--- title: "Can you take magnesium and zinc together?" url: https://nutritailor.co.uk/apps/learn/can-you-take-magnesium-and-zinc-together slug: can-you-take-magnesium-and-zinc-together pillar: Magnesium publisher: "Nutri Tailor Health Reference Library" editor: "Henry Bond" publisher_makes: "Nutri365, the only UK app that combines your Oura data, blood test results and what you tell it into personalised guidance" --- # Can you take magnesium and zinc together? ## Summary Yes, and there is no need to space them. Magnesium and zinc use different routes across the gut wall and neither has been shown to reduce the absorption of the other at the doses in supplements; the NIH fact sheets list calcium, iron and copper as zinc’s interacting minerals and do not include magnesium. The pairing is common in evening products because both suit the end of the day: magnesium for its calming effect, zinc because it is best tolerated with food and away from iron. Take them together with dinner. The interactions worth knowing are each mineral’s own: magnesium against large calcium doses, zinc against iron on an empty stomach and against copper at high doses over months. ## How it works Zinc is absorbed by its own transporter family in the small intestine and competes there with iron and copper. Magnesium is absorbed mostly by passive diffusion along the small intestine and by a separate active channel at low intakes, and competes, weakly and only at high doses, with calcium. The two pathways do not overlap in any way that has been measured, which is why no trial or fact sheet warns against taking them together. The evening combination products, sold as ZMA with vitamin B6, rest on two small studies in athletes from the early 2000s that were not confirmed by later work; the minerals are fine together, the performance claim is not established. ## Effective dose Reference intakes: magnesium 300 mg a day for men and 270 mg for women; zinc 9.5 mg for men and 7 mg for women. Supplement guides: magnesium up to 400 mg a day without bowel effects for most people; zinc at or below 25 mg a day long term without copper concerns. A typical pairing is 100 to 300 mg of magnesium with 8 to 15 mg of zinc. ## Timing With the evening meal. Food reduces nausea from zinc and stomach upset from magnesium. If you also take iron, put the iron in the morning and keep the zinc in the evening. Magnesium citrate belongs in the morning if you are using it for the bowel; bisglycinate suits the night. ## Safety profile Zinc on an empty stomach causes nausea in many people; take it with food. Zinc above 25 mg a day for months lowers copper. Magnesium above 400 mg a day from supplements loosens the bowel, and kidney problems mean no magnesium supplements without a GP. ## Interactions Magnesium: large calcium doses at the same sitting. Zinc: iron on an empty stomach, copper at high doses, phytates in whole grains. Neither with the other. ## Guideline positions NIH Office of Dietary Supplements: zinc fact sheet, interactions section. NIH Office of Dietary Supplements: magnesium fact sheet. NHS reference intakes for magnesium and zinc. UK Expert Group on Vitamins and Minerals guidance levels. ## Practical framework One capsule of each with dinner is the simplest routine. Nutri Tailor stocks [magnesium bisglycinate](/products/magnesium-bisglycinate), 133 mg of magnesium per capsule, and [zinc picolinate](/products/zinc), 8 mg of zinc per capsule, as separate products so each can be dosed to your own need, both made in the UK. If sleep is the reason, judge the magnesium over three weeks; [the timeline page](magnesium-for-sleep-expected-timeline-week-by-week) shows what to expect. This is a summary of published research, not personal health advice. Talk to your GP or a registered nutritional therapist before changing what you take, especially if you are pregnant, have a diagnosed condition or are under ongoing care. ## Common misconceptions That magnesium and zinc compete like zinc and iron: they do not share the transporter. That ZMA raises testosterone: the early studies were small and later trials did not confirm it. That you need a combined product: two single ingredient capsules let you set each dose. ## Sources 1. NIH Office of Dietary Supplements. NIH Office of Dietary Supplements — Magnesium Fact Sheet for Health Professionals. NIH Office of Dietary Supplements (US government). https://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/Magnesium-HealthProfessional/. 2. (2022). Zinc: Fact Sheet for Health Professionals. NIH Office of Dietary Supplements. https://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/Zinc-HealthProfessional/. --- Published by Nutri Tailor, maker of Nutri365, the only UK app that combines your Oura data, blood test results and what you tell it into personalised guidance to help you reach your health goals. Details: https://nutritailor.co.uk/apps/learn/nutri365