Episode 84: Magnesium for Anxiety, Sleep, Stress & Hormones: What You Need to Know

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

If you’ve ever struggled with:

  • anxiety
  • insomnia
  • panic attacks
  • burnout
  • muscle cramps
  • headaches
  • hormonal imbalance
  • chronic stress
  • that “tired but wired” feeling

…this episode will open a brand-new door.

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

1. Natalie’s Story: From Panic and Insomnia to Peace

Natalie describes a season of life where she was:

  • snapping at her kids
  • anxious all day
  • experiencing panic attacks in grocery stores
  • unable to sleep
  • managing a business, motherhood, and certifications

After countless tests, specialists, and “you’re perfectly normal” dismissals, she began searching for answers beyond traditional medicine.

A customer in her natural store mentioned magnesium — and within a week of using topical magnesium chloride, her sleep increased from two hours to six, and her panic attacks stopped.

This would become the spark for her life’s work.

2. Why So Many of Us Are Magnesium Deficient

You’ll learn that magnesium is stored mostly in:

  • muscles (60%)
  • bones (40%)
     Only 1% is in the blood — meaning blood tests miss magnesium deficiency almost entirely.

Natalie explains why deficiency is so common:

  • chronic stress burns through magnesium
  • caffeine depletes magnesium
  • alcohol depletes magnesium
  • sugar requires 54 molecules of magnesium to process one molecule
  • exercise and sweating drain electrolytes

And to get enough through food alone?
You’d need to eat 10 cups of raw spinach a day.

No wonder 70% of the population is deficient.

3. Stress, Cortisol & Magnesium — The Nervous System Connection

Natalie breaks down the beautiful relationship between magnesium and the parasympathetic nervous system — the “rest, digest, repair” state.

She explains why:

  • the more stressed you are, the more magnesium you burn
  • the more magnesium you lose, the harder it is to regulate stress
  • magnesium acts as a brake for the nervous system
  • deficiency keeps you stuck in fight-or-flight

Sherry connects this with a cultural pattern we all know too well:
 We are rewarded for burnout.
 We celebrate overwork.
 We normalize exhaustion.

Magnesium offers the opposite: a physiological path back to calm.

4. Symptoms of Magnesium Deficiency

This section is eye-opening. Symptoms include:

  • headaches & migraines
  • insomnia
  • restless legs
  • leg cramps
  • inflammation
  • hormone imbalance
  • anxiety
  • depression

Most of us think these symptoms are “normal.” They aren’t.
They are signs of a depleted nervous system.

5. The Big Question: How Do We Know If We’re Getting Enough?

Sherry and Natalie explore how much magnesium we actually absorb through food — and why stress, diet, lifestyle, and environment massively affect your needs.

Foods high in magnesium include:

  • leafy greens
  • Nuts
  • seeds
  • high-quality dark chocolate

But for many people, food alone isn’t enough.

6. The Types of Magnesium (What Works & What to Avoid)

Natalie gives a clear, simple breakdown of the 11 types of magnesium — and which you want to reach for.

Avoid these:

  • Magnesium oxide (only 4% absorption)
  • Magnesium carbonate

These go straight through your system.
“I tell people they may as well flush their money down the toilet,” she jokes.

Preferred forms:

  • Glycinate — sleep, anxiety, relaxation
  • Malate — energy, muscles
  • Threonate — brain fog, cognitive support
  • Sulfate (Epsom salts) — baths, leg cramps
  • Chloride — sprays, creams, transdermal absorption

This simple section makes magnesium feel understandable instead of overwhelming.

7. Natalie’s Daily Magnesium Routine

She shares her real-world process:

  • magnesium cream after morning workouts
  • magnesium supplement with her first meal
  • magnesium cream again in the evening
  • magnesium on legs/feet before bed

Doses spread out throughout the day help maximize absorption.

8. Dosage: How Much Do We Need?

The RDA is 350–400 mg, but that’s for healthy people with no deficiency.

If you:

  • drink caffeine
  • eat sugar
  • are under chronic stress
  • exercise
  • sweat often

…you’re likely to need more.

Natalie personally takes 700–800 mg per day to maintain balance based on her lifestyle.

Magnesium is difficult to overdose — the body has a natural fail-safe system.

9. The Heart Behind Her Work

Natalie lights up as she shares why she does this:
She wants people to stop suffering unnecessarily.
She wants people to have the information she never had.
And she believes magnesium could meaningfully reduce the need for countless doctor visits.

Her work is an act of service.

10. Where to Find Natalie

Your Takeaways from This Episode

  • Your anxiety isn’t “just anxiety.”
  • Your exhaustion isn’t “just motherhood” or “just burnout.”
  • Normal symptoms aren’t always your normal.
  • Magnesium is essential for stress recovery, sleep, nervous system regulation, hormones, and mental health.
  • Your lifestyle, stress, sugar, caffeine, and exercise all affect magnesium needs.
  • Never let someone else define “normal” for your body.

This episode is a permission slip to rethink your symptoms — and reclaim your calm.

Journal Prompts

  1. Which symptoms from the magnesium deficiency list do I experience most often?
  2. What parts of my lifestyle might be depleting magnesium or taxing my nervous system?
  3. How can I incorporate more magnesium-rich foods or practices this week?
  4. Where am I normalizing suffering that isn’t actually normal for me?
  5. What would creating a more regulated lifestyle look like for me?

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