Magnesium for Depression

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population is affected by depression at any givenmoment. The World Health Organization showedthat unipolar major depression was the leadingcause of disability globally in 1990, and suggeststhat depression and heart disease will be the mostcommon diseases on Earth by 2020 [1], with both ofthese diseases having strong magnesium deficiency

components.Contemporary approaches to treating unipolarmajor depression and manic depression (bipolardisorder) utilize a wide variety of drugs that in-clude monoamine oxidase (MAO) inhibitors, tricy-clic compounds, selective serotonin reuptakeinhibitors (SSRIs), and lithium (for bipolar disor-der). These drugs need several weeks to becomefully functional.

Varley [2] and many others have shown concernthat some antidepressant drugs promote suiciderather than prevent it, particularly in childrenand adolescents, wherein adverse mood-related ef-

fects, including suicide attempts is 4% in activedrug versus 2% in placebo-treated patients. Thiswide-spread concern has resulted in Black Boxwarnings by the United States Food and DrugAdministration and outright declarations of contra-indications for the United Kingdom for most antide-pressants. This led Varley to ask, What optionsnow?.

In answer to Varleys question, magnesiumshould again become the treatment of choice dueto its: (1) wide role in brain biochemistry, (2)safety, (3) long history in treating depression and

other mental health issues. Depression appears tobe a magnesium deficiency disorder especially inmajor and suicidal depression, but not necessarilyin simple melancholy or depression caused byother factors such as underlying disease (particu-larly hepatitis C), hormonal imbalance (particularlyhypothyroidism and low testosterone), low choles-terol, Wilsons Disease, food allergy (particularlygluten intolerance), and adverse reaction tomedications.

The benefit of magnesium to treat agitateddepression was first published in 1921 by Weston[3]. Magnesium sulfate (10% elemental magnesium)was injected in doses of one to two CCs of a 25% or50% solution resulting in nearly all of his fifty pa-tients relaxing and sleeping from 4 to 6 h.

Magnesium is recognized in homeopathic medi-cine for the treatment of depression. For example,magnesium chloride (Magnesia Muriatica) has beenused for many decades to relieve various emotionalproblems including anxiety, apathy, aversions, des-pair, depression, discontent, headaches, insecu-rity, irritability, over sensitiveness, restlessness,sulkiness, talkativeness and uncertainty.

Wacker and Parisi [4] reported in 1968 that mag-nesium deficiency could cause numerous neuro-muscular symptoms including hyperexcitability,depression, behavior disturbances, tetany, head-aches, generalized tonic-clonic as well as focal sei-zures, ataxia, vertigo, muscular weakness,tremors, irritability, and psychotic behavior, each

of which were reversible by magnesium repletion.According to Durlach and Bac [5], the mentalhealth pattern induced through simple magnesiumdeficiency is always neurotic and never psychotic,for example: generalized anxiety, panic attack dis-orders, and depression. Other psychiatric symp-toms from magnesium deficiency consisted ofhyperemotionality, asthenia, headache, insomnia,dizziness, nervous fits, lipothymias (repeated faint-ing), and sensations of a lump in the throat andof blocked breathing, all of which can be effec-tively treated with magnesium. Although a neurosispattern due to magnesium deficiency is frequently

observed and simply cured through oral supplemen-tation, neuroses are preeminently conditioningfactors for stress.

Cernak et al. [6] showed that chronic stress de-creases both free and total plasma ionized magne-sium and simultaneously increased oxidative stressin humans. These findings support the need formagnesium supplementation for people living inconditions of chronic stress. However, about 70%of United States and the West have diets containingless than the recommended 400 mg of magnesiumper day and up to 20% have diets with less than

one-half the recommended intake. Increased stressbuilds up further worsening magnesium deficiency,with health issues such as depression and cardio-vascular disease resulting.

Magnesium deficiency symptoms are non-spe-cific due to its necessity in over 325 enzymes. Withmost of these enzymes being brain-related, thepossibility that magnesium deficiency is involvedin a variety of neurosis can be safely assumed.

Opportunity arose to test the hypothesis thatmagnesium would be helpful in subjects with majordepressive disorders. After explaining the possiblerisks and benefits, and obtaining informed consent,the subjects proceeded to treat their depressionwith magnesium.

Methods and procedures

A non-drinking, 59-year old hypomanic-depressivemale, having had a long history of mild depressiontreatable with antidepressants, suddenly becameextremely anxious, insomniac, tetanic and suicid-ally depressed after a year of extreme personal,

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business and noise stress and poor dietary habits(fast food). He was not responsive to treatmentwith a number of antidepressants and lithium car-bonate. After reviewing the report of Durlach con-cerning magnesium and depression [5], he wastreated with magnesium. He was given 300 mg ofmagnesium, as glycinate and later as taurinate,

to take orally with each meal and at bedtime.A 23-year-old woman, who had 5 years previ-ously suffered traumatic brain injury and lost muchof her short term memory and some of her IQ, sud-denly became severely depressed after experienc-ing long-term stress due to several stressorsrelated to diet (fast food), work, constant noise,and especially because of very poor academic per-formance after having had excellent grades prior toher brain injury. Antidepressants had beneficial ef-fects, but her concern about side effects causedher to switch to magnesium. She was given200 mg of magnesium (as taurinate) to take with

each meal and at bedtime.A 35-year old woman, having had three children

followed by severe postpartum depression (PPD) ineach case, was given 200 mg of magnesium (as gly-cinate) to take each meal during her pregnancy toprevent PPD during her fourth pregnancy. Antide-pressants had previously had some beneficial ef-fects, but side effects were worrisome to her.Part of her decision to take magnesium was her de-sire to prevent preeclampsia, a known but often ig-nored magnesium deficiency condition [7].

A 40-year old man, irritable, anxious, extremely

talkative, moderately depressed, and heavily intouse of food, tobacco (smoking and chewing), alco-hol and cocaine, took 125 mg of magnesium (astaurinate) with each meal and at bedtime in an ef-fort to relieve his symptoms.

Results

The 59-year old man experienced life-saving bene-fit from magnesium. The first night after startingmagnesium, sleep was restored essentially to nor-mal. Within the following 4 days, depression wasgreatly reduced for 46 h after each magnesiumdosage. Anxiety steadily disappeared. Tetany andheadaches rapidly disappeared. On occasion,2:00AM doses were also required to maintain afeeling of wellness. Over the following months,normalcy was maintained only by frequent magne-sium ingestion. In this patient, depression alwaysoccurred 1 h after taking a 500 mg calcium (carbon-ate) dietary supplement, which was extinguishablewithin 1 h only by administration of 400 mg of mag-nesium. This man was extremely sensitive to cal-

cium, and elimination of all dairy andsupplemental forms of calcium was mandatory formental stability. Osteoporosis due to low calciumintake was feared, but a high magnesium and lowcalcium diet did not have an adverse effect on hisbone density over a 5-year observation period. Nor-mal life free of depression was difficult to maintain

without frequent magnesium treatment, until Ke-fir, a rich source of beneficial intestinal flora andinulin (vital for magnesium absorption [8]), andindole-3-carbinol (200 mg per meal) were addedto his diet. These nutrients seemed to stabilizethe beneficial effect of magnesium, perhaps byimprovements in intestinal absorption, digestionand immunity. After incorporation of these agentsinto his diet, total wellness occurred, which waseasily maintained with much less magnesium.

After 1 week of magnesium treatment, the 23-year old woman became free of depression. Unex-pectedly, her short term memory and IQ also

returned, benefits only previously shown in rats[9] when immediately treated with magnesiumafter traumatic brain injury. However, her mentalacuity returned nearly immediately upon magne-sium treatment, even though the trauma had oc-curred 5 years earlier.

The 35-year old woman delivered her baby onschedule without developing any aspect of postpar-tum depression, preeclampsia or any other illnessassociated with pregnancy. The baby was healthy,full weight and quiet.

The 40-year old man found himself free of his

symptoms within a week, and unexpectedly foundhis craving for smoking, dipping, cocaine and alco-hol to disappear also. It seemed that magnesiumdeficiency caused his habituation. He also notedthat his ravenous appetite was suppressed, andbeneficial and desired weight loss ensued.

Discussion

We have shown efficacy, as have others, in treatingdepression and some related mental disorders withmagnesium. We suggest that magnesium treatmentwill be found effective in future clinical trials, atleast to an extent equivalent to antidepressantdrugs, and perhaps more effective.

The occurrence of depression 100 years ago wasrare, occurring primarily in the elderly. Only 1% ofAmericans born before 1905 developed depressionbefore they were 75 years old, while 6% of Ameri-cans born in 1955 developed depression by the timethey were 24 years old. [10] Previous to 1905,grains were not refined and there was adequatemagnesium (over 400 mg per day) in the diet. At

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that time, refining was necessary to prevent spoil-age. One hundred years later, only 16% of the mag-nesium found in whole wheat grain remains inrefined flour, [11] lowering dietary intake of mag-nesium in some severe cases by 250 mg per dayand setting the stage for magnesium deficiency.Additionally, we often rely on diets containing

too much calcium, while taking on more stressfulactivities.Inadequate dietary magnesium in todays diet

is clearly evident from a 4-min 16-mb videoproduction titled, Foods Containing 400 mgof Magnesium located on the Internet at:http://coldcure.com/gif/foods-containing-400mg-magnesium.wmv. Further, some city and residen-tial water treatment systems remove all mineralsfrom drinking water, and bottled beverages nolonger contain nearly as much minerals as theydid 100 years ago. Consequently, due to wide-spread removal of magnesium from human food

and drink, we hypothesize that most cases of ma-jor depression, including postpartum depression,may be related to magnesium deficiency.

Not only has the incidence of depression in-creased greatly in the last 100 years, but the ageof onset has also fallen greatly. Depression wasessentially unheard of in children in 1906. Today,children in the United States are taking four timesthe amount of psychiatric medications as childrenin the rest of the world combined [12], with essen-tially no emphasis being placed on magnesium intheir food. For example, we were not able to find

magnesium listed as an ingredient on any packagedfood, except Planters Peanuts, in grocery storesin the United States. Consequently, what used tobe a disease risk primarily for the elderly is nowcommon in all ages including children.

Some dietary supplements sold in the UnitedStates and the West contain magnesium, althoughthe ligand of choice for large-scale manufacturersis oxide due to its compactness and ease ofuse in manufacturing. Unfortunately, magnesiumoxide is not biologically available in the humanbody [1315]. Other magnesium ligands includingchloride, sulfate (Epsom Salts), citrate, lactate,malate, glycinate and taurinate produce highly bio-logically available magnesium complexes.

Taurine, Gamma-aminobutyric (GABA) acid andglycine are major inhibitory neurotransmitters inthe central nervous system, predominantly activein the spinal cord and brain stem. Taurineand glycine also act as a modulator of excitatoryamino acid transmission (glutamate) mediated byN-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptors. Shealyet al. [16] found that magnesium and taurine weredeficient in nearly all depressed patients.

Magnesium glutamate and magnesium aspartategreatly worsened the 59-year old mans depres-sion. A possible reason for this observation is thatexcess glutamate is more cytotoxic than cyanideto neurons in bringing into neurons toxic levels ofcalcium ions [17]. These magnesium compoundsshould be considered as neurotoxic to depressives,

and perhaps all people, and should not be used dur-ing treatment of depression, anxiety or similarhyperemotional disorders. Food and drink productscontaining monosodium glutamate and aspartateshould not be used by depressives.

This report is based on internet page http://coldcure.com/html/dep.html (Rapid RecoveryFrom Depression Using Magnesium Treatment), a135 page report that receives a quarter millionaccesses per year. This page is permanently ar-chived on the WayBack machine at http://archive.org. Most correspondence reported that the pageviewers depression was effectively treated with

high-dose magnesium. Viewers were pleased to findsomething natural that helped them instead ofusing prescription drugs. Most reported havinghad treatment-resistant depression, while otherswere simply reluctant to use psychiatric, antide-pressant drugs due to their fear of side effects.While over 60,000 Internet pages were foundusing the search terms major depression andmagnesium, there were only 11 medical journalarticles found with the same search terms. Thissuggests that the public is far more interested inmagnesium for depression than is medical science.

The single largest obstacle to viewers success intreating depression appeared to be continued,excessive intake of dietary calcium. Some viewerswere found to have kidney or digestive diseasesthat impaired magnesium metabolism, forestallingtheir recovery from depression until those condi-tions were corrected. Apparently, the use of in-dole-3-carbinol to improve magnesium utilizationis new.

One physician-viewer, having suffered from se-vere depression for two decades, reported thathe had found the above web page several years ear-lier and totally dismissed it as being overly simplis-tic, recounting that scientists are not so stupid asto have overlooked magnesium. In total despera-tion, he finally tried magnesium treatment and itcured his depression. Later, he became verballyabusive with the writer because the page made itseem too simple, and because of that, he had dis-missed the idea as preposterous and continued tosuffer. Irritability is a sign of modest magnesiumdeficiency, consequently this physician could bediagnosed as needing more dietary magnesium.Although irritability can cause violence, no clinical

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data has been published about the ability of mag-nesium to prevent violence, although we hypothe-size that a magnesium-replete population wouldbe less violent.

The main side effect reported from high-dosemagnesium and low calcium intake as treatmentfor depression was diarrhea. This results mainly

from the attachment of each magnesium ion toabout 800 molecules of water in the intestinaltract. Any treatment to terminate diarrhea,including lowering magnesium intake, was deemedessential to promote proper absorption of nutri-ents. One gram of arginine with each meal helpedprevent magnesium-induced diarrhea, while 3 gper meal caused severe constipation, perhapsdue to the effect of excessive arginine-induced ni-tric oxide on nonadrenergic, noncholinergic inhib-itory nerves of the colon [18]. Methods ofintroducing magnesium to treat depression with-out causing diarrhea were by injection, by rectum

and topical. Of these alternatives, daily topicalapplication to the chest and back using 25% mag-nesium chloride solutions as described by Shealy

[16] was preferred due to simplicity and apparentlack of side effects.

Fig. 1, by the University of California, San Diego Department of Cognitive Science, shows magne-sium ion involvement in nerve cell electrical con-duction activity in a regulatory fashion forcalcium ions. Magnesium ions normally block cal-

cium ions within the N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA)receptor channel. When magnesium ions are miss-ing, the channel is unblocked and calcium ionsand sodium ions enter the postsynaptic neuron aspotassium exits. Sapolsky [19] suggested that mag-nesium depletion was likely to be deleterious toneurons possibly by causing NMDA-coupled calciumchannels to be biased towards opening. From ourobservations, Sapolsky is correct with the damageto neurons appearing to the individual as depres-sion and related mood disorders.

Paul [20] suggested that any means of reducingpathological neuronal calcium ion flow to reduce

resulting pathological nitric oxide neuronal out-put would have antidepressant effects. Durlachand Bac [5] reported that magnesium deficiency

Figure 1 Magnesium has a role in regulating calcium ion flow in neurons.


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increased nitric oxide production. Too much cal-cium ion and glutamate with insufficient magne-sium ion, particularly in the hippocampus, playsa vital role in brain cell synaptic dysfunctionleading to depression and other mood and behav-ioral disorders. These observations help explainwhy the 59-year old man was highly sensitive to

calcium and mono-sodium-glutamate, makinghim nearly immediately depressed upon theirconsumption.

Murck [21] showed many actions of magnesiumions supporting their possible therapeutic potentialin affective disorders. Examinations of the sleep-electroencephalogram (EEG) and of the endocrinesystem points to the involvement of the limbichypothalamuspituitaryadrenocortical axis be-cause magnesium affects all elements of thissystem. Magnesium has the property to suppresshippocampal kindling, to reduce the release ofadrenocorticotrophic hormone (ACTH) and to af-

fect adrenocortical sensitivity to ACTH. The roleof magnesium in the central nervous system couldbe mediated via the N-methyl-D-aspartate-antago-nistic, g-aminobutyric acid A-agonistic or theangiotensin II-antagonistic property of this ion. Adirect impact of magnesium on the function ofthe transport protein p-glycoprotein at the levelof the blood-brain barrier has also been demon-strated, possibly influencing the access of cortico-steroids to the brain. Furthermore, magnesiumdampens the calcium ion-protein kinase C relatedneurotransmission and stimulates the NaK-ATP-

ase. All these systems have been reported to be in-volved in the pathophysiology of depression.Singewald et al. [22] also demonstrated inducedmagnesium deficiency in mice to produce depres-sion-like behavior which was beneficially influ-enced with antidepressants.

What remains to be explained is exactly whycontrol of calcium ions is lost in depression,although depletion of magnesium ions certainlycould cause it by impairing control of calciumions in neuronal channels resulting in calciumion cascades that are pathological (excitotoxic).A compelling argument for the use of calciumchannel blockers, such as therapeutic doses ofmagnesium, is that the influx of calcium ionsfrom the extracellular fluid to the cytosol of cellsthrough calcium channels is important for theproper release of neurotransmitters from presyn-aptic neurons [23]. Interestingly, some calciumchannel blocking drugs used in cardiology havebeen reported to increase depression and suiciderisk.

Seelig and Rosanoff [24] reviewed the evidencethat chronic stress depletes magnesium reservoirs,

increasing the risk of depression. Elevated cortisolin a subset of depressives is an enduring and well-replicated finding [25].

Papadopol et al. [26] in Romania compared theIntelligence Quota (IQ) of children growing up athome compared with the IQ of children growingup in a stressful orphanage. Stress from orphanage

living drove down intracellular magnesium so se-verely that orphans lost much of their IQ (seeFig. 2). Attention, memory, psychoticism and neu-roticism were also similarly, but less, affected.Magnesium deficit caused a number of neuropsy-chological disorders including, agitation, anxiety,depression, irritability, weakness, fatigue, confu-sion, asthenia, sleeplessness, headache, convulsiveand nervous attacks, delirium, hallucinations andhyperexcitability [26]. Nothing could be moreharmful to the minds of children than stress-in-duced magnesium deficiency. Yet, in search of aca-demic excellence increasingly more stress is

applied to children. Their diets are often insuffi-cient in magnesium to protect them from stress,consequently they are treated with antidepressantsand other drugs.

There are reports that there was no differencein the serum concentration of magnesium ion orcalcium/magnesium ratios [27], and that magne-sium was higher in serum of depressives [28], how-ever, these observations do not represent what is

Figure 2 Distortion in childrens IQ attributed tostress-induced damage to intracellular magnesium ininstitutionalized homes vs. home living fromPapadopol.

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going on inside the central nervous system. Bankiet al. [29] showed that both cerebrospinal fluid 5-hydroxyindoleacetic acid (5-HIAA) and magnesiumions are low in suicidal depressives. Levine et al.[30] showed that there were high serum and cere-brospinal fluid calcium to magnesium ratios in re-cently hospitalized acutely depressed patients.

Kalinin et al. [31] using magnesium lactate andvitamin B-6 (required for absorption of magnesium)showed benefit in anxiety and depression treat-ment in patients with epilepsy. There are numerousreports showing magnesium to be extremely bene-ficial in treating attention deficit hyperactivity dis-order (ADHD), suggesting that ADHD is a symptomof magnesium deficiency [32].

Hypothyroidism, a known cause of depression, isassociated with low magnesium with circulating T4levels being directly correlated with magnesiumserum levels [33]. The depression attributable tohypothyroidism is hypothesized to be caused by

resultant low magnesium, which is restored to nor-mal only by proper treatment of hypothyroidism.

Several secondary injury factors have been iden-tified in traumatic brain injury including oxidativestress, changes in blood flow, neurotransmittersand metal ionic changes, edema and energy fail-ure. Of these, magnesium ion decline has beenidentified as playing a crucial role in the secondaryinjury process [34].

Postpartum depression can be much more se-vere than clinical depression. The fetus and pla-centa absorb enormous amounts of nutrients

(especially magnesium) from the mother and lossof magnesium to the fetus coupled with insufficientintake of magnesium by the mother is hypothesizedto be the cause of postpartum depression. Lacta-tion is also known to deplete maternal magnesium[4]. Our observations support this otherwise unre-ported concept.

Consistent with our observations, elimination ofcravings by magnesium for tobacco, alcohol andcocaine has been separately observed. For exam-ple, Nechifor et al. [35] found that magnesium sup-plements reduced the number of cigarettessmoked. Margolin et al. [36] demonstrated utilityof magnesium in reducing the craving for cocaine.Murray and Berger [37] showed that magnesiumwas helpful in alcohol withdrawal. The Alturas[38] showed that alcohol greatly lowered serummagnesium, raising the potential for headaches,strokes and brain injury.

The process of normal aging is accompanied bychanges in sleep-related endocrine activity, and indepression sleep is often highly disturbed. Duringaging an increase in cortisol and a decrease in re-nin and aldosterone concentration occur. In aged

subjects more time is spent awake and slow-wavesleep is reduced. The natural NMDA antagonistand GABA agonist, magnesium ion, plays a keyrole in the regulation of sleep and endocrine sys-tems such as the HPA system and renin-angioten-sin-aldosterone system. Magnesium ion partiallyreverses sleep EEG and nocturnal neuroendocrine

changes occurring during aging [39]. The similari-ties of the effect of magnesium ion and lithiumion furthermore support the efficacy of magne-sium ion as a mood stabilizer, and one may showthat lithium ions play some of the roles normallyperformed by magnesium ions in the brain.Clearly, magnesium (200400 mg) is extremelyeffective in promptly inducing sleep when takenat bedtime, and sleep is vital to recovery fromdepression.

Even national security issues may result frommagnesium deficiency. Consider that Saudi Arabia,in its modernization process, removes most magne-

sium and other minerals, such as boron (necessaryfor magnesium absorption and proper brain func-tion [40,41]), from drinking water processed by re-verse osmosis. Reliance on refined grain products,rather than whole grain products, results in inade-quate dietary magnesium. Inadequate magnesiumintake may be the cause of the 40% depression rateamong the elderly [42], and the nearly 25% depres-sion rate in the 1529 year old group [43], an agegroup that is the main source of suicidal bombers.Consider that stress depletes magnesium and in-creases oxidative stress in soldiers during military

combat [6]. If all other factors between engagedarmies are similar, surely the army having the mostresistance to stress via adequate brain magnesiumwill prevail.

Low calcium and high magnesium (1:2 ratio) in-take is vastly more beneficial to overall health,including depression, cardiovascular disease andosteoporosis than high calcium and low magnesium(2:1 ratio). The old 2:1 ratio worked well at a muchearlier time when we were getting enough magne-sium from food and water. Nevertheless, officialgovernmental and highly scholarly dietary recom-mendations remain backward. Excessive calciumintake prevents absorption of magnesium in theintestinal tract, adversely affecting health[4,5,12,24,44].

The only bone and joint effect of the lowcalcium and high magnesium diet on the 59-yearold man was complete elimination of all joint andback pain. This observation reflects terminatinghyperalgesia in rats via sensitization of nociceptivepathways in the spinal cord involving NMDA andnon-NMDA receptors by administration of magne-sium [45], which also explains why most of Shealys


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patients having depression with chronic pain weremagnesium deficient [16].

Since magnesium has sedative properties, cau-tion is advised when administering anesthesia andmagnesium, or anesthesia to magnesium-repletepatients, as less anesthesia will be required [46].

This report supports the overall hypothesis that

magnesium is therapeutic for depression and re-lated mental disorders. However, in the UnitedStates, it is effectively illegal to market nutrientsto treat, cure, and prevent diseases. This discon-nect between policy and reality creates artificial,insidious illnesses which are frustratingly hard toaddress at the policy level, as was found by Aaserudet al. [7] in 2005 in their efforts to promote magne-sium for the prevention of preeclampsia, somethingthat was first demonstrated in 1925 by Lazard [47].

It is likely that magnesium deficiency causesmost major depression and related mental healthillnesses, IQ loss and addictions. We suggest that

magnesium deficiency as cause of these disordersis enormously important to public health and is rec-ommended for immediate, wide-spread furtherstudy. The public should be advised to obtain morethan 600 mg of dietary magnesium a day to enablethem to adequately handle stress and prevent neu-ronal calcium ion injury. Fortifying refined grainand drinking water with biologically available mag-nesium is recommended.

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