Magnesium Citrate vs Probiotics for digestion
Short answer: For digestion, more users report improvement with Probiotics — 81% of 63 reports, versus 68% of 40 for Magnesium Citrate.
Magnesium Citrate has 14 meta-analyses and 135 randomized trials on PubMed; Probiotics has 2,293 and 2,235.
Based on 357 reports about Magnesium Citrate and 386 about Probiotics. Not medical advice.
| Magnesium Citrate Supplement | Probiotics Supplement | |
|---|---|---|
| User score | 60 | 44 |
| Verdict | Mostly positive | Mostly positive |
| Positive of reports that state an outcome | 65% | 61% |
| Reports | 357 | 386 |
| Research | AResearch: Strong | AResearch: Strong |
| Meta-analyses / RCTs | 14 / 135 | 2,293 / 2,235 |
| Mainly used for | ||
| Appetite % reporting improvement | — | 100% (3) |
| Focus % reporting improvement | 56% (9) | 70% (10) |
| Energy % reporting improvement | 67% (12) | 78% (9) |
| Sleep % reporting improvement | 86% (74) | 71% (7) |
| Anxiety % reporting improvement | 88% (50) | 89% (27) |
| Mood % reporting improvement | 72% (25) | 100% (48) |
| Memory % reporting improvement | 33% (3) | — |
| Recovery % reporting improvement | 100% (2) | — |
| Pain & inflammation % reporting improvement | 100% (5) | — |
| Digestion % reporting improvement | 68% (40) | 81% (63) |
| Heart & lipids % reporting improvement | 80% (5) | — |
| Skin & hair % reporting improvement | — | 100% (5) |
| Immunity % reporting improvement | — | 100% (2) |
| Common side effects | diarrhea, stomach issues, drowsiness, fatigue | stomach issues, brain fog, diarrhea, withdrawal |
| Typical dose reported | 400 mg / every night | daily |
This systematic review provides Grade C (possibly effective) evidence for prevention of migraine with magnesium. Prophylactic treatment of migraine by means of high levels of magnesium dicitrate (600 mg) seems to be a safe and cost efficient strategy in clinical use.
Headache, 2018 ↗“Magnesium citrate is the bees knees for me. I know everyone man and his dog always talks about it but it does seriously help with sleep onset for me personally.”
Some combinations of probiotics or strains may be beneficial in IBS. However, certainty in the evidence for efficacy by GRADE criteria was low to very low across almost all of our analyses.
Gastroenterology, 2023 ↗“What finally made a difference was taking probiotics...I felt better fairly quickly.”
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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