There are times when anxiety is useful, for example, motivating you to start a long-pending task or moving you away from danger. But if you’re feeling constantly nervous, taking shallow breaths without realizing it, or are so stressed that you’re unable to do the things you love, it’s a problem. To effectively treat your anxiety, you need to get to its root causes, including considering how your diet may be contributing to it.
Case in point: A 2018 study published British Journal of Nutrition found that adults with magnesium deficiency had higher anxiety levels than those who got enough magnesium. If you do a relatively good job of eating a variety of nutrient-rich foods, you’re likely to get enough magnesium. But if you repeatedly eat the same handful of foods or know your diet isn’t exactly the healthiest, there’s a good chance you’re lacking. Nearly half of the US population is deficient in magnesium, according to A 2018 study in Nutrients.
Although increasing magnesium intake is not a magic solution to living an anxiety-free life, it can definitely help. Here, medical experts and dietitians give their best tips on using magnesium to calm anxiety.
The Relationship Between Magnesium and Anxiety
“Magnesium is a mineral that is involved in hundreds of important biochemical reactions in the body, many of which directly affect the nervous system,” says the registered dietitian. Sonya Angelone, PhD, RDN. She explains that getting enough magnesium is important to manage anxiety because it helps regulate neurotransmitters and support the body’s stress response. “Magnesium helps regulate GABA, the primary calming neurotransmitter in the brain,” says Angelone.
Angelone explains that when there is enough magnesium in the body, the nervous system can more efficiently shift from a fight-or-flight state to a calm state. “In other words, magnesium may help keep the brain from spinning too much and being pushed into overdrive,” she says.
William Chu, PMHNP-BCA psychiatric nurse specializing in nutritional psychiatry says the same. “Magnesium acts as one of the brain’s natural calming agents. It helps regulate the nervous system by supporting GABA, the brain’s primary calming neurotransmitter, and reducing the stress response that keeps the body stuck in fight-or-flight,” he says.
In addition to preventing the body from slipping into anxious states too easily, Dr. Chu says low magnesium increases cortisol, also known as the stress hormone. “Being deficient in magnesium increases our sensitivity to stress,” adds Uma Naidu, MDA nutritional psychiatrist and author calm your mind with food. The key lesson is this: When faced with a stressful situation, the body goes into an anxious state when your magnesium levels are low. But if you get enough magnesium, you can face the same situation and feel calm.
How to Use Magnesium to Calm Anxiety
Knowing that magnesium can help you become resilient in anxiety-inducing situations might totally motivate you to take magnesium supplements and consume as much as possible, but it doesn’t work that way. Dr. Naidu emphasizes that consuming more than the recommended daily amount of magnesium (which is between 400 to 420 mg per day), will not give you additional protection from anxiety.
When it comes to using magnesium to manage anxiety, you have two options: increasing your intake of magnesium-rich foods or taking a supplement. All the experts we spoke to advocate aiming to get adequate magnesium intake through food first. But if you’re deficient (which you can find out by getting a blood test from your healthcare provider), magnesium supplements may be helpful.