A 1-Person Experiment That Begot 5 Betterments You May Want to Beget

By Kevin Kolodziejski 

You, that guy or gal who enjoys cycling, cares about your health, and is always looking for ways to better both. You made Anthony Cashmore’s list, you know — along with flies, bacteria, and bowls of sugar.

So how come?

According to what Cashmore published in the National Academy of Sciences in 2010, it’s because all four lack something. It’s a something that you’re sure to agree the other three lack, but a something you think you have some or most if not all of the time.

Free will.

Having Free Will Versus Being Just Chemicals

The dictionary beside my computer calls free will “voluntary choice or decision.” Cashmore calls it “nonsensical” because “in actuality” people are nothing more than a concoction of chemicals — just like flies, bacteria, and bowls of sugar. These human-chemical concoctions, however, can be vastly different, he concedes. It’s why “a select few of us compose like Mozart and Verdi, and the rest of us [just] appreciate listening to these compositions.” While his point of view is as interesting as it’s debatable, let’s save any debate for a later date (including the one about classical music) and focus on the fact Cashmore got the humans-are-chemicals part right.

Any biology textbook will tell you that the human body is composed of 21 essential chemical elements, 96 percent of which are oxygen, carbon, hydrogen, and nitrogen. That in addition, we also contain trace amounts of other essentials such as magnesium.

It’s that essential that will be discussed today because in one way the concoction of chemicals writing this column is just like you, always looking for ways to enhance his health and cycling. And from the results of a one-person experiment my brother recently performed, I am going to now perform my own with some type of a daily magnesium supplement.

So why didn’t I do the experiment with him?  Blame that on an inattentive middleman.

A Single Sample Bottle Instead of 2

I receive at least 50 offers every week to sample all sorts of products. It’s a perk to my other job as a newspaper health and fitness columnist. Or at least that’s what I tell myself when I’m researching a product while knowing there’s about a 2-percent chance I’ll ever write about it. But E-Z Mg™, the magnesium supplement from Standard Process that Jessica Leff from 5WPR, pitched to me looked promising. So promising, in fact, that I requested two 30-day bottles so my brother — who’s rather health conscious but far different from me in how he goes about it — could take part in the experiment and provide balance.

But somewhere along the line miscommunication occurred, and I was shipped a single bottle. So I played a hunch that there’d be more to report if my brother tried the stuff and that hunch was right. Since you can read all about E-Z Mg™ on the Standard Process website, what comes next are the five ways in which Jimmy found taking it over a 28-day period helped.

And I can’t help but believe at least one or two of the ways would help you, too.

He Got Better Sleep

In just a few days, Jimmy was falling asleep at bedtime much quicker than before. While that would be a blessing for anyone, it’s an absolute godsend for him. Jimmy was diagnosed with generalized panic disorder in 1997, you see, so sleep does not always come easily. But far more difficult for him, he says, is falling back asleep in the middle of the night.

“Which is why I was so surprised at how easy it started becoming to do so,” he remarked. “And I’ve always been a tosser and a turner, and now I wake up and the sheets aren’t even disturbed.”

He Felt Less Stress

As a result of Jimmy’s GPD, it’s easy for him to become anxious and depressed, so he takes a low dose of two medications to combat that. While his meds didn’t change during the experiment, something else did. “It wasn’t yippee skippee, I’m on magnesium so I’ll sing ‘Kumbaya’ now, but it really seemed to help me work out the stresses of my work day. No more feelings of wanting to scream and smash the phone after a bad business call. And [I felt that way] even more so as the month went on.”

He Felt ‘Locked In’ Weightlifting

Despite being 59, Jimmy still hoists rather heavy weights about half the time he works out. A recent deadlift workout where he lifted 300 pounds for 7 reps and then did 325 for 5 at a body weight of 195 pounds attests to that. But when he’s not lifting, he’s pedaling — though it’s rare that he does so outside.

While he doesn’t think the magnesium supplement enhanced his strength or aerobic capacity (most studies haven’t either), he does believe it helped him “lock in” during workouts, to achieve the mind-to-muscle link crucial to fully stimulating the muscle. He also noticed he was getting looser during his warmup in less time.

He Believes These Occurrences Weren’t Coincidence

For Jimmy, acid reflux has been a “once or twice a week thing” for years. As he was reporting the results of the experiment to me, he interrupted himself and said, “Hey wait. I haven’t had any acid reflux this month.”

The other occurrence Jimmy thinks can’t be coincidence occurred on day 25 of the experiment. He developed a really scratchy throat, the type that signals a cold and sinus congestion are soon to follow.  “Since the ex took the zinc supplements — along with everything else,“ he deadpanned, “I took a chance and tripled up on the magnesium. The next morning, no cold, no congestion, no nothing.”

It’s a nothing that’s certainly a something, however, if you’re the sort who rarely gets through the cold and flu season unscathed. And taking a magnesium supplement is certainly a something to consider if you also consider yourself to be a fairly typical eater.

An ‘Increasing Prevalence of Suboptimal Intake’

The phrase above comes from a systematic review and meta-analysis on magnesium studies from 2000 to 2025 that was published in the June 2025 issue of Antioxidants. It’s the sort of medical jargon that makes me smile, so I thought I’d share it since what comes next could make you frown. The National Institute of Health classifies magnesium as an “under-consumed nutrient” and the general consensus is that slightly more than 50 percent of American adults don’t consume the established Estimated Average Requirement.

Two Final Notes

Number One: If you’re interested in learning more about the good magnesium can do for you, check out “12 Evidence-Based Health Benefits of Magnesium.” It’s a short, worthwhile, article written by Rachael Ajmera, MS, RD and Franziska Spritzler and provides a ton of links that lead to much of the current research.

Number Two: Just to be clear, I received nothing in compensation from Standard Process for writing this article, and I will receive no compensation from any company producing a magnesium supplement if you do indeed decide to purchase one.

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Kevin Kolodziejski began his writing career in earnest in 1989. Since then he’s written a weekly health and fitness column and his articles have appeared in magazines such as “MuscleMag,” “Ironman,” “Vegetarian Times,” and “Bicycle Guide.” He has Bachelor and Masters degrees in English from DeSales and Kutztown Universities.

A competitive cyclist for more than 30 years, Kevin won two Pennsylvania State Time Trial championships in his 30’s, the aptly named Pain Mountain Time Trial 4 out of 5 times in his 40s, two more state TT’s in his 50’s, and the season-long Pennsylvania 40+ BAR championship at 43.