The Canadian and US governments have guidelines called RDAs which tell us how much magnesium we should consume daily to avoid deficiency and disease. Let’s look at how dangerously flawed these guidelines are. A guideline should be established based on a current, accurate assessment of several factors:

1. How much magnesium the human body uses and loses every day.
2. Our ability to absorb magnesium from food.
3. The level of magnesium in our current food supply.

In other words, how much we get versus how much we lose daily. Not only has our modern food supply become severely deficient in magnesium, but our daily magnesium loss has increased substantially because all stress depletes the body’s magnesium, and our levels of environmental stress are now at all-time highs. Furthermore stress also causes inflammation which damages our intestine, where dietary magnesium is absorbed. Here‘s the big problem:

Institutional guidelines for magnesium intake have not been raised to reflect these rises in our daily bodily magnesium losses and agricultural depletion. Even worse, guidelines were set as minimums to avoid debilitating disease, as opposed to guidelines for optimal health.

A final important note, is that the last 5 years of magnesium research have revealed that magnesium in the human body is needed for a far greater variety of biological processes than was once believed. Until recently, it was believed that magnesium was needed for 300+ different processes, but the most recent research points towards 3700+ processes! The guidelines for magnesium RDA have not been increased to reflect these new findings either.

Magnesium experts agree

Our experts agree that our RDAs are far too low. Magnesium expert Dr. Carolyn Dean MD, ND explains that even under healthy conditions, we still need 300 mg of magnesium every day just to replenish daily losses for normal bodily processes. This alone is almost the entire RDA, not accounting for any environmental stress or exercise-induced magnesium losses.

The influential, Real Vitamin & Mineral Book further confirms this view. Instead of bare minimums for preventing debilitating deficiency, their recommendations are geared towards proactive, optimal health: They suggest 500-750 mg of magnesium daily for adults.

Dr. Mark Sircus in his book Transdermal Magnesium Therapy says that daily magnesium intakes should be 600-800 mg for 200lb males and 450-600 mg for 150 lb females.

It is clear that our RDAs for magnesium intake are far too low. This helps us see just how concerning magnesium deficiency statistics really are:

Magnesium deficiency is global with western countries like France showing percentages of up to 80%. In Finland, institutional campaigns to increase magnesium intake have resulted in heart disease falling from #1 to #10 in leading causes of death! In North America magnesium deficiency is practically the norm:

The World Health Organization estimates over 70% of Americans are deficient and that 20% of all americans don’t even get half the recommended 400mg!  In Canada, between 40-60% of people over 19 years of age are deficient. Here is the problem:

Institutions arrive at these statistics by finding out how many people fail to meet the outdated 400mg daily requirement, when in reality the requirement should be between 600-800mg.

Thus if 70% of people don’t meet the 400mg daily RDA, it means that substantially more people do not meet the 600-800 mg daily which health experts recommend.

In other words, almost all of us are deficient in magnesium to some degree, because due to our modern circumstances, it has become very difficult to get enough magnesium from diet alone.

While looking at statistics gives us an idea of just how widespread magnesium deficiency is, taking a logical look at the everyday factors that affect our body’s net magnesium balance can also provide insight into how likely it is that we are deficient:

1. It has become very difficult to get enough magnesium from diet alone.
2. All stress depletes magnesium.
3. Every organ, muscle and nerve uses magnesium every day.
4. The human body can’t make its own magnesium.

If our body needs the same amount of magnesium every day, yet we continue to not get that amount from our food, while losing more to stress levels, then simple math tells us that if we are not supplementing, we are deficient to some degree.

Magnesium supplementation should be taken seriously. To get a more accurate idea of your level of deficiency, please look at which kinds of magnesium tests are the most reliable.

Click here to see the 11 different molecular forms of magnesium supplementation.