Why Mangnesium is the Yin to Thiamine's Yang

Within the body, at that smallest level, far beyond what the eye can see, but responsible for so much, some of the invisible participants dance alone, but more often than not, it takes two to tango. Iron and copper, vitamin K and calcium, zinc and vitamin A, and at this point I’m sure you’re just waiting for me to get it over with, but of course, thiamine and magnesium. While thiamine is the nutrient critical to proper energy metabolism, it relies on an equally critical mineral in order to ensure it’s able to effectively do all that it’s intended for. The reason for this is that while thiamine is necessary on its own, magnesium is required to turn the raw thiamine into the form responsible for all the magic associated with B1, Thiamine Diphosphate, or TPP, by means of the enzyme thiamine pyrophosphokinase. Once the thiamine has been altered into TPP, magnesium is then later required again as substrate alongside TPP in order for it to perform more enzymatic reactions, most notably, its role in creating pyruvate dehydrogenase to fuel the Krebs cycle, producing energy for our bodies.

Some interesting considerations due to the nature of these two nutrients, magnesium is essentially the rate limiting factor on thiamine being a rate limiting factor for energy production. What this means is that if the body has a steady stream of thiamine, but no magnesium to activate it, well then it’s close to the same as having no additional thiamine at all. An interesting consideration that branches off this interesting consideration however, is that hammering additional magnesium on top of already taking thiamine doesn’t mean that more activity will occur. A person with low available magnesium would experience immediate issues with that bottleneck in regard to the potential return offered by thiamine, whereas adequate stores would mean thiamine conversion is supported, among the other host of things magnesium is responsible for. Taking excessive thiamine and magnesium in conjunction won’t increase the rate that reactions happen at, or boost your energy even more, or really push the needle for thiamine activity any further than it would go should the body have had ample stores of magnesium.

While it’s no surprise I love thiamine, I can’t pick favorites, so I love my Catalyst and Conduit the same and hopefully I’ve managed to effectively explain why that's the case. Additionally, this is an opportune time to point out that based off of what you’ve just read, if you’re someone who's especially sensitive to supplements, or struggling with something that you’ve determined by yourself or guided toward by someone else that is the result of a thiamine deficiency, it would make sense to focus on restoring magnesium in the body via Conduit, prior to adding Catalyst. This gives your system the opportunity to at first regulate the enzymatic activations resulting from magnesium supplementation alone, all the while slowly building up your stores of the mineral. Once a new foundational baseline has been achieved, and you’re comfortable with your new normal, then you’re in a position to add Catalyst into the mix. Doing so increases the probability of things going more smoothly, and it’s always easier to gauge the effects of something when it’s not introduced alongside something else new.