Minerals for Gut Health and Digestion

If you’ve been on the internet for a minute in the health and wellness space, you’ve probably read somewhere that minerals are the “spark plugs” of the body 🙃

(And if you haven’t — that’s A-OK — we’re going to be deep diving into minerals here)

This analogy refers to the fact that minerals are the “activators” of enzymes (enzymes are proteins required to facilitate a variety of reactions in our cells/bodies).

Good mineral status is critical for EVERYTHING in our body to work well — hormones, energy production, nerve conduction, digestive health, cardiovascular health, etc.

As you might expect — there are a variety of minerals that play an important role in our gut health & digestive function!

This article is going to explore into a variety of minerals and how they play a role in digestive function and gut health, how you can get more of these minerals in via nutrition, and we’re going to explore a case study where a client and I worked on her mineral status to address some of her GI (and other) concerns!

Let’s dive in 👀 👇

🍫 Magnesium

Magnesium, one of our ‘macro’ minerals (probably one of the most popular minerals right now, and one of my near-and-dears!) is used in over 500 enzymatic reactions in the body, and impacts everything from energy production, to muscle relaxation, to combating inflammation, to cardiovascular health.

Magnesium is also incredible for sleep, stress, and stress resilience — making it incredibly supportive for our gut health via those pathways!

As far as our gut health goes, magnesium plays important roles in gut motility and peristalsis (how things move through our GI tract), making it important for preventing constipation, SIBO, etc.

Foods high in magnesium :

Pumpkin seeds, spinach, avocados, cacao, almonds, cashews, hemp seeds, swiss chard, mackerel.

Other ways to access more magnesium:

Topical magnesium. Magnesium is absorbed very well transdermally (via the skin), and introducing topical magnesium is a great way to up your intake. You can find products in both lotion and spray form, depending on your preference. I love to recommend using a topical magnesium lotion before bed to support restful sleep!
Magnesium flake & epsom salt baths. Similar to topical magnesium above, magnesium flake & epsom salt baths are a great transdermal option if you love a bath. I love this option for the added benefit of taking a warm bath (your body’s temperature dropping after coming out of a bath will aid in your sleep!).

Types of Magnesium Supplementation:

If you’re interested in supplementation (I do generally take a food-first approach to accessing nutrients, but magnesium can be challenging for some to get enough of it through their nutrition), there are a number of different forms of magnesium for you to be aware of, that are best used for specific cases:

Magnesium Oxide: (osmotic; “laxative like”) constipation, motility
Magnesium Citrate: (osmotic; “laxative like”) constipation, motility
Magnesium Glycinate: sleep, stress, PMS, muscle relaxation
Magnesium Threonate: cognitive function, memory, mood, energy
Magnesium Taurate: cardiovascular health, blood sugar
Magnesium Malate: muscle function, fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome
Magnesium Sulfate: muscle relaxation, sleep support, stress (epsom salts; aka transdermal!)

Check out my online supplement dispensary to purchase professional-grade quality magnesium products here if you’re interested in incorporating a product into your daily routine! 👇

Canadian Folks:

american folks:

🥥 Potassium

Potassium is an electrolyte that has important roles in fluid and pH balance in the body, blood pressure, and cell permeability, and is one of two minerals involved in our sodium-potassium pump and thus electrical potential in the body.

It also plays a role in muscle contraction regulation, as well as nerve conduction (like between our brain 🧠 and our intestinal muscles) — both reasons that low potassium levels can contribute to things like constipation and associated symptoms (like bloating, abdominal pain and discomfort, etc.)

Foods high in potassium:

Avocado, potato (especially the skins), coconut/coconut water, banana, white button mushroom, winter squashes, beet greens, etc.

In certain cases, I also love products like this one, which is a great source of potassium when you’re in a pinch, or in need of some more intense hydration (like after a sauna or hot yoga class).

Electrolyte formulas will also contain potassium, and “homemade Gatorade” recipes that include coconut water or cream of tartar are great options for more therapeutic dosages of potassium via food sources.

🧂 Sodium

Sodium is (obvi) the second mineral involved in the sodium-potassium pump, making it likewise important for fluid balance, pH levels, cell membrane permeability, etc.

As it relates to our digestion and gut health specifically: we need sodium to produce adequate stomach acid, which helps us digest our food properly (especially starting the breakdown process of proteins), and is a critical step in the digestive cascade (ie. stomach acid signals the next steps in our digestion). Adequate stomach acid levels also protect us from contracting bugs we don’t want hanging around — like parasites!

Foods high in sodium:

Good quality salts like Celtic salt, or Redmond’s Real Salt, celery juice, seafood (shrimp, scallops), eggs, pickled veggies, and sauerkraut.

Adding a little bit of “sole water” (water that has been fully saturated with salt), to your drinking water is another great way to access more sodium in your day-to-day.

🦪 Zinc

Zinc, one of our trace minerals, is well known for its role in immune function (folks know to lean on this as a supportive tool when they fall sick!), wound healing, insulin production & secretion, and hair, skin, and nail health.

As far as our GI, it’s needed to produce gastric secretions like stomach acid (HCl), digestive enzymes, and bile. It’s also important to keep the cells of our gut barrier and mucosa healthy — both our parietal and epithelial cells (it’s often used as a means of healing ulcers!) Major for gut health & healing!!

Foods high in zinc:

Oysters, beef, bison, lentils, chickpeas, hemp seeds, pumpkin seeds, lamb.

Additional minerals play important roles in our gut health and digestion (in direct and indirect ways!) — iron, phosphorus, and selenium are all important and to be considered!

📊 Diving Deeper: HTMA Testing —
A Case Study

Want to see what considering mineral status looks like as it relates to gut health?

Let’s look into a mini client case study.

This is what this client came to me looking for support with:

Long-term reliance on the low FODMAP diet to manage digestive symptoms and food sensitivities (wanting to overcome food sensitivities & get off the low FODMAP diet), constipation and reliance on laxatives to have daily bowel movements, fibromyalgia, anxiety, bloating, nausea (especially in the morning), low energy, abdominal pain and gas, etc.

She signed up for my 5 month program (the Gut Restore Method), and we decided to run an HTMA test, and GI MAP stool test (in conjunction with the blood labs she’d recently had run through her doctor).

Here’s a sneak peek of the first panel of this client’s HTMA test 👇

*Note that here we see depleted potassium levels, magnesium and calcium loss (calcium shell), as well as copper dysregulation, depleted boron & selenium.*

Here’s what we found via the HTMA and GI MAP stool test we ran:

Some low levels of beneficial flora (which tracks given her long-term low FODMAP diet), depleted minerals & mineral loss, copper dysregulation, and overall mineral status pointing to a depleted system (low thyroid function, depleted stress resilience).

Here’s what we did:

We first started by establishing foundations (blood sugar management, liver & and detoxification support, sleep quality, adequate movement, with a major focus on nervous system & stress management), worked heavily on righting mineral status (via nutrition, lifestyle & supplementation) while weaning off laxatives & slowly reincorporating foods.

Here’s what we found as a result of our work together so far:

As a result of our time together, this client found improved digestion, weaned off laxatives and overcame constipation (has normal daily poops! yay!), stopped following the restrictive low FODMAP diet and got back to eating a variety of foods without issues (!!), ditched her headaches, improved her energy, reduced her anxiety, improved her fibromyalgia symptoms, and MORE

I’m so proud of this client, and all of the hard work she put into her health to see the incredible results that she has.

🧪 Other Testing Methods

Aside from HTMA testing, another incredible option for micronutrient testing — including minerals — is something like the Micronutrient Panel from Vibrant America (which you can learn more about here)

While labs like these aren’t always necessary, it can definitely be helpful to have some data to work with so you can be more targeted and strategic in your healing efforts.