Warning Signs Your Twitching Eyelid Is Actually A Nutrient Deficiency

The human body is designed to deliver early warning signals when something's wrong. Your job is to interpret them, which can sometimes be difficult to do. After all, not all of your body's warning signals involve pain or seem like emergencies. For example, take a twitching eyelid. It's a common phenomenon, although if it becomes severe, it has a special name, as noted by the Cleveland Clinic: blepharospasm. However, most cases of eye twitching don't require urgent care. But they do require you to pay attention.

A twitching eyelid may seem like an unimportant annoyance since it doesn't actually hurt. And in many cases, it may be nothing more than a fleeting experience that's over, well, in the blink of an eye. However, if your eyelid twitching episodes recur regularly, your body may be trying to send you an alert. Ironically, the alert may have nothing to do with your eye or the surrounding area. Instead, routine eyelid twitching may suggest something far different. Specifically, it could suggest that your diet is lacking in the essential nutrient magnesium.

Why would a magnesium deficiency lead to involuntary eyelid twitching? The answer lies in magnesium's role as a key human system nutrient and supporter of muscles, as well as the overarching construct of the eyelid.

Magnesium supports bone, vascular, and cardiovascular health. It's also vital for regulating sugar spikes and creating the building blocks of human cells. Without magnesium, your body wouldn't be able to function at optimum levels. For example, you might get tired more easily, experience muscle cramping, or have trouble controlling a chronic condition that causes inflammation. You may even find that your muscles spasm as well. In a 2023 review in Nutrients, researchers determined that there was a link between magnesium deficiency and muscular reactions like cramping and spasming in older individuals.

Essentially, your muscles may start to contract occasionally because of insufficient levels of magnesium — and that's where the eyelid becomes involved. The anatomical structure of your eyelids includes muscles, tendons, and ligaments. As such, eyelids rely on magnesium just like other muscles. When magnesium levels plummet, the eyelids may begin to flutter a warning sign for you to take action.

Though twitching eyelids may be symptoms of low magnesium, you can't be sure of your exact magnesium numbers unless you undergo a blood test. WebMD notes that the target magnesium range for adults falls between 1.7 and 2.2 milligrams per deciliter (mg/dL). Consequently, if your eyelids twitch frequently and you discover through labwork that your magnesium is below 1.7 mg/dL, you may want to incorporate more magnesium into your diet.

There are a couple of ways to fuel up on magnesium. The first requires taking supplements or medications that contain magnesium. According to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), magnesium that dissipates in a liquid (rather than resists disolving) tends to be more bioavailable. The NIH recommends looking for supplements and drugs that have those characteristics, such as magnesium in lactate or citric forms, or products like milk of magnesia. The second way to restore your magnesium levels is by eating high-magnesium foods, including nuts, legumes, whole grains, salmon, leafy greens, and bananas. 

What happens if your magnesium levels are normal and you're still having problems with eye twitching? In that case, you may want to explore the other common causes of eye twitching. These can include everything from overconsumption of caffeine and high stress to exposure to pollutants and eye strain (per the Mayo Clinic).