“Pico-Ionic” Magnesium and Other Miracle Cures

Chicken is an excellent source of protein, but our company’s chicken is absolutely sensational. It comes from chickens with two legs and two wings, which makes it very special. On top of that, our chicken contains 99.98% chicken. Sounds ridiculous? That is exactly how several well-known social media influencers are marketing new “miracle products” from Kontamo’s product range.

If you have scrolled through social media lately, you have probably seen ads for “pico-ionic” magnesium, potassium or another mineral. In Estonia, these products are marketed by Kontamo, with several familiar faces promoting them — Ott Kiivikas, Fitlap and various other influencers whom people are used to regarding as health and nutrition experts. The topic was also recently discussed on TV3’s Laser and ETV’s Impulss. So let us take a closer look at these products and see what the people you regard as health influencers are not telling you.

The sales pitch is powerful: “revolutionary technology”, “absorbed directly into the cell”, “99.98% absorption”. In an advertisement, Ott Kiivikas claims that magnesium is involved in 80% of the processes taking place in our bodies. He also says that the oxide and “hydrochloride” forms sold in pharmacies have an absorption rate of 4%. Estonia’s largest healthy eating platform has published a sales article for this product on its blog. What is more, from November 2025 to March 2026 — nearly half a year — it ran paid Facebook ads itself to drive people to read the story on its blog. Does that mean its belief in the product is really that strong? Or is the affiliate margin simply too tempting? We will talk about money later; first, let us examine the products.

What exactly does “pico-ionic” mean?

In the SI system, “pico-” denotes an order of magnitude of 10⁻¹², or one trillionth. An “ion” is an electrically charged particle, such as the potassium ion K⁺. It is 1,000 times smaller than nano and one million times smaller than micro. Put together, “pico-ionic” sounds technological and scientific.

The problem is that this term does not exist in chemistry, physics or nutritional science. It is not a standard concept. If you look for it in a textbook, you will find nothing. It is a word coined by Carolyn Dean to market her product line. We will return to her shortly.

Since 2015, the company RnA ReSet has sold products including ReMag, Pico Potassium, Pico Silver and Pico Selenite. According to its definition, a “pico-ionic” mineral is “picometre-sized, smaller than the body’s cellular ion channels, and therefore absorbed directly into the cell”. It may sound convincing if your last encounter with chemistry was in secondary school.

A quick hello to your secondary-school chemistry teacher — and a reminder of what they taught us

How large are the ions of different substances? You may remember, and if not, the way the question is phrased has probably already given you a clue: they are quite small. The sizes of all ions are measured in picometres. This is not a technological achievement by any supplement manufacturer; it is a physical fact.

Some figures:

• Magnesium ion Mg²⁺ — radius approximately 72 picometres

• Potassium ion K⁺ — radius approximately 138 picometres

• Calcium ion Ca²⁺ — radius approximately 100 picometres

A magnesium ion is 72 picometres — always, everywhere, in every bottle, apple and nut. Advertising “picometre-sized magnesium” is like advertising “wet water” or a “round circle”.

If we now imagined making these ions another 100 times smaller — genuinely reducing them to around 1 picometre — that would be impossible, because if we broke the ion down beyond the atomic structure that defines it, it would no longer be the same substance. In other words, it would no longer be magnesium or any other mineral.

Are smaller ions absorbed better?

The ReMag marketers’ claim that a smaller ion is absorbed better because it “fits through cellular channels” is complete marketing nonsense. Biological ion channels do not work like kitchen sieves. A potassium channel in the body specifically selects K⁺ (138 pm) and rejects Na⁺ (102 pm), even though sodium is smaller. Selection is based on chemical compatibility, not on what does or does not fit through. American scientist Roderick MacKinnon received the 2003 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for this work. The smaller = better argument is biologically false. That is not how it works. Magnesium ions enter cells through magnesium ion channels, which recognise their customer — and that customer is always the same size.

What is actually in the bottle?

Looking at the ingredients, these products are essentially perfectly ordinary solutions of mineral salts:

• ReMag = magnesium chloride in reverse-osmosis water

• Pico Potassium = potassium citrate in water, with preservatives

• ReCalcia = calcium solution

These are well-studied substances that have been used for decades. You can get magnesium chloride from a pharmacy — or generally even from food — at a fraction of the price. When you dissolve magnesium chloride in water, it is already present as ions. This is secondary-school chemistry. No “patented 18-step process” changes that fact.

A magnesium ion in water does not care which “revolutionary” steps were performed on it along the way. Boiled, frozen, electrolysed, strained through cheesecloth, aged for 12 months in an oak barrel, given positive energy with a pendulum. Whatever those 18 patented processes may have been, the magnesium ion remains the same. Unlike cells, ions have no memory. Not even a pike’s memory. The only thing that matters is the composition shown on the label — MgCl₂ and reverse-osmosis water. In the body, it works exactly like any other MgCl₂ solution; the ions’ history is irrelevant.

Does the liquid form have no advantage at all?

In fairness, one argument in favour of liquid magnesium is valid. The body has to deal with a tablet itself. The tablet must break down in the stomach, the salt must dissolve and only then can it separate into ions. In a liquid solution, that work has already been done: the magnesium is immediately available as free Mg²⁺ ions, ready for absorption in the digestive tract.

This is an advantage for people with low stomach acid, including older people and users of proton-pump inhibitors. Tablets may genuinely dissolve less effectively for them. But this is an advantage of the liquid form, not specifically of ReMag. You would get the same result by dissolving any magnesium salt in water before drinking it. Well-formulated magnesium citrate tablets dissolve quickly in the stomach anyway, because citrate is highly soluble. The difference in bioavailability is more likely to be 35% vs. 45%, not 4% vs. 99.98%. Certainly nothing that would justify a several-fold price difference.

What is true and what is false in the advertisements?

Let us look specifically at what influencers say in advertisements for these products. Ott Kiivikas makes two claims in his ad that deserve closer analysis.

Claim: “Magnesium is the body’s primary mineral, and 80% of processes are supported by magnesium”

Partly true, but heavily exaggerated. Magnesium is indeed very important. Depending on the source, it acts as a cofactor in 600–800 enzyme systems. But the figure of 80% comes directly from RnA ReSet’s own marketing material, not from scientific literature. Thousands of enzymatic reactions actually occur in the human body. Magnesium’s involvement in 600–800 of them is significant, but 80% is a major exaggeration.

Is it the primary mineral? Calcium is the most abundant mineral in the body by quantity, mainly in bones and teeth. Potassium is the most common intracellular cation. Magnesium plays an important role, but calling it the “primary” mineral is clearly marketing hyperbole.

Claim: “Pharmacies sell magnesium oxide and hydrochloride, which have 4% bioavailability, while ReMag has 99.98%”

If I told you that only 25% of the energy in petrol put into a Volkswagen’s fuel tank is effectively converted into moving the car, while the fuel placed in a BMW’s tank is 100% petrol, what would you think of that comparison? Would it sound competent, or as if I had just compared a cod with a table-tennis bat?

Two completely different figures have deliberately been confused and placed side by side.

First, a small detail: the “magnesium hydrochloride” mentioned by Ott Kiivikas does not exist. Kiivikas probably means either magnesium chloride (MgCl₂) or magnesium hydroxide (Mg(OH)₂). This is not a trivial detail or a mere slip of the tongue, because magnesium chloride is, ironically, the very same starting material from which ReMag itself is made.

Now to the figures: where does the 4% come from? It comes from a 2001 study (Firoz & Graber), which did indeed show very low bioavailability for magnesium oxide. But this is the worst result from a single study. A meta-analysis of several studies puts magnesium oxide’s bioavailability at around 23%, which is still lower than that of other forms. Depending on the study, absorption of magnesium salts has been measured at 30–68%. Citrate, for example, has absorption comparable to chloride: approximately 30–65% versus 30–68%. The advertisement deliberately selects the worst number from a single study instead of the average result across different studies. Three guesses why.

But where does the magical 99.98% bioavailability come from? That figure has nothing to do with absorption. RnA ReSet’s own materials state that the company buys magnesium ingots with a purity of 99.98–99.99%. This refers to the purity of the raw material — what percentage of the ingot is magnesium rather than impurities. If a gold bar is “99.99% pure”, that tells you about the chemical purity of the gold, not how well your body absorbs gold.

In the advertisement, however, these two numbers are placed side by side to create the impression that the difference in bioavailability is 4% vs. 99.98%. “25× MORE EFFECTIVE!!! MUCH WOW….” In reality, one figure concerns chemistry and the other physiology, and they cannot be compared.

Moreover, no independent scientific study has shown that ReMag is absorbed at a rate of 99.98%. The company itself even claims “100% absorption at the cellular level”, but provides no peer-reviewed study to support it. Biologically, 100% absorption is extremely unlikely. No supplement achieves that, regardless of its form.

Are these products safe?

Most are, but not all. It is worth distinguishing between them.

Relatively safe: Pico Potassium, ReMag, ReCalcia and other single-mineral products at normal doses. The risks are the same as with any other mineral supplement. A magnesium overdose causes diarrhoea, a potassium overdose is dangerous for people with kidney problems, and so on. The doses are usually low and the products themselves are not toxic, provided they are taken in the correct amounts.

A real risk: Pico Silver (colloidal silver). This is a product from the same company, marketed as a way to “support immunity”. Long-term use of silver supplements can cause argyria — irreversible blue-grey pigmentation of the skin caused by silver deposits in the skin. The US Food and Drug Administration does not recognise colloidal silver as safe or effective for any condition. The European Food Safety Authority has not approved it as a food supplement. Argyria is not fatal, but consuming colloidal silver can have lifelong and cosmetically catastrophic consequences.

Requires caution: Pico Selenite (selenium). Selenium has a narrow therapeutic window. The safe daily upper limit for an adult is around 400 micrograms, and chronic overconsumption causes selenosis, including hair and nail loss and nerve damage. Taking it from several sources at the same time creates a real risk and unpleasant consequences.

User reviews are positive, so are customers lying?

Honestly, probably not. Many people who buy ReMag genuinely feel better. But why?

First, magnesium deficiency may have been a real problem for them. It is estimated that up to one-third of adults in the Western world do not get enough magnesium from food. If you start taking 300 mg of magnesium a day, you may genuinely benefit — regardless of whether that magnesium came from an €85 bottle of “pico-ionic” magnesium or a €7 pharmacy supplement. Magnesium is magnesium. The customer attributes the improvement to ReMag, but what actually helped was simply starting to take magnesium. A pharmacy product would have produced the same result at a fraction of the price.

Second, the placebo effect is powerful. If you pay €85 for a product, have read convincing material about “cellular-level absorption”, and an influencer you trust has assured you it is 25 times more effective, you expect a result. The brain is very good at giving you what you expect. The placebo effect is well documented scientifically and is particularly powerful for subjective symptoms such as fatigue, muscle tension and sleep quality — exactly the issues for which people buy magnesium. A €7 pharmacy tablet does not produce the same placebo effect because nobody has told you it is special.

Third, selective feedback. People who paid a lot of money for a product are motivated to believe it works, a phenomenon known in psychology as post-purchase rationalisation. Those who publicly share a positive experience receive more feedback and may even get their next bottle at a discount. People who noticed no difference rarely write reviews, and the seller does not publish them.

Positive feedback therefore does not prove that ReMag is better than pharmacy magnesium. It proves that taking magnesium can help and that human psychology works. 

Who is Carolyn Dean?

Carolyn Dean graduated from Dalhousie Medical School in 1978. In 1995, the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario revoked her medical licence after reviewing the treatment of 36 of her patients. The reasons cited included the use of unscientific diagnostic methods such as hair analysis, iridology and reflexology, as well as medically unjustified treatments including homeopathy, coffee enemas and colonic irrigation. Dean did not contest the allegations or appear at the hearing.

She later received a conditional licence in California, subject to passing a special examination and completing additional training. She has written books promoting anti-vaccine views and cholesterol denialism. Quackwatch and other scientific-scepticism publications have criticised her for years as a promoter of pseudoscience.

That does not automatically mean every product she creates is bad. But when someone invents “revolutionary” terminology that does not actually exist in science and sells the resulting product at 5–10 times the pharmacy price, it is useful to know who came up with it and what their background is.

Why is it a problem when influencers advertise this?

When Ott Kiivikas, Fitlap or another well-known health figure recommends “pico-ionic magnesium”, many people treat it as equivalent to an expert recommendation. But let us look at what is actually happening. The influencer repeats the manufacturer’s own marketing claims without checking them and gets paid to do so. They have not personally looked up or verified these figures in the research. They come from RnA ReSet’s advertising material. The influencer’s authority in the health field makes the claims credible to ordinary people, because who among us has time to research everything personally? But why do they do it?

Let’s peek into the influencers’ wallets

In affiliate marketing for health products, influencers commonly earn 15–25% of every sale made through their discount code or link. Bigger names are also often paid a fixed fee for creating the content. In the Estonian market, a single video or post campaign may pay an influencer €500–3,000, depending on their follower count. Ott Kiivikas is so well known in Estonia that his rate is probably closer to the upper end.

Let us look at what this means specifically for ReMag.

A 480 ml bottle of ReMag costs €85 in their online shop. This includes VAT, meaning approximately €16.50 goes to the state treasury. A larger five-pack costs €340, with one bottle included “free”, representing a 20% discount. The product itself contains magnesium chloride and water, so the raw material costs mere cents, while the total production and logistics cost is probably €3–5 per bottle. That leaves a gross margin of around €65 per bottle, more than enough to pay the influencer a generous commission and leave the company with a healthy profit.

For the influencer, it looks roughly like this:

• One 480 ml bottle sold (€85) → the influencer earns €12–21

• One five-pack sold (€340) → the influencer earns €51–85

• Add the fixed fee for the video → a total of thousands of euros per campaign

Of course, we do not know the exact figures or agreements. These are back-of-the-envelope calculations based on market averages. The parties involved are welcome to clarify their own figures, but viewed from a distance, even Mati Alaver would say: “not bad”.

The “loading cycle” as a well-designed business model

In his advertising video, Kiivikas advises customers to start at 100 mg and work up to 300 mg, with a “loading cycle” lasting 3–6 months. At 300 mg a day, one 480 ml bottle lasts around three months. A six-month course means two bottles, or €170. Kontamo recommends even higher doses for athletes — 800–1,200 mg per day for an 80 kg person. At that rate, one bottle lasts only around five weeks, and a six-month course requires up to five bottles, costing €340 if bought together at a 20% discount or €425 if bought separately.

Each customer represents not one sale, but repeat purchases over several months. As a sales argument, the “loading cycle” is ingenious: it sounds scientific and explains why you cannot simply try one bottle and stop. You must complete the course, or there will be no results. Doctors do also recommend completing a course for people with a proven mineral deficiency, but with products that cost a fraction of the price.

Comparison with a pharmacy: what are you actually paying for?

Pharmacies sell a huge range of magnesium supplements. Most are combined with other useful micronutrients, but to make the comparison as fair as possible, we will compare products that are as pure as possible. Pharmacies sell Tervisepüramiid Magnesium Citrate, which is almost pure magnesium citrate with minimal excipients — an anti-caking agent and a stabiliser, and that is all. One tablet contains 1,300 mg of magnesium citrate, equivalent to 187.5 mg of elemental magnesium. There are 30 tablets in a pack, priced at around €6–8, which also includes taxes and the retailer’s profit. No vitamins, extracts or other unnecessary extras — just magnesium. Exactly like ReMag, which contains only MgCl₂ and purified water.

Magnesium citrate is a well-studied form with high bioavailability — according to the scientific literature, it is in the same class as magnesium chloride, at approximately 30–65% versus 30–68%. Nobody can claim here that “the pharmacy product is that bad oxide form that is absorbed less effectively”. Citrate is one of the more readily absorbed forms of magnesium. Let us put the figures side by side. We will use a dose of 375 mg of elemental magnesium per day: two Tervisepüramiid tablets versus 6.25 ml of ReMag.

The same amount of magnesium, essentially the same bioavailability, and no added ingredients in either product. ReMag is simply three times more expensive. The difference of approximately €170 over six months pays purely for “pico-ionic” branding and influencer commissions. The only remaining argument is that “ReMag has undergone an 18-step process”, a claim for which no independent study exists to show that this changes anything.

Isn’t the pharmaceutical industry supposed to be hugely profitable? So why is magnesium so cheap at the pharmacy?

That is a very good question. The margins in the pharmaceutical and supplement businesses are quite healthy, and the €84 already includes a generous profit. Let us dig a little deeper — approximately 1,600 metres deeper, to the 250-million-year-old salt layer of the Zechstein Sea. The Dutch factory NedMag extracts magnesium chloride from there and sells the raw material, among others, to the Estonian health-products company Nurme. Nurme packages it neatly and sells MgCl₂ flakes for foot baths at Prisma in a 700 g pack for €8.18, or €11.69 per kilogram. That price also includes the profits of the retailer, packager and manufacturer, as well as state taxes.

Nurme clearly does not know how to run this business properly. If it dissolved the same raw material in water, called it pico-ionic and recommended taking a small amount internally instead of pouring plenty into a foot bath, it could charge €248 for the contents of that 700 g pack dissolved in water. A 700 g pack of Nurme magnesium foot-bath flakes could make 2.9 bottles of a solution identical to ReMag. Presumably, it would also have to perform 18 pieces of hocus-pocus on it to claim that it had been produced using an exceptionally unique method, but that would not need to cost much. The result would be the same if Kirsti Timmer laid out tarot cards on top of the barrel. That means it could earn 30.3 times more from the same pack.

Nurme’s packaging says “for external use only”, but not because it is a different kind of magnesium. The wording is required by law for cosmetic products. In addition, the product has not been dosed for oral consumption and is in concentrated form. Reputable supplement manufacturers are responsible for adjusting the dose so that the amounts do not have harmful effects. We therefore do not recommend gulping down foot-bath salts as a supplement. The example simply illustrates how much the “pico-ionic” label adds to the price — the same substance at 30 times the cost.

Why don’t Fitlap and others recommend pharmacy magnesium?

The answer is simple: pharmacy magnesium usually has no affiliate programme. Nobody pays you a 15–25% commission for saying in a Facebook video that people should buy €7 magnesium citrate from a pharmacy. But if you tell them to buy €85 “pico-ionic” magnesium and enter Fitlap in the discount-code field, you earn money from every sale. That is how we end up in a situation where the influencer always recommends the more expensive product, not because it is better, but because the cheaper product earns them nothing — and many influencers do this work to make money.

This does not necessarily mean that every influencer is knowingly lying. They may sincerely believe that ReMag is better. But even then, their opinion was formed by the manufacturer’s marketing material, not by personally conducting background research using independent studies. The financial incentive to recommend this particular product rather than a cheap pharmacy alternative is real; it is simply well concealed.

Estonian advertising law requires paid partnerships to be labelled “#partnership” or “#advertisement”. But even when the label is present, it tells you nothing about the influencer’s motivation for doing their influencing work.

What should you do if you want a mineral supplement?

First, most people who eat a varied diet do not need mineral supplements at all. Magnesium is available from fruit, nuts and wholegrain foods. Potassium comes from bananas, potatoes and beans. Calcium comes from dairy products or leafy vegetables. A supplement is a solution when there is a specific medical reason, such as a chronic deficiency, kidney disease, a side effect of certain medications and so on.

If a doctor has recommended it or you know for certain that you have a deficiency, then:

• For magnesium, well-studied forms include magnesium citrate, magnesium glycinate and magnesium malate. They are available from pharmacies at ordinary prices.

• For potassium, supplement doses of up to 100 mg are small compared with the daily requirement of approximately 3,500 mg, so it is generally easier to get more from food.

• For calcium, the same applies — food before supplements.

Unless you have an irresistible need to make room for new banknotes in your wallet, do not pay extra for “picometre-sized” minerals. That is a physical property every ion in the universe has possessed since birth. Charging extra for it is like charging extra because a bicycle has round wheels.