Magnesium preparations: citrate, acetate and magnesium oil with your own hands

Magnesium citrate, acetate and lactate are the most bioavailable forms of the trace element. You can make two homemade magnesium supplements from powdered magnesium or Epsom salts. Magnesium oil is prepared from bischofite (Mg chloride).

Effectiveness of magnesium oil

[tooltip tip=“Penetration of anything through the skin barrier”]Transdermal[/tooltip] absorption of magnesium from magnesium oil is not supported by high-quality [scientific studies]( https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/ pmc/articles/PMC5579607/). Despite this, it is advertised and used around the world to relieve [tooltip tip=“Chronic musculoskeletal pain without significant inflammation. It is not treated with NSAIDs, antidepressants and various types of placebos are often used.”]fibromyalgia[/tooltip\ ].

How does it work? Only as a placebo. Massage and rubbing alone help relieve muscle spasms, and the presence of the mineral in a massage cream or liquid works as a placebo effect, which has been repeatedly confirmed in RCTs. .

Hot baths with magnesium flakes or bischofite work like all relaxing water treatments. In some studies, serum Mg levels rise slightly, but the amount in blood cells remains unchanged. Read more about this in the article Magnesium: migraine prevention without pills.

We are very familiar with [tooltip tip=“Magnesium salt, mineral”]bischofite[/tooltip] - an analogue of transdermal magnesium oil in the form of crystals for baths and rubbing creams.

Many unreliable sources claim that skin absorption of magnesium is more effective than tablets due to better absorption and fewer side effects since it bypasses the gastrointestinal tract. THIS IS WRONG.

Magnesium ions from the solution are not able to penetrate deeper than the stratum corneum of the skin. 1% of the entire skin surface can receive this magnesium through the hair follicles, but the clinical significance of such an amount of the substance is negligible. Only certain [tooltip tip=“fat-like, fat-soluble substances”]lipophilic[/tooltip] substances can penetrate the skin.

The absorption of Mg by cells is possible only with the help of special transporters, but not by [tooltip tip=“through mixing of substances”]diffusion[/tooltip].

However, magnesium oil can be very effective in conditions in which the psychological component is important in the treatment and placebos work well: muscle pain, poor sleep, neuroses, tension headaches. If magnesium chloride water can be an alternative to antidepressants, why not try it?

How to prepare magnesium oil

0.5 stack. Mg chloride (flakes or crystals, you can buy from us as Bishofite, or food grade E511).
0.5 stack. distilled water (optional).
Pan (stainless steel or enamel) for the solution.
A bottle with a spray (plastic or glass - not so important).

You can’t buy magnesium chloride in a pharmacy, but in online stores you can buy the E511 nutritional supplement in any packaging, it costs a penny. There is a more expensive option - the so-called Magnesium Flakes:

Magnesium Flakes in different packaging

Distilled water is sold at the pharmacy, but you can get by with filtered water. Boil water, add powder or flakes to boiling water and remove from heat, stir until completely dissolved, let cool completely. Pour into a jar and use daily. There is a good video with a master class on making magnesium oil.

How to use

You can start using oil of magnesia with a couple of sprays on your feet at night. Gradually switch to spraying on the stomach, legs, arms. On average 10-20 sprays per day. It is impossible to overdose with a transdermal solution, so do not worry about excess spray.

It is recommended to use the spray after a shower; 5-10 minutes after spraying, you can use moisturizers.

DIY magnesium citrate

Update 05/18/2018: it is not at all necessary to chemically and prepare the additive at home. Now it’s quite affordable to buy a good drug: I take Mg+B6 in a sports nutrition store for 315 rubles (130 UAH) 90 tablets, in the form of citrate.

We will need powdered magnesium - Mg sulfate, which in its original form is not absorbed by the intestines. A bag of magnesium weighs 25 grams (there are bags of 10 and 20 g), this is 2.6 grams of pure magnesium, that is, eight daily doses.

Ingredients to obtain magnesium acetate:

Enameled or stainless steel pan
3 glasses of water
2 teaspoons of baking soda (heaped)
2 teaspoons of magnesium sulfate (heaped)
apple cider vinegar until the solution is transparent (several tablespoons)

Steps for preparing acetate:

Boil 2 cups of water in an enamel pan. Add soda. Boil until carbon dioxide comes out in the form of bubbles.
Separately, stir magnesium sulfate in a glass of hot water until dissolved.
Carefully pour the sulfate solution into boiling water with soda, the liquid will turn white and gas will be released again. Boil over low heat for 2 minutes.
Remove the pan from the heat and pour the solution into a jar along with the sediment - this is what we need. Add water to the bottle to make a full liter and leave to sit for an hour. We drain the liquid very carefully, try not to drain the sediment, and again add clean boiled water to the bottle. Let it sit for another hour. Drain.
We got porridge from magnesium carbonate (MgCO3(OH)2). Add a glass of hot water and add 6% apple cider vinegar to the solution, stir and wait until the gases come out. The sediment begins to dissolve little by little with the addition of another spoonful of vinegar.
We try the solution constantly, stir vigorously. It should taste slightly sour, without sediment.

Mg citrate can be prepared using citric acid. That is, instead of vinegar, we gradually add citric acid to the solution until the magnesium precipitate dissolves.

How to use

We received three daily doses of the microelement. Divide the resulting solution over 3 days and drink an hour before bedtime, adding water or juice. Why before bedtime? Magnesium is a mild tranquilizer and helps promote sleep. Taking it before bed is especially useful for migraine sufferers, for whom an attack occurs in their sleep and they do not have time to stop it - in this case, a magnesium supplement stops the attack. All the details of this mechanism are described in the article about migraine and magnesium.

It is safe?

Recipes are taken from foreign blogs, and not from chemistry textbooks. I don’t have enough knowledge to be completely sure that we will get exactly what we want. Whether you should repeat this for yourself or not is your decision.

I prepared myself a magnesium preparation several times until I got tired of doing it. The only side effect I encountered was a slight loosening of the stool, which was expected. If you are afraid to use chemicals, buy the supplement in sports nutrition stores - 2-3 times cheaper than in pharmacies. But don’t forget to check its form: citrate, acetate and lactate are the most bioavailable. Mg oxide, popular in multivitamin complexes, is almost not absorbed.