The Best Magnesium for Anxiety: L-Threonate Changed My Life

This article on which magnesium is best for anxiety is based on my own personal experience. I am not a doctor, medical professional, or licensed health practitioner. The information provided here is for general information purposes and should not be taken as medical advice.

My relationship with anxiety has been the most long-term and committed of my life.

Although I was an anxious child, things really escalated in my early twenties – when anxiety promoted itself into full-blown panic disorder.

CBT, beta blockers and SSRIs followed. I wrote furiously about my anxiety, hoping I could somehow write it out of my personality, all while simultaneously making it my entire personality. Soon enough, my twenties and thirties became a revolving door of coping strategies – good periods followed by not-so-good ones.

After I had my son, however, things really ramped up. It wasn’t just the odd panic attack anymore, it was constant existential dread, derealisation and that comforting sense of impending doom.

I found myself questioning everything: Was this peri-menopause sneaking up on me? Was I secretly neurodivergent? Or was I just really bad at motherhood?

Like many people, I went down the supplement rabbit hole in an attempt to solve this wildfire of internal angst. My bedroom transformed into a branch of Holland & Barrett. I tried some great products (Fatty15, Rheal, Symprove) and some not so great (I’m looking at you, Happy Mammoth).

I also meditated, walked, tried breath work, cut out booze and sugar – and prayed to the serotonin gods that my daily quota increase. Yet, my anxiety lingered; like a fart trapped inside a skull.

However, things were about to change.

Turning to Magnesium for Anxiety

Somewhere along the way, I’d heard whispers that magnesium can alleviate anxiety. Naturally, I had to try this calming mineral.

I decided to start with the basics and bought some magnesium citrate first – the cheapest sort of magnesium. Other than upsetting my stomach, however, it did absolutely nothing for my neurotic adrenal glands.

Undeterred, I decided to level up to magnesium bisglycinate. Touted as a great sleep aid, it did genuinely help me stay asleep (instead of waking up at 3 a.m in a panic). However, when it came to my anxiety, it didn’t move the needle much at all.

Soon enough, I therefore found myself standing at the magnesium summit, with only one final peak to scale: the genetically engineered magnesium L-threonate.

After a bit of research, I soon realised that this premium type of magnesium was, well, pricey (ridiculously so). However by this point, I was determined – and so desperate – to see this mineral journey through, that I decided to go for it.

What was another £50 down the drain?

After buying a bottle of magnesium L-threonate via Healf, I started taking it almost absentmindedly, not expecting much at all. If anything, I pretty much forgot it was supposed to even be doing anything.

However, as the weeks went by, something shifted. Slowly, but ever so surely, I began to feel better.

First, my sleep was incredible – 8 hours of uninterrupted, deep sleep. Next, I realised I wasn’t stressed in the same, suffocating way anymore. And then, almost miraculously, it dawned on me that the constant hum of anxiety had grown quieter – a whisper rather than a roar.

My awful morning anxiety had gone and what had been a screaming match of daily anxiety – the intrusive thoughts, the feeling of detachment and the sense of overwhelm – had faded away.

It was so gradual and so incremental, that I hadn’t even noticed it leave.

A year later and I still can’t quite believe what a difference magnesium L-threonate has made to my anxiety and mental health.

Below is my full experience of using magnesium L-threonate for anxiety and why I think it is the best supplement for mental health.

Why Magnesium Matters for Mental Health

Magnesium is nature’s very own sedative.

After a deep dive into everything that this essential mineral does, I discovered that it plays a role in over 300 biochemical processes in the body – many of which directly affect the nervous system. It also helps to regulate neurotransmitters (like serotonin and dopamine), balance our stress hormones and supports healthy sleep cycles.

In short: if you’re running low on magnesium, your body’s natural ability to calm down, reset and regulate is nearly always compromised.

It really is that crucial to our mental health.

But, can you really be magnesium deficient? I actually asked this to a doctor friend a few months back, who said it’s actually quite rare to be deficient in magnesium. However, newer research is beginning to suggest otherwise.

In fact, some studies have shown a clear connection between low magnesium levels and increased feelings of stress, anxiety and depression. It seems that when your magnesium levels are depleted – particularly levels found within your brain – your nervous system can become overactive: cue racing thoughts, restlessness and difficulty sleeping.

In fact, some refer to magnesium deficiency as ‘nature’s stress trigger’ – a sign that your body needs a little more of this naturally relaxing mineral.

Is Magnesium Stored in the Brain?

Magnesium is indeed stored in brain tissue, mostly inside neurons and (something called) glial cells.

However, unlike bone or muscle, the brain doesn’t have large reserves of this special, stress-busting mineral. In fact, brain magnesium levels are very tightly regulated; ensuring that any amount is maintained within a narrow range. This is because even the smallest fluctuations can impact (something called) neuronal excitability and signalling.

As such, it’s possibly easier to become deficient in magnesium than you think – given what a fine line our brains tread when it comes to storing this mineral. It’s also why having too little can manifest in neurological symptoms – like anxiety, irritability, poor sleep and migraines.

Signs of Magnesium Deficiency

If you don’t get your daily fix of leafy greens, fish, whole grains and nuts – and are regularly exposed to stress – chances are your magnesium levels might be a bit depleted.

When I look back on how I felt prior to taking magnesium L-threonate for anxiety, all the signs were there that I was a little deficient (not least because leafy veg rarely featured in my diet).

Some common signs of magnesium deficiency, include:

• Trouble sleeping or waking up in the middle of the night
• Muscle twitches, cramps or restless legs (my eyelid would twitch, constantly)
• Fatigue or low energy (I would nap for an hour a day)
• Brain fog or poor concentration
• Heightened anxiety or irritability (always)
• Headaches or migraines

If any of these sound familiar to you, magnesium could be playing a bigger role in your anxiety than you realise. For me, it wasn’t until I tried magnesium L-threonate that I fully appreciated how much calmer and more resilient my nervous system – and general body – could feel.

Link Between Magnesium and Depression

During my own research into magnesium for anxiety, I went down a bit of a rabbit hole when it came to its effects on alleviating depression.

Excitingly, research has shown a really promising link between taking magnesium and easing depression.

This research suggests that magnesium can act like a natural antidepressant, by working through several key brain pathways.

One of the ways it seems to help is by calming overactive glutamate (NMDAR) signals in the brain. After trying valiantly to understand all these various journal articles, it seems that glutamate is a vital chemical messenger found within the brain. When it’s too active, it can lead to depression – due to its impact on the brain circuits linked to mood regulation (interestingly, this is the same brain target that the fast-acting antidepressant ketamine works on, too).

Magnesium has also been shown to benefit other brain receptors involved in mood regulation – including the hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal (HPA) axis, which can go a bit  haywire in those with anxiety or depression.

Lastly, these studies also suggest that magnesium can help the brain to ‘unlearn’ fear (something I am sure has happened to my own fearful brain). This is thanks to its ability to improve growth factors that support healthy brain cells, and its role in strengthening connections in the prefrontal cortex – a region crucial for emotional control.

Granted, all of this research is very complicated and we have to be careful about making bold conclusions  – however, it does seem very promising when it comes to suggesting ways to support our mental health naturally.

Which Magnesium is Best for Anxiety?

Who knew there were just so many varieties of magnesium?

I definitely didn’t before sampling all its many versions and iterations. With hindsight, I do wish I’d done a little bit more research before investing in its other varieties – it would have definitely been kinder on both my tummy and bank account.

Why is Magnesium L-Threonate Better than Other Forms of Magnesium?

You might be forgiven for thinking that all forms of magnesium were made equal.

However, this mineral has a range of alter egos – each with their own different traits and benefits.

Below is a quick summary of magnesium’s very large family tree and the benefits each kind can deliver.

The Blood Brain Barrier

So how is magnesium L-threonate any different to all the rest? And why is it superior (and  so expensive?)

In short, mageniusm L-threonate was developed specifically to target brain health.

As such, it’s often referred to as a ‘nootropic’ rather than simply as a supplement (meaning it was designed solely to enhance cognitive function).

A little like a designer baby, this ultra-optimised version of magnesium was carefully curated to do a job that other types of magnesiums simply cannot: cross the blood-brain barrier.

You see, most traditional forms of magnesium have limited impact on the brain. This is because their composition means just a tiny part of each tablet actually reaches our central nervous system. Instead, they are best used for just supporting muscles and cellular energy.

Magnesium L-threonate was therefore developed to specifically solve this problem. The ‘L-threonate’ part is derived from threonic acid (a a product of vitamin C) which helps to enhance magnesium’s absorption into the brain tissue.

In turn, this helps to increase levels of magnesium within the brain itself – something that’s never been achieved by the other magnesium contenders.

Another key difference (as far as I can tell) is tolerance and bioavailability. Some common forms, like magnesium oxide, do not absorb particularly well and therefore cause tummy problems (which was definitely my experience). Magnesium L-threonate, however, is well-absorbed and much kinder on the stomach.

In short, it therefore seems that while other forms of magnesium might be great for muscle relaxation or sleep, magnesium L-threonate stands out as the candidate designed to nourish the brain from the inside out – supporting long-term cognitive health and (you guessed it) aid in alleviating anxiety and depression.

Why is Magnesium L-Threonate So Expensive?

The above provides a clue to our answer answer – but not the entire story.

In short, magnesium L-threonate includes a patented compound known as Magtein®, licensed exclusively by ThreoTech (Magceutics). As this company owns the compound, they can pretty much dictate its price.

It has a monopoly over it.

The result is a price tag of around £50 for 90 capsules. Given you’re recommended to take 3 capsules each evening, this is pretty much a month’s supply – which isn’t much at all.

However, the process of creating magnesium L-threonate is, admittedly, tricky. In fact, the manufacturing costs are thought to be around 50 – 60% higher than your more standard magnesium supplement.

As consumers, we may therefore simply have to swallow this cost (if you’ll pardon the pun), until manufacturing L-threonate becomes more wide scale.

Where Can I Buy Magnesium L-Threonate?

There are relatively few magnesium L-threonate supplements on the market – given the monopoly and indeed the price.

As this is a supplement that has to meet strict regulatory criteria, you can – at least – rest assured that most of these are of a great quality.

However, I always get mine from Momentous – as I love what this company stand for and also take several other of their other products (including L-Theanine). This is a US company and currently only available in the UK via Healf, which is where I get mine.

A one time purchase is £44.99 or just over £40 if you sign up to a rolling subscription.

Side Effects of Magnesium L-Threonate

I am happy to report that I have had absolutely no side effects from magnesium L-threonate. Compared to oxide, which ruined my tummy, I felt – and continue to feel – great.

However, my sister said that for the first month or so, she did find herself awake in the middle of the night feeling wired – ready to work and experiencing incredibly vivid dreams.

Of course, there’s no way we can prove that these experiences are linked (especially given that magnesium L-threonate is meant to calm the brain), but perhaps it did have an initial stimulating effect.

Another thing I wanted to mention was the optimal dose of magnesium L-threonate.

According to the variety I take, from Momentous, it suggests you take 3 capsules a night. However, when I tried this, I felt a little too sedated the next day. I didn’t necessarily feel out of out, or dreamy, but more just slightly numbed around the edges.

As I am used to feeling everything so viscerally, like a feather on the wind, I did find this slightly perturbing (although, ironically, I couldn’t actually get anxious about it). As such, I dropped down to 2 capsules each evening, which has become my sweet spot when it comes to taking this brain-calming nootropic.

My Own Experience of Taking Magnesium L-Threonate for Anxiety

For me, magnesium L-threonate has definitely proven to be the best supplement (or ‘nootropic’) for anxiety.

Below is just a few of the many ways it’s hugely improved my mental health over the last year or so – and all without any side effects.

1. Better Sleep

Firstly, my sleep is so much better when taking magnesium L-threonate.

As I mentioned above, I did try magnesium bisglycinate for sleep and found it definitely helped. My sleep was less interrupted and I wasn’t jumping awake at 3am – gasping for air and wondering what my own name was.

However, the difference between magnesium L-threonate and magnesium bisglycinate when it comes to sleep has (genuinely) been like night and day.

As instructed, I take L-threonate about an hour before bed (although 2 capsules, not 3). Although it doesn’t necessarily help me drop off any faster, when I am asleep, I tend to stay that way for the entire night – something I’ve not experienced for decades.

I now sleep solidly between 10.30pm – 6am (when my son wakes me up). I think I’d probably be asleep for even longer if it wasn’t for my early riser.

This unbroken sleep is so different to my prior sleep pattern, which saw me usually waking up at around 3am and then 5am. I never just slept ‘through’ – which I do now.

Scientists think that it aids sleep by helping to regulate neurotransmitters like GABA, which are critical to a good night’s kip.

2. Reduced Anxiety

As you know, the main reason I wanted to try magnesium L-threonate was to see if it could calm the existential storm that was constantly raging through my mind.

Before taking magnesium L-threonate, my anxiety symptoms were:

• Early morning sense of doom (immediately upon waking)
• Derealisation – my least favourite anxiety symptom that increased the more anxious I got
• Racing thoughts
• Physical anxiety attacks – racing heart, vertigo, dizziness, feeling of detachment
• A constant sense of dread, just brewing in my tummy
• An inability to fully relax or appreciate my life

Obviously these symptoms ebbed and flowed – and I had some better weeks than others (definitely driven by my late thirties hormones). However, by and large, these symptoms were in it for the long haul – squatters that I couldn’t quite oust.

Once I started taking magnesium L-threonate for my mental health, however, things began to change.

Now, I should say that this wasn’t some magic bullet – a wonder pill that I took and every anxiety symptom I’ve ever had simply disappeared – poof. It was much more gradual than that; so incremental that I almost didn’t notice it’s slow retreat.

Firstly, those more outward and dramatic signs of anxiety reduced – the sense of panic on a crowded flight, the heart stopping moment I’d feel adrenaline surge (for no given reason) just as I began driving. All these sweaty, prickly and stomach twisting symptoms slowly – very slowly – began to lessen.

Following this, derealisation also started to fade. At one point, it was such a regular sensation in my life that I regularly wondered if I was living inside a simulation. However, magnesium L-threonate took care of this.

After 3 months or so, I finally felt grounded – like my feet had landed back on Terra Firma and rooted me in place. That disorientating sense of floating through time and space – cut free from regular life – disappeared.

As these two headline acts retreated, so the other constellation of budding anxiety symptoms began to lessen. The racing thoughts stopped, I woke up in the morning feeling reassuringly tired and sleepy, rather than like I was about to go to war. My compulsive, never-ending thought patterns and reassurance seeking finally kicked the can.

Before I knew it, I was simply living my life – free of that omnipresent dread – in a way that felt, normal, peaceful and manageable.

Of course, I can’t say that magnesium L-threonate achieved all of this on my behalf. Instead, I believe that as it quietened my anxiety symptoms, I was simply able to get back on my feet; installing healthier habits, thought patterns and challenging my anxiety in ways I previously found impossible.

I was commuting into London weekly for work, battling busy trains, running my son to preschool and back – all things that, for whatever reason, used to fill me with real dread. The more I did these things, the more I reworked my brain; freeing it from fear.

In terms of how magnesium L-threonate therefore helped my anxiety, I’d say it gave me the stile over which to climb the more sizeable (anxiety) fence – before continuing the journey alone.

3. Less Stress

With anxiety comes stress (or, perhaps, with stress comes anxiety).

While my anxiety was happily rampaging through my brain, my ability to deal with stress became pretty minimal.

Often, if I had to attend a meeting, send a Vinted package, get my son to a dentist appointment and do bedtime alone – I would be hit by a freight train of overwhelm. These simple tasks seemed, together, insurmountable and I’d have a running commentary in my head of everything I needed to do, as my chest tightened and ached.

However, and with the help of magnesium L-threonate, my ability to deal with stress has improved significantly. I’d now say that my response to life’s stressors is within the normal range – being 5 minutes late doesn’t leave me feeling as though I am about to combust and I don’t feel a deep sense of overwhelm at the start of every day.

4. No Aches & Pains

A byproduct of reducing my stress and anxiety has been that my body is now (largely) pain free.

Prior to trying this nootropic, my body was chronically sore and aching. Anxiety meant I held myself impossibly tight at all times: my stomach clenched, my buttocks alarmingly engaged and my shoulders floating happily around my ears. I would end most days with a pounding tension headache, sore shoulders and feeling absolutely shattered.

However, and thanks to magnesium’s muscle soothing properties (and obviously its nicely calming effect on my brain), all this pain has pretty much gone and I don’t spend my days popping ibuprofen.

Also, my tension headaches have pretty much vanished – which is (in itself) pretty life changing.

5. Fewer Brain Zaps and Vertigo

If you’ve ever taken an SSRI before, you might be familiar with what us anxiety veterans casually refer to as ‘brain zaps’.

While they might sound cute – a bit of popping candy sprinkled inside your skull, perhaps – they are actually pretty debilitating.

Brain zaps usually occur if you forget to take your SSRI, or during the withdrawal process – as the amount of medicine –  and with it – levels of serotonin, decrease. It’s thought that the brain’s synapses are affected by these fluctuating levels, causing them to fire off wrongly.

The result is an incredibly jarring sensation of what is best described as an electrical current  short-circuiting in your brain – a jolt, a shock, a brief moment of intense vertigo before it’s gone again.

Now, in the past, I’ve experienced these during withdrawal from Sertraline. However, over the last few years and as my anxiety has worsened (and my SSRI has seemingly done very little), I had been experiencing them daily; an apparent side effect of chronic stress.

I would get them every time I closed my eyes to sleep, if I moved my eyes too quickly while watching TV, or if I was focusing on something on my phone or laptop. They were happening so often that I spent a lot of time searching whether or not I was indeed experiencing a mild form of epilepsy.

However, since starting magnesium L-threonate for anxiety, the zaps (and accompanying vertigo) have reduced – markedly so.

They still tend to occur just before my period (it must be a seratonin thing), or if I am very tired – but they are in no way as regular as they once were.

Final Thoughts: Which Magnesium is Best for Anxiety?

So, does magnesium L-threonate really help with anxiety?

Speaking from my own experience, the answer is yes – though not in an overnight, miracle-pill way.

The changes it brought about were gradual and subtle at first, but over time they built into something much more noticeable. My sleep definitely deepened, my stress response softened, the physical aches and tension eased, and the relentless cycle of racing thoughts and dread finally slowed.

What surprised me the most was that magnesium L-threonate ended up being (I believe) more effective for my anxiety than the SSRI I was prescribed. While medication certainly has its place and helps many, many people – I found myself getting more consistent relief from this nootropic (and without the side effects of an SSRI).

For me, that’s nothing short of life-changing.

That said, I think it’s important to be realistic. Not everyone will have the same experience and supplements should never be seen as a one-size-fits-all solution. Anxiety is complex and what works for one person may do little for another.

Magnesium L-threonate isn’t a ‘cure’ for anxiety, but in my case, it did create enough calm and clarity to put healthier habits in place, challenge anxious thought patterns and rebuild my resilience.

If you’re struggling with anxiety and curious about trying magnesium L-threonate, my honest opinion is to go for it.

For me, it didn’t just ease the symptoms of anxiety – it gave me the foothold I needed to reclaim my life.

Discount code for magnesium L-threonate:

Use the discount code TWINPERSPECTIVES to get 10 off your order of magnesium L-threonate via Healf.