During a dinner in Hollywood, a friend confesses that she sprays the product on the soles of her feet at night and enjoys “the best sleep of my life.” At Erewhon in Silver Lake, a remarkably focused and relaxed employee tells me that she mixes it with tea to focus and relax. On my TikTok account, a woman tries to end her three-day battle with constipation by drinking straight from a bottle. (Disclaimer: don't do it.) His dizzying victory speechfull of graphic details that cannot be repeated here at all, it has 27.8 million views and counting.
All three people name the same ingredient as key to their sweet relief: not a newly patented molecule or an ancient herbal extract, but one of the most common elements on earth: magnesium.
After decades of anonymity in the middle of the alphabet on vitamin store shelves, the humble metal is suddenly taking a star turn in the wellness community, appearing in thousands of posts and even inspiring its own viral recipe, the Sleepy Girl Mocktail. (Tour cherry juice and magnesium powder, with an optional ring light.) online debut of that elixir on TikTok last year, Google searches for “magnesium dream” have more than doublewhile combined mentions on several other platforms (YouTube, X, Reddit and Tumblr) have increased by 87%, according to social media analytics company Sprout Social.
“Lipospheric” magnesium gel, to squeeze into your drink. A box of 30 packages costs $70 at Erewhon.
Magnesium's online success has also been driven in part by a Cambrian explosion of products and formulations, each tailored to a different niche in the wellness ecosystem. At Alo Yoga in the Grove, you can purchase Magnesium Reset Spray to spray on tight muscles. (“It's our most popular wellness product,” one employee told me.) At Malibu Vitamin Barn, you can get packets of “Lypo-Spheric” magnesium gel, perfect for squeezing into your morning latte. Erewhon sells over 30 forms of magnesium, each claiming to have a different benefit: magnesium carbonate for healthy sleep, magnesium bisglycinate for stress relief, ozonated magnesium oxides for better digestion, magnesium L-threonate for cognitive support…the list goes on. For only $250 you will get a massage enhanced with “activated heat” magnesium oil at the Conrad Hotel downtown.
Financially, the wellness industry has finally accomplished what centuries of alchemists failed to do: turn magnesium into gold. Total sales of the supplement in its myriad forms are projected to surpass $1.5 billion by 2024, according to Nutrition Business Journal, and there are no signs of slowing down.
“In the last year, we have introduced many new magnesium products and it continues to gain traction,” said Maren Giuliano, vice president of health and wellness at Erewhon, where sales of the supplement are up more than 50% from last year. “It's definitely hot right now.”
In the wellness world, this isn't even the first time magnesium has been exposed to the sun. (Actually, all magnesium started inside a sun, or rather, inside decaying supernovae where helium and carbon nuclei were fused by unimaginably powerful forces to form new atoms, some of which have had the honor of ending up on Goop's magnesium-rich planet. Detoxifying Super Powder.)
The first recorded magnesium craze began in 1618, when a farmer in the English town of Epsom noticed that his cows were not drinking from a puddle of bitter water. Perhaps seeking some form of 17th century influence, he decided to drink it himself. He quickly realized the laxative effect for which Epsom salts would become world famous, drawing hordes of tourists to the city for decades to come.
Over the years, many medical powers have been attributed to the supplement, some more credible than others. In 1934, the New York Times announced a revolutionary discovery by a Johns Hopkins professor who discovered that “magnesium tends to sweeten the human character and that 'bad mood' may be caused in part by the absence of this mineral salt in the system.”
Magnesium Reset Spray by Alo Yoga, to spray on tense muscles or the soles of your feet before going to bed.
In today's magnesium moment, the supplement is marketed as a miracle cure for almost everything, from muscle cramps to insomnia. The promise that magnesium can calm, calm, and soothe us—like a gravitational blanket for the mind—is especially appealing in anxious times when prices are rising, wars fill the news, and the embers of the pandemic still burn.
As a result, healthcare professionals receive a constant stream of questions from patients who are curious about what magnesium can do for them. The answer, according to the experts interviewed for this article, could be summarized as: more than you think, but less than you expect.
So what is it for? Biologically, your body cannot function without magnesium. Unless you have a serious chronic illness, you probably have about 25 grams right now, mostly in your bones.
“Magnesium plays many essential roles in the body,” said Dr. Zhaoping Li, director of the UCLA Center for Human Nutrition. “It is part of the muscle relaxation process, it is involved in neurotransmitters. It is an essential part of all cell types. “As you can imagine, lacking it would have wide-ranging negative impacts on health.”
Pure Encapsulations magnesium capsules, used as a dietary supplement. (Jessica Miller / For The Times)
However, that doesn't mean you should necessarily take magnesium supplements. While the USDA says that fewer than half of Americans get the recommended daily allowance of magnesium from food, Dr. Li said that, medically, deficiency is not common in otherwise healthy people. “If someone has a regular diet, it is not something they can easily lack. The source of magnesium [in food] “It’s quite wide.”
As for magnesium's reputation as a stress buster and sleep promoter, the jury is still out, according to Steven Chen, associate dean of clinical affairs at the USC Alfred E. Mann School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences.
“The science is not very strong in this area,” he said. “But there are associations between magnesium supplementation and improvement in depression, improvement in anxiety and migraines. “There are some research reports that suggest that is the case.”
Still, magnesium success stories are becoming easier to find.
“For some people it's like night and day,” said Amanda Cohen, a Chinese medicine doctor and owner of Source Point Wellbeing in the town of Atwater. “They say, 'I finally slept through the night.'” Cohen has used magnesium in his practice for more than a decade because it has a wide range of applications for patients and is generally well tolerated. “It's already in our bodies, so we just support it, whether through food or a small dose.”
Despite their different backgrounds, all the practitioners I spoke to agree on some points. First of all, magnesium supplements are not a cure-all, no matter how many social media posts say otherwise. Second, you should consult a health professional before starting any supplement to rule out harmful effects or interactions. (This is especially important for people with any type of kidney failure, since excess magnesium is eliminated in urine.) And finally, in sufficient doses, magnesium will almost certainly cause at least one thing to happen to you. “Magnesium citrate is used before colonoscopies to really get the intestine working,” Dr. Li said. Or, in Cohen's words, “it may be very Moving.” Turns out the lady in the TikTok video wasn't wrong.
Moon Juice's Magnesi-Om Powder, $42, is used for relaxation and sleep.
Still, magnesium seems set to remain in wellness circles, even in Los Angeles, where new health trends arrive with the steady rhythm of ocean waves. When I stopped by Moon Juice in Venice on a clear January day, an employee gave me free samples of the company's new Magnesi-Om powders, which stretch across nearly half a wall of display space.
“They are very calming, great for anxiety,” she advised. “And they come in different flavors, in case you don't like one.”
A few minutes later, I walked down the street to an herbal apothecary offering rose quartz crystals along with tinctures in dropper bottles labeled “Happiness.” When I asked if they sold anything with magnesium, an employee apologized.
“No,” he sighed. “But I wish we did. It's amazing.”
Adam Markovitz is a writer and editor based in Los Angeles.
