According to a new study in cancer patients, a special form of magnesium, magnesium L-threonate, may provide added benefits through its ability to cross the blood-brain barrier and act as a pain receptor antagonist.
Magnesium L-threonate was especially effective at reducing opioid tolerance in people with chronic pain.
According to the CDC there are over 1.5 million cancer diagnoses in the U.S. annually and millions more are diagnosed with chronic pain.
Morphine is a common analgesic used in cancer treatment and has been the “go to” for pain reduction. Long-term use of Morphine can weaken its effectiveness over time and induce side effects like increased need for more opioids, memory loss, dizziness, sleepiness and opioid-induced constipation.
Pain medication is often necessary to cope with pain associated with cancer and cancer treatment so reducing the amount of pain medicine needed has been a concern of patients and doctors.
Magnesium L-threonate might be the solution for reducing the minimum effective dosage of pain medication
Magnesium has been known to reduce opioid tolerance and enhance analgesia in chronic pain sufferers. Now research shows that magnesium L-threonate might be the most effective form of magnesium in reducing tolerance to pain killers.
A study was conducted giving participants taking Morphine for chronic pain magnesium L-threonate or a placebo for 90 days.
By day 30, the magnesium threonate group needed less of a bump in their morphine dose to manage the pain than the placebo group. On day 90, these results were even more pronounced.
From these findings, researchers concluded that magnesium-L-threonate can help ease morphine tolerance.
The magnesium group also experienced relief from opioid-induced constipation.
Magnesium L-threonate supplementation could be a simple, cost-effective and beneficial strategy for managing chronic pain while reducing opioid tolerance.
