Of all forms of magnesium, magnesium L-threonate is best suited to increase the concentration of magnesium in the brain. As a result, supplementation with magnesium L-threonate not only leads to a decrease in the symptoms of ADHD, as we reported a few weeks ago, but magnesium L-threonate also reduces the need for strong painkillers in cancer patients.

Study
In 2023, researchers at Shanghai Jiaotong University Academic Hospital in China conducted a trial involving 83 patients with advanced cancer. All participants used oral opioids to reduce pain. Normally, patients require increasingly higher doses of these painkillers.

The researchers divided the patients into a control group and an experimental group.

The participants in the control group took a placebo 30 minutes before taking their painkillers. The experimental group took a supplement containing 1.5 to 2 grams of magnesium L-threonate. This amounts to 100 to 130 milligrams of elemental magnesium.

Taking into account the amount of water magnesium threonate can retain, there is no more than 66 milligrams of elemental magnesium in 1 gram of magnesium threonate.

The trial lasted three months.

Results
During the trial, the need for opioids increased in both groups, but the increase was half as fast in users of magnesium L-threonate.

After 3 months, the daily dose of opioids in the placebo group had increased by 40 milligrams. In the experimental group, this was 21 milligrams.

Click on the figure below for a larger version.

A side effect of opioids is constipation. Doctors determine the severity of constipation using the Wexner Constipation Score.

In the placebo group, the score remained moderately severe during the trial. In the experimental group, the score dropped from moderately severe to moderate.

Mechanism
Magnesium shifts the NMDA receptor down a notch in the brain. This weakens pain signals. Furthermore, magnesium can stabilize the mu-opioid receptor. As a result, opioids, as well as natural painkillers such as endorphins, can work better.

It is quite possible that magnesium L-threonate also has a mild analgesic effect in people who do not use opioids.

Conclusion
"Safe oral dosage of magnesium-L-threonate can improve the analgesic effect of opioids and reduce the dosage of opioids used in patients with advanced cancer while significantly relieving opioid-induced constipation without significant toxicity or side effects", the Chinese conclude.

"More clinical samples and longer follow-up period are necessary to determine the impact of oral magnesium-L-threonate on opioid tolerance in cancer patients."