Manganese
No benefit file at all, and a named neurotoxicity on the other side of the ledger.
D
Evidence grade
D
Worth it
$5-10/month
Typical cost
DoseAdequate intake is 1.8 to 2.3 mg/day, supplied by tea, whole grains, nuts, and legumes without effort. The upper limit is 11 mg/day. Multivitamins typically add 2 to 5 mg and joint formulas sometimes more; there is no evidence-based reason to seek manganese out, and total intake from stacked products is the only dose question that matters here.
BasisManganese supplementation is a solution without a problem and a toxicity with a name.
Manganese is an essential trace element in the biochemistry sense: enzymes use it. We grade Manganese D on evidence and D for worth-it at about $5-10 per month.
What it does
Manganese is an essential trace element in the biochemistry sense: enzymes use it. It is included in multivitamins and joint formulas at milligram doses. This record exists because 'essential' on a label and 'worth supplementing' are different claims, and for manganese the distance between them is the whole story.
What the research says
No demonstrated benefit to supplementing manganese exists in the literature
Evidence: weak. Manganese is a cofactor for superoxide dismutase and other enzymes, and it appears in joint and bone formulas by inheritance from that biochemistry. There is no trial of manganese supplementation improving any outcome in any population, and no established deficiency syndrome in free-living humans to correct. The file is not mixed or thin; for benefit, it is empty.
Manganese supplementation is a solution without a problem and a toxicity with a name. No benefit trial exists, deficiency in eating humans is essentially undocumented, and excess produces a Parkinson-like neurotoxicity documented across occupational, environmental, and supplement case literatures. D: there is no case for the pill, and a standing reason to count it when it rides along in other formulas.
Is it worth it?
Evidence (D) sits far below the leaderboard floor, and the derived value at this price is also D. About $7 a month where sold alone; its real cost is usually paid inside combination formulas. Derived from the October 2026 worth-it model.
Typical cost
$5-10/month
Common form, not a brand recommendation
Dosage context established
Adequate intake is 1.8 to 2.3 mg/day, supplied by tea, whole grains, nuts, and legumes without effort. The upper limit is 11 mg/day. Multivitamins typically add 2 to 5 mg and joint formulas sometimes more; there is no evidence-based reason to seek manganese out, and total intake from stacked products is the only dose question that matters here.
Worth-it leaderboard
Manganese sits outside the worth-it top 20.
Manganese sits outside the current top 20 on the gated leaderboard. The leaders below clear an evidence floor of B- before price counts at all, so cheap alone never earns a rank.
- 1AWorth itCreatine evidence A-~$5-10/mo
- 2AWorth itCaffeine evidence B+~$5-10/mo
- 3AWorth itVitamin D evidence B~$5-8/mo
See the full worth-it leaderboard →
When the evidence moves a grade, this ranking moves with it. Thursday is where you hear it first.
Safety notes
Manganism, chronic manganese neurotoxicity, presents with tremor, gait disturbance, and psychiatric symptoms and can be irreversible; classic causes are inhaled welding and mining exposure and contaminated water, but case reports include heavy supplement use, particularly with liver disease, because manganese is excreted through bile. Iron deficiency increases manganese absorption, an interaction worth knowing in the population most likely to stack minerals. Children are more susceptible and gain nothing from manganese supplements.
Longevity Lab Report
Manganese news. Graded when it happens.
The grade on this page stays free. The email carries the news on manganese: expert moves, dose changes, and what is working, in plain English every Thursday.
Changelog
Last updated 2026-10-23
- 2026-10-23|Graded from the toxicology literature and a benefit file that does not exist. This record is in the library because combination formulas keep putting manganese in front of readers; its function is to tell them what is and is not known.
- 2026-10-23|Not listed under any goal: no graded benefit exists to map.
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This grade for Manganese rests on the record above. When a new result changes that record, the grade changes with it, and the Thursday email is where the change lands first: the week's longevity and biohacking news, in plain English, linked back to the reasoning on this page.
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Every grade follows a published rubric, and sponsors never change one. When the evidence moves a grade, Thursday is where you hear it first, before you renew a stack that stopped earning its cost.