Magnesium taurate · mineral
Evidence tier: insufficient
A magnesium form chosen for cardiovascular targeting, combines magnesium with the heart supporting amino acid taurine.
Two mechanisms bolted together on paper. Magnesium is a cofactor in more than 300 enzyme systems and relaxes vascular smooth muscle, which is the basis of its small blood pressure effect. Taurine is an amino acid abundant in heart muscle that appears to stabilise membrane excitability and improve endothelial function. The proposition that chelating one to the other produces a magnesium that is preferentially taken up by cardiac tissue is a mechanistic hypothesis from animal and laboratory work; it has never been demonstrated in people, and no head to head human trial has shown magnesium taurate to outperform any other magnesium salt for any outcome.
Magnesium taurate is sold as the heart form of magnesium, and there is essentially no human evidence for THIS FORM. Searching the clinical literature for trials of magnesium taurate returns none: what exists is trial evidence for elemental magnesium in one place and trial evidence for taurine in another, plus a much cited argument from the 1990s that combining them ought to help. That argument is a hypothesis, not a result, and the honest grade is insufficient. The two component literatures are themselves modest. Magnesium: a meta analysis of 38 randomised controlled trials in 2,709 participants found supplementation lowered systolic blood pressure by about 2.8 mmHg and diastolic by about 2.1 mmHg. Taurine: meta analytic evidence in prehypertension and hypertension shows roughly 3.0 mmHg systolic and 1.5 mmHg diastolic. Both are small effects, both are in blood pressure specifically, and neither was produced by the taurate salt. The rule this ingredient exists to teach: you may not add two ingredients' evidence together, put the sum on a third ingredient's label, and call it clinical evidence for arrhythmia management. Arrhythmia is a diagnosed cardiac condition, it is treated with intravenous magnesium in hospital, and no supplement may claim it. The claim that the taurate form is preferentially delivered to cardiac tissue comes from animal and mechanistic work and has not been demonstrated in humans. What can be said honestly is narrow: magnesium taurate is a magnesium salt, so it delivers elemental magnesium, and whatever elemental magnesium does, it does. The specific superiority claim, the heart tropism claim and the arrhythmia claim are all unevidenced.
No dose has been established for magnesium taurate, because no trial has tested it. The number that governs is the NIH Tolerable Upper Intake Level for SUPPLEMENTAL magnesium in adults, 350 mg of elemental magnesium daily, which counts the pill and not the food, and which applies in pregnancy and breastfeeding too. Read the label for elemental magnesium content, not for the weight of the compound, and stay under that ceiling. Magnesium is cleared by the kidneys and accumulates when they fail, so impaired renal function is the one hard contraindication.
125 to 400 mg elemental magnesium twice daily with food.
Caution in renal impairment. Generally very safe otherwise.
Pregnancy: caution
Breastfeeding: caution
Active compounds: elemental magnesium, taurine
Remedies using Magnesium Taurate · Browse by body system · Check it against what you take
*These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.