How to Use Magnesium to Calm Anxiety

There are times when anxiety is useful, motivating you to get started on a long put-off task or steering you away from danger, for example. But if you’re constantly feeling on edge, taking shallow breaths without even realizing it, or so stressed that you’re unable to do things you love, it’s a problem. To effectively treat your anxiety, you have to get to the root causes of it, including considering how your diet may be contributing.

Case in point: A 2018 study published in the British Journal of Nutrition found that adults with a magnesium deficiency had higher levels of anxiety than those who got enough magnesium. If you do a relatively good job of eating a wide range of nutrient-rich foods, you likely get enough magnesium. But if you cycle through the same handful of meals or know your diet isn’t exactly the healthiest, there’s a good possibility you’re lacking it. Roughly half the U.S. population is deficient in magnesium, according to a 2018 study in Nutrients.

While upping your magnesium intake isn’t the magic bullet to living an anxiety-free life, it can certainly help. Here, medical experts and dietitians give their best tips on using magnesium to calm anxiety.

The connection between magnesium and anxiety

“Magnesium is a mineral involved in hundreds of important biochemical reactions in the body, many of which directly affect the nervous system,” says registered dietitian Sonya Angelone, PhD, RDN. She explains that one reason why getting enough magnesium is key to managing anxiety is because it helps regulate neurotransmitters and support the body’s stress response. “Magnesium helps regulate GABA, the primary calming neurotransmitter in the brain,” Angelone says.

Angelone explains that when the body has enough magnesium, the nervous system can more efficiently shift from a fight-or-flight state into a calmer state. “In other words, magnesium can help prevent the brain from revving too high and getting pushed into overdrive,” she says.

William Chu, PMHNP-BC, a psychiatric nurse specializing in nutritional psychiatry, says this too. “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 by dampening the stress response that keeps the body stuck in fight-or-flight,” he says.

Besides preventing the body from jumping into an anxious state too easily, Dr. Chu says that low magnesium leads to higher cortisol, a.k.a. the stress hormone. “Having a magnesium deficiency enhances our susceptibility to stress,” adds Uma Naidoo, MD, a nutritional psychiatrist and author of Calm Your Mind With Food. The major lesson boils down to this: When faced with a stressful situation, the body is primed to jump into an anxious state if your magnesium levels are low. But if you get enough magnesium, you could encounter the same situation and feel calmer.

How to use magnesium to calm anxiety

Knowing that magnesium can help you be resilient in anxiety-inducing situations can make you want to go all-in on magnesium supplements and consume as much as you can, but that’s not how it works. Dr. Naidoo emphasizes that consuming more than the recommended daily amount of magnesium (which is between 400 and 420 milligrams a day), won’t give you extra protection from anxiety.

When it comes to using magnesium to manage anxiety, you have two options: upping your intake of magnesium-rich foods or taking a supplement. All the experts we talked to advocate for aiming to get enough magnesium intake through food first. But if you are deficient (which you can find out by having your healthcare provider take some bloodwork), a magnesium supplement can be helpful.

Magnesium-rich foods

Keeping track of your magnesium intake can be tedious, so instead of mentally logging every gram, registered dietitian Andy De Santis, RD, says the best way to get enough is by eating a wide range of nutrient-rich foods.