How Magnesium Make You Sleep and Hurt Less

Last week we acknowledged that I love dressing up like Stevan Seagal in the evening by strutting about the place in my jazzy orange glasses.

Let’s not make a big deal about it, call it sleep foreplay.

Read to the end for the Seagal trivia that will blow your mind…..

But beyond that, an easy win to achieve what we call in the course “treatment stacking” is adding in some magnesium plus our old friend vitamin B6.

It means we are getting more than one result for our patients by using one intervention.

We can do this because we understand ROOT CAUSES, not just symptoms.

FYI, this is why the course is called CORE CONCEPTS in Chiropractic (or Osteopathic or physiotherapy) Nutrition, CCCN for short.

There are many triggers for insomnia but at the root of quite a few of them is a sustained low grade inflammatory response.

If you have this, then you have neuro-inflammation and this triggers a very predictable set of neurotransmitter changes.

One of which is an increase in the primary EXCITATORY NEURO-TRANSMITTER, glutamate.

More excitement at the synapse means more firing = more worrying/thinking (and more pain too).

But fear not because here comes magnesium and B6 to the rescue.

Turns out that magnesium is a natural blocker for the receptor for glutamate – that is why magnesium is good for pain, muscle tension, stress, and of course, insomnia.

It calms your nervous system down.

Even even better than that, magnesium also reduces inflammation.

You see, with low cellular magnesium, your immune system is PRIMED and ready for a fight at the drop of a hat.

So, by increasing cellular magnesium, we can reduce inflammation, which lowers glutamate, and we can block the receptor glutamate, a win-win.

But as above, we need to get magnesium into the cells, and it is vitamin B6 that helps this happen.

Remember the study with PMS using B6 only (no magnesium) and getting a 50-500% increase in red blood cell magnesium?

But it gets even better than that because we also know that GLUTAMATE converts into the main neuro-INHIBITORY neurotransmitter, GABA.

It is like see-saw of neurological excitation and inhibition.

The great news is the enzyme that converts glutamate to GABA is vitamin B6 DEPENDENT.

So, not only do we get magnesium into the cells and block glutamate by using B6, but we also lower glutamate (less neuro-excitation) and increase GABA for more inhibition.

Isn’t that amazing?

By understanding the CORE CONCEPTS of the body’s metabolic system, we can create a skilful and highly effective supplement regime that lowers inflammation, lowers pain, and improves sleep, which then further reduces pain and inflammation.

How cool is that?

That is why I have little time for practitioners telling me how “wellness” they are, because they see their patients weekly and treat full spine with the right “intension” and with “certainty”.

Equally, I have little time for practitioners who are smug in their own moral superiority because they are “evidence based” and discharge patients, no need to see them on an ongoing basis because it creates “dependence”.

On both counts, this kind of behaviour is to try to raise their own status within their own little tribe of narrow-minded practitioners in their online echo chamber.

Neither are in the best interests of the patient, necessarily.

Do I see some patients a lot on an ongoing basis? Yes.

Do I get treatment regularly? Yes.

Do I discharge some patients after we have discussed their options for the future? Yes.

Will I change what I truly believe is the best care option for a patient if the local GP thinks it is incorrect? No.

A true clinician will treat as much as needed but also be happy to refer out as needed too, be it for rehab, or nutrition or for EMDR to help with trauma.

It must be a bespoke process that recognises the body though the lens of the triad of health.

Physical

Metabolic

Emotional

All three affect each other, like a web of dysfunction. If you apply stress to one area, it will affect the others.

You get stressed with work and family, you sleep less, that leads to more inflammation, so you hurt more. This is stressful, so you sleep worse, so you need quick energy and eat sugary junk food for quick energy, repeat into a vicious cycle that you must break to help the patient recover.

Luckily for you, we have a product with 150 mg of magneisum with 15 mg of B6 in the P5P form, ready to go, it is called MAGESIUM PLUS.

Check out the snazzy new, plastic-free, compostable pouch…..