Does magnesium benefits help with women?

The same claims for both, and the audit that differs for women

Does magnesium benefit women, and the variants that ask the same of men, has an answer the register makes simple and the audits make interesting: the authorised claims are identical for both sexes, and what differs is who is likely to be short and why. The claims, printed the same on any honest label: magnesium contributes to normal muscle function, to normal nervous system function, to normal psychological function, to the reduction of tiredness and fatigue, to normal energy-yielding metabolism, to normal protein synthesis, to electrolyte balance, and to the maintenance of normal bones and teeth, maintenance sentences describing what adequate magnesium supports and lawful at 15% NRV or more for anyone. The audit for women differs in three places. The reference intake: 270mg a day for adult women against 300mg for men, rising to 320mg when breastfeeding, a lower figure that a lighter diet more easily misses, the woman's dose page's three reference points. The bone claim: magnesium's contribution to the maintenance of normal bones carries more weight for women after the menopause, when bone density falls faster, so the same sentence reads differently at fifty-five than at twenty-five, and a woman's audit of magnesium, alongside calcium and vitamin D, is a bone audit as much as a training one. The premenstrual file: small randomised trials report reductions in some premenstrual symptoms with magnesium, alone or with vitamin B6, on low-quality evidence with no authorised claim, the honest reading being a suggestion rather than a treatment and a reason some women find the evening habit worth keeping through the cycle, taken for the register's sentences with the premenstrual hope held lightly. Pregnancy is the one audit that leaves the shelf entirely: requirements change, and a midwife or GP decides.

The audit that differs for men, the testosterone myth held to the register, and the benefits filed for both

The audit for men differs in one place that is mostly a myth: the reason men most often take magnesium, testosterone, holds no claim, magnesium's sentences containing no hormone, and the file behind it is a single small trial in athletes and sedentary men reporting higher testosterone after magnesium with exercise, in a population whose status was not established and with no replication, the testosterone pages' standing grading, while zinc's maintenance-of-normal-testosterone claim is the only lawful sentence on the subject and describes adequacy rather than a rise. Men's honest audit is otherwise the athlete's: a 300mg reference intake, higher sweat and urinary losses under training, and a protein-heavy diet often light in magnesium foods, so a training man runs short by the same route a training woman does and closes it by the same dose. The benefits filed for both: the same claims, muscle function, nervous system, psychological function, fatigue, energy metabolism, protein synthesis and bones, printed identically on the label whoever buys it; the audit different, women weighing a lower reference intake, breastfeeding, the bone claim after the menopause and a thin premenstrual file, men weighing training losses and dropping the testosterone reason; and the dose the same by audit, 300mg elemental as bisglycinate with the evening meal, under the 400mg guidance level, a full women's reference intake and a full men's from the supplement alone, the worked example printing the claims that belong to both readers and no sentence that belongs to neither, £19.99 for 90 days at 22p.

The verdict, one label and two audits

Does magnesium benefit women, and men: with the same authorised claims for both, muscle function, nervous system, psychological function, fatigue, energy metabolism, protein synthesis and bones, and with audits that differ, a woman weighing a 270mg reference intake that rises when breastfeeding, the bone claim's greater weight after the menopause and a thin premenstrual file, and a man weighing training losses and dropping the testosterone reason the register does not support, the dose being 300mg elemental by audit for either. The same label for both readers: Futuro Labs Magnesium Glycinate, 300mg elemental at 80% NRV with its claims printed, £19.99 for 90 days at 22p a day.

What to check on the label

Questions people also ask

What are the benefits of magnesium glycinate for women?

The register's claims, the same as for anyone: muscle function, nervous system, psychological function, fatigue, energy metabolism and bones, with a woman's audit weighing a 270mg reference intake, the bone claim's greater weight after the menopause and a thin premenstrual file.

Does magnesium help with PMS?

Small randomised trials report reductions in some premenstrual symptoms with magnesium, alone or with B6, on low-quality evidence and with no authorised claim, so it is a suggestion held lightly rather than a treatment.

What are the benefits of magnesium bisglycinate for men?

The same claims as for women, with a training man's audit being higher sweat and urinary losses on a protein-heavy diet light in magnesium foods; the testosterone reason holds no claim and rests on one small unreplicated trial.

Do women need less magnesium than men?

The reference intake is 270mg for adult women against 300mg for men, rising to 320mg when breastfeeding, and a 300mg elemental supplement covers a full intake for either where a diet audit finds a shortfall.

Should pregnant women take magnesium?

On a midwife's or GP's advice: requirements change in pregnancy and breastfeeding, and this site sends that question off the shelf entirely, as it does every supplement in pregnancy.

Sources

1. Department of Health. Dietary Reference Values for Food Energy and Nutrients for the United Kingdom. Report on Health and Social Subjects 41, 1991 (magnesium RNI 300mg men, 270mg women).
2. The GB claims register, magnesium entries: magnesium contributes to a reduction of tiredness and fatigue, normal psychological function, normal nervous system function, normal muscle function and electrolyte balance, among others. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/great-britain-nutrition-and-health-claims-nhc-register
3. The magnesium and premenstrual syndrome literature: small randomised trials report reductions in some premenstrual symptoms with magnesium, alone or with vitamin B6, on low-quality evidence with no authorised claim. PubMed record
4. Cinar V, Polat Y, Baltaci AK, Mogulkoc R. Effects of magnesium supplementation on testosterone levels of athletes and sedentary subjects at rest and after exhaustion. Biological Trace Element Research 2011;140(1):18-23. PubMed record

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