnesium tests at all. Even if you do get a magnesium test, oftentimes they're not fully accurate because they're not looking at the amount of magnesium that's actually in your cells.

Now, here are the 10 most common ways that magnesium deficiency shows up in your body. If you've got 2 or more of these, make sure to stay with me because I'm going to go through the foods, the right supplements to correct all of these. One of the first ones is muscle tightness, cramps, and spasms.

If you're dealing with any sort of, especially in the trap muscles, Sometimes even lingering headaches. These are warning signs that you have a magnesium deficiency. Fatigue and weakness. Magnesium is involved in energy production. Without it, you can feel tired, weak, or sluggish for no clear reason.

Now, a huge amount of what we call ATP energy— remember, I've talked a lot on the show about mitochondria. These are the batteries of your body that produce energy for your thyroid to function and your hormones to be proper levels and just for you to have energy. But this ATP energy in the body, the way your body typically uses it is actually Mg, that's magnesium-ATP.

And so it's ATP that's actually bound to and connected to magnesium because magnesium stabilizes ATP. So now your enzymes and body can use it. So your body doesn't actually run on ATP very much. It runs on magnesium-activated ATP. So it is incredibly important. Early signs of magnesium deficiency include digestive issues like nausea, or even vomiting.

This is why it's connected to morning sickness, a magnesium deficiency, and I'll get into that more in depth in a little bit. Number 4, loss of appetite. If you're just not hungry. Number 5, tingling and numbness, especially in your hands and feet. That's a warning sign you have magnesium deficiency. Irregular heartbeats. Magnesium helps regulate your heart's rhythms. Mood changes or anxiety.

There's growing evidence That low magnesium is linked to mood disorders such as anxiety and depression. I can tell you, especially with anxiety, that supplementing with a magnesium glycinate or magnesium threonate has tremendous benefits at improving anxiety. Number 8, blood pressure. Magnesium helps relax blood vessels. Without enough magnesium, your blood pressure will rise.

This puts strain on your entire cardiovascular system. So very important there. Weak bones. Magnesium works closely with calcium and boron and phosphorus and, and other minerals to keep your bones strong. Long-term magnesium deficiency can contribute to the development of osteoporosis. And number 10, trouble sleeping.

Magnesium has a calming effect on the nervous system, and low levels can interfere with your ability to fall asleep or stay asleep. So, and now I want to talk about how to test for magnesium deficiency. The right type of blood work. Magnesium is one of the most important minerals for cellular health because it acts like a master key that turns on energy inside your cells.

But your body's main energy molecule is ATP. But here's the twist again: ATP is only biologically active when it's bound to magnesium, meaning a huge amount of what we call ATP is really magnesium ATP, which is the usable form. And that's why magnesium affects almost. Everything from your energy levels to your stress response, to muscle relaxation, to nerve signaling, even DNA and RNA stability.

So the health of your nucleus and epigenetics, because magnesium is required in hundreds of reactions in your body. Now, here's the problem. Most people think a normal magnesium blood test means they're fine.

But serum, which means in your blood, but serum magnesium is a weak way to measure true magnesium status because only about 1% of the body's magnesium is found outside of the cell in what we call your extracellular fluid. So outside of the cell in your blood, meaning the bloodstream is not where most magnesium lives.

So your body can keep serum magnesium looking normal while silently pulling magnesium out of your tissues like your bones. That's why the The best type of blood test for magnesium is known as an RBC. That stands for red blood cell magnesium test.

It measures magnesium inside your red blood cells, which gives you a closer reflection of the amount of magnesium inside your cell, not what's just floating in your blood at the moment. And it's important because magnesium is a cellular mineral. Its real job happens inside the cell.

Where it fuels energy production, supports nervous system stability, and even powers conversions happening like glutathione and other things happening later on in the body.

So if you want to know whether magnesium is truly reaching your tissues, not just passing through your bloodstream, the RBC magnesium test can give deeper insight, much deeper and better insight than a serum alone can, especially in someone with fatigue issues or stress overload or muscle tightness or poor sleep. Or other types of metabolic issues like diabetes.

Serum magnesium can look normal while your cells are running low, but red blood cell magnesium helps show what's happening where the magnesium actually matters, which is inside your cell. Are you interested in functional nutrition tips to burn fat, reduce inflammation, improve your brain and energy levels, and heal naturally?

Then I want to encourage you to listen to my friend Dr. Dave Jocker's podcast, The Functional Nutrition Podcast. This podcast is designed to help you with easy, actionable steps to improve your nutrition and lifestyle, understand your lab work, and address the root cause factors that may be driving up inflammation in your body.

Now, I've been friends with Dr. David Jockers for 20 years, and he's truly a world expert in functional nutrition, cellular healing, and so much more. If you want to learn the best nutrition and natural healing tips, tune in to the Dr. Jockers Functional Nutrition Podcast on Apple iTunes, Spotify, YouTube, and wherever you can listen to podcasts worldwide.

Which type of magnesium should you be taking? Well, the first magnesium I want to touch on here, and I'm going to walk you through the 7 types of magnesium you should consider, but the first one here is magnesium glycinate. Now, I want to say this.

When we look at magnesium, almost every time you buy a magnesium supplement, there's going to be— it's going to be magnesium glycinate, magnesium threonate, magnesium malate. You have magnesium attached to something. The reason for that is— Magnesium glycinate. Whatever you attach to the magnesium is going to help determine— it's, it's like a vehicle.

Magnesium is the passenger, and the amino acid like glycine is the vehicle magnesium gets into, and then it's delivered more to one area of the body than another. Now, most of these forms of magnesium have a, have a holistic benefit on the body, but most of them generally affect one area of the body. More than another because— and that's determined by the amino acid that magnesium is attached to.

So for instance, if your main goal is getting better quality sleep at night and to reduce anxiety, magnesium glycinate is your best option. So it's important to know when we talk about magnesium glycinate, well, what is magnesium attached to there? It's glycine. Okay, now the mineral glycine is known for helping The body sleep. It's actually primarily found in bone broth.

So if you know where it's found in nature, glycine is found in bone broth and the skin of animals. And so in, in, if you remember this, in collagen, collagen's primarily made up of proline, hydroxyproline, and glycine. Okay? So glycine is a mineral found in our bones and bone broth and our connective tissue that is really good for calming the nervous system.

And for supporting sleep and relaxation and calming anxiety. So, so that's why magnesium glycinate, that type of magnesium, is going to have the biggest impact on sleep and anxiety is because it's bound to glycine. And this form is in particular, as we talked about, it's great for relaxation, it's great for reducing anxiety, it's great for sleep, it's great for supporting muscle recovery.

It is one of the least likely also to cause digestive upset compared to other forms. Because think about this, glycine's found in bone broth that tends to be healing for the gut microbiome. So again, if you need help with sleep and anxiety, magnesium glycinate is probably your best bet in terms of a magnesium supplement. Now, let's say your goal here is to relieve constipation or muscle cramps.

Now, magnesium glycinate is still pretty good for that, but magnesium citrate tends to be the best for short-term constipation. I don't think it's the best for long-term, but it tends to be the best for short-term, and it's highly absorbable. And often used as a natural laxative. And magnesium citrate is effective for treating constipation and relaxing your body's muscles.

So again, it's really good for that. Now, again, if you have really chronic long-term constipation, I think there are some others that could be just as good or better. But for short-term, you're dealing with constipation, magnesium citrate. Now, if your goal is brain health, memory, fighting or preventing Alzheimer's, those sort of issues, Magnesium threonate is probably your best option.

It's unique in its ability to cross the blood-brain barrier. So threonate as an amino acid takes magnesium in this vehicle and helps it cross the blood-brain barrier. And so this is going to help have a bigger impact on nerve tissue and brain. So this is why it's good for memory, for cognitive function, for brain health. It can be good for sleep for some people.

I tend to have people try it out to see if glycinate Magnesium glycinate or magnesium threonate is more effective at them sleeping, but it is the ideal for mental clarity, for learning, for neuroprotection, for brain fog. Magnesium threonate is the best for that.

If your goal is cellular function, okay, and less muscle soreness and improving low energy, magnesium malate is probably your best option. Magnesium malate is bound to malic acid. Which plays a role in energy production and reducing muscle pain, making it especially beneficial for anybody who has chronic fatigue or fibromyalgia.

Okay, it's the best option there, and it's excellent, as I mentioned, for boosting energy. You know, if you're an athlete and you've got muscle soreness and want to improve recovery, take magnesium malate. It's a really good option there. Now, number 5 is if you've got indigestion or acid reflux.

Magnesium carbonate is well known for its antacid properties, helping with indigestion, acid reflux, and also has a mild laxative effect. Now, here's number 6, Epsom salts. Okay, so this is a magnesium salt. This is best for topical absorption and topical recovery for muscle relaxation.

So this is also good if you're an athlete or you've got sore muscles, doing a tub soak in Epsom salts or a foot bath soak. Is great because it will enter your body. Now, there's also these mineral sprays similar like a magnesium oil you can rub in, but whether it's an Epsom salt or oil, these are magnesium salts and these are good overall for— tends to be relaxation of the muscles.

And then number 7. Now, I want to say number 7 is a magnesium probably not a lot of people are familiar with, but it might be the best overall form of magnesium because it's the most food-based, and it's the best, what I would call, for longevity. And it's called a multi-amino magnesium complex. Okay, so, so, so here's what it is.

Multi-amino, that means there's multiple aminos attached, not just one, not just glycine or threonate or malate. All of them, or many of them, are attached to magnesium. There's one magnesium, like for instance, if we take a a magnesium superfood like spirulina. Okay, spirulina has 18 different amino acids all attached to the one magnesium. Okay, and that's how you're going to find it in food.

So the absorption is going to be very high. It's not going to have as big of an isolated impact on one thing. Let's say, for instance, you want to get good sleep. Glycinate is going to beat out a magnesium, uh, a multi-amino magnesium. In just sleep alone. But the magnesium, the multi-amino magnesium is going to be good for everything in the body, not just one thing.

It's not gonna be as powerful as the one thing, but it's gonna be good, generally good at everything. It's never the best, but it's good at everything. Okay? So the multi-amino acid magnesium complex is a type of magnesium that is, tends to be derived from a mineral-rich Source like spirulina. And so your body will recognize it and absorb it like it's real food. So it's not synthetic at all.

It's literally taken from real food. And so as a true food-based magnesium, it's going to have very high absorption. It's going to be very gentle on the digestive tract. It's going to be good for everyday cellular energy, for muscle relaxation, for calming the body. It's going to be the best overall to take a multi-amino magnesium chelate. Now, I know that's a lot of words there.

But that's cuz there's a lot of things attached to it. Uh, but it's, it's really a food-based magnesium and that tends to, that's the one I, I, I personally take 2 forms of magnesium the most, but I have 4 different form, 4 or 5 different forms in my home. I take the food-based the most personally. I recommend it the most to patients.

I do also recommend though magnesium glycinate a lot, especially those who are having trouble sleeping and those who are dealing with anxiety. So that's the other one I recommend the most. So those are the 2 I personally take most often. Now, we're going on a snow ski trip here to Park City in the near future, and my legs are going to get really fatigued.

And so I might bring magnesium Epsom salts with me and soak at night, or I might do magnesium malate for cellular energy for recovery. So I might do that then. If I really want to study and focus in on something, I might take a magnesium threonate. But if you're wanting to know, hey, what are the— what's the best one to get? It's going to be a food-based magnesium.

Or probably magnesium glycinate for most people in terms of what you should be looking at. Have you ever felt like you're doing everything right? Eating clean, working out, taking all the right supplements, but your body just won't cooperate. Maybe you're tired, you're foggy, you're gaining weight, you can't sleep, and your doctor says your labs are normal. Here's the truth.

Normal bloodwork does not mean your body is operating normally. It just means the levels in your bloodwork look okay, not that your cells are actually using them the way they should. It's like using the wrong map and wondering why you're lost, or putting gas in the tank but the engine still won't turn over.

Because if your cells are inflamed, stressed, or in survival mode, nothing you do will work the way it should. Your body's been whispering for years. Now maybe it's screaming, and you deserve someone who's actually listening. Go to mybloodwork.com and see what your bloodwork missed what's really going on beneath the surface.

Because you're not crazy, you're not lazy, you're just stuck in a system that was never built to find the problem. It was built to diagnose disease, not restore your health. At mybloodwork.com, we'll show you how to finally get your body and your life back. Now, there's another important factor when it comes to magnesium, and that has to do with its absorption.

And its utilization in the body, and oftentimes we take isolated forms of magnesium, and we don't get the results we want to. And that's because it's not being absorbed that well. So oftentimes people believe that hey, I've got magnesium. I'm going to absorb all of this.

The reality is that most people aren't absorbing magnesium that well, and that's why they have low intracellular inside the cell levels of magnesium. And and part of magnesium has to do with what else are you stacking it with? Okay, because there are certain other nutrients that will imp. Improve magnesium absorption or that work together. And I want to go through those nutrients right now.

The first one is vitamin D. Now, we know that vitamin D is the vitamin we are most deficient in in the Western world today. And vitamin D and magnesium, they work like teammates. Magnesium helps activate vitamin D, and vitamin D appears to support mineral transport and magnesium handling in the body.

One major randomized clinical trial that was published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found that magnesium magnesium supplementation significantly influenced vitamin D metabolism and how it's used in the body. So if your vitamin D is low, magnesium often doesn't work as well. And if your magnesium is low, your vitamin D may not be fully activated.

So if there are 2 things you really want to focus on, vitamins and minerals that work hand in hand together, it's vitamin D and magnesium. If people were to say, Dr. Axe, what are the 2 most important, if I just pick 2? For general health, for most people, that most people are deficient in, that need to partner together, it's vitamin D and magnesium. Okay? Those are the 2. Okay?

And they work hand in hand. So in order to optimize your magnesium absorption and utilization by your cells, you want to have optimal vitamin D levels of over 50. Okay? 30 And below is clinically low. 50 And above is more in that optimal range. Okay? That's where you want to be for optimal magnesium utilization. Number 2 nutrient that's really important that works with magnesium is calcium.

Now, calcium and magnesium are partners in bone health and muscle function, but the key is balance, not overload. Research highlights that high calcium intake combined with low magnesium intake may negatively affect magnesium status and is associated with higher chronic disease risk patterns. So again, it's not good to have high calcium but low magnesium. They got to work together.

And part of this too, by the way, there's studies showing if you take isolated calcium supplements without magnesium, And other nutrients, it may increase your risk of a stroke or some form of heart disease.

Because if you have all this extra calcium floating around in your blood and it's not being pulled into cells, some of that calcium may bind to plaque in your arteries, causing calcification and hardening of your arteries. So this is why you really want to— most people need to pay more attention to their magnesium levels than their calcium.

But it's important to know That calcium and magnesium work together at building strong bones, on muscle relaxation, on overall health. So you want to make sure you have optimal levels of both of those as well. Number 3, and this is really important, is vitamin B6. Now, vitamin B6 is like magnesium's delivery assistant because it may help with magnesium absorption in its cellular uptake.

A randomized controlled trial in PLOS One found that magnesium combined with high-dose vitamin B6 produced greater improvements in stress scores than magnesium alone in adults with low magnesium. So overall, in order for you to use magnesium, your body needs vitamin B6. Now, I want to mention this.

The 2 most important nutrients for you women out there, if you are pregnant or want to get pregnant, In order to reduce morning sickness are magnesium and vitamin B6. By the way, if you start taking it once you're already feeling bad, it's— you should do it, but it's almost too late. Okay?

If you are going to get pregnant and you want to lower your risk as much as possible of morning sickness, you want to be doing— taking a vitamin B6 supplement and a magnesium supplement for months before you get pregnant. That will— reduce your risk of having a lot of nausea and vomiting and morning sickness. Okay?

Because B6 and magnesium act together to calm the nervous system and reduce these symptoms. And so, and I, so my, my wife Chelsea, with our second child, I said, hey, uh, or before we had her, I said, you may want to increase your B6 and magnesium. Here's what I take. She did much, much less of those symptoms, almost none at all compared to our, our first daughter.

And so again, magnesium and B6, Together really make a huge impact on nausea, vomiting. But it's not just that, it's cellular energy. Okay, so for supporting mitochondrial health, you— that B6-magnesium combo is really powerful. And this is the way it always works, and this is why you want to get the bulk of your magnesium from the foods you eat.

I'm going to go through those magnesium-rich foods in a minute. But when you're eating magnesium-rich foods, you're getting— in a nutrient-dense diet, you're getting a lot of B6, you're getting magnesium, you're getting calcium, you're getting these other nutrients that work synergistically together.

Now, there's one other nutrient that's not talked about very often in terms of supporting magnesium function, and those are prebiotics. Probiotics are also very important, but according to studies, prebiotics are probably even more important. Now, prebiotics are generally— the way that I'm going to define them are prebiotic fiber, like soluble fiber.

Prebiotic fibers can measurably increase magnesium absorption according to studies. Inulin-type fructans like inulin and oligofructose are among the most studied prebiotics for boosting mineral absorption, including magnesium, according to one review in the Journal of Nutrition. And here's what's amazing. Prebiotics feed beneficial bacteria in the gut, feed good bacteria.

That also raises what we call short-chain fatty acids in the gut, like butyrate, and they create an environment in the gut Where minerals like magnesium now become easier to absorb. Remember this, you aren't what you eat, you are what you absorb. You can be taking magnesium supplements all day, but if you're not absorbing them, that's a problem, not only into the bloodstream.

So, right, there's 2 levels of absorption. They gotta be absorbed via the gut into the bloodstream, and then they also need to be absorbed into the cells. Okay? And that's where prebiotics help get them from the gut to the blood, whereas something like B6 is helping get it more into the cell.

Some of the top foods you can eat that are both high in prebiotic fiber as well as magnesium itself are artichokes, oatmeal, lentils, apples, and avocado. These contain both prebiotic fiber and magnesium. So the magnesium hack isn't always more milligrams. Oftentimes it's coupling it with more things like vitamin D and calcium and B6 and prebiotics.

Which are going to support absorption actually into your bloodstream and then into your cells. So let me now walk you through my top magnesium-rich foods you can consume to boost your magnesium uptake. Okay, first one are pumpkin seeds. Pumpkin seeds are the highest food in magnesium. By the way, they're also incredibly high in zinc. Now you can eat these as raw pumpkin seeds.

Now listen, if you've got GI issues, that's not the best way to get them. Here's another good option though. You can buy pumpkin seed butter like a nut butter. Of course, it's a seed butter because it's from seed, but pumpkin seed butter. And you can also buy sprouted pumpkin seed butter. There is a company called— I think it's called Blue Mountain Organics.

You can even buy it on amazon.com, but you can go on and buy pumpkin seed butter. By the way, this is also incredibly good for men with prostate issues. So if you have a prostate issue or you have a spouse or a loved one who have a prostate issue, 1 tablespoon of pumpkin seed butter is a great thing to do.

Now, you don't want to overdo fat in your diet, but 1 tablespoon a morning smoothie, you know, with, uh, with, with some, you know, pomegranate and a lot of protein, that, that would be fine for, for most people. But pumpkin seeds, highest source of magnesium. And then spinach cooked.

So steaming spinach or sautéing it in some extra virgin olive oil with some garlic and, and, uh, and sea salt, that's another good thing. So pumpkin seeds and spinach. Almonds are a great source, cashews, dark chocolate. Black beans are a great source. I mentioned lentils earlier are fantastic. Chia seeds. The fish mackerel, incredibly high in omega-3s, also very high in magnesium.

Tuna, also a very good source. And then I mentioned avocados, that's a great source of magnesium. And quinoa is another great option. Okay, so here's what 3 magnesium-rich meals would look like. Okay, one meal would be grass-fed beef. Do a grass-fed beef bowl with spinach, black beans, avocado, and a little bit of olive oil. Okay, that, that would be a great option.

Or here's another one: wild-caught fish like salmon with quinoa, sautéed greens, and some dark chocolate for dessert. Okay, that would be a second meal. And then here's another one: a tuna salad with arugula and spinach, wild-caught tuna on there, extra virgin olive oil, some white or black beans on there, avocado. You can sprinkle on some pumpkin seeds, apple cider vinegar.

That would be another magnesium-rich meal that would just be absolutely fantastic for you. And then in terms of herbals, basil or holy basil, which is used in Ayurvedic medicine, right? It's also called tulsi, is incredibly rich in magnesium. And if you think about it, tulsi tea or using basil or holy basil tends to be used for stress reduction.

So a lot of benefits there with basil as an herb being used for benefits. And by the way, it's also used for blood sugar regulation. When you look at holy basil, it's used in Ayurvedic medicine for that as well. Lifestyle-wise, managing stress and getting enough sleep improves your magnesium absorption.

So stress, sort of like a sponge, pulls magnesium and B vitamins in particular, pulls them out of your body if you're stressed out. Okay. So it'll start pulling magnesium and B6. Right out of your body like a sponge if you're living in a stressed state. So doing what you can to relax— this is why I actually really love Epsom salt baths.

Getting in a warm bath, putting in a bag of Epsom salts, you could also do some essential oils in there, and just soaking for 20 minutes, letting that magnesium absorb through your skin. Tremendous benefits at reducing stress and boosting those magnesium levels naturally. So beneficial. So here are a few things to remember.

Magnesium is a crucial mineral that affects almost every function of the body. Everything from your nerve health to your brain health to your energy production to your sleep to your mood to muscle health. It's vital to maintain healthy levels of magnesium.

And if you recognize any of the signs I mentioned earlier, consider boosting your magnesium intake through foods, lifestyle changes, and if necessary, supplements. Okay. And as I mentioned before, there's a lot of different types of magnesium, but it would serve you well to make sure you're taking the right type of magnesium to benefit your body.

And this is one of the minerals I take nearly every single day for things like having regular bowel movements to getting great sleep at night. I mean, the reason I take it the most and I've seen the greatest improvements is quality sleep. Okay. And sort of calming my body in the evening. That's why I take it the most. And then longevity. That would be the other, other thing.

But again, I take a food base, I take a glycinate, but there are lots of good options out there for you depending upon what your health goals are. So don't forget magnesium, maybe the most important mineral to our entire body. Remember, it's the lifeblood of plants and it can be life for us as well.

I wanna say thanks so much for tuning in here to the Dr. Josh Axe Show, where each and every week we're diving deep into the science and principles of how you can heal physically, mentally, spiritually, and take your health and your life to the next level. I just wanna take a moment and say, Thank you to all of you subscribers out there.

By you subscribing, it allows this show to grow, allows us to impact more people, and then you don't miss anything as well. So thank you to all you subscribers out there. Thanks to all of you as well who are active on the social media channels and YouTube and commenting and liking the post. I appreciate that as well. And also, thank you for sharing.

There are millions of people that don't know about magnesium being a great form of medicine. So thanks for sharing, and I'll see you on the next episode.