Vitamins for Women: What to Take and When

A woman who’s still menstruating needs different vitamins than a woman who is post-menopausal.

Though health experts say food is still your most important source of nutrients, they also say meeting daily dietary needs (at the very least) is vital to long-term health. Supplements can help you fill in nutritional gaps, especially when we take into account the fact that mineral quality in soil has declined enormously and so food is not as nutritionally dense as what it used to be. It’s also worth noting that women often ‘diet’ which can lead to nutritional deficiencies if not monitored correctly.

Vitamins for Women: What You Need

Our bodies are like fine cars. You can’t put regular petrol in a Porsche year after year and expect it to run well. For that reason, you should consider adding the following nutrients to your diet:

Calcium. As you age, your bone mass decreases and you need more calcium to lower your risk of osteoporosis. You typically need 1,000 to 1,500 milligrams of calcium daily, depending on how old you are.
Vitamin D. As you get older, you lose some of your ability to convert sunlight into vitamin D, and without vitamin D, your body can’t use calcium. Also, using sunscreen to protect yourself from skin cancer means shutting out some of the vitamin D you’d get from just being outside in the sun. To compensate for this loss, older women might consider taking a multivitamin containing both vitamin D and calcium. If you’re over 50, you should be getting 400 IU (international units) daily; over 70, you need 600 IU.
Iron. If you’re still menstruating, you need to be sure you’re getting an adequate amount of iron in order to prevent anemia. Food sources are a good starting point, but you may need additional supplementation. You’ll find iron in meat, poultry, beans, eggs, and tofu. It’s important to pair your iron-rich meals with foods that contain vitamin C, like orange juice or citrus fruits, because vitamin C helps increase iron absorption. If you are a woman past menopause you need less iron, so unless your health practitioner recommends an iron supplement, you should look for a multivitamin without iron.
Folic acid. Women who are pregnant or trying to become pregnant need to get more folic acid; it has been shown that low levels of this B vitamin can lead to birth defects in the baby affecting the brain and spinal cord. In addition to supplements, folic acid can be found in orange juice, beans, and green vegetables, and in foods such as breads and flour that have been fortified with it.
Beta-carotene. Antioxidants — cancer-fighting substances like beta-carotene and vitamin C — help defend your body against cell damage. Food sources are great for beta-carotene, and they include carrots, apricots, papaya, cantaloupe, pumpkin, sweet potatoes, and mangoes. In other words, look for the color orange when you’re in the produce aisle.
B6 and B12. Like vitamin D, vitamin B12 is not processed as well by older women and may be one vitamin to consider taking in supplement form, perhaps through a multivitamin. Both B vitamins are very important as you grow older. Vitamin B6 helps with red-blood cell formation and vitamin B12 helps with nerve-cell and red-blood cell development. These vitamins can be found in a wide variety of healthful foods; following basic food pyramid recommendations is a good way to make sure you get enough of each. As an example, you can get a day’s supply of vitamin B12 by eating one chicken breast, one hard-boiled egg, a cup of plain low-fat yogurt or one cup of milk, plus one cup of raisin bran.
Omega-3 fatty acids. These acids have been shown to act like natural anti-inflammatory substances in the body. They may also be important in helping to keep your heart healthy. As a woman gets older, her levels of estrogen decline, and that puts her at greater risk for heart disease. Fatty fish, like salmon and tuna, is a great source of omega-3 fats. Taking good quality fish oil capsules is an excellent way to make sure you target these important fats.

In A Nutshell

Although a large part of nutritional needs can be met through a healthy, well-balanced diet, many women, especially older women, can benefit from a additional supplementation. Multivitamins can help fill in the gaps your diet does not provide, but specific guidance on which vitamins you individually need for your age and health status is even better. Our naturopaths can guide you more directly on which vitamins are of the best quality (so you’re not just flushing products down the toilet – literally!) and which are specific to you and your age.