Issues relating to chelated magnesium supplements

I, like many others on this forum, have been using Albion Bluebonnet chelated magnesium. However, it appears that the buffering agent used in this product is magnesium oxide and that while it appears "little" of this magnesium oxide is used as a buffer, the exact amount is not listed on the label, nor is the exact amount of chelated magnesium glycinate!

In addition, while Doctor's Best does use the glycinate and lysinate chelates and clearly lists the actual elemental amount in the product, they add bioperine, a black pepper extract, which they claim enhances absorption. The problem is that Albion mineral chelates DO NOT require additional additives to enhance their absorption, due to their unique absorption properties BUT that there is no conclusive proof that biosperine actually aids the absorption of this mineral! Furthermore, when I and several friends used this product we experienced gastric upset due to the black pepper extract.

I have discussed this matter with a senior Albion representative who agreed regarding the issues I raised above specifically the fact that biosperine is unnecessary and may just be a marketing ploy for Doctor's Best to sell their product and that the issue of Bluebonnet not listing magnesium oxide as the buffering agent should be commented upon directly with the company.

I forgot to add that the senior Albion representative I spoke with indicated that I should attempt to obtain the Metagenics brand o Magnesium Glycinate due to its containing the glycinate chelate ONLY, with no so-called buffering agents such as magnesium oxide or biosperine.

Jerry,

The bottle of Bluebonnet mag I have clearly states 200 mg. of magnesium--elemental. It lists mag stearate from vegetable. It doesn't list mag ox as an ingredient. Are you saying that it contains ingredients that it does not list?

lisa

Lisa, thanks for the feedback.

It does note on the bottom, which I apparently missed, that it is elemental. However, the question still remains as to how much magnesium oxide is used to buffer this product and why they do not note this information on their label. I have experienced gastric upset from magnesium oxide and other forms of magnesium as well as from biosperine and even if the amount of magnesium oxide used to buffer this product is low, it should be clearly indicated on the label.

Not even to mention that as far as i know, buffering is only necessary for acidic things, and magnesium and potassium are both basic, not acidic.

The old ignoramus

I have copied you in on an email interchange I had recently over this question with Blue Bonnet directly.. The first email is from me to Blue Bonnet...



"Bluebonnet’s Albion® Chelated Magnesium 200 mg Vcaps provide reacted buffered magnesium glycinate, an amino acid chelated mineral, in easy-to-swallow vegetable capsules for maximum assimilation and absorption. "


This product has been recommended on the Afibbers.net site and I have been buying it for several years. However a discussion has now arisen on the site’s bulletin board about what the magnesium glycinate is buffered with and the fact that a truly Albion chelated magnesium does not need a buffering agent.

I take it for atrial fibrillation and have carefully avoided magnesium oxide because it is very poorly absorbed. It has been suggested that this product is buffered with 8% magnesium oxide and if so will no longer be endorsed by the site.

I would appreciate your explaining the buffering agent and in light of it, how much actual elemental magnesium glycinate does each capsule have?

Thank you,

Justine

____________________________________________________________

Marilyn Ivins
Technical Specialist
Customer Service Manager
Bluebonnet Nutrition


Good morning Justine,

Thank you for your inquiry and your interest in Bluebonnet Nutrition.

Magnesium oxide is only used as a buffer it is the bisglycinate bond that makes this product very easily absorbed into the bloodstream.

All chelates are inorganic minerals bonded ionically with amino acids or organic acids – turning inorganic minerals that are poorly absorbed by the body into organic minerals (carbon-containing) that are easily absorbed by the body via active transport. Magnesium bisglycinate is magnesium oxide (buffer) with 2 molecules of glycine – the smallest amino acid – so small it doesn’t even have an asymmetrical carbon (L and D configurations). Once an element is ionically bonded it takes on new properties and should not be compared to its predecessor.

Gunter Blobel, the 1999 winner of the Nobel for Medicine was awarded this prize due to his discretion on the fact that minerals require protein chaperones (amino acids) for the highest bioavailability and bioactivity by the body.

www.albionminerals.com [www.albionminerals.com] < [www.albionminerals.com] [www.albionminerals.com] > [www.albionminerals.com]

The Albion® web site is very informative, you can ask any questions from Albion® directly for more details on the chelating process.

Once again, thank you for your kind patronage.

Best regards,

__________________________________


Thanks for the information Marilyn. My question remains though – how much mg oxide is used as a buffer and is this included in the 200 mg of elemental magnesium? In other words, is the elemental mg all mg glycinate, or is the mg oxide buffer included in that 200 mg?

Thank you,
Justine



________________________________________


All of the elemental comes from the glycinate.



Marilyn Ivins
Technical Specialist
Customer Service Manager
Bluebonnet Nutrition

Justine,

Thank you for looking into this. As I recall it we investigated it about a year ago and received the same assurance. Each capsule of the Bluebonnet product contains 200 mg of elemental magnesium in the form of magnesium glycinate (Albion process).

Hans

Jerry - A lot of people experience the same effect from the bioperene whether it's added to magnesium or other supplements. It's most likely a way for Drs. Best to distinguish their product. And you are correct, a true Albion magnesium glycinate needs no enhancers for absorption. As noted in the other posts, the oxide content is trivial and not the source of the elemental magnesium if it's by the true Albion patented process.

In the professional-grade products such as Metagenics, you'll often find they have no need to add fillers but they are more costly and I'm not sure the extra cost versus a quality product such as Bluebonnet is justified... in the case of the Albion magnesium glycinate product.

I do, however, think it's very important for afibbers to use the Albion patented process from those who are listed at the Albion website.

In the report Magnesium Absorption and Assimilation, the following is listed:
[www.afibbers.org]

IDENTIFYING ALBION PATENTED PRODUCTS
Two key label ID’s to check… Gold Medallion® and TRAACS®

Albion’s Human Nutrition Division offers a Gold Medallion ® status to those Albion customers whose products have been recognized for their mineral excellence. These companies can use the Gold Medallion label on products and literature to assure the consumer is assured that the product contains quality mineral ingredients based on scientific research. These are found on their website [www.albionminerals.com] along with another category [www.albionminerals.com] These companies, although not Gold Medallion customers, use Albion in many of their formulas. You may contact these companies directly to inquire about their range of products that include Albion minerals

Go to the Albion website for extensive details on the chelation process.

Albion products use the labeling designation of TRAACS® which stands for The Real Amino Acid Chelate System to identify their human nutrition line of organic mineral products. The TRAACS® brand name assures the buyer they are getting reacted mineral amino acid chelates long with precisely controlled ingredient specification with FT-IR fingerprinting that both identifies and quantifies the degree of chelation. The FT-IR wave reading is the molecular ‘track’ that only TRAACS® branded products have been scientifically shown to follow.
This includes:
ISO 9001:2008 certified, *cGMP certified, * Kosher
* Hypoallergenic
* Vegetarian friendly
* Nutritionally functional
* Ultimate glycine:mineral molar ratio
* BSE-free
* Pharmaceutically pure
* Chemically validated (FTIR finger printed)
* Clinically researched

The Gold Medallion retailers include:
Bluebonnet
Designs for Health
Life Zone
Metagenics
Olymp Laboratories (Poland)
Optimal Nutrients
Solgar
Swanson
Trophic (Canada)

Doctor’s Best…[I inquired specifically about the typical brands we recommend to afibbers. Doctor’s Best is definitely one of the best and we can be sure it meets the true magnesium chelate specifications. Solgar, Bluebonnet and Swanson are on the list as well.]

Apparently, printing patent numbers on bottle labels is not sufficient to ensure that the product inside meets the criteria, unless they have actually entered a licensing agreement with Albion.

This brings up KAL and Carlson’s brands we often see being used.
The KAL magnesium glycinate product does not indicate it’s chelated and the labeling indicates it will be subject to stomach dissociation “Rapid Solv Disintegration within 30 Min. (USP XXII)”
Carlson’s no longer uses Albion’s material. When they did, it was the buffered form. Their label now reads: This time-release formula is prepared to disintegrate over a period of up to 1 hour.

Kirkman is an Albion customer, but is not on the Albion’s list, since they have not signed a licensing agreement with them.

Does this mean you should not use these products? No.
It means that you should be aware that if your intention is to use the true amino acid product which offers the best bioavailability and results, you aren’t getting it with products not found on the foregoing list. Other forms of magnesium will definitely work to some degree but may cause bowel intolerance and electrolyte wasting which could affect your success results. And remember that in elevated dosing with magnesium, the ligand needs to be ‘nutritionally functional’ and not cause imbalances.

Reading between the lines, it’s one thing to advertise on the label that you use Albion process; quite another that the truth in labeling will be enforced, policed or litigated for infringement.

Jackie

The formula for creating generic magnesium bisglycinate (not sure what Albion does that might be different):

1 Magnesium Oxide + 2 glycine = 1 magnesium bis(glycinato-N,O) +1 water

As a formula:

MGO+ 2(C2H5NO2) = C4H8MgN2O4 + H2O

As you can see, magnesium oxide is the starting point for the formula in magnesium glycinate. This does not mean you are taking mag ox, just that they started with a magnesium oxide molecule and chelated it with 2 glycine molecules to get one magnesium glycinate molecule plus a molecule of water.

You chemists or chemical engineers can check my work.

George

Thanks to all for the terrific feedback.

After reviewing all the feedback relating to Bluebonnets magnesium formula, I feel more comfortable taking their supplement. However, it was very significant that the senior Albion Representative I discussed this matter with specifically recommended the Metagenics brand as being the purest of all of Albion's Magnesium Glycinate Chelate supplement.

In fact today I contacted Metagenics and spoke with a representative from their clinical department and was absolutely assured that there was not a "trace" of Magnesium Oxide utilized in the making of their chelated Magnesium Glycinate product.

Personally, I feel it is worth the extra expense to purchase their product due to there not being any magnesium oxide, trace or otherwise, in this supplement as well as no biosperine, which is totally unnecessary for the absorption of an Albion chelated product and with very questionable benefit in general for the absorption of any supplement but with the potential for gastric upset.

Jerry - Metagenics is certainly a reliable product.

For others who choose not to go the Metagenics route, the minor amount of magnesium oxide that might be a remainder trace mineral in the true amino acid chelated product will simply not be absorbed and will be eliminated via fecal excretion. The concern becomes when the label indicates that the majority of the magnesium content comes from magnesium oxide. In that case, you definitely won't be absorbing the amount of magnesium you need for intracellular repletion so it's a total waste of money. Worse, it won't help your heart.

Good luck with the tablet form. I originally started on Metagenics Mag Glycinate but switched to capsule form because I had trouble swallowing those large, hard bullets. If I only needed one a day, that would be one thing but to struggle with so many, it wasn't worth all the gagging.

Jackie

Jackie, an additional benefit in using the Metagenics Magnesium formula is that they come in 100mg tablets, enabling the user to more gradually increase the amount of their magnesium intake in order to observe any positive or negative effect (ie diarrhea) and without resorting to taking a higher amount which may be unnecessary, in such higher potency formulas as Bluebonnet and Doctors Best which contain 200mg per capsule.

Jerry
I don't know about Bluebonnet dosage but Dr Best is 100 mg per tablet with a 200 mg dosage coming from 2 tablets.
Cyndie