All You Need To Know About Multivitamins for Women

We all need multivitamins at some point in our lives. Our eating patterns may change as our daily habits alter and we don't always get the right supplements we need. If we work long hours and don't get enough breaks we can also suffer from fatigue and tiredness. Our immune system can also suffer as we get older. Many women feel the need to take a supplement at some time or another, especially older women. Those over the age of fifty will need different types of supplement than those who are younger. Menopause can affect a woman's metabolic rate, hormone levels and other internal systems.

Younger women from twenty to fifty should look for supplements that help them stay active and agile. Vitamins that help keep the skin looking young and supple are important, as well as calcium for good bone structure. Iron and zinc are also vital for energy and healthy blood and a strong immune system. A lack of iron in your body can make you anemic and tired. Magnesium, vitamin K and B12 are also vital to the body, especially for athletic women.

Pregnancy can affect how a woman's body behaves and reacts. She will be concerned about the inner health of her baby and she will want to make sure that she gets all the proper supplements she needs. Most multivitamins for women contain at least fifty percent of the RDA-recommended daily allowance-that a woman needs. The other fifty percent should come from her eating pattern, containing healthy choices of fresh fruit, vegetables and water. This is largely to prevent any overdosing on the vitamins that the body cannot always ingest or process.

Women over the age of fifty, or those who have stopped menstruating should take different multivitamins to those who are younger. Vitamin C is important in the production of collagen. It helps the skin retain its elasticity and flexibility. Vitamin B3 is excellent for naturally breaking down the blood sugar, so it can be converted into natural energy. Vitamin K is vital for the blood, as it helps in clotting. In older women, a simple cut can become a gushing wound if the blood does not clot in time to stop the bleeding. Vitamin D is vital for calcium absorption and helps keeps bone strong. The proteins involved in white blood cell production can be adversely affected by a lack of vitamin B6, so make sure your multivitamins include B6 when you check the label.

Generally, a good healthy eating pattern will consist of most of the daily requirements your body needs in order to stay healthy. However, if you feel you need to take supplemental multivitamins, consult your doctor and get the best advice on what to take and where to buy.

Advantages of Natural Health Supplements

There are a great number of mysteries surrounding health and nutritional supplements. Many of these mysteries are grounded in the lack of real information, where to get that information and who to listen to. Many people seem to think that if they have a healthy, balanced eating pattern—let’s not call it a diet—they will not need supplements. However, this could, in some cases, not be further from the truth. As we get older our bodies don’t retain the same level of vitamins and minerals as they did when we were younger. This can lead to muscle weakness, fatigue and a failing immune system. Just because we eat plenty fresh fruit and vegetables, it doesn’t necessarily mean that our body is getting the exact amount of nutrients that it needs on a daily basis.

To the contrary, how many of us can truly say that we are getting enough fresh fruit and vegetables every day? The 5-a-day notion is good in theory but do we all adhere to it? The answer to that is, probably not. This means that if we don’t have a balanced and healthy eating pattern we are not getting the correct recommended daily allowances of each vitamin and mineral that we need. If we only get around fifty percent each day, by the end of each week our bodies will be fifty percent short in the balanced levels we need. Come Friday we will be exhausted and wonder why. We will put it down to lack of sleep or over-work but in reality, if we had the right amount of minerals and vitamins we might have felt a little better by the end of the week. That deficit carries forward into the next week, too, leaving you even more fatigued. This is definitely something we should all be vigilant about.

One of the advantages of natural health supplements is to provide our bodies with the right amount of minerals and vitamins to perform to its full potential. If we take a daily supplement and still hit our RDA—recommended daily allowance—via our eating pattern, we end up with a boost. There are some vitamins that it is not healthy to overdose on, however, so do make sure you are not ingesting too much of a certain vitamin.

Natural health supplements are made from time honoured traditional methods using natural herb extracts and plants. There should be no chemicals in natural supplements and therefore no ‘side effects’ from taking them. Always read the label and make sure you are taking the right herbs and supplements to suit your body. Talk to a natural health expert or your nutritionist and get the proper advice before you take supplements that you may not even need.