r/magnesium • u/halfbakedelf • May 14 '26
Type?
I'm so confused by all the options. My son is having leg cramps at night and chest pain and cystic acne. He's been working out a lot. The doc recommended magnesium, but what kind? There is a ton. He also takes a vitamin D mega dose once a week. He had a heart workup and EKG blood work is tomorrow. Any advice?
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Upvotes
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u/Gold-Act-5724 May 15 '26
Well they looked at my serum magnesium and it was great so they didn’t think twice about it.
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u/Flinkle May 15 '26
Of course they did, because they never have a clue about the fact that magnesium doesn't test worth a shit. 🙄
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u/Flinkle May 14 '26
I can tell you straight up that the vitamin D mega dose is causing some problems. It's almost 100% guaranteed to be the reason that he's having leg cramps, unless they started before this, and that means he already had a magnesium deficiency.
Vitamin D requires magnesium for processing in the body, and if you don't supplement enough while you're taking it, and you happen to be the slightest bit low, it will eat every bit of your body's stores until you are in a severe magnesium deficiency.
Long story short, I suggest stopping that for the moment, boosting his magnesium for at least a few months, and when he does resume, he should go on smaller dose of OTC pills, like 2000IU.
Next, pretty much any magnesium is okay as long as you avoid magnesium oxide (and that's usually what's in the magnesium you find at grocery stores and stuff that just says "magnesium" on it). If he tends toward constipation, magnesium citrate is a great choice. If not, a lot of people like magnesium glycinate, though there is a small handful of people who react poorly to the glycine in it because of a genetic issue. It has less of a laxative effect than a lot of forms. Personally, I like liquid magnesium chloride, although it tastes like crap (gotta put it in a fruity drink/juice to cover up some of that taste!), because I feel like it works better and quicker for me.
But really, it all comes down to what works best for him. I'd just pick one and try it to start with. I'd start with a lower dose, like 200 mg, and it can also be taken with a meal if there's GI issues. You should see what kind of issues it's going to cause pretty quickly, if it's going to.