As we age, our health needs change. Adding a small handful of daily vitamins to your routine can have innumerable health benefits, from boosting our metabolism (which slows as we age!) to boosting our overall health. When asked which vitamins they would suggest adding to clients’ routines, our leading health experts provided the following three suggestions:
B Vitamins
B vitamins play a central role in out overall well-being over 50. In addition to helping your energy levels, prevent infections, assist brain function and promote cell health, experts say it can help heart health as well.
"Heart health should be a focus and priority for those over the age of 50, especially as it relates to their supplement regimen," Lisa Richards, certified nutritional coach and creator of The Candida Diet tells us. "The water soluble B vitamins play a role in heart health through cellular health, creating red blood cells, and lowering homocysteine levels," she explains.
How does it work? "B vitamins play a role in cellular health, energy, and support significant body processes like metabolism and creating red blood cells it is not altogether out of reason that they improve heart health as well. While B vitamins may not have a direct heart health benefit, they certainly have enough benefits and few side effects that make them worth integrating into the diet or supplement regimen of curious individuals," Richards explains.
Don't forget to supplement these daily vitamins with other supplements and a balanced diet, she advises. "When these are combined the heart and overall health is benefited greatly. No one vitamin should be relied upon to do all the work of ensuring a healthy heart."
Multivitamin
Multivitamins can offer health benefits to women of all ages, but our health experts especially recommend them for women over 40. As we age, we become less efficient in absorbing certain vitamins, and therefore consuming a multivitamin daily can help
"I am a big fan of the multivitamin not because it is essential to life but because in today’s day and age, we are oftentimes depending on processed, restaurant or convenient foods; which may not contain all the essential minerals and vitamins one needs, " Dr. Amy Lee, board certified doctor in internal medicine, medical nutrition and obesity medicine and partner of Nucific, advises.
"A multi-vitamin is a good form of 'insurance' to keep a minimal level at baseline," she adds.
CoQ-10
CoQ-10 is probably one of the more important supplements for anyone over 50," Dr. Matt Chalmers, health and wellness expert, author and nutrition speaker, tells us. "People 50 and over start to lose energy in the form of ATP due to lower muscle mass. ATP helps the brain, heart and muscles work properly, so the production of ATP for energy is critical," he explains. CoQ-10 is also one of the "more powerful" antioxidants, "which will help kill off free radicals which are the chemicals that cause cancer, heart attacks and strokes."
