The Power of Magnesium to Balance Hormones—What Every Woman Should Know
Tired, wired, and wondering why your hormones feel like they’re running the show? This is your magnesium wake-up call. Dr. Carolyn Dean, the magnesium doctor, says that this one mineral could be the missing piece in your hormone health, weight struggles, anxiety, and more.
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Meet the Magnesium Pioneer: Dr. Carolyn Dean Breaks It All Down
When it comes to magnesium and hormone balance, few people have dedicated their careers to the topic quite like Dr. Carolyn Dean. With credentials as both a medical doctor and a naturopath, Dr. Dean has been championing the importance of nutritional and mineral-based health long before “wellness” became trendy.
Her journey into magnesium started decades ago—not as a trend, but out of necessity. Despite her extensive education and experience, she found herself struggling with symptoms many women know all too well: muscle cramps, heart palpitations, tension, fatigue, anxiety, and poor sleep. The kicker? All of them were rooted in a magnesium deficiency that went unrecognized by conventional medicine.
Dr. Dean’s research—and real-world experience—led her to one undeniable conclusion: magnesium is foundational to hormone balance.
Here’s why:
Magnesium is involved in over 1,000 enzymatic processes in the body, including the creation and regulation of hormones like estrogen, cortisol, insulin, and thyroid hormones.
It plays a direct role in blood sugar regulation, stress response, and sleep quality—all of which dramatically impact hormonal health.It plays such a big role in achieving painless periods.
Magnesium acts as a natural calcium channel blocker, helping muscles relax, lowering blood pressure, and protecting against overstimulation—key when you’re dealing with mood swings, cramps, or PMS.
According to Dr. Dean, about 80% of the population is deficient in this essential mineral. That’s largely due to soil depletion, processed foods, chronic stress, medications like birth control, and—you guessed it—caffeine and sugar.
Even more frustrating? Magnesium isn’t easily detected through standard blood tests because it’s stored primarily in the bones and tissues. So many people are walking around symptomatic but undiagnosed.
This is again a huge reason why I love Hair Tissue Mineral Analysis. This is a lab that uses your hair to test your minerals. We can see patterns in the hair for mineral imbalance before we see it in the blood, so it is so useful from a preventative perspective.
You can get that through our Mineral Magic program!
The Surprising (and Staggering) Benefits of Magnesium Supplementation
Magnesium is used in over 500 different enzyme reactions in the body. Basically that means that if you are deficient in magnesium you will be noticing a ton of different symptoms. Over 78% of women in the US are deficient in magnesium! The benefits of magnesium are incredible, let’s break them down.
1.Better Muscle Function & Less Tension
Magnesium is a natural relaxant. It eases tight muscles, reduces tension headaches, minimizes PMS cramps, and even relieves restless leg syndrome and Charlie horses. It also improves physical recovery and can ease asthma symptoms related to muscular tightness in the airways.
2. Deeper, More Restful Sleep
Tense muscles and an overactive nervous system make it nearly impossible to rest well. Magnesium helps your body truly relax—physically and neurologically—so you can fall asleep faster and actually feel rested in the morning.
3. Calmer Mood & Less Anxiety
Magnesium has a calming effect on the nervous system. It prevents overstimulation by blocking excess calcium from firing neurons too frequently (a.k.a. feeling wired and irritable). It can reduce anxiety, irritability, and even support people through panic attacks.
4. More Natural Energy
Your mitochondria—the powerhouses of your cells—require magnesium to produce ATP (your body’s cellular energy). In fact, ATP must be bound to magnesium to be biologically active. No magnesium = no energy. Period.
5. Heart & Blood Pressure Support
Magnesium acts as a calcium channel blocker—supporting healthy blood pressure by relaxing blood vessels. It’s also essential for proper heart rhythm and can even help with heart palpitations.
6. Hormone Regulation
Magnesium supports cortisol regulation which is your stress hormone. It helps in estrogen metabolism which is so important for getting rid of pms symptoms! It supports thyroid function because your thyroid depends on co factors like selenium and Magnesium! And one of my favorites is how it supports insulin sensitivity and blood sugar balance.Magnesium plays a critical role in regulating blood sugar levels, which helps prevent insulin resistance and supports overall metabolic health—key in balancing hormones like estrogen and testosterone.
HTMA testing is always my go to for testing magnesium levels.
Magnesium Deficiency = Hormonal Chaos
What happens when magnesium is missing? Dr. Dean describes it as a “total body meltdown.”
Here’s what that looks like:
You’re wired but tired
Your sleep is light or non-existent
Your muscles feel tight and achy
Your moods swing from calm to chaos
Your blood sugar is unstable
Your periods are heavier, more painful, or irregular
You crave caffeine just to make it through the day, it plays a big role in adrenal health!
So if magnesium is that powerful… why aren’t we all feeling amazing?
You probably have heard about magnesium before and you might even be supplementing with it as well, but you still aren’t noticing a difference. That’s because the type of supplement you are using is so important. The supplement market is highly unregulated, so if you are really wanting magnesium to balance your hormones you have to be a really good detective at reading labels and knowing where most magnesium supplements get it wrong.
1. Low Absorption Rates
Many common forms of magnesium (especially magnesium oxide) have absorption rates as low as 4%. That means you’re barely getting any benefit—and likely getting a big laxative side effect instead.
2. The Laxative Effect
Most people trying to increase their magnesium run into this wall quickly. Magnesium citrate, oxide, and sulfate are known to draw water into the intestines, causing diarrhea or digestive upset before your body can even absorb enough.
3. Compound Size Matters
Dr. Dean explains that to actually get magnesium into your cells, the form has to be bioavailable and small enough to penetrate the cell membrane. Her solution? A picometer-sized, ionized magnesium that avoids digestion altogether and goes straight to where your body needs it. You can get Dr. Dean’s magnesium here! Use coupon code LEAH to save!
4. Testing Misleads Doctors and Patients
Most traditional lab tests don’t measure what matters. Serum magnesium testing only reflects about 1% of your total magnesium, because the body tightly regulates levels in the blood (to protect your heart). So even if your test says “normal,” you could be deeply deficient in your cells and tissues. This is such a big reason why I love Hair tissue mineral analysis testing, because we can get such a good look at magnesium! Another thing to remember is that magnesium needs other co factors to support absorption. One of those is potassium. Again we can see those levels on HTMA testing!
You can get HTMA testing through our Mineral magic program!
While there are dozens of magnesium compounds out there—magnesium glycinate, malate, citrate, threonate, and more—Dr. Dean’s key takeaway is this:
“Your body doesn’t need 12 different types of magnesium. It needs magnesium it can absorb, that can get into the cells, and do the job it’s meant to do.”
Listen to Dr. Dean’s full episode here!
Whether you’re dealing with burnout, blood sugar issues, or hormone swings, magnesium is the foundation you can’t afford to ignore.
On top of Dr. Dean’s Magnesium, I have a few other magnesium that are tried and true! You can see them all here, just create a free account! They will be listed under plans!