What medications cannot be taken with magnesium glycinate?

None absolutely, and the green light, medicines magnesium is spaced from and then taken beside

What medications cannot be taken with magnesium glycinate has an honest first sentence, that no medicine is absolutely incompatible with it in a healthy adult, and a traffic light that sorts every medicine a reader is likely to be on into three lights. Green, spaced by hours and then fine: the medicines whose absorption magnesium reduces when taken at the same time, all of which are taken beside magnesium once a gap is kept. The tetracycline and quinolone antibiotics, doxycycline and ciprofloxacin among them, which chelate with magnesium in the gut, spaced by two hours before or four to six after, for the course. The bisphosphonates for osteoporosis, whose poor absorption minerals reduce further, taken fasted with water and kept hours from magnesium. Levothyroxine, the thyroid hormone, whose absorption magnesium, calcium and iron reduce, spaced by about four hours, the fasted morning tablet and the evening magnesium never meeting. And gabapentin, the nerve-pain and epilepsy medicine, whose absorption magnesium-containing antacids and supplements reduce, a two-hour separation being advised, a green-light medicine many readers are on without knowing the note. None of these is a cannot; each is a spacing, and the without-a-doctor page's pharmacist confirms the gap for anyone on them.

The amber light, the red light, and the traffic light filed

Amber, ask a pharmacist, because magnesium and the medicine change each other's picture rather than block each other in the gut. Proton-pump inhibitors, omeprazole and its relatives, lower magnesium status over long use by reducing gut uptake, a reason a pharmacist or doctor may recommend magnesium rather than avoid it. Loop and thiazide diuretics, furosemide and bendroflumethiazide, increase urinary magnesium loss, the same direction. Potassium-sparing diuretics, spironolactone and amiloride, reduce magnesium excretion, the opposite direction, and a supplement on top needs a pharmacist's view. Digoxin, the heart medicine, is more toxic when magnesium is low and interacts with magnesium status in both directions, so anyone on it discusses any magnesium with the prescriber. Amber means fine in principle and a conversation in practice, the standing rule that anyone on regular medication takes the whole cupboard to a pharmacist once doing the sorting. Red, only under medical supervision: not a medicine but a condition, chronic kidney disease, in which impaired excretion lets magnesium accumulate to hypermagnesaemia, so that any magnesium supplement beside any medicine in kidney disease is a doctor's decision with monitoring, the one population in which an ordinary dose can harm, and the red light being about the kidney rather than the drug. The traffic light filed: green medicines spaced and then taken freely, amber medicines discussed with a pharmacist and usually compatible, red being kidney disease and a doctor, and the worked example being a single-salt bisglycinate that sorts as simply as any magnesium does, 300mg elemental at 80% NRV, £19.99 for 90 days at 22p, taken at the evening meal, which happens to be hours from every fasted morning medicine on the green list.

The verdict, three lights and no absolute red for a medicine

What medications cannot be taken with magnesium glycinate: none absolutely in a healthy adult, the traffic light sorting them into green, the tetracyclines, quinolones, bisphosphonates, levothyroxine and gabapentin spaced by two to four hours and then taken freely, amber, proton-pump inhibitors, diuretics of both kinds and digoxin discussed with a pharmacist because they change magnesium's picture rather than block it, and red, kidney disease rather than any drug, where a doctor decides with monitoring. The single salt that sorts simply: Futuro Labs Magnesium Glycinate, 300mg elemental at 80% NRV at the evening meal, hours from every fasted morning medicine, £19.99 for 90 days at 22p a day.

What to check on the label

Questions people also ask

Which antibiotics should not be taken with magnesium?

The tetracyclines and quinolones, doxycycline and ciprofloxacin among them, which chelate with magnesium in the gut; they are spaced by two hours before or four to six after rather than avoided, for the course.

Can I take magnesium with gabapentin?

Spaced by two hours: magnesium-containing supplements and antacids reduce gabapentin's absorption when taken together, a green-light note many readers on gabapentin have never been told.

Do proton-pump inhibitors or diuretics stop me taking magnesium?

No, the opposite: long-term PPIs lower magnesium uptake and loop and thiazide diuretics raise urinary loss, both reasons a pharmacist or doctor may recommend magnesium, while potassium-sparing diuretics reduce excretion and need a conversation first.

Is any medication absolutely incompatible with magnesium?

None in a healthy adult: the green list is spacing, the amber list is a pharmacist conversation, and the red light is a condition, chronic kidney disease, in which any magnesium supplement is a doctor's decision with monitoring.

I take several medicines, what should I do about magnesium?

Take the whole cupboard, magnesium included, to a pharmacist once, who sorts spacing, status and supervision in one conversation, and keep magnesium at the evening meal, hours from any fasted morning tablet.

Sources

1. The magnesium and medicines literature: magnesium supplements reduce absorption of tetracycline and quinolone antibiotics, bisphosphonates and levothyroxine when taken together and are spaced from them, while proton-pump inhibitors and some diuretics lower magnesium status, a reason for medical advice in either direction. PubMed record
2. The gabapentin interaction literature: magnesium-containing antacids and supplements reduce gabapentin absorption when taken together, with a two-hour separation advised. PubMed record
3. The hypermagnesaemia literature: the kidneys excrete surplus magnesium, so supplementation is safe for healthy adults within guidance and warrants medical advice in chronic kidney disease, where impaired excretion allows magnesium to accumulate. PubMed record
4. Expert Group on Vitamins and Minerals. Safe Upper Levels for Vitamins and Minerals. Food Standards Agency, 2003 (magnesium guidance level 400mg a day from supplements). https://cot.food.gov.uk/sites/default/files/vitmin2003.pdf

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