What is Magnesia carbonica?
Magnesia carbonica is a homeopathic single remedy. Its Latin name is Magnesii carbonas. It is also called magnesium carbonate, a white mineral salt.
Homeopaths pick it for sour burps, an acid stomach, green watery stools in babies, teething pain and some nerve pains. Those uses come from old homeopathic texts, not from tests.
The remedy is made by diluting the mineral again and again, with hard shaking at each step. At 30C the dilution is so deep that no molecule of the starting mineral is likely to be left. What you swallow is a plain sugar pellet or water and alcohol.
Good trials do not show this remedy doing more than a dummy pill (a placebo). Long use in one tradition is not proof that a thing works, so we score the two things apart: how old the use is, and what trials show. That point is made here once and not repeated below.
How does Magnesia carbonica work?
There is no known way for it to work in the body. At 30C no source mineral is left, so there is nothing to act on your cells.
Homeopathy rests on two old ideas. The first is "like cures like": a thing that causes a symptom in a well person is given, very dilute, to a sick person with that symptom.
The second idea is that shaking at each step leaves an "imprint" of the mineral in the water. Neither idea is backed by lab work or by trials.
Low potencies are a different case. A 3X or 6X still holds real magnesium carbonate. That amount can soak up stomach acid and loosen the bowel, the same way an antacid does.
What forms does Magnesia carbonica come in?
Sugar pellets or small round pills. These are the most common form.
Liquid drops in water and alcohol.
Soft tablets that melt on the tongue.
Common strengths are 6C, 12C, 30C and 200C. Lower strengths are written 3X, 6X or 12X. The lower ones still hold real mineral; the C strengths on a shop shelf do not.
Where it comes from:
Samuel Hahnemann, the German doctor who started homeopathy, tested magnesium carbonate on healthy people in the early 1800s. He wrote up the picture in his Materia Medica Pura.
Since then it has stayed a standard remedy in homeopathic texts and kits, mostly for children with sour stomachs and for teething. It has no place in Ayurveda, Chinese medicine or Western herbal practice.
Plain magnesium carbonate, in normal amounts, has a separate life as an antacid, a laxative and a baking and grip powder.
Who should avoid Magnesia carbonica?
- Do not use this in place of care that works for a serious or fast-moving illness.
- Do not stop or cut back a prescribed medicine in order to take it.
- Do not use low, mineral-rich strengths such as 3X or 6X if you have kidney disease (kidneys that no longer clear waste well), unless your doctor has said it is safe.
- Do not use it to treat a baby or young child who has ongoing diarrhoea or vomiting — take the child to a doctor.
- Do not use it if you are allergic to magnesium carbonate.
- Do not use lactose (milk sugar) pellets if you have a diagnosed milk allergy.
- Never give the alcohol-based liquid drops to a child; choose the sugar pellets instead.
- Do not use the alcohol-based drops if you take disulfiram, have liver disease, or are avoiding alcohol.
- Do not take it within 2 hours of a tetracycline or quinolone antibiotic, or within 4 hours of levothyroxine (a thyroid drug), if you are using a low, mineral-rich strength.
- Do not use it during pregnancy or while breastfeeding without asking your doctor or midwife first.
When should you see a doctor?
See a doctor if your symptoms are still there after 3 days, or if they get worse at any point.
Get care the same day if a baby or young child has ongoing diarrhoea or vomiting, dry lips, few wet nappies, or is floppy and hard to wake.
Get care the same day for bad belly pain, black or bloody stools, vomiting blood, ongoing chest pain, trouble swallowing, or weight loss you cannot explain.
Go to an emergency department for a slow or uneven heartbeat, deep weakness, confusion or trouble breathing after taking any magnesium product, above all if you have kidney disease.
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