Manganese: Benefits, Side Effects, Best Time to Take It & More

Manganese

(Mn)

Evidence: Reasonable
Potential Benefits: Low
Safety: Reasonable

What is manganese?

Manganese is an essential mineral necessary for making cholesterol, protecting our mitochondria, burning food for energy, and more. Manganese supplements are most helpful if you are deficient in the nutrient. If you already get enough from food, you should not need to take it as a supplement. However, it can still improve some aspects of your health beyond the baseline. This article is about the main benefits of manganese as a supplement, its potential side effects, the best time to take it, and more.

What does manganese do?

Manganese has many crucial functions in the body. This mineral is necessary to protect mitochondria from oxidative stress, burn food for energy, create collagen, convert lactate into glucose, clean up ammonia (a toxic byproduct of too much protein), make cholesterol, and more.

If you are not getting enough of this mineral, your body will not be able to perform many of these functions optimally. For example, a deficiency can drop your cholesterol levels too low and worsen your skin quality because of impaired collagen production.

Potential benefits

It is important to note that all of the potential benefits mentioned below are dose-dependent. Generally, the higher the dose, the more pronounced the effects are. However, they do reach a plateau at a certain point. We will discuss the best dosing protocol later in this article.

Many possible benefits fall under the umbrella of ‘correcting a deficiency’ and are therefore not mentioned in the article. If you are deficient, manganese supplements can affect your cognition, performance, and overall health in a remarkably positive way.

Major benefits

Correcting or preventing a deficiency – Manganese deficiency can be terrible for your health and overall quality of life. Fortunately, a severe deficit is relatively rare. A mild deficiency is much more common and can lead to many problems mentioned later in the article. If you are experiencing symptoms of deficiency or know that your manganese levels are too low, correcting a deficiency is the main benefit of manganese supplements.

Minor benefits

Once you get enough manganese to prevent a severe or subclinical deficiency, there don’t seem to be any other benefits of taking it as a supplement.

Possible side effects

These side effects are dose-dependent. The risk for them increases (often linearly but sometimes exponentially) as you increase the dose. Some of the side effects only apply to very high doses.

Manganese toxicity – Severe neurotoxicity has been documented in people who drank water contained with 14-28 mg/L. In Greek villages where the water contained 1.8-2.3 mg/L, people who drank more contaminated water had mild motor deficits. This doesn’t mean that such low amounts are necessarily neurotoxic since manganese in the water is much more bioavailable than manganese in food. We only absorb 2-5% of manganese from food and about 8% of manganese from supplements. Neurotoxicity has also been documented in workers who inhale manganese dust, such as welders and smelters. Taking high amounts of manganese can lead to symptoms similar to Parkinson’s disease and other health and neurological problems over time. To prevent these problems, you want to stay below 20 mg a day unless you have a great reason to consume more.
Contamination – Contaminated supplements are uncommon in the USA and other well-regulated countries. However, if you wish to buy products from China, India, or other countries without strict regulations, beware that the supplements may be contaminated. Either way, you need to choose the brand you order from wisely. It is highly recommended to check the certificates or read through some reviews for the specific product before you buy it. The FDA (Food and Drug Administration) has the power to regulate dietary supplements but can only do so after they have been on the market for a while. That’s because supplement companies are not obligated to announce to the FDA when releasing a new product on the market. The FDA has to discover the product and test it for potential impurities, which can take a lot of time. During that time, the supplement can be sold on the market even if it’s impure. Also, the supplement companies can change their manufacturers at any time without announcing it to the FDA.

Who should not take manganese?

You should probably avoid taking the supplement if you:

are a baby (babies can’t remove excess manganese from their bodies and do not need almost any)
have chronic liver disease (this condition impairs your ability to clear out excess manganese)
already consume enough manganese from food
are deficient in iron (iron deficiency can lead to the accumulation of excess Mn in the brain, which can cause neurological issues)
are on a plant-based diet
experience an adverse reaction after taking the supplement
are on a tight supplement budget (since there are more cost-effective supplements on the market for most people)

Who will benefit the most?

You should consider taking the supplement if you:

are on a carnivore diet
experience symptoms of deficiency, or you know you are deficient based on blood tests
don’t get enough manganese from food (the easiest way to find out how much of this nutrient you are getting in your diet is to track your food intake for a while with Cronometer.com)

Types of manganese

The different types of manganese supplements include:

Manganese gluconate
Manganese sulfate
Manganese ascorbate
Manganese glycinate
Manganese bisglycinate
Manganese amino acid chelate
Manganese picolinate
Manganese citrate

While these types differ in bioavailability to some degree, their effects are virtually identical. All of these options are fine.

Symptoms of manganese deficiency

The most common signs of deficiency include:

Low bone mineral density
A skin rash called miliaria crystalline on the upper torso
Impaired growth in children
Low cholesterol levels (often unnaturally low)
Slower growth of hair and nails
Severe pain and mood disturbances related to PMS

Keep in mind that these signs are just indications of a deficiency. If you experience some or even most of them, it does not necessarily mean you need more Mn. On the other hand, some people may be deficient even though they are completely asymptomatic.

With that said, if you experience many or most of these symptoms, there is a high chance that you are not getting enough manganese. The more of these symptoms you have and the more severe they are, the more likely you are to have a deficiency.

How much manganese should you take?

3 mg/d is a great target for most people.

The AI (adequate intake) for this nutrient is 2.3 mg/d for men and 1.8 mg/d for women. This should be enough to avoid symptoms of deficiency. The AI for pregnant and lactating women is 2 mg/d and 2.6 mg/d, respectively. Infants only need about 3 mcg/d (0.003 mg/d) since they cannot utilize manganese and high amounts could be harmful to infants less than 6 months old.

While the amounts above are enough to prevent symptoms of deficiency, they may not be enough for optimal health.

For most adults, 3 mg/d appears to be the best amount to shoot for. Adolescent girls may need about 3.6 mg/d. This is more than most people consume (the average is about 2 mg) but even 3.6 mg is very easy to get if you eat a diet rich in whole plant foods. Most WFPB (whole-food, plant-based) people get about 11-20 mg/d.

We only absorb 2-5% of manganese from food and about 8% of manganese from supplements. This means that 1 mg of manganese from a supplement is about equal to 2 mg from food.

If you only get manganese from food and do not take supplements, inhale it, or drink contaminated water, you do not have to worry about exceeding the upper limit. If you do fall into one of these categories, beware that high amounts of this mineral can be toxic.

Severe neurotoxicity has been documented in people who drank water contained with 14-28 mg/L. In Greek villages where the water contained 1.8-2.3 mg/L, people who drank more contaminated water had mild motor deficits. This doesn’t mean that consuming these amounts from food leads to neurotoxicity since manganese in the water is much more bioavailable than manganese in food.

Taking high amounts of manganese can lead to symptoms similar to Parkinson’s disease and other health and neurological problems. To prevent this from happening, do not take over 2 mg/d (equivalent to about 4 mg in food) unless you have a great reason to consume more.

Food sources of manganese

Manganese is found in very high amounts in most whole, plant-based foods. Meat and animal products contain little to no manganese, with a few exceptions.

Legumes, grains, nuts, and seeds, typically provide enough manganese (3 mg) in a 100-200 gram serving. If you eat these foods regularly, you are almost certainly getting more than enough Mn. Most types of veggies should provide 3 mg or more in 300 grams (measured fresh). However, some don’t contain a reasonable amount.

Manganese in vegetables is about 2 times more bioavailable than in grains, nuts, seeds, and legumes because of phytic acid in these foods. You can increase the absorption of Mn from these foods by soaking, sprouting, and fermenting them.

Per gram, tea and spices are by far the richest sources of this mineral. As little as 6 grams of some tea and spices will give you enough manganese for the day.

About 37% of manganese people consume is from grains. Another 20% comes from tea and 18% from vegetables.

The only animal food that contains a reasonable amount of manganese is mussels. If you are on a carnivore diet, you can also get enough Mn by eating high amounts of one of these rare types of fish: fresh-water bass, trout, walleye pike, burbot, drum, perch, rainbow smelt, sunfish, and sucker.

The easiest way to find out how much manganese you are getting in your diet is with Cronometer.com – this free app allows you to track all vitamins, minerals, and more

Best time to take manganese

The nutrient is water-soluble, which means you don’t have to take it with food to absorb it well. Taking the supplement with food is better if it causes stomach upset when you take it on an empty stomach.

Whether you take the supplement in the morning or the evening doesn’t matter. It does not interrupt your sleep in any way.

Interactions with other supplements

Iron
People with iron deficiency absorb as much as 5 times more manganese than those who get enough iron. This significantly increases the potential for neurotoxicity associated with too much manganese.

Where to buy manganese

Amazon seems to be the best option for ordering Mn supplements in most countries. They offer some very affordable products backed by many positive reviews. Also, you can choose from a wide range of brands without having to search through other markets on the internet.

Beware some brands display the dosage per serving instead of per pill or capsule. Therefore, you may accidentally buy something less potent than you intended. Do not fall for this marketing trick.

FAQ

You can take the supplement daily and do not need to cycle it. However, it is certainly not a problem if you don’t take it daily. Not taking the supplement every once in a while could lead to better absorption, but no studies have proven this yet.

All of these options are fine. The two most important things to consider are the price and dosing. Powders are almost always the cheapest form. However, to dose them correctly, you may need a highly accurate scale (preferably 0.001g). You can get one for as little as $20 from Amazon. Dosing the powders also takes some time that can add up over months or years. The disadvantage of capsules is that they are sometimes made of unethical ingredients, such as bovine gelatine.

Yes. The nutrient doesn’t impact your sleep in any negative way in the short term.

The supplements rarely go bad, but they can lose potency over time.

Keep the supplements in a cold, dark, and dry place, and they will remain just as potent for many months or even years.

Yes. Too much Mn in the system can cause neurotoxicity and symptoms similar to Parkinson’s disease. This mainly happens to workers who inhale manganese or to those who drink water contaminated with high amounts of it. Mn from food should not lead to toxicity. To stay on the safe side, it is best to stay below 20 mg a day to prevent these side effects.

While the supplemental types of Mn differ in bioavailability to some degree, their effects are virtually identical. All of the options you can buy as supplements are fine.

The most common reason people become deficient is that they don’t get enough of this nutrient from their diet. However, some other things can hurt your Mn status and increase your need for this nutrient. These include a high-protein diet and some digestive disorders.

You may need more of the nutrient if you:
– experience signs of deficiency, or know that you are deficient from blood tests
– don’t get enough Mn from food (the easiest way to find out how much of this nutrient you are getting in your diet is to track your food intake for a while with Cronometer.com)
– are on a carnivore diet

The half-life of manganese is about 8-9 years. After you consume Mn, it can stay in your bones for the rest of your life.

The majority of manganese supplements on the market are vegan-friendly but always check the label to be sure.

The nutrient is water-soluble, which means you don’t have to take it with food to absorb it well.

No, it doesn’t. The supplement does not interfere with fasting in any significant way.

References

Most of the information provided in this guide is supported by scientific research that can be found and verified in the PubMed medical library. We highly encourage you to use the library to verify anything said in this article. We excluded from consideration studies that are either confounded or have a high conflict of interest.

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