It’s Q&A time! You can ask your own question here for a chance to have it answered in an upcoming edition.
The first part of my answer is available to everyone, and paid subscribers can read the whole thing.
I am so excited that my husband got me a subscription to your Substack as a gift! I always talk about how you do the best research on topics I am so interested in. Can you please cover commonly recommended supplements? In particular, Magnesium, Vitamin D, and Iron are so frequently recommended for both kids and adults. Magnesium especially seems like it’s a miracle mineral that can treat depression & mood, sleep, blood sugar, etc. What data supports these claims?
FYI: my answers here are for educational and informational purposes only, aren’t a substitute for medical or mental-health advice, and don’t constitute a provider-patient relationship.
Thanks for this question, and for your kind feedback! I love the idea of covering commonly recommended supplements. And right now there’s probably none more ubiquitous than magnesium, which is extremely hyped in wellness culture. TikTok testimonials call the mineral “life-changing,” rave that it “fixes your problems completely,” and say it’s the ticket to looking and feeling like a 20-year-old again. In certain integrative- and functional-medicine spaces, it’s unironically referred to as a “miracle” and hailed as a cure-all for a laundry list of genuine ailments as well as dubious diagnoses like “adrenal fatigue” and “chronic candida.”
Is all this excitement warranted? I was, of course, skeptical, but I wanted to do a deep dive into the science to make sure I wasn’t missing anything. And when I did, I quickly realized that I’d need to save the reporting on iron and vitamin D for another time. There’s just too much to say about magnesium first.
When it comes to this much-touted mineral, in many cases the science directly contradicts a lot of the hype—though there are a few specific areas where magnesium may show some promise.
