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. 1991 Aug;88(2):396–402. doi: 10.1172/JCI115317

Intestinal absorption of magnesium from food and supplements.

K D Fine 1, C A Santa Ana 1, J L Porter 1, J S Fordtran 1
PMCID: PMC295344  PMID: 1864954

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to measure magnesium absorption over the wide range of intakes to which the intestine may be exposed from food and/or magnesium-containing medications. Net magnesium absorption was measured in normal subjects after they ingested a standard meal supplemented with 0, 10, 20, 40, and 80 mEq of magnesium acetate. Although absorption increased with each increment in intake, fractional magnesium absorption fell progressively (from 65% at the lowest to 11% at the highest intake) so that absorption as a function of intake was curvilinear. This absorption-intake relationship was almost perfectly represented by an equation containing a hyperbolic function plus a linear function. Our results are statistically compatible with a magnesium absorption process that simultaneously uses a mechanism that reaches an absorptive maximum, plus a mechanism that endlessly absorbs a defined fraction (7%) of ingested magnesium. Compared to previous studies of calcium absorption, much less magnesium that calcium was absorbed at intakes above 8 mEq/meal, apparently due to greater restriction of intestinal permeability to magnesium. We also found that magnesium from a high magnesium-containing food source, almonds, was just as bioavailable as from soluble magnesium acetate. In contrast, magnesium absorption from commercially available enteric-coated magnesium chloride was much less than from magnesium acetate, suggesting that enteric coating can impair magnesium bioavailability.

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Selected References

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