When you're buying a magnesium glycinate supplement …
You want to make sure it's a pure magnesium glycinate, and that hasn't been mixed with a cheaper, often lower quality form like magnesium oxide.
This mixing process is called buffering, which brands will often do to keep the cost down, but in essence, you're diluting the product and reducing its overall quality and effectiveness.
WHY UNDERSTANDING PURE & BUFFERED IS IMPORTANT
The reason this is important … is the amount of magnesium that we absorb varies greatly between supplements.
If we're wanting to get the most benefit from a magnesium supplement, we want to be looking to forms that have high absorption.
And pure magnesium glycinate supplements are one form of magnesium that has some of the highest absorption rates.
Which means it's going to give some of the most benefit …
Particularly on areas like sleep & relaxation, which magnesium glycinate supplements are best known to support.
MIXING IN MAGNESIUM OXIDE REDUCES ITS QUALITY
However, when you mix in a lower quality form of magnesium like magnesium oxide, the total amount of magnesium that you're going to absorb will reduce.
And this is even more relevant when magnesium oxide has a low absorption of only about 4%.
To put that in perspective, if you were to supplement 100mg of magnesium oxide, you're only going to absorb about 4 milligrams … which in the scheme of things is not a lot at all.
And coming back to this idea that the more magnesium you absorb, the more benefit you experience.
We always want to be looking for a pure magnesium glycinate supplement.
HOW TO CHECK ITS PURE MAGNESIUM GLYCINATE
So how do you then check that it is pure and not buffered?
The first and most obvious step is to check the label of the supplement bottle on the bottle itself, or on the brand's website,
If you see the words magnesium oxide or buffered magnesium glycinate or magnesium glycinate buffered, then you know it's been buffered.
And you can throw that one right to the side.
USE THE TOTAL & ELEMENTAL MAGNESIUM VALUES
But what I like to do as brands don't always detail whether it has been mixed with magnesium oxide …
Is to actually use the total magnesium amount and the elemental to magnesium amount, and calculate whether it's pure or buffered.
Now, unfortunately, the only way that you can check this is if the brand that you're buying from does detail the total and the elemental magnesium amounts separately.
Which as a quick refresher, total magnesium is the combined weight of the magnesium and whatever the magnesium is bound to.
Which in the case of magnesium glycinate, that's magnesium bound to the amino acid glycine.
And elemental magnesium is the weight of just the magnesium, which is the absorbable part of the magnesium supplement.
PURE = 12 - 14% ELEMENTAL MAGNESIUM
In a pure magnesium glycinate supplement, the elemental magnesium should equal no more than 12 to 14% of the total magnesium amount.
And you calculate this by dividing the element to magnesium by the total magnesium amount.
This would bring you to a decimal point. Then you multiply that by 100 to give you the percentage.
I know that's a little bit of math. So just follow the instructions here.
Example:
Total magnesium = 750 mg. Elemental magnesium = 90 mg
Total 750mg / elemental 90mg = 0.012
0.012 x 100 = 12 or 12%
This is based on the molecular weights of magnesium and glycine.
So there really is no way to hide whether it has been buffered or mixed with magnesium oxide.
And by doing this calculation, you know, 100% of the time, every time, whether you are in fact buying a pure magnesium glass, a night supplement.
SUMMARY
Hopefully that gives a bit more insight to some of the key differences between pure magnesium glycinate & buffered magnesium glycinate supplements.
And why when comparing between buffered & pure, you always want to be choosing a pure magnesium glycinate supplement.
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The information provided here is for general informational purposes only & should not be considered as professional medical advice or a substitute for consulting with a healthcare provider. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified healthcare provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition.