Magnesium: what the evidence actually shows

settled magnesium — evidence and attention roughly aligned

Reviewed by Substrate editorial, Independent research collective

⚠ Safety in context

minorwith SSRI: Generally fine with an SSRI; space about 2 hours apart.
minorwith Vitamin D: Magnesium is a cofactor in vitamin D metabolism; the two are complementary.

Evidence by outcome

sleepgrade Bmoderate certainty— modest improvement in sleep

stressgrade Clow certainty— may modestly reduce subjective anxiety/stress, esp. in deficiency

blood sugargrade Cmoderate certainty— modest improvement in insulin sensitivity / fasting glucose, mainly in deficiency or diabetes

moodstudied, no effectmoderate certainty— Not recommended for unipolar depression

People say · Evidence shows

“Magnesium glycinate is better for sleep because it crosses the blood-brain barrier”

aheadlargemechanistic speculation

What it probably doesn't do

Magnesium for mood — Grade —, Not recommended for unipolar depression.

Grade history

No grade changes yet. Initial grade assigned; re-reviewed on every 12 months (Grade A/B). Methodology v1.

Re-review cadence: every 12 months (Grade A/B) · methodology v1.

By outcome — the money pages

sources: PMID:20000101 · PMID:42197052 · PMID:35311615

Cite this page

Reuse under CC-BY 4.0 with attribution to evidencebased.info.

Plain-text citation

Substrate. Magnesium: what the evidence actually shows. https://evidencebased.info/interventions/magnesium. Updated 2026.

BibTeX

@misc{substrate_terventionsmagnesium,
  author = {Substrate editorial},
  title  = {Magnesium: what the evidence actually shows},
  year   = {2026},
  url    = {https://evidencebased.info/interventions/magnesium},
  note   = {evidencebased.info}
}