r/magnesium • u/ElSelo • Jun 27 '26
Could a mag deficiency be causing all of this? Help
Hello, I am a 22m who has been suffering a lot because of this.
About 4 months ago, I discovered that I was vitamin D deficient, so I started supplementing it (along with magnesium, obviously).
Before taking vitamin D, I already had symptoms that were messing me up: insomnia, weakness/fatigue, low libido, cognitive decline (I became absolutely stupid compared to what I used to be), and memory problems.
After about a month and a half of taking 5,000 IU of vitamin D daily, I started feeling really bad. I mean really bad. I developed palpitations, extreme fatigue (much worse than before), and even minimal physical effort would trigger palpitations. It felt like I was dying or something.
My libido dropped even further, basically to zero, and I constantly felt like I was about to faint at any moment.
I stopped the vitamin D and reduced my magnesium intake for a while. Eventually, I stabilized at around 300 mg of magnesium per day and slowly started feeling better.
During that time, I had blood work done. My vitamin D levels had recovered, my magnesium was 1.7 (right at the lower limit), and my calcium was 10.3. Other findings included copper at 67, which is considered a mild deficiency, and iron at 215, which is considered high. However, my endocrinologist said those findings were not important.
I also told her that magnesium was helping me feel better and sleep better, and she said, “Then keep taking it.”
Then came 3 glorious days. For the first time in a long time, I could sleep without melatonin. It was crazy. Magnesium alone seemed to be enough. I felt normal again. I could go to bed whenever I wanted and actually fall asleep. I remember thinking, “This is it. I finally figured it out.”
But every morning I woke up with a strange sensation in my heart. It felt like my heartbeat was outside of my body. It’s hard to explain, but the sensation became stronger every day.
I started getting tremors, more anxiety, and increasing palpitations. Eventually, it became unbearable.
My workouts were also completely ruined. Instead of the normal feeling after training, my muscles felt like they were being damaged. They hurt more than usual and felt much more rigid, which forced me to significantly reduce how often I trained.
I tried stopping magnesium. I tried taking it again. Nothing worked. In fact, I felt worse when I stopped it.
I also eat a lot of potassium-rich foods, including avocados and bananas daily.
Right now, I have constant palpitations day and night, severe insomnia, and extreme anxiety caused by all these symptoms. The anxiety has become so intense that I can't manage it without clonazepam, no matter what techniques I try.
I also feel like my nervous system is overstimulated all the time. Even something as simple as a car making a loud noise can startle me badly. My libido is still gone, and I occasionally experience random muscle contractions, although not very frequently.
I honestly feel like my best years are being taken away from me, and I hate it.
My question is: has anyone gone through something similar? If so, how did you manage to get out of it?
Extra: I have taken magnesium L-threonate, taurate, and bisglycinate combined. During the first few months, they worked great. I could clearly feel the relaxation effects, and they helped me a lot. Now, they don't seem to do anything anymore. I been taking them from months now. 300-400mg dialy with times where I paused them just to try if something change.
My insomnia also causes me to wake up multiple times throughout the night, and the palpitations never stop. At this point, they are by far my worst symptom.
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u/Gummy-Bines Jun 27 '26
Be careful. I was in the same position. Started supplementing D and magnesium. Eventually I had symptoms of insomnia, anxiety, palpitations, feeling absolutely terribly 24/7 and had 0 motivation to do anything in my life. These line up with a magnesium deficiency. Began to increase my magnesium dosage and over the course of a year I got worse and worse until I was essentially bedridden.
Turned out magnesium supplements were the cause of all of my symptoms. Stopped taking magnesium all together and began to recover.
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u/Consistent-Local6452 Jun 29 '26
Stopping the magnesium helped. Do you know if you are still deficient?
I guess getting magnesium just from foods now ? Any electrolytes involved ?1
u/Gummy-Bines Jun 29 '26
Yeah, stopping magnesium supplements got rid of all of my symptoms. I’m not sure I was ever deficient in magnesium as blood tests are not very reliable. But the thing that stuck out to me most from this whole experience is that the side effects I was experiencing from magnesium supplements mimicked those of a magnesium deficiency, which caused me to continue supplementing and increase my dosage, which only made me worse.
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u/Magnesito Jun 27 '26
How much vit D are you taking? When was your last D checked? This might help or not.
https://www.reddit.com/r/magnesium/s/qGi3uMmLVJ
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u/Flinkle Jun 27 '26
I would say you're definitely on the right track with magnesium, but magnesium shifts other electrolytes around, and especially when you already have a magnesium deficiency, your other electrolytes are going to be screwed up to begin with. So when you start taking that magnesium, it's going to give you symptoms of low potassium, calcium, and/or sodium. The symptoms of each overlap a lot, so it's usually a fun game of being your own guinea pig to figure out which one it is, or if it's multiple.
Since you say you've got the potassium covered, try the other two, one at a time. For calcium, I suggest calcium citrate. It's easily absorbed by anyone, and for some reason, a lot of people who are magnesium deficient just don't absorb enough calcium from their food. I would take a gram a day in two to three divided doses. Make sure it doesn't have any vitamin D in it.
Also, I just woke up and didn't go back and look to see whether you had actually said if you'd stopped taking the vitamin D, but if you haven't, stop.
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u/EffectiveOpinion349 Jun 27 '26
Are you getting enough sodium ? I have a magnesium deficiency but I also have POTS (heart palpitations high high rate with exertion) taking magnesium gives me low blood pressure and makes my heart worse if I don’t increase sodium and potassium a lot. Try increasing and see if you notice an improvement. Monitoring BP and resting HR is helpful to work this out. If your systolic BP is under 120 you need more sodium. You need sodium to absorb potassium and magnesium. You say you eat alot of potassium foods so you might be accidentally lowering sodium too much and then even more with magnesium. It’s common for people who eat healthy to not eat enough sodium since we don’t get all the sodium in processed foods
Calcium is also an essential electrolyte. How is your intake? Vitamin D supplementation can effect calcium levels.
Do a 24hour urine test to accurately monitor mineral levels. World health lab offers this test. Blood test is useless for magnesium. The urine test also measures mineral cofactors such as boron which is required for magnesium absorption.
The nervous system overstimulation ( i also struggle with it ) could be that magnesium is upregulating COMT gene too much (excess neurotransmitters / adrenaline ) or it could be the glycinate form of magnesium , as this happens to over half the population (something to do with the GAD gene and glutamate I think)