Bioavailability of magnesium diglycinate vs magnesium oxide in patients with ileal resection.

What Was Tested

This randomized controlled trial looks at Magnesium Oxide.

The results of in vitro and in situ studies show that magnesium diglycinate (chelate) represents a highly available form of magnesium that is absorbed in part as an intact dipeptide in the proximal small intestine.

Who Took Part

The study group was 12 patients.

PubMed indexes the participants as adults, middle-aged adults and older adults, both men and women.

How the Study Was Run

In design terms this was a randomized, double-blind and crossover study.

Because people in this Magnesium Oxide study were split into groups at random, differences between the groups are less likely to reflect who happened to join each one.

Neither the patients nor the staff measuring them knew who was on Magnesium Oxide, so expectations could not easily colour the readings.

Each person switched between Magnesium Oxide and the comparison at some point, usually with a gap in between.

What Was Measured

The results of in vitro and in situ studies show that magnesium diglycinate (chelate) represents a highly available form of magnesium that is absorbed in part as an intact dipeptide in the proximal small intestine.

PubMed files the paper under topics including Biological Availability, Crohn Disease, Glycine, Ileum, Intestinal Absorption, Magnesium and Magnesium Oxide.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized, double-blind and crossover study of Magnesium Oxide in 12 patients.

With fewer than 40 people, it is a small study, so it is better read as an early signal for further research than as a settled answer.

Its findings take up roughly 5 sentences of the abstract and are left out here on purpose; the source paper is the place to read them.

The publication is from 1995 (JPEN. Journal of parenteral and enteral nutrition), a journal based in United States.

More context: all human trials.