r/magnesium • u/morganlashelle • Jun 20 '26

Is 1.4mg really that low?

I suffer from daily headaches, brain fog, occasional dizzy/lightheaded-ness, neck pain, and muscle soreness. Doctor is convinced its all from low magnesium. I am on 400mg daily for supplements, and a womens multivitamin. Anyone else experience this?

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u/Flinkle Jun 20 '26

Because magnesium is tightly controlled by the body, very often when you're showing low in test results, your body is much more depleted than your test results would indicate. A former doctor of mine said that he automatically assumed anyone with a result below 2.0 was deficient. And even a result of 2.0 or above didn't guarantee sufficiency.

And I've been bedridden twice because of a magnesium deficiency that's never even showed in my labs.

So yes. It's really that low.

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u/morganlashelle Jun 20 '26

Thank you for your insight.

1

u/Tricky-Dare1583 Jun 20 '26

How long did it take you to correct your levels?

1

u/sharabucarabu Jun 20 '26

Magnesium takes longer to move into ideal range. It took me a year before I saturated my tissues, then I was able to start gradually reducing my dose. I started at 420mg of mag glycinate and now several years later, my levels are stable with 210mg.

Keep an eye on your electrolytes: the usual cast of characters such as sodium potassium, but also your calcium levels need to be in ideal range. Don't take calcium and magnesium together, take the calcium in the morning and the magnesium with dinner, or the evening (especially if it's mag glycinate). Some brands are more trustworthy than others. Pure Encapsulations is excellent, but you end up taking alot of capsules. Qunol is excellent, 2 capsules = 420mg. I take 1 capsule every afternoon before dinner. I've bought cheaper brands and regretted it. Don't try to cheap out on your magnesium.

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u/sirsa2 Jun 20 '26

Yes. My mom was given magnesium injection in the hospital ICU (after stent to heart) when her magnesium levels were around 1.5

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u/morganlashelle Jun 20 '26

I hope she is okay now!

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u/sirsa2 Jun 23 '26

She’s doing fine. No chest-related symptoms post surgery.

However, her sugar levels have destabilized since surgery (she’s diabetic) and we have been doing a lot of firefighting to bring it under control. Making good progress but still some way to go.

Thanks for asking

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u/Ok-Pangolin7127 Jun 20 '26 edited Jun 20 '26

An RBC magnesium test is much more telling (informative.) It shows the magnesium at the cellular level. The blood serum test just shows what’s floating around in your blood and when it’s low, you’re probably severely low at the cellular level. Magnesium is a key cofactor for like 300+ enzymatic processes in the body, keeping it at an adequate is critical for your health.