What Stress Takes From Your Body: The Vitamins and Minerals It Depletes and How to Put Them Back
Stress is basically a tax. Your body pays it in nutrients, and it collects from exactly the accounts you need to cope with the next lot. It's a self re-enforcing feedback loop, when you think about it.
I trained as a psychotherapist while building this shop, so I hear this question in two registers: someone telling me what the last week has been like, and someone asking what they can take for it. The honest answer to the second depends on the first, and the honest part of that answer is that nothing in a capsule fixes a week like that. What it can do is put back what the week took out. That is smaller than the marketing, but more useful! Stick with me here...
The short version: sustained stress runs down magnesium, the B vitamins and vitamin C, and pulls zinc out of circulation. Those are the raw materials your nervous system uses to handle stress, which is why running low on them makes the next hard week feel harder. Food first. Then, if you want to top up, the right forms at honest doses.
The loop: why stress costs nutrients
Kept short. When you are under pressure your adrenal glands make cortisol and adrenaline, and your nervous system runs hot. Making those hormones takes vitamin C and vitamin B5. Running the nerves and muscles takes magnesium. Making the calming neurotransmitters that bring you back down takes B6. Cortisol also tells your kidneys to let more magnesium out in urine. So stress uses the nutrients up and flushes some of them out at the same time.
Then the loop closes. Low magnesium makes the stress response louder: the nervous system is more excitable and the cortisol response bigger, so the same week takes more out of you. Researchers have called this the magnesium and stress vicious circle since the early 1990s, and a 2020 review in Nutrients went back over the evidence and found it still holds. Three of its authors work for a company that sells magnesium, which I mention because you would want to know, and because it does not change the physiology.
The symptoms overlap too. The review's list for low magnesium reads like a list for a hard month: tired, irritable, on edge, sleeping badly. Which is the problem. You cannot tell from the outside which one you are looking at, and mostly it is both.
Magnesium
Magnesium is the big one. Well, for me, anyway. Around 300 enzymes need it, the nervous systems' brakes run on it, and the body keeps almost all of it in bone and inside cells. Roughly one per cent is in your blood. That last fact matters: a normal blood magnesium result rules out very little, because blood is the last place the body lets it drop. Plenty of people have been handed a normal result while plainly running on empty.
Food first: leafy greens, nuts, seeds, beans, wholegrains, dark chocolate. If you want a supplement, the form is most of the decision, and the cheapest form barely works. The full breakdown is in our magnesium forms guide; glycinate is the sensible default for this job.
I will declare an interest. I take MagTech myself, in the evening, and what I notice on it is that I am more relaxed going to bed and the sleep is deeper. One man's anecdote, from the man selling it, and there is no authorised claim that magnesium does either. What is authorised: magnesium contributes to normal psychological function, to the normal functioning of the nervous system, and to the reduction of tiredness and fatigue. Those are the legal words, and they describe the job. I personally think the benefits go further, but that, my lawyers tell me, is purely anecdotal lol . The rest of the magnesium range is here.
The B vitamins
The B vitamins are the crew that makes things. B5 is used in the synthesis of steroid hormones and some neurotransmitters, cortisol included, and that is the EU-authorised wording, not mine. B6 is needed to make GABA and serotonin, the ones that bring you back down. B12 and folate keep the energy and methylation systems turning over. They are water-soluble, so the body holds little in reserve, and a stressful stretch burns through what is there faster.
The trial evidence is more honest than the marketing. A 2019 meta-analysis of 16 trials and 2,015 people found that B-vitamin supplementation helped with stress, a modest but real effect. The lovely, benevolent People at Bayer, who also make Berocca, part-funded it, but there you go..
Food: meat, eggs, dairy, legumes, wholegrains, leafy greens. If you are vegan, B12 is the one you cannot get from plants. A plain B complex covers all eight without theatre, and B6, B12 and folate carry the same authorised claims as magnesium for normal psychological function and the reduction of tiredness and fatigue.
Vitamin C and zinc
Your adrenal glands hold some of the highest concentrations of vitamin C in the body, and they use it. In a study at the US National Institutes of Health, giving people the hormone that triggers cortisol made vitamin C pour out of the adrenal vein within two minutes, a fourfold rise, before the cortisol itself appeared. Vitamin C is a cofactor for making adrenaline. Stress spends it.
Food does most of this one: peppers, kiwis, berries, citrus, broccoli. A red pepper has more than an orange. Vitamin C's authorised claims include normal psychological function, normal functioning of the nervous system and the reduction of tiredness and fatigue.
Zinc is the quieter one. And another one I take every night. 30mg of it (and funnily enough, I'm writing this blog at half 11 on a Sunday night, so that's just reminded me to take it!). Sustained stress, and the low-grade inflammation that comes with it, pulls zinc out of circulation, and its authorised claim is for normal cognitive function. Meat, shellfish, pumpkin seeds, lentils. If you want both covered in one capsule, Zinc with Vitamin C gives you 20mg of zinc and 100mg of vitamin C a day - a top-up, not a substitute for the peppers, and at €12.95 for two months it does not need to be more than that. If sleep is the part that is broken, Unplug pairs zinc and magnesium with L-theanine at night, and our post on revenge bedtime procrastination is the one to read first.
What a capsule cannot do
Now the part I would say in the other register. If the month is the problem, the month is the problem. Sleep, the load you are carrying, and whether there is anyone you actually tell about it move the needle more than anything on this page, and no supplement I stock will make a nine-hour day with two small children and a phone in your hand feel like a holiday. I would rather say that than have you find it out at the checkout. If your stomach is part of the story, and it often is, the gut-brain axis post covers that end.
Where a supplement fits: putting back what the month took, so you are not also running on empty. If you want one thing rather than three, Nu Mind Stress & Anxiety Relief is built on exactly this idea - a full B-complex, magnesium bisglycinate and vitamin D alongside ashwagandha, L-theanine and the rest, in one daily sachet. Its product page opens with the words "stress depletes". This post is the long version of why.
The bottom line
Stress taxes magnesium, the B vitamins, vitamin C and zinc, and it collects from the accounts your nervous system needs to cope. A normal blood test will not show the magnesium side of it. Eat for all four first. If you top up, glycinate for magnesium, a plain B complex, zinc with vitamin C if the fruit bowl is usually empty, and skip anything that promises to fix the month.
We have been at this since 2013 and we ship from Dublin, same day if you order before 4pm. Ring us on 01 539 0000 if you want to talk it through, in either register.
Frequently asked questions
Does stress deplete magnesium?
Yes. Cortisol increases the amount of magnesium your kidneys excrete, and a nervous system running hot uses more of it. Low magnesium then makes the stress response louder, which is why researchers describe it as a vicious circle. The symptoms of the two overlap almost completely.
Which vitamins does stress actually deplete from your body?
The B vitamins, particularly B5 and B6, which are used to make stress hormones and the neurotransmitters that calm you down, and vitamin C, which the adrenal glands release and consume when cortisol is triggered. Two minerals go with them: magnesium, the biggest of the four, which cortisol pushes out in urine, and zinc, which the inflammation that comes with sustained stress pulls out of circulation.
Will a blood test show if I am low in magnesium?
Usually not. Only around one per cent of the body's magnesium is in the blood, and the body keeps that level steady by drawing on bone and cells. A normal serum result rules out very little. Red-cell magnesium is a better marker and is not a routine test.
What supplements should I take if I am stressed at work every day?
Nothing in a capsule fixes the job. For the nutrient side of a daily grind, magnesium glycinate in the evening and a plain B complex with breakfast cover most of what stress runs down, or one Nu Mind sachet if you would rather take one thing. Take them every day rather than on the bad days; this is about keeping the tank full, not rescuing an afternoon. Food covers all four first, and sleep matters more than any of it.
Can supplements help with stress-related weight gain?
Not directly, and be wary of anything that says it can. Sustained cortisol pushes appetite up and nudges fat storage towards the middle, and the short sleep that comes with stress does the rest. Magnesium and B vitamins put back what stress took; they do not take off what it added. The levers that move that are sleep, protein at each meal, walking, and getting the stress itself down. Ashwagandha has trials showing lower cortisol, but there is no authorised claim for weight, and we are not going to imply one.
Do stress relief supplements actually work, or are they a waste of money?
Depends which kind. Putting back a nutrient you are short of is not a waste: the trials on B vitamins show a modest, real effect on stress, and magnesium carries authorised claims for normal psychological function and the reduction of tiredness and fatigue. What is a waste is anything promising calm in a capsule while the job, the sleep and the phone stay exactly as they are. If a product will not tell you what is in it in grams, it belongs in the second group.
How long does it take for stress supplements to work?
Weeks, not days, for anything real. Magnesium stores rebuild slowly, and the trials that found an effect for magnesium or B vitamins ran for four to eight weeks. Some people notice sleep change within a few nights on evening magnesium, which is welcome but not the point. Give it four weeks at a proper dose; if nothing has changed by eight, the nutrient was not the problem and you should stop paying for it.
Food supplements are not a substitute for a varied, balanced diet and a healthy lifestyle. If you are pregnant, breastfeeding or taking medication, talk to your GP or pharmacist before starting anything new. If the stress is not lifting, talk to someone - a GP is a fine place to start.
Carl McNamara is the founder of Powerful.ie. He qualified as a psychotherapist while building the business.
Sources
- Pickering G, Mazur A, Trousselard M, et al. (2020). Magnesium status and stress: the vicious circle concept revisited. Nutrients, 12(12):3672. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu12123672
- Young LM, Pipingas A, White DJ, Gauci S, Scholey A (2019). A systematic review and meta-analysis of B vitamin supplementation on depressive symptoms, anxiety, and stress: effects on healthy and 'at-risk' individuals. Nutrients, 11(9):2232. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu11092232
- Padayatty SJ, Doppman JL, Chang R, et al. (2007). Human adrenal glands secrete vitamin C in response to adrenocorticotrophic hormone. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 86(1):145-149. https://doi.org/10.1093/ajcn/86.1.145
- de Baaij JHF, Hoenderop JGJ, Bindels RJM (2015). Magnesium in man: implications for health and disease. Physiological Reviews, 95(1):1-46. https://doi.org/10.1152/physrev.00012.2014
- EU Register of nutrition and health claims (Regulation (EC) No 1924/2006): authorised claims for magnesium, vitamin B6, vitamin B12, folate, pantothenic acid, vitamin C and zinc under Regulation (EU) No 432/2012.