The human brain is truly remarkable in its ability to regulate our many cognitive functions. Our central nervous system is responsible for complex tasks like attention, memory, problem solving, reasoning, and planning. Unfortunately, many cognitive functions tend to decline as we age and there are many factors that may expedite this process. With this in mind, proper nutrition is foundational for maintaining optimal cognition and magnesium is one key nutrient that has been identified for its role in cognition. Magnesium is necessary for maintaining proper nerve and muscle function through its regulation of calcium, creating cellular energy in the mitochondria, and acting as a cofactor to build DNA, RNA, and many proteins. Despite its vast importance, it is commonly deficient in the Canadian population due to poor diet, medication depletions, and stress. Suboptimal magnesium levels can also create a pro-inflammatory state within the body. All of these physiological functions that magnesium governs can affect cognition, so it is important to ensure adequate magnesium status in the central nervous system. Magnesium threonate has emerged as one of the best forms of magnesium to support brain health. Threonate is a metabolite of vitamin C that aids the transport of magnesium across the blood brain barrier and into the central nervous system. One animal study found that magnesium threonate improved spatial memory and spatial orientation after 24 days when compared to non-treated subjects. In addition, one human clinical trial found that 1.5-2 grams per day of magnesium l-threonate, along with 200 IU of vitamin D and 30 mg of vitamin C, improved working memory in elderly subjects aged 50-70 at 6 and 12 weeks compared to a control group. Mechanistically, these results may be explained by the fact that magnesium can enhance NMDA receptor expression in the hippocampus. Cyto-Matrix’s Magnesium Threonate offers 667mg of pure magnesium L-threonate complex per capsule, including 50mg of elemental magnesium. This complex is designed to best deliver magnesium into the central nervous system, support overall cognition and improve memory. Each bottle contains 120 vegetarian capsules.
