Ep. 101: If Magnesium Isn’t Working for Constipation, Here’s Why

You started magnesium for constipation. It worked.

And then… it didn’t.

Now you’re increasing the dose, relying on it nightly, and wondering why your body won’t cooperate.

Here’s the truth: if magnesium stopped working, it’s not because you need more of it.

Magnesium can support bowel movements. But it doesn’t fix the reason your system slowed down in the first place.

In this episode, I break down:

• What magnesium actually does (and what it doesn’t)
• The mineral patterns I see when it “stops working”
• Why potassium, bile flow, and stress matter more than you think
• How you can poop daily and still be constipated
• What actually restores long-term rhythm instead of relying on stimulation

Constipation is rarely just a colon issue. It’s often a top-down digestion issue.

If you’re tired of bandaids and want a personalized, step-by-step plan to restore your digestion from the root, this is exactly the work we do inside gutTogether.

Find the real root causes of your GI symptoms with our free, 2 minute Quiz! 

Take the quiz here!

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Transcript

Dr. Heather Finley: 0:42

Welcome to the Love Your Gut Podcast. I'm your host, Dr. Heather Finley, registered dietitian and gut health specialist. I understand the frustration of dealing with GI issues because I've been there and I spent over two decades searching for answers for my own gut issues of constipation, bloating, and stomach pain. I've dedicated my life to understanding and solving my own gut issues. And now I'm here to guide you. On this podcast, I'll help you identify the true root causes of your discomfort. So you can finally ditch your symptoms for good. My goal is to empower you with the knowledge and tools you need so that you can love your gut and it will love you right back. So if you're ready to learn a lot, gain a deeper understanding of your gut and find lasting relief. You are in the right place. Welcome to the love your gut podcast.

1:34

I can't tell you how many times I've heard this sentence. I started magnesium and it worked for like a week, and then it just stopped. Or the upgraded version of this, which is I used to take 200 milligrams, now I'm up to 800, and if I miss a night, I don't go to the bathroom at all. And at some point it starts to feel like you're in a standoff with your body. We've all been there. You versus your colon. You've got your magnesium, you have this silent negotiation every evening, and when it stops working, those thoughts creep in. Maybe I'm just severely constipated. Maybe my body's just resistant. Maybe this is just how I am. But what I want you to hear before we go any further is you are not resistant to magnesium and your body can restore function to going to the bathroom. Magnesium is actually not failing you. What it's doing is reporting to you something that could be off. So you can think of magnesium like jumper cables for your car. The worst, right? All of a sudden your car won't start. If your battery's a little low, those jumper cables are gonna get it started. But if your alternator is failing, and I am not a car expert at all, so if I'm getting this wrong, then just forgive me. But hopefully you're getting the point. If your engine's not working perfectly, you could keep jumping your car, but it's not going to actually run right. So magnesium can help the exit, but it's not actually fixing the whole engine, and that's your whole digestive system. So if you're needing more and more and more magnesium to go, or it worked for a while and it doesn't now, that's the feedback that we wanna lean into to figure out. What the next step is. So that's what we're gonna talk about today. So first, let's zoom out because magnesium is not random and it's honestly not magic either. Although magnesium does fix a lot of problems, and it's also not just a poop supplement. Magnesium can help your bowels in some specific ways because it pulls water. To your colon, it supports smooth muscle relaxation and the intestines. It supports energy production, which is great, and it also helps your nervous system. Which is why a lot of people will feel more calm after they have magnesium, but your colon is a muscle. Your gut is a muscle. So just like any other muscle, you need water. You need electrolytes, you need energy, you need nerve signaling. A magnesium supports all four of those things, which is pretty amazing. That's why it actually can feel like a miracle at first. You take it, you wake up, you go to the bathroom. So magnesium can help this movement of stool. But again, it doesn't fix the engine. If it stops working, then we need to look upstream and downstream to see what that actually means. But first I wanna just clarify that not all forms of magnesium are the same. And they actually act different in the body. So some common forms of magnesium, and I actually have a whole episode on this that's way, way, way back. Magnesium citrate is more osmotic, meaning that it pulls water to the stool. It's often used for shorter term relief. Magnesium oxide is very poorly absorbed. It mostly works like a laxative. Magnesium glyconate is more calming. It's better for nervous system support for sleep, et cetera. We wouldn't necessarily use this if somebody was constipated. Magnesium maleate is actually more energizing, which might be surprising'cause we think of magnesium as calming. But magnesium melet actually supports energy production. Magnesium of three eight is more brain focus, so it can be great for focus and concentration, mental clarity. So if you are taking citrate or oxide and you're relying on that os. Pull alone, you're not necessarily correcting the reason that your motility slowed in the first place. Now, I'll be the first to say that sometimes you gotta use magnesium citrate, and we often use magnesium citrate in our clients who are very constipated. But the goal is not obviously to take this forever. So even if you're taking a highly absorbable form like glyconate, if the rest of your system isn't supported, it really can only do so much. So the next part is where it gets interesting. When someone tells me that magnesium worked and then it didn't, I don't immediately think you need more magnesium. I wanna look at their patterns. So on HTMA, which is hair tissue mineral analysis, this is one of our most favorite tests to run on clients. Magnesium is actually rarely low by itself. It's almost always a part of a bigger mineral picture. So some of the patterns that we see most often are. Low potassium and low sodium, along with a high magnesium loss, and this is probably the most common motility of the gut, requires contraction and relaxation. Potassium will drive that contraction, and magnesium will support that relaxation. So if potassium is low, the bowel can't generate a strong wave. You can relax a muscle all day, but if it can't contract, nothing moves. This is why someone increases magnesium. They feel looser, but still don't fully evacuate. I see this a lot in women who are eating clean, but undereating carbs, maybe drinking coffee instead of breakfast. They're working out really hard and they're sweating a lot. They're really stressed because they're quietly depleting minerals like sodium and potassium. So potassium drops, sodium drops, and so does motility, and you end up with really hard pebbly stool, not responsive to magnesium. Another pattern that we see along with magnesium losses or low magnesium is low boron. This one surprises people because boron is not. Talked about very much, but boron helps to regulate how magnesium is used and retained in the body. So if it's low, you can supplement magnesium but not utilize it effectively. So back to the car analogy. It's like filling a tank that has a leak, like it's just continuing to leak out. Another pattern that we see is really high calcium relative to magnesium. So when calcium runs high compared to magnesium, your tissues tend to be more rigid. Right. So interesting. Calcium, you think of bones, so if you have pain aches, et cetera. Sometimes if you look at an HTMA, it can be just so interesting. So you might have more tension, slower movement, more stress pattern, and magnesium can temporarily soften that pattern, but you have to address that calcium ratio. And then the last one is stress patterns, where sodium is very low compared to magnesium. This often reflects like low vitality, chronic stress, low metabolic output, slow bowels. Magnesium alone cannot override a system that's been running on low power mode. So if magnesium stops working. The thing to think about is it's not because you need a different dose or a different form, or you're resistant, especially if you've tried a lot of different things, it's because you need to look deeper at your minerals. Magnesium is just one instrument of the whole mineral orchestra. And so your gut motility or the contraction of muscles of your gut depends on your whole system. Things like sodium, potassium, calcium, boron, thyroid signaling, all the things. So if one section is off, the music will sound strained. And just increasing the volume on one instrument is not fixing the symphony. When magnesium stops working, then we can look upstream. So let's talk about five reasons that magnesium isn't working. So if magnesium helps the exit, but it's not fixing the engine, here are the five things that are going wrong. Number one is you are low in potassium. This sounds really simple, but this is one of the most common patterns that we see on testing. Magnesium and potassium work so well together. They need each other. They're like peanut butter and jelly peristalsis are that movement of the gut muscles, that wave like motion that moves stool forward. Is literally a coordinated contraction and relaxation pattern. So if potassium is low, you're not gonna get that contraction. And it's like trying to row a boat with like one ore, you're gonna go in circles. So potassium, is one of those minerals that is most frequently low on testing, especially in the women that we see who are stressed, who have a history of undereating, who sweat a lot, who have been dieting. Who drink a lot of coffee because they're so tired. I was just on a call with someone today and she said, I'm not like the, I just need a nap. Kind of tired. I'm like, bone tired, and I'm like, yes, I get it when you are so depleted. That's what it feels like. Like you just feel heavy, like you're falling asleep, standing up. You also deplete a lot of potassium when you're really sick or you have been sick. So an easy first step for you is to increase potassium through food. So think about some of these foods which might surprise you. Potatoes, yes, eat potatoes, white and sweet squash, coconut water, beans, fruit, dairy. Try to eat some of those foods. This is. Part of what we call the mineral symphony, like I was referring to earlier, magnesium needs its friend potassium. Okay. Number two is your bile flow is sluggish when you're not getting adequate bile flow from your liver and gallbladder. This can equal dry stool and magnesium cannot fix dry stool that is caused by poor digestion. Bile does more than just digest fats. It lubricates your stool. It stimulates motility. It signals the colon to move. If bile is. Thick or sluggish stool will become hard, maybe pale, floating, difficult to pass. Some people notice that they get symptoms after fatty meals or that right sided fullness under the ribs. Some will feel more bloated as the day goes on. But the key to think here is stomach acid is needed to trigger bile release meal hygiene. How you eat, how you chew. Slowing down matters. So if you're eating too quickly, you're eating while you're stressed, snacking constantly under eating protein, you're not signaling that proper. Digestive flow. So magnesium cannot override this, and that's exactly why. Next week on the podcast, we're gonna talk about four different types of bloating because bile related bloating is one of them and it's very real. Number three, this one is huge, and the one where people tend to glaze over. So please don't glaze over. Your nervous system is in survival mode. You can do everything right with food and supplements and still feel stuck if your nervous system is in survival mode. When your body perceives stress, whether it's emotional stress over exercise, undereating your job, or internal inflammation from gut infections or imbalances. It shifts into a different state, and digestion is not essential for immediate survival. So what happens? It slows down digestion. Stomach acid decreases bile flow slows, motility, slows blood flow shifts away from your gut. A nervous system on high alert literally turns down digestion, so magnesium might relax you and support your nervous system. And I do believe that minerals help your nervous system to be more regulated, but it cannot override chronic stress signaling. It cannot override that you don't regulate your nervous system throughout the day that you're running on fumes, living in fight or flight. You really cannot supplement your way out of this. They can go together. And also nervous system foundations are not optional when it comes to gut healing. They are essential. This is why we have nervous system coaching in our program. I just believe in it so much, and that is a difference between clients who see. Really quick success and clients who don't. A lot of times number four is maybe you actually have incomplete evacuation. This is such an aha moment for people. You can actually go to the bathroom every day and still be constipated. Did you know that? Did. I had a client who told me that she went to the bathroom every morning, 7:00 AM clockwork, but she sat there for 20 minutes and strained, and by 3:00 PM she was bloated by 9:00 PM She was uncomfortable. She didn't need more magnesium. She actually had pelvic floor. Issues that slowed her transit. Once we addressed, and by we, I mean, once she saw a pelvic floor PT to address that, and we as a team addressed her upstream digestion, she actually was able to cut her magnesium in half within wheat. So if you go to the bathroom but you don't feel empty or you sit there for a long time or you feel like there's more that won't come out, or you rely on stimulation to go, you actually might be more constipated or have incomplete evacuation. So that can be slow transit, pelvic floor dysfunction, poor coordination between abdominal pressure and relaxation. This can be from food poisoning. All sorts of things. So magnesium doesn't necessarily fix those things, and a lot of times if you keep increasing magnesium, eventually you're gonna swing the pendulum the other way and get diarrhea, but you could still be constipated. So dosing at magnesium is not the same as restoring proper. Bowel mechanics sometimes we also have to support toilet posture, breathing mechanics, abdominal pressure, pelvic floor relaxation. You don't wanna just in keep increasing magnesium forever. you wanna support how your body's actually emptying. And sometimes you don't know that if you constantly have diarrhea. Okay. Last one here is number five. You're using magnesium instead of fixing the foundations, and this is a big one. Also kind of like the nervous system. One that it's easy to glaze over, but magnesium is a tool, not necessarily the solution. If your stomach acid is low, your protein intake is low. Your thyroid signaling, this is a big one. Get your thyroid checked if you are undereating, chronically stressed, not sleeping, motility. It's gonna be hard to normalize this long term. So this does not mean that you can't use magnesium. It can be so supportive, but you also need to work on the foundations. And then one thing that I always stress to our clients is you can use magnesium supplementally when your life is not as routine. Your traveling high stress weeks, big schedule shifts while maybe in the healing process, you're using it every single day to help support you. Eventually you might not need that, but you might need it when life seasons change or you're traveling or whatever. That's really smart and Intune support. The issue is when magnesium becomes the only strategy, when your system works, magnesium actually works better, and when the system is under functioning, no amount of magnesium is going to fix it. Okay. Quick pause because this is so fun. If you have been listening the past few weeks, you know, we just hit the hundredth episode last week, which honestly feels surreal when I started this podcast very much from a postpartum fog. I never imagined I would have enough to say for a hundred episodes, and because of you. We are here, so I decided to celebrate in a big way and give away a loom box. By the way, this is not sponsored and I'm so excited to announce that. Stacy is the winner. Stacy, I have sent you an email. You are the winner of the loom box. We'll be getting your address so we can send this to you. So to everybody who entered, thank you so much. Your reviews, your messages, your shares, they mean so much. And also know that we do an HTMA giveaway every month. For those of you that maybe missed out on this, I give away an HTMA package every month to a podcast reviewer. So all you have to do is email it to us so that we can add it to our pile of reviews and people to pull from if you've entered once, you're already entered, and you always have the opportunity to win. So keep leaving their reviews. It helps other people find the show, and I appreciate and read every single one of'em. So thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, let's get back to the episode. So what actually fixes constipation long term, if magnesium helps the exit and potassium, bile, nervous system, foundations, motility, all of those things matter. Then what actually restores movement of the gut long term? The shift here is that constipation is rarely just a colon problem. It's usually a top-down digestion problem. So let's walk through how the body is supposed to move. Food and waste naturally. Step number one, your digestion has to start strong. So motility begins with your mouth. Chewing saliva, the smell of food, parasympathetic, parasympathetic. Activation then stomach acid. Stomach acid is not just for breaking down protein. It's the first domino of all the dominoes. A lot of times we're trying to tip over the last domino by changing our diet or probiotics, but we need all the dominoes to tip over. And stomach acid can be one of those first ones because strong stomach acid helps you to break down food more efficiently. It signals bile release, it signals pancreatic enzymes. It kills pathogens, it prevents excess fermentation. So if the top of digestion is weak, then everything below compensates, you don't wanna send half cooked food down the assembly line, right? The rest of the system slows down to deal with the mess. Magnesium cannot fix poorly digested food if food isn't broken down properly, motility will always struggle. Step number two, bile has to flow. We already talked about this, but after stomach acid comes bile. Bile is the oil in the engine. Without oil, the parts are gonna grind. Stool will dry out. You cannot bypass the step. Even if you don't have a gallbladder, you still have bile flow, and this is even more important to focus on. Step number three, the microbiome has to support movement. This is where people get surprised because certain bacteria produce short chain fatty acids like butyrate and butyrate stimulates motility. Certain microbes support serotonin production in the gut. Serotonin actually helps with gut motility in peristalsis. So if you have been on a restricted diet forever. Your beneficial bacteria are depleted if there's chronic infections like SIBO or dys bacterial overgrowth. If methane producing bacteria are present, your movement will slow and magnesium cannot override a microbiome that is just signaling slow down. So this is why killing bacteria without restoring beneficial bacteria doesn't always fix the problem. You always have to focus on repair and restore. And then step number four, minerals that power the electrical system. So if we layer in minerals on top of this, the colon is gonna run on electrical signal signaling. If digestion is weak and minerals aren't absorbed well, that signal weakens. We cannot run our house on low voltage. The lights won't work. They will flicker. And so movement will become inconsistent. We have to balance our minerals. We have to support all of them instead of megadosing one mineral. And then the last part is the nervous system has to allow it. You can have perfect digestion on paper, but if your body feels state unsafe, it will not prioritize elimination. The colon is not essential, which sounds so weird, but it is not essential for immediate survival. If your body perceives a threat, it's going to conserve. So you have to create safety. This is why travel constipates people, big life stressors, constipates people, or the opposite or restriction constipates people burnout. You have to create safety. So here's the reframe, long-term bowel regularity. Isn't about taking more magnesium. This is where food variety comes in, making sure it's broken down well, making sure enzymes, bile, et cetera, are all working. That you have the right microbes in your gut, that you have the right minerals to support your electrical system and that your nervous system will allow it. That's how the body works. That's the rhythm. And magnesium really works beautifully in a system that has that rhythm and struggles in a system that's been overcompensating. So if it stopped working, if magnesium stopped working, it's not your body just being stubborn. Pointing to something else that needs to be addressed. So it's a good time to check out what that check engine light means. We're not gonna just keep topping off the oil, resetting your dashboard hoping that it resolves. You can actually open up the hood and see what's going on. So that's exactly what we do in gut together. This is not just a generic protocol. This is not a try the supplement and see. Got Together is a one-on-one personalized program for individuals like you that have gut issues where we're gonna look at all these pieces of the puzzle using functional testing. Using specific protocols and providing you the tools and resources that you need to be successful so that you can overcome this once or once and for all. So if you wanna apply for Gut together, the link is in the show notes. We will review your application, look at your history, make sure that it's the right fit for you and. You need a system that works. Next week I'm gonna break down the four types of bloating, and I'm excited about that episode. So I will see you there. And congrats again to Stacy for winning the Loom Box. But thanks for tuning in. Looking forward to next week. See you then.