Best Vitamins For Women Over 50
Taking vitamins or supplements may not have been a priority for you in your younger days, but it may be well worth considering now that you are a mature woman.
You may not be taking in the essential nutrients for this life stage through diet alone, and supplementing can be your insurance policy.
Regarding the best multivitamin for women over 50, there is a huge variety to choose from. Considerations in choosing your multivitamin:
Should include:
- Vitamin B-12: around 1-2 mg daily. Keeps red blood cells and nerves healthy.
- Vitamin B-6: around 1.3 to 1.5 mg daily. Boosts energy, helps metabolize fats and proteins.
- Calcium: 1000 to 1500 mg daily. Builds healthy bones to cut risk of Osteoporosis
- Vitamin D: 800 – 1000 IU daily. Protects your bones, helps the body absorb calcium.
Note: You will need less iron than menstruating women, so don’t take extra iron supplements unless your doctor recommends it for anemia. You should meet your needs via your diet.
Other vitamins to consider:
Collagen: Amount is dependent on what type you take. Helps with skin elasticity and skin moisture, prevents deep wrinkles, helps nail and hair growth.
Omega 3: No specific RDA, but can be anywhere between 250 and 3000 mg daily. Protects against inflammation, which causes menopausal health issues such as vaginal dryness, dry eyes, thinning skin and hair, Osteoporosis, heart disease, and hot flashes.
Please note that if you are on any other medication, you need to check the safety of the multivitamins and supplements with your doctor before using them.
I recently read an article which mentioned the shocking title something to the effect of “Older women who take supplements may die earlier than those who don’t”.
When I read through the entire, technical article, it seems that this may be the case as some women are taking certain supplements to overdose level!
That is, they may take a multivitamin PLUS another type of supplement which also has that ingredient in it. If they do this, over time it can lead to a fatal overdose! So do check the ingredients, and do NOT just swallow handfuls of pills!
