Can You Take Calcium and Magnesium Together?
Magnesium and calcium supplements can interfere with each other's absorption when taken together. For better bone health, it's best to take them separately.
How Does Calcium Affect Your Health?
Calcium is best known for its role in keeping bones strong and healthy. However, calcium is also necessary for blood vessel dilation, blood clotting, and hormone secretion.
Most people get enough calcium from their diets. However, some groups, like postmenopausal people and those on vegan diets, might need calcium supplements.
Calcium supplements offer several benefits:
Help improve bone mineral density: Maintaining optimal calcium status supports skeletal health and bone mineral density. It may help slow bone loss in the femur and spine, especially in middle-aged and older women.
May lower colorectal cancer risk: Dietary calcium has been linked to fewer intestinal polyps. This may be due to calcium binding to bile acids, which slows polyp cell development.
May protect against cardiovascular disease (CVD): Calcium supplementation may lower the risk of death from CVD. It may slightly adjust lipid profiles and decrease blood pressure.
How Does Magnesium Affect Your Health?
Magnesium is concentrated in many plant foods, such as beans, seeds, and vegetables. Due to a reliance on ultra-processed foods, it's estimated that around half of people in the United States get less than the daily recommended amount of magnesium.
People with conditions affecting magnesium absorption and older adults are at higher risk for low magnesium levels.
Taking magnesium supplements has been linked with benefits, such as:
Helps support bone health: Low magnesium levels can decrease bone formation and increase bone breakdown, which raises the risk of bone disorders. Magnesium supplements may help improve bone density and decrease fracture risk.
May improve mental health: Magnesium supplements may help decrease symptoms of depression and anxiety. They may also help regulate stress.
May lower blood sugar and blood pressure: Magnesium supplements can support healthy blood sugar and blood pressure.
Magnesium supplements have also been shown to improve sleep quality, treat headache symptoms, and ease constipation.
Is It Okay To Mix Calcium and Magnesium?
Keeping optimal levels of magnesium and calcium is crucial for overall health. You may need to take supplements if both levels are low.
However, there might not be a benefit from taking them at the same time. Instead, you can likely get the most benefit from each supplement by taking the two separately.
Calcium and magnesium may compete for absorption in the body. Taking the supplements at the same time could interfere with your body's ability to absorb the nutrients.
Adding magnesium to your supplement routine can be beneficial if you only take calcium. High calcium intake can disrupt magnesium balance when magnesium levels are low. A magnesium supplement can help maintain this balance.
Tips for Taking Calcium and Magnesium Supplements
It's best to take calcium and magnesium separately. You might take your magnesium supplement in the afternoon and calcium at night.
Some products, such as those promoted for bone health and multivitamin supplements, often contain a number of nutrients, including minerals like magnesium and calcium.
To ensure the calcium is not negatively affecting magnesium absorption, the manufacturer might include a greater amount of magnesium than calcium in the product.
Make sure to follow any directions from a doctor and the manufacturer.
What Is the Best Dosage?
Supplements that contain a combination of magnesium and calcium tend to have a 2:1 or 3:1 ratio—there's 2-3 times the amount of magnesium than calcium.
Manufacturers claim these ratios help both minerals absorb properly. However, no official ideal ratio exists.
Most multinutrient supplements provide 200-300 milligrams of calcium. This is less than calcium-only supplements, which typically contain 500-600 milligrams of calcium per dose but can contain as much as 1,500 milligrams.
The amount of magnesium a supplement contains varies and can be especially dependent on the type of magnesium used.
The amounts of magnesium and calcium you need each day depend on factors such as age, sex, and pregnancy status. It's recommended that adults take 310-420 milligrams of magnesium and 1,000-1,300 milligrams of calcium per day.
Keep in mind that these recommendations are for total dietary intake, including amounts from food and dietary supplements.
Are These Supplements Safe for Everyone?
It's safe to take magnesium and calcium together. However, to support the absorption of these minerals, it's best to take them separately.
Taking both supplements as part of your regimen is fine. Always consider the safety of each individual supplement.
Calcium supplements have been linked to an increased risk of heart disease and kidney stones, especially when you take high doses. Taking large doses of magnesium can lead to diarrhea, nausea, and abdominal cramping.
Severe side effects are rare for either. They are likely safe even during pregnancy when taken in the right amounts.
Potential Drug Interactions
Calcium supplements may interfere with medications like:
Antibiotics: Calcium supplements may decrease the absorption of antibiotics. Take these medications two hours before or after calcium.
Thyroid medications: Calcium may interfere with the absorption of levothyroxine, which is used for hypothyroidism (an underactive thyroid) and thyroid cancer. Take the medication at least four hours apart from calcium.
Tivicay (dolutegravir): Calcium may lower blood levels of this HIV medication. Take it two hours before or six hours after calcium.
Magnesium supplements may interfere with medications like:
Antibiotics: Magnesium supplements may decrease the absorption of antibiotics. Take antibiotics two hours before or at least four hours after magnesium.
Bisphosphonates: These drugs treat osteopenia or osteoporosis. Magnesium may interfere with absorption, so take it at least two hours apart.
Diuretics: Potassium-sparing diuretics decrease magnesium excretion in urine. This may raise magnesium levels too high when combined with supplements.
Can You Take Too Much?
It's possible to take in too much of these nutrients from supplements.
The maximum amount of magnesium supplements considered safe for most adults to take a day is 350 milligrams. The maximum amount of calcium intake across all forms—supplements, food, and drink—considered safe is 2,000-2,500 milligrams a day.
Taking very large doses of magnesium-rich laxatives and antacids—doses as big as 5,000 milligrams a day—can lead to magnesium toxicity. The risk is higher for people with impaired kidney function.
Symptoms of magnesium toxicity include:
l Difficulty breathing
l Irregular heartbeat
l Low blood pressure
High-dose calcium supplements may lead to kidney stones, age-related macular degeneration (AMD), heart disease, and metabolic syndrome.
What Side Effects Should You Watch For?
Some of the most common side effects of calcium and magnesium include:
Bloating
l Constipation
l Diarrhea
l Gas
l Nausea
l Mild abdominal pain
Combining calcium and magnesium may worsen these side effects. Taking them separately and with food may decrease the risk.
Keep in mind that certain forms of magnesium, like magnesium oxide, are more likely to cause digestive distress compared to other forms, such as magnesium glycinate.
