Magnesium deficiency has also been linked to muscle cramps

This was me. If you’re a distance swimmer, cramps are…bad. Beyond bad if you’re a ‘sinker’ like me. It was killing my cross-lake workouts. It appeared after I turned 55. I pretty much live on the high-Mg foods listed.

If you’re curious as to whether Mg might help your cramps, get some magnesium ‘oil’ (really a concentrate of magnesium chloride in water — feels oily). Rub it into the skin above the cramp. You can do the same with Epsom salts (magnesium sulfate), but the chloride works better.

Also (probably TMI) you can use that Mg ‘oil’ as an underarm spray. It doesn’t stop sweat, but it makes your pits an inhospitable place for the bacteria that cause BO. Just another way to get more Mg in the system…

If you end up using a lot of the stuff, it’s cheaper to buy magnesium chloride flakes and mix with hot water (same way you’d make humming bird nectar, but 1:1 or more by weight)