QUESTION: What is the chemical type of magnesium found in this algae? Is Magnesium Hydroxide or is that only in the marine salt water? I assume that the magnesium in the product is from the algae itself, not the sea water. What is the chemical formula?
ANSWER: There are 2 components to the Aquamin™ ingredients. Both types are Magnesium Hydroxide.
First, Aquamin™ Mg TG is a natural mineral source produced from pristine Irish seawater.[340 mg of Magnesium/scoop come from this source].
Second, Aquamin™ F is also added: it is produced from mineralized seaweed (Lithothamnion sp.). The seaweed is harvested from the seabed off the West coast of Ireland and North West coast of Iceland from clear, pollution free, mineral rich Atlantic waters. The dried calciferous material is not in but on the seaweed, and when dried, shaken off. {This contributes about 10 mg of Magnesium/scoop].
Aquamin® Mg is from naturally ionic seawater and is a clean, sustainable, and natural source of magnesium. It is a superior whole food source of magnesium, with higher absorption and assimilation rates than more common forms like magnesium. In fact, a study* from the University College Cork, Ireland has shown Aquamin™ Mg is over three times more soluble and absorbable than magnesium oxide (the type most likely to cause diarrhea), and it's even slightly more absorbable than magnesium chloride, which is another better-tolerated type, but which only contains about one-third the amount of elemental magnesium by volume (12%, vs. 33% for Aquamin Mg), meaning you'd have to take far more teaspoons of a magnesium chloride version to get the same dosage as this new type, magnesium hydroxide.
* ‘Bioaccessibility and Bioavailability of a Marine-Derived Multimineral, Aquamin-Magnesium’, Valeria D. Felice, Denise M. O’Gorman, Nora M. O’Brien and Niall P. Hyland, Nutrients 2018, 10(7), 912 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30018220/of
QUESTION: What is the Calcium content? Red algae usually has much higher calcium content than Magnesium content, is that true in the product or is calcium taken out?
ANSWER: There is not enough Calcium in the remnant material to either require a declaration or support a claim of calcium on the label.
