Supplements. Dietary Supplements. Vitamins. What’s the difference? Is there a difference? With all of these terms floating around to describe the same and similar products, you may find yourself confused and questioning what to actually call a product.
Most of us can get all the vitamins and minerals we need by eating a healthy, balanced diet, but sometimes we need a little extra help. So when should we take extra tablets, and when shouldn’t we bother?
Vitamins vs. Supplements
Supplements
Dietary supplements (often referred to as just supplements) can contain a combination of vitamins, minerals, and/or phytonutrients. Phytonutrients, such as carotenoids and flavonoids, are naturally occurring chemicals in fruits and vegetables that may provide additional health benefits.
Vitamins
A vitamin is a type of chemical compound that is a vital nutrient for an organism. When someone refers to a “vitamin,” they are talking about a dietary supplement that contains vitamins.
Why Should Seniors Take Vitamin Supplements?
Seniors and aged people can require a lot of care because they face a lot of health problems and risks. So in order to get the best quality of life, seniors must have access to adequate and continued health care. While there are many healthy activities, that senior and aged people can try to take up to stay healthy and fit, there is one activity that is really easy to start doing. That activity is taking multivitamin supplements. Supplements are really amazing at keeping an aged person’s body healthy. Taking supplements is a great practice that many seniors and their caretakers should be encouraged to do.
Vitamins and minerals supplements are readily available in all pharmacies, clinics and even grocery stores. This means that it is relatively really easy to start finding multivitamins that are fit for consumption by elderly people. Almost all doctors will readily even prescribe the taking of multivitamins for any aged person. As early as possible, at whatever age that you are, you should be regularly taking vitamin and health supplements. This is so that the effects of taking these supplements have a larger impact on your overall physical health.
One of the effects of taking vitamin and mineral supplements is that you will have a stronger body. This will mean that you will get sick much less often than you would. You are going to be a much healthier person in the long run if you decide to start taking vitamin supplements. And this is especially true for aging or elderly persons. Think of purchasing vitamins and minerals as an investment in your body. This is an investment that will not be a gamble. This is because you are surely bound to reap many positive effects if you do decide to take vitamin and mineral supplements.
Another one of the effects of using vitamins and minerals is that you can actually reverse or even halt the effects of aging. The secret to feeling and looking young is to provide your body with the proper nutrients, with nutrients such as antioxidants, as an example. These kinds of nutrients play an important role in how your body will function. Multivitamins will energize and reinvigorate your various body parts and cells so that they are less prone to degrading due to age. If you want to keep a healthy mind and body as you age, you should take some kind multivitamin.
There are many other reasons why taking multivitamins is amazing for your body. However, these are the most major reasons why aged people should start taking multivitamins regularly. If you are part of the senior population, you should ask your doctor for advice on what kind of multivitamins that you should be taking. You should also seek out multivitamins that are specifically formulated for aged people. If you do start taking these kinds of multivitamins you will find that you will feel more energetic and invigorated.
Top Supplements For Seniors
Fish Oil
Fish oil seems to be recommended for nearly every ailment and used as a preventative measure for nearly everything that can go wrong as we age. That’s why supplemental fish oil is an industry taking in around $1 billion a year. As with so many things in the practice of nutrition, the exact science of why fish oil does what it does is still being figured out. But what fish oil intake helps is fairly well known by now, and includes helping with everything from degenerative brain diseases like Alzheimer’s to supporting cardiovascular health.
Calcium
Calcium may be the least controversial ingredient available in supplement form, and its importance is especially strong for seniors. About 99 percent of the body’s calcium is stored in the bones and teeth, where it acts as a main source of strength and support. Children are often given calcium to support bone growth. On the other side of the coin, seniors are often prescribed calcium to prevent bone decay. Women are especially prone to postmenopausal osteoporosis, a degenerative bone disease, and have been shown to benefit from supplementary calcium. The body uses calcium for important non-bone functions, too, like hormone secretion and muscle function.
Calcium is readily available in dairy products, but many people need to cut dairy out of their diets for other health reasons, making calcium supplements a very good choice.
SAM-e
Like Ubiquinol, SAM-e is a chemical produced naturally in the body but replicated in the lab for those whose SAM-e levels are insufficient. SAM-e (or S-adenosylmethionine) is made from an amino acid and adenosine triphosphate (ATP), which you may know as a powerful coenzyme used by cells to transfer energy.
CoQ10
CoQ10 is a natural antioxidant that aids in cellular energy exchange, promotes heart health, supports in major organ function and a host of other important physical processes. What is especially important for seniors to know is that the active, antioxidant form of CoQ10 is called Ubiquinol. The body naturally produces CoQ10 and then converts it into Ubiquinol, which is the form the body needs in order to actually use it. As we age, our cells can lose the ability to convert CoQ10 into Ubiquinol. It’s only been in the past few years that Ubiquinol became commercially available in supplement form, but today Ubiquinol is available in many brands of easy-to-swallow oral supplements.
*This article is not intended to give medical advice nor does it represent the opinions of this website owner. Please consult your medical professional for any questions.