Can Magnesium Help You During The Holidays?

To better cope with stress, most of us can benefit from supplementing with this essential mineral throughout the year, but perhaps especially during the supercharged holiday season

- Melissa Diane Smith

Q : With parties, special events, shopping for gifts, buying food, cooking, and traveling to visit family out of town, I tend to overdo it and become anxiety-ridden, irritable, stressed out, fatigued, and sometimes downright depressed during the holidays. Is there a supplement you could recommend to take the edge off and help me feel more relaxed and balanced?

—Julianne S., Chicago

If I had to pick one supplement to help manage stress, it would be magnesium. First of all, magnesium is an essential dietary mineral that nearly half of all Americans—and by some estimates up to 80 percent—don’t get enough of from their diets. And magnesium is so good at managing anxiety and stress that it’s sometimes been called a natural “chill pill.”

Furthermore, magnesium is sequestered and wasted via the urine in times of stress. That means you need more during stressful times. Stress can cause magnesium depletion, and a lack of magnesium magnifies stress. It’s important to understand that stress comes in many different forms— from physical to mental to emotional to environmental. So, having an airplane flight delayed when you haven’t had much sleep, going too long without food when you’re out holiday shopping, being exposed to environmental toxins, or drinking alcohol and trudging through a snowstorm all spell extra stress that increases the need for more magnesium.

Magnesium seems to act on many levels to improve the body’s response to stress and help reduce or eliminate its adverse effects. The mineral has been shown to control the activity of the hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal (HPA) axis, which is considered to be the main stress response system.