6 Essential Female Vitamins for All Ages and Stages.
“A doctor would rather treat ten men than one woman,” goes an ancient Chinese adage. While women tend to live longer, that doesn’t make their journey any easier!
To keep their shape and long-term health, females have to squeeze a lot of nutrition into fewer calories. Because they have more body fat and slower metabolic rates than the opposite sex, it’s easier for women to pack on the pounds. This makes women more likely than men to be overweight—or even obese.
Because females tend to be smaller in size, they’re more vulnerable to everything from environmental toxins to infectious bacteria. Women even process medications differently than men.
The medical establishment has ignored women’s very real risks for heart attack and stroke. Even when experts realized that females do suffer cardiovascular disease as often as males, they failed to recognize significant gender differences in symptoms—and that more women die after experiencing a heart attack.
Then there are the fluctuating hormone levels that impact female moods as well as their health. From puberty on, women’s nutritional needs vary during their menstrual cycles and at different ages and stages in life’s journey.
Dr. Ann Louise’s Take:
As a women’s health advocate, I know how essential certain vitamins and minerals are in slowing down the aging process and supporting overall well being. In addition to a healthy diet, regular exercise, and an environmentally friendly lifestyle, here are my six favorite female supplements: vitamin B6, folic acid, iron, magnesium, vitamin D, and zinc.
1. Vitamin B6 (pyridoxine) supports over 100 different enzyme reactions in the body from strengthening collagen in skin and connective tissue to helping strengthen bones. This B vitamin also has a calming effect that promotes sleep, critical to health at any age, due to its role as a serotonin precursor.
Because B6 is easily destroyed in food preparation and cooking, it is one of the most widespread female vitamin deficiencies. Extra B6 is helpful during PMS and perimenopause. Aim for 50 to 100 mg per day, especially if you are under stress.
2. Folic acid (or folate) is another essential B vitamin for women. Best known for its role in preventing birth defects, folic acid is critical even before we start having babies, since neural tube defects occur in the first weeks of pregnancy. Women who are trying to get pregnant need at least 800 mcg of this vitamin. Some women find that higher doses act as a natural estrogen replacement. That’s why I’ve been recommending 5 mg of folic acid for years (Folic Acid 5 mg, 100 capsules, $13.50 – call UNI KEY to order 800-888-4353).
Like B6, folic acid helps protect against homocysteine, a protein linked to heart disease and memory loss. Anyone who’s sensitive to gluten may be low in this critical vitamin.
3. Iron is a double-edged mineral for women. Menstruating women lose iron-rich blood every month, plus pregnancy, nursing, and strenuous physical exercise dramatically increase the need for this mineral. But later in life, excess iron, which accumulates in the body after menopause, may increase women’s risk for cancer and heart disease.
If you’re over 50 or have experienced early or surgically induced menopause, see your doctor for a hematocrit, hemoglobin, and/or ferritin test to determine if you need iron. I think the ferritin test, which assesses stored iron, is most important here.
If your levels approach anywhere from 150 to 200 ng/mL on the ferritin test, do avoid extra iron in supplements, iron-enriched grains, and cut down on red meat. You might want to consider the iron-free Female Multiple, a favorite among post-menopausal women who want to eliminate excess iron from their supplements.
4. Magnesium is a key mineral for PMS and menopause. If you’re feeling irritable, nervous, depressed, tired, or have tremors, you may need this mineral. It’s also an overlooked player in bone health, intricately linked with calcium.
I recommend 2:1 magnesium to calcium ratio. Magnesium deficiency can cause irregular, rapid heartbeat, high blood pressure, even sudden death. This mineral helps muscles—including the heart—relax, even under stress. Plus magnesium lowers total and LDL (bad) cholesterol and triglycerides, while raising HDL (good) cholesterol. I think that 800 to 1200 mg daily of Magnesium is helpful but use according to bowel tolerance.
5. Vitamin D, the sunshine vitamin, is low in most women. Crucial to bone health, vitamin D is also essential to immunity, helping us to fight off cold and flu viruses. Research at the Medical College of Georgia links the sunshine vitamin to maintaining a healthy weight, and D also helps keep our brains and hearts functioning well as we grow older.
Vitamin D reduces the risk of rheumatoid arthritis in women and is one of the body’s primary protectors against low-level radiation. Women with sufficient levels of this vitamin also have significantly lower risk for cancer. Because this vitamin offers so many benefits and is hard to obtain in sufficient amounts from food, I recommend 5,000 IU of Vitamin D.
6. Zinc is essential for ovulation, and deficiencies have been linked to spontaneous abortion and toxemia in pregnancy. For women over 50, this mineral enhances the action of vitamin D in preventing osteoporosis. Zinc is also useful in fighting off colds and the flu.
Women with PMS are low in zinc, and its deficiency may lower production of the hormone progesterone, which in turns cause sugar cravings and blood sugar imbalances. As an insulin potentiator, zinc is useful in managing Type 2 diabetes. This mineral also aids digestion and protects the body from stress.
Many women may be getting sufficient zinc (25 mg) in the Female Multiple. But anyone who has suffered anorexia or wants to stave off the flu may need more—up to 100 mg per day. In that case, I recommend hypoallergenic Zinc Plus (90 capsules, $8.75 – call UNI KEY to order 800-888-4353) to shore up the dose.
For more age-specific tips that ensure women get the nutrition they need, read Super Nutrition for Women targeting women in their 20s and 30s, Before the Change for women in their 40s, and Hot Times: How to Eat Well, Live Healthy, and Feel Sexy During the Changefor women in their 50s and beyond.
