Black Seed Oil vs Magnesium for pain & inflammation
Short answer: For pain & inflammation, more users report improvement with Black Seed Oil — 100% of 17 reports, versus 93% of 44 for Magnesium.
Black Seed Oil has 2 meta-analyses and 9 randomized trials on PubMed; Magnesium has 82 and 210.
Based on 279 reports about Black Seed Oil and 2,391 about Magnesium. Not medical advice.
| Black Seed Oil Supplement | Magnesium Supplement | |
|---|---|---|
| Users say it helped | 66%helped114 reports · high confidence | 73%helped956 reports · high confidence |
| Verdict | Mostly positive | Mostly positive |
| Research | BResearch: Moderate | AResearch: Strong |
| Meta-analyses / RCTs | 2 / 9 | 82 / 210 |
| Mainly used for | ||
| Sleep % reporting improvement | 94% (16) | 88% (430) |
| Anxiety % reporting improvement | 94% (52) | 90% (289) |
| Mood % reporting improvement | 90% (39) | 82% (118) |
| Energy % reporting improvement | 64% (11) | 75% (83) |
| Pain & inflammation % reporting improvement | 100% (17) | 93% (44) |
| Common side effects | stomach issues, nausea, oily skin, heartburn | diarrhea, drowsiness, stomach issues, vivid dreams |
| Typical dose reported | 1 teaspoon / daily | 500 mg / daily |
Nigella sativa was shown to significantly improve laboratory parameters of hyperglycemia and diabetes control after treatment with a significant fall in fasting blood glucose, blood glucose level 2 h postprandial, glycated hemoglobin, and insulin resistance, and a rise in serum insulin. In conclusion, these findings suggested that Nigella sativa could be used as an adjuvant for oral antidiabetic drugs in diabetes control.
Int J Environ Res Public Health, 2019 ↗“Black seed yes. I'm taking capsules of both strengths. I was hoping it would help with exczema/skin health. But so far it's mainly good for immunity, anxiety. Good all rounder but not sure I'll get it again.”
This review confirms that the quality of literature is substandard for physicians to make well-informed recommendations on usage of oral magnesium for older adults with insomnia. However, given that oral magnesium is very cheap and widely available, RCT evidence may support oral magnesium supplements (less than 1 g quantities given up to three times a day) for insomnia symptoms.
BMC Complement Med Ther, 2021 ↗“after supplementing with 400mg of Magnesium daily. Winter blues hit me hard and my multivitamin wasn't doing any justice, but once I began supplementing Magnesium, everything changed.”
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Percentages come from first-hand user reports and are not clinical outcomes. Talk to a doctor before starting, stopping or combining anything. How we rate