As we broke down in our previous blog, minerals make up the foundation of our physical, mental/emotional, and spiritual health. As I have preached to my martial arts students for over a decade, I wholeheartedly believe that focusing on the fundamentals is the key to improving all things. In health, the fundamentals are ultimately the balancing and optimization of our mineral levels through the Max Vitality Protocol.
Much like many things in the health world, information is constantly countered by misinformation, often making learning difficult and frustrating. The primary goal of the MVP is to help you develop a solid fundamental base knowledge of minerals so that you can begin to optimize your own and inspire those around you.
As we will discuss, all of the minerals, especially the seven macro-minerals, or minerals required in larger amounts, are extremely important. The macro-minerals include calcium, chloride, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, sodium, and sulfur. All are essential and their ratios with each other are what we are looking to assist with.
There is one mineral that stands head and shoulders above the rest in regards to its importance for optimizing not just our other mineral levels but how we feel and perform. In this case, magnesium is absolutely unmatched.
Magnesium (Mg) is the fourth most abundant mineral in the human body, and the second most abundant mineral inside our cells, and its presence is absolutely essential if we want to improve our symptoms and heal!
You may have heard us emphasize that at the root of all disease is ultimately an ATP / energy deficiency in the tissue. Well, magnesium is an essential co-factor in the making of ATP / energy. For example, our Krebs Cycle which manufactures ATP requires magnesium in 6 of its 8 steps! In biology, ATP in the body is literally called 'Mg-ATP', because magnesium and ATP are intimate partners and together are responsible for miraculous healings.
To fully understand the power of Mg, we must understand that every muscle and organ in the body requires it, especially the heart and kidneys.
In addition, every hormone in the human body is made from an enzyme. All of our enzymes cannot function without using a mineral as a catalyst to make them work. Magnesium alone is responsible for over 3,751 enzymatic reactions in the body. That sounds like a lot but becomes a lot more profound when we learn that there are only 9,000 enzymes that run the body. That means that magnesium is responsible for over 41% of all of your enzymatic reactions and that nearly half (41%) of your energetic body is totally run and dependent on this magical master mineral!
Since Mg is responsible for so much of our energetic body, it makes sense that mag is a driving factor in nerve conduction, along with much of our electrical and muscle function.
Magnesium is also a direct regulator for ion channels and other key minerals & electrolytes, like Calcium, Sodium, and Potassium. Since magnesium metabolizes and/or regulates many of our minerals, a Mg deficiency, naturally, throws our other precious mineral ratios out of whack, exacerbating physical, mental/emotional, and spiritual dis-ease.
Unfortunately, over 95% of Westerners are extremely magnesium deficient.
A quick search on google will pop up with commonly known, so-called 'magnesium-rich foods' like pumpkin seeds, spinach, and dark chocolate. The major factor that is commonly overlooked, is the quality of the soil that these foods have been grown in. The soil's mineral density or more accurately, the soil's lack of minerals, is what is responsible for the huge decrease in our food's mineral density these past 100 years. A combination of factory farming, toxic NPK fertilizers, bio-sludge tap water, and acid rain is responsible for our dysregulated soils, and the magnesium levels of our foods being historically low. Today, our crops have over 35% less Magnesium and much fewer minerals than even just 70 years ago. (Davis, 2020)
On top of this, the magnesium we get from foods is at best only 50% absorbed, making it nearly impossible to comfortably get a fraction of enough magnesium through our food alone.
When people hear that 'nearly everyone today is extremely Mg deficient, they often run to oral magnesium supplements. Orally supplementing magnesium is a great tool, and it is crucial to hit Mg from 'all sides'. It is important to note that not all Mg is created equal and that supplementing the wrong forms, aka many of the forms found at grocery stores, usually does more harm than good. For example, Mag Aspartate is highly toxic and magnesium Oxide has less than a 4% absorption rate. For more on this, we will soon be dropping our blog 'Which Form of Magnesium is Best'. Regardless of how much is absorbed, oral mag supplements take an extremely long time (typically over 9-12 months) to have any impact on our Red Blood Cell Magnesium (RCB) levels, the most accurate Mg test that is commonly available. Ionized magnesium is far superior at measuring active forms of Mg but RBC is an affordable and reliable measurement.
As we will discuss in greater detail, it isn't just about funneling magnesium down our throats. I am going to teach you how to be extremely deliberate with what forms of Mg you are using, how much to take when along with how to get mag as deep as possible into the red blood cells and the bone where this mineral can be utilized by the body and work its magic.
Oral magnesium is one powerful pillar to focus on, but did you know that there is a much more rapid and effective way to skyrocket your Mg levels?
Studies show that transdermal magnesium, or mag absorbed through the skin, is far superior to oral forms for many reasons! Not only is magnesium absorbed through the skin not subject to the digestive tract, where nearly 45% of magnesium is destroyed or eliminated via the urine, but our bodies also have a natural failsafe mechanism where it will stop absorbing magnesium once we reach our point of saturation. This totally takes the guesswork out of supplementing and makes it more likely that you won't need to go to bed with a diaper on after downing a fistful of Mg capsules.
As stated above, I am an advocate for hitting mag from all sides. This includes taking it orally, topically via foot soaks & baths, drinking mag bicarbonate water, breathing it in, and even nebulizing mag chloride, but using some sort of transdermal mag is definitely crucial to topping off your mineral levels and making your system more resilient to stresses of all varieties!
Dr. Mercola is crystal clear when he emphasizes that he wasn't able to really move the dial on his magnesium levels until he started introducing transdermal forms via the float tank at his house.
The good news is that you don't need your own personal float tank to make a serious impact on your magnesium levels. This is why my team and I created the most effective transdermal magnesium blend of all time! Our premium Vitality Salts bath blend was specifically formulated to skyrocket your red blood cell magnesium levels as rapidly as possible with the help of powerful Mg co-factors!
Even just a few foot soaks or baths per week will help top off your Mg levels and help you maximize your ATP levels so you can feel better & perform at your best.
Much love and gratitude,
Max Casa
President and Founder of Max Vitality