Is jigsaw magnesium really better for you than magnesium oxide?

Answer 1

Okay, first things first: "Jigsaw" is a brand of magnesium supplements. With that in mind:

It's at least possible that it is "better for you" than plain old magnesium oxide, if your diet is low in magnesium. Magnesium is pretty important biologically, but it's also pretty prevalent naturally in foods, so unless you've been diagnosed with hypomagnesia (a fancy term for "low magnesium levels") it's quite likely that you're getting all you need in your normal diet. (Incidentally, green plants in particular have a fair amount of magnesium; magnesium is the central atom in the porphyrin complex of chlorophyll.)

However, if you want to be doubly sure, you can take magnesium supplements; it does play a role in reducing the risk of, among other things, stroke and osteoporosis.

The particular magnesium compound taken is largely irrelevant to its overall biological availability (a magnesium compound that doesn't dissolve at all will simply be excreted eventually without being used by the body, but magnesium oxide is soluble under acidic conditions such as prevail in the stomach).

Jigsaw claims that their "sustained release technology" (a rather grandiose term for "hey, it doesn't all dissolve immediately") results in a more even concentration of serum magnesium throughout the day. How significant this is I'm not sure, and given the way magnesium is actually absorbed by the body I have some doubts about exactly how much difference there really is between their formulation and Brand X.

Bottom line: it might work slightly better, if you really need it, which you probably don't, and at any rate I wouldn't pay much of a premium for it; if it's significantly more expensive than the store brand I'd probably just buy the cheaper one and let my gastrointestinal tract figure out how much to absorb and when.