Magnesium for Anxiety, Sleep, Stress & Hormones: What You Need to Know

In this conversation, Sherry sits down with Natalie Jurado, founder of Be Rooted In, to explore one of the most overlooked yet life-changing minerals: magnesium.

If you’ve struggled with anxiety, insomnia, panic attacks, burnout, muscle cramps, headaches, hormonal imbalance, chronic stress, or that “tired but wired” feeling… this episode will open a new door.

Natalie shares her journey — from sleeping only two hours a night and having public panic attacks to reclaiming her nervous system, peace, and vitality through magnesium.

1. Natalie’s Story: From Panic to Peace
Natalie describes a season of snapping at her kids, constant anxiety, panic attacks in grocery stores, lack of sleep, and juggling business and motherhood. After countless tests and dismissals, a customer suggested magnesium. Within a week of topical magnesium chloride, her sleep improved from two hours to six, and panic attacks stopped — sparking her life’s work.

2. Why So Many Are Magnesium Deficient
Magnesium is stored mostly in muscles (60%) and bones (40%); only 1% is in the blood, so deficiency often goes undetected. Deficiency is common because: chronic stress, caffeine, alcohol, sugar (54 molecules of magnesium per sugar molecule), and exercise drain magnesium. Getting enough through food alone? You’d need 10 cups of raw spinach daily. No wonder 70% of people are deficient.

3. Stress, Cortisol & Magnesium
Magnesium supports the parasympathetic nervous system — “rest, digest, repair.” Stress burns magnesium, which makes regulating stress harder. Magnesium acts as a brake for the nervous system, and deficiency keeps us stuck in fight-or-flight. Culturally, we normalize burnout; magnesium offers a physiological path back to calm.

4. Symptoms of Deficiency
Common signs include headaches, migraines, insomnia, restless legs, cramps, inflammation, hormonal imbalance, anxiety, and depression. These are not “normal” — they are signs of a depleted nervous system.

5. How Do We Know If We’re Getting Enough?
Food high in magnesium includes leafy greens, nuts, seeds, and dark chocolate. But stress, diet, lifestyle, and environment affect absorption, and food alone may not suffice.

6. Types of Magnesium
Natalie breaks down 11 types:

• Avoid: Oxide (4% absorbed), Carbonate — mostly wasted.

• Prefer: Glycinate (sleep, anxiety), Malate (energy, muscles), Threonate (brain fog), Sulfate/Epsom (baths, cramps), Chloride (creams, transdermal).

7. Daily Magnesium Routine
Natalie spreads doses: cream after morning workout, supplement with breakfast, cream again in evening, and leg/foot application before bed to maximize absorption.

8. Dosage
RDA is 350–400 mg for healthy people. Chronic stress, caffeine, sugar, exercise, or sweating increases needs. Natalie takes 700–800 mg/day. Magnesium is hard to overdose — the body self-regulates.

9. The Heart Behind Her Work
Natalie’s mission: stop unnecessary suffering, provide the information she lacked, and reduce needless doctor visits. Her work is service.

10. Where to Find Natalie
Website: BeRootedIn.com
Social: @berootedin

Your Takeaways
Anxiety and exhaustion aren’t “just” what they seem. Normal symptoms aren’t always normal. Magnesium is essential for stress recovery, sleep, nervous system regulation, hormones, and mental health. Lifestyle factors impact magnesium needs. Don’t let others define what’s normal for your body. This episode is a permission slip to rethink your symptoms and reclaim calm.