• Oestrogen drops and it takes your magnesium with it
• Stress hormones spike, burning through magnesium even faster
• Hot flushes cause further loss through sweat then poor sleep makes it worse
• The result: A body stuck in overdrive, without the minerals it needs to recover
  

Oestrogen and magnesium have a deeply protective relationship. In your younger years, oestrogen helps your body hold onto magnesium and distribute it efficiently which is part of why women in their reproductive years have a lower risk of cardiovascular issues than men of the same age. When oestrogen starts to decline in perimenopause, that protection goes with it.

At the same time, the physical stress of hot flushes, broken sleep and heightened emotional sensitivity all trigger cortisol and adrenalin hormones that burn through magnesium reserves rapidly. The more depleted you become, the more reactive your stress response gets. It's a cycle that feeds itself, and magnesium is at the centre of it.

• Deeper, more restful sleep: Magnesium is essential for melatonin production
• A calmer nervous system: It dampens cortisol and adrenaline naturally
• Less muscle cramping, tension and restless legs
• Stronger, more resilient bones: Magnesium gives bones shock-absorbing capacity due to it's ability to bring hydration into cells and flexibity to bone matrix structures
• Healthier skin: Magnesium is needed to produce collagen and elastin, the proteins that keep skin firm and hydrated
• Regular heart rhythm: Magnesium is a natural calcium channel regulator, facilitating electrical homeostasis, charge and natural heart rhythm
• Magnesium is antithrombotic and promotes zeta potential (blood fluidity)
• Steadier mood and reduced emotional reactivity

Magnesium is involved in over 600 functions in the body. It's needed to produce energy at a cellular level, regulate muscle relaxation after contractions, support the nervous system, and keep the heart beating rhythmically. During perimenopause, menopause and post menopause, virtually every system that's under strain (sleep, mood, muscles, heart, bones, skin) requires more magnesium to keep balance.

Bone health is a good example people often miss: Most women focus on calcium for bone density, but without enough magnesium bones become dry and brittle. it's magnesium that gives bones their flexibility and resilience. Without enough magnesium, calcium can also leach out of bones and deposit in soft tissue and joints, contributing to joint stiffness, muscle pain, cramps, and blood circulation issues. We thus get harder, stiffer, drier and prematurely aged.

Tablets and powders have to survive your digestive system before they reach your bloodstream, and that's not always reliable. Stress, age, gut health, and certain medications all reduce how much magnesium the gut actually absorbs. Even a healthy gut has its restrictions and can only deal with uptake of low concentrations of dissolved magnesium, as found typically in mineral water and natural foods.

Transdermal magnesium, applied directly to the skin, bypasses the gut entirely. It absorbs into the outside layer of the skin (epidermis), where it can easily and quickly be accessed by the body to take up what it needs. The skin is an organ with a larger capacity to store magnesium compared to the gut lining. Your body self-regulates the uptake, so it never overdoses itself with magnesium via skin. Sometimes the magnesium gets taken up faster and sometimes slower, but eventually all is used up and not wasted like with tablets in the digestive system.

The ability to absorb dissolved magnesium salt via skin so effectively is demonstrated by swimming in the magnesium-rich ocean, where it leaves you feeling energised and relaxed, like your batteires have been charged up. Elektra Magnesium brings that same natural mineral delivery into your daily routine, without needing to swim in the ocean every day.

Daily use is ideal. Consistency matters more than quantity. There's no risk of using too much topically. All membranes of the body can absorb magnesium ions, but the gut lining has less capacity, whereas the skin barrier, being so much larger, can accommodate a higher uptake and store it there for later use. When good fats are also present, absorption and storage is enhanced.

A good starting point:

• Morning or night: Apply Elektra Magnesium Cream or Charge Lotion after your shower as your daily moisturiser
• Evening: Use Elektra Magnesium Oil before bed on legs, shoulders or wherever you carry tension
• Weekly: Add Elektra Magnesium Chloride Salt Flakes to a bath or foot soak for detox cleansing via skin, and a relaxing, deeper magnesium replenishment
• Daily: Add Elektra Magnesium Mineral Drops to filtered drinking water at concentrations that mimic natural spring water from the mountains, and sip throughout the day to stay well hydrated. Because cells aborb water better when magnesium is present, magnesium water travels through the body more thoroughly and slowly, compared to water lacking minerals that is expelled quickly by the digestive system without providing optimal cell hydration.

Product Layering: . Many customers use both Elektra Magnesium Cream as the body moisturizer foundation product, and adding optional Elektra Magnesium Oil (a few sprays) on top of tight spots to alleviate discomfort, relax and soothe more acute muscle or joint issues. Or massage extra on chest and upper body area for cardiovascular calming effect before bed to facilitate more restful sleep. Use the combination that you need to feel relief, and let your body responses be the guide. If you are not bothered with a dry skin condition needing the moisturizer, you can use Elektra Magnesium Oil on its own. But most women love the combination.

During menopause it is generally recommended to supply 600-1000mg+ of elemental magnesium per day, depending on levels of stress. After some trial and error practice you will find your own ideal daily rhythm of use.