Magnesium is an abundant mineral found in plants, animals and the Earth's crust. The human body requires magnesium for numerous critical biochemical processes, and deficiencies in magnesium can lead to severe side effects. Magnesium is usually available in health supplements in a complex with another molecule, such as citrate ions. Like any health supplement, consult your doctor before taking any form of magnesium.
Elemental Magnesium
Magnesium is the fourth most abundant element in the human body and the eighth most abundant element in the entire universe. Technically speaking, magnesium is a metal, although pure, or elemental, magnesium is highly reactive and is often never encountered in nature, according to the Jefferson Lab. Magnesium is almost always found in a chemical complex bound to other molecules.
Magnesium Citrate
Magnesium citrate is a salt of magnesium that forms when magnesium reacts with citric acid. Supplements containing magnesium citrate are commonly used as a saline laxative to relieve constipation. Saline laxatives such as magnesium citrate draw water from the body into the small intestines, which triggers bowel contractions and bowel movements, explains the American Cancer Society.
Side Effects
Magnesium citrate is generally safe and well tolerated, but may cause side effects. Because of the strong laxative properties, magnesium citrate may cause diarrhea, nausea or stomach cramps. In rare cases, excess use of magnesium citrate supplements may cause magnesium levels in the blood to rise to dangerous levels, resulting in severe side effects such as confusion, muscle weakness, drops in blood pressure, altered heart rhythms, difficulty breathing and possibly cardiac arrest, warns the Linus Pauling Institute at Oregon State University.
Other Forms of Magnesium
Magnesium is sold as supplements in complex with a variety of different molecules. Magnesium hydroxide, also known as milk of magnesia, and magnesium sulfate, frequently called Epsom salts, are also used as saline laxatives, explains Dr. P. Thomas Riley of the University of Mary Washington. Magnesium malate is used to treat a painful muscle condition called fibromyalgia. Magnesium glycinate is a form of magnesium that is less likely to cause diarrhea and is often used to treat magnesium deficiency.
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