If you buy magnesium citrate as a laxative, it is a clear liquid in a bottle. It often comes with crap in it like saccharin and alcohol.
If you buy magnesium citrate as a health supplement it is usually a powder or tablet.
Is there any difference between these two things? Can you take the powder and mix it into water to make the same as the laxative?
Magnesium (Mg) citrate is Mg citrate no matter how it's formulated. The manufacturer takes pure Mg citrate (which is a powder) and either adds it to the liquid or compresses it into a pill. Same stuff either way. I don't know what else is in the liquid, but whatever it is it's only there for taste, appearance, etc.
From personal experience I can tell you there's no need to dissolve the tablets in water or anything like that. Mg citrate is a laxative no matter how it's formulated, so just match the amount of Mg in the tablets to the amount of Mg in a dose of the liquid and you should achieve the same results.
