I’ve been playing with the idea that depression is an induced metabolic state rather than a ‘disease’ or condition.  Examples of metabolic states are sleeping and hibernation.  It would make evolutionary sense that in certain situations, it might be advantageous for an organism to go into ‘power saver mode’.

It seems that Chronic Fatigue Syndrome / Fibromyalgia researchers have come to a similar conclusion for their specific malady.

Here’s a link for anyone interested:  http://www.ijcem.com/files/IJCEM812001.pdf .

So let’s talk a bit about magnesium and how it relates to the induction of this purported metabolic state.

It’s well known that under stress the human body excretes magnesium leaving the body deficient:

Chronic stress depletes your body of magnesium, leading to magnesium deficiency symptoms. The greater your level of stress, the greater the loss of magnesium.

The lower your initial magnesium level is, the more reactive to stress you become, and the higher your level of adrenaline in stressful situations. Higher adrenaline causes greater loss of magnesium from cells, creating a vicious cycle.

—  https://www.sharecare.com/health/magnesium/why-stress-cause-magnesium-deficiency

A few facts about the metabolism of magnesium.  Your body must maintain a very specific range of magnesium in the blood stream.  A minor variation in this concentration can cause cardiac arrest.  The problem then is that we can never know how much magnesium is in the tissues (cells) because we know the body will starve the tissues of magnesium to keep the blood levels in the safe range.  There is a blood test for magnesium levels but it’s not revealing because the body keeps the concentration of blood magnesium strictly regulated.

The next thing that’s important to know is that there is almost no magnesium in our foods anymore.  The reason is petrochemical soil which lacks that mineral.

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S221451411500121X

This link details the general inadequacies of our soil vis a vis magnesium and its impact on plant and human life.

So here’s how I think things were meant to work.  In ancient times, a hunter gatherer experiences a stressor, let’s say heat stroke from the sun.  This stress causes the hunter gatherer to urinate out all his/her magnesium.  The hunter gatherer becomes anxious and subdued.  This forces the hunter gatherer to rest while remaining vigilant (anxious).  With time as the hunter gatherer recovers and eats, the magnesium is replenished and the evolutionary response is abated.

In modern times, a hunter gatherer (herein wage earner) is stressed by his or her boss’ request for a last minute presentation.  While hurriedly preparing this presentation, the wage earner deposits massive amounts of stored magnesium in the company’s toilet.  The wage earner becomes anxious and depressed.  The presentation goes fine, but that wage earner goes to the doctor complaining of stress.  The doctor medicates away the symptoms of the magnesium deficiency leaving the patient magnesium deficient and having to deal with the effects of a pharmaceutical.

If one wants to try magnesium for depression, it’s absorption isn’t the greatest.  Moreover, because it isn’t well absorbed it tends to stay in the intestines and cause diarrhea.  There is fortunately a way around this.  By attaching it to an amino acid, you can get the magnesium into your body via the amino acid pathways which do a much better job of absorption.  So the form I personally take is Magnesium Bisglycinate which is, as I said, magnesium attached to an amino acid.  This is commonly available at your local health food store.