In fact magnesium’s anti-inflammatory effects can be seen directly inside our sebocytes: the acne-prone skin cells which make our skin’s natural lubricant called sebum. 

A rise in inflammation can cause an overproduction of sebum which allows bacteria such as Propionibacterium Acnes and Staphylococcus Epidermis to thrive. The mixture of these bacteria, excess sebum and dead skin cells clogs our pores and results in acne.

Magnesium & inflammation

We know magnesium fights inflammation in our skin cells, yet it also fights systemic inflammation throughout our entire body:

Blood tests use biomarkers to see the degree of Inflammation in our body. E-selectin is the biomarker that reveals inflammation in our skin and C-reactive protein identifies systemic inflammation in our body.

Taking magnesium lowers both E-selectin and C-reactive protein (15,16), reducing skin and whole-body inflammation. This makes sense when we look at magnesium’s role in producing our body’s most potent detoxifying agents:

Magnesium & detoxification

Our body’s innate systems protect our skin from oxidative stress and inflammation with the help of our two most potent antioxidants, glutathione & melatonin:

Glutathione is our most abundant anti-inflammatory helper. Our skin cells make it using a molecule called ATP: adenosine triphosphate. which itself needs magnesium.   Simply put, we need magnesium for the antioxidant benefits of glutathione.

Melatonin lets us sleep. This is essential for healthy skin because most of our skin’s regeneration happens during sleep. Melatonin is also a powerful antioxidant  which protects our skin’s DNA , and delays the death of our skin cells. 

Our body can’t make its own melatonin without magnesium, because the process once again requires ATP-Mg2+ (magnesium-dependent ATP).  This helps explain why magnesium deficient diets result in lower levels of this rejuvenating antioxidant.
The root cause of acne is linked to systemic inflammation in the body, which can cause special skin cells to produce excess sebum.

Magnesium helps with acne at the most fundamental level by preventing and fighting inflammation. 

Magnesium fights acne by making our two most powerful detox molecules: glutathione and melatonin.

Magnesium for skin firmness & elasticity

Collagen and elastin are the two proteins that give our skin the firmness and elasticity it needs to look young and healthy. While there are different types of collagen and elastin used in different areas of our body (not just our skin), the one thing they all have in common is that our body uses magnesium to make all of them:

Our skin cells make collagen and elastin via a process called protein synthesis, where they use our DNA as an instruction manual to assemble amino acids into proteins such as collagen or elastin. This process has two phases, and both require magnesium:

Phase 1: Our DNA is unwound and the gene with the instructions to make collagen or elastin is located and duplicated. The enzymes that unwind the DNA (Helicases), and make a copy of the gene (RNA polymerases), both need magnesium to work. 

Phase 2: An enzyme called a ribosome now scans the new gene duplicate, and uses it to find the right amino acids and assemble them into collagen or elastin. The ribosome that performs this process also needs magnesium to function.

Simply put, without magnesium we cannot make the two proteins that maintain our skin’s firmness, elasticity and youth.

Collagen and elastin are the two proteins that give our skin its firmness and elasticity. Magnesium is needed for our body to produce both of them.

Magnesium is also needed for the function of the enzymes that repair our skin’s DNA daily: DNA Ligases.

Magnesium deficiency long-term can lead to accelerated skin aging.

Magnesium & our skin’s DNA health

Our DNA holds the instructions for our cells to make collagen and elastin. Therefore it is critical that our DNA and genes be kept healthy at all times. This is why special enzymes called DNA ligases exist:

They constantly repair the damage that our DNA incurs from daily use and inflammation within the cell. Our DNA ligases repair our DNA trillions of times per second.

None of our DNA ligases can function without magnesium. Thus magnesium       deficiency can cause inadequate repair of the genes that let us make our skin’s elastin and collagen, which in turn leads to accelerated aging of our skin.

This increases the importance of how it has now become very difficult to satisfy daily magnesium requirements form diet alone:

Our DNA holds the instructions our skin cells use to make their collagen, elastin and other proteins to keep themselves healthy.

Magnesium is needed for the DNA ligase enzymes that repair our skin’s DNA 24/7 from daily damage.

Vitamin D is critical to the health and function of our skin (47) including reducing inflammation in our skin cells(48), immune system function, and our skin’s wound healing and regeneration(49).

However vitamin D production has three main stages, and all three depend on magnesium: 

The vitamin D we get from food or sunlight (whose UVB rays convert our cholesterol into Vitamin D), is in the inactive form   known as D3 or cholecalciferol.

Our liver then converts this inactive form into the storage form: calcidiol.

Our kidneys then convert this storage form into the final active form: calcitriol.

Without magnesium, our body can’t synthesize active vitamin D because: the enzymes that facilitate the above conversions belong to the cytochrome P450 family of enzymes. This family of enzymes is magnesium-dependent.

Thus we see that magnesium’s role in vitamin D synthesis is critical for helping our skin recover from inflammation and other sources of stress such as radiation from prolonged exposure to sunlight.

Vitamin D is critical to maintaining our skin’s immunity, fighting inflammation, and ensuring propper wound healing and regeneration.

Vitamin D can only be synthesized from sunlight or cholesterol, and this synthesis requires magnesium.

Skin care experts know that invasive skin treatments improve our skin by first damaging it and then stimulating the body’s innate healing response, which is characterized by an increase in collagen and elastin production in our skin.

The goal of these treatments is for the increased collagen/elastin production to have a supercompensatory effect which improves the skin quality to a state that is better than it was before the treatment’s damage was incurred (otherwise the procedure serves no purpose).

However this only happens in an ideal world where our body has enough magnesium to satisfy both:

1. The increased need of skin collagen/elastin production.
2. All of our other vital functions of the body.

In a magnesium-deficient person, there is not enough magnesium to sustain both, which is where we find the problem.

How the damage is done

After the treatment, our nervous system signals our body to use more of our magnesium for the collagen/elastin production of our skin in order to repair it.

However at some point after the skin treatment (depending on the procedure and person) the body realizes that this skin damage is not a survival threat. At this point, if the person is magnesium deficient, then the increased prioritization of magnesium towards skin collagen/elastin stops, and goes back to more important vital functions.

If the amount of collagen/elastin made during this innate healing response was less than what was needed to fully repair the skin damage, the procedure has actually done more harm than good.

This can be deceptive because the initial increase in collagen/elastin production combined with the typical post-treatment swelling makes the skin look more full. This temporary improvement in appearance can lead us into a cycle of skin treatments (in a magnesium-deficient state) which accelerates the aging of our skin.

Invasive skin treatments can be very powerful and beneficial for making our skin look younger, because they do have the ability to increase the production of proteins that contribute to firm, elastic skin.  However this is only optimally possible in people who are not deficient in magnesium.

Invasive skin treatments cause damage to the skin in the hopes of stimulating a natural increase in collagen and elastin production.

However without enough magnesium, there is a chance that not enough of these proteins will be made, and that initially promising effects can fade into worse-looking skin.

6. Why Our Magnesium Levels Are Now Dropping:

Figure 1 is a general representation of the trends of the three primary factors that affect the magnesium levels in our body everyday. The fourth line represents the human body’s ability to make its own magnesium, which will always stay at zero.

1. Total environmental stress that drains our magnesium
2. Magnesium in our soil and healthy foods
3. Our intestine’s ability to absorb magnesium from food and pills

Our adrenals (stress glands) are magnesium-dependent. Stress depletes magnesium, and inflames our intestine, hindering absorption of dietary magnesium. (Even a healthy gut only absorbs 30-40% of a food’s magnesium.)

This means our skin is competing for its magnesium not only with our other vital functions, but also with increasing amounts of environmental stress and poor intestinal Mg absorption.
 
 

1. Total environmental stress that drains our magnesium
2. Magnesium in our soil and healthy foods
3. Our intestine’s ability to absorb magnesium from food and pills

Our adrenals (stress glands) are magnesium-dependent. Stress depletes magnesium, and inflames our intestine, hindering absorption of dietary magnesium. (Even a healthy gut only absorbs 30-40% of a food’s magnesium.)

This means our skin is competing for its magnesium not only with our other vital functions, but also with increasing amounts of environmental stress and poor intestinal Mg absorption.

Summary & Solutions:

Summary: Young, healthy skin depends on magnesium

Healthy, clear and young looking skin is simply not possible when we are deficient in magnesium:

1. Magnesium detoxifies and fights inflammation and oxidative stress which cause acne.
2. Our skin needs magnesium for its elasticity and firmness.
3. The daily repair of our skin’s DNA is impossible without magnesium.
4. Magnesium is needed for recovery after skin treatments and tanning via its connection to collagen, elastin, and vitamin D.

Due to the above factors, paired with the fact that scientists agree it has now become difficult to get enough magnesium from diet alone, magnesium supplementation may be of substantial benefit in achieving healthier skin:

Solutions: Safe & smart magnesium restoration

To keep healthy magnesium levels and thus healthy skin, several measures should be taken:

1. Eat a magnesium-smart diet and avoid the tricky magnesium-rich foods.
2. Do your best to reduce the environmental, psychological and physical factors that cause stress and thus deplete magnesium.
3. Use a natural, trans-dermal magnesium-chloride supplement to restore whole-body magnesium levels. This makes a good base for a magnesium restoration protocol.
4. Monitor your calcium intake. Calcium fortification in foods is widespread, and calcium supplementation while magnesium deficient causes inflammation.
5. To help prevent other health conditions related to magnesium deficiency, use a secondary magnesium supplement with more specific effects for other body parts.

Click here to learn more about the 11 molecular forms of magnesium supplements, including trans-dermal magnesium chloride.

Click here to learn more about magnesium deficiency and the rest of your body parts.

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22. Thiamine and magnesium deficiencies: keys to disease.  http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25542071
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Symptoms of magnesium deficiency can affect any body part. See if you have any of them.

Magnesium BEGINNER’S GUIDE: The 4 magnesium facts you need to know.

COMMON HEALTH CONCERNS:

1. Depression and mental function
2. Heart disease
3. Muscular performance
4. Weight loss & energy
5. Sleep
6. Digestion
7. Skin 

FREQUENT QUESTIONS:

• How common is deficiency?
• Daily recommended intakes?
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• Magnesium-rich foods?

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