Bone Health Vitamins

Bone health vitamins are truly critical for women to take, even as they are young women before they may be worried about their bone health.  Even men need to make sure that they are also taking important vitamins for their bone health and overall health, Vitamins can come from a healthy, diverse diet, but often times diet alone may not be enough.  Discuss with your physician the vitamins you may need to take to improve your overall health and your bone health.

Getting enough vitamins is necessary for good health and fitness, but it is also important for looking fabulous. What vitamins do women need? The most essential vitamins for women are: Vitamin A, Vitamin D, Vitamin C, Vitamin E and B complex. Minerals: Calcium, Magnesium and Zinc. The best way to ensure you get everything you need for optimum health is to eat a balanced diet.

Essential Vitamins for Women:

Vitamin A:

Though most of the time it’s essential to bump up your vitamin intake as you get older, having too much vitamin A in your diet might increase the risk of bone fracture. You shouldn’t be getting more than 1.5mg of vitamin A each day. Everyone needs strong bones, of course, but for women approaching the menopause it’s particularly important. Bone health isn’t just about calcium.

Vitamin D:

It is an essential nutrient for good bone health. Vitamin D is found in oily fish, eggs and certain fortified breads and cereals. But the human body gets most of its vitamin D from the effect of sunlight on our skin.

Vitamin C:

As an anti-oxidant, vitamin C helps to mop up cell-damaging free radicals. In other words, vitamin C is believed to slow down premature ageing and help keep disease at bay. So, while everyone benefits from enough vitamin C, you might be particularly fond of it if you want to stay younger for longer. Citrus fruit, strawberries, blueberries, green vegetables, peppers, tomatoes and potatoes are all great sources of vitamin C.

Vitamin B (Folic Acid):

As your body becomes less efficient in absorbing this essential B vitamin, try adding some green vegetables to your meal, and choosing brown rice instead of pasta or white rice now and again. Citrus fruits and kiwi fruit contain folic acid, and you’ll also find many breads and breakfast cereals have folic acid in them.

Vitamin E:

Antioxidant vitamins mop up the free radicals in our body. Free radicals damage organs and cause us to look and feel older. So when you take antioxidants, not only are you protecting the health of your vital organs from damaging free radicals, you’ll also be keeping your skin looking young and maintaining your youthful good looks for longer. Vitamin C and vitamin E are key nutrients to look out for. Sparkling eyes and clear skin could be additional benefits of eating up your fruit and veg!

Author: Karel Micek

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Karel_Micek

Bone health vitamins and bone health supplements are key for women’s health, but also in men’s health as well.  If you have any questions about which bone health vitamins are best to impact your bone health, discuss your questions with your physician.  It is always best to discuss any changes to your health care routine, even vitamins and supplements, with your doctor first!

The Women Health magazine mentions in its May review — “While Food and Drug Administration daily value recommendations for vitamins haven’t changed since 1968, what we know about nutrition has.”  The Institute of Medicine has new recommendations for vitamins called dietary reference intakes.  

The main four essential multivitamin supplements that women require are

• Calcium,
• Vitamin D,
• Magnesium and
• Vitamin K

Finding the best brand of vitamin supplements can be quite difficult with so many brands to choose from on the market. Though this may seem to be impossible with every manufacturer saying they are the best, we have found it not to be the case. Today more so than before you can do your due diligence by finding reviews that independently compare vitamins. It is important to find a calcium pill that has Vit D in it as the Vit D helps in the best absorption of the calcium into your cells.

Calcium is best needed to help develop peak levels of bone mass in the growth years of a developing woman. If minerals such as calcium intakes are lower in the early years the onset of osteoporosis is quite common when adulthood is reached.

Marilyn Stephenson, a registered dietitian with FDA’s Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition quotes “The most important time to get a sufficient amounts of calcium is while bone growth and consolidation are occurring, a period that continues until approximately age 30 to 35,” says Marilyn Stephenson, a registered dietitian with FDA’s Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition. “The idea is, if you can build a maximum peak of calcium deposits early on, this may delay fractures that occur later in life.”

The supplementation of magnesium not only assist with proper absorption of calcium but also plays an important role in disease protection, lowering the risk of diabetes, heart disease and colon cancer. New DRIs say that we should be taking at least 320mgs a day of magnesium for best results.

Vitamin D is fat soluble and is sparingly found in foods, maybe found as an added nutrient to processed foods or maybe taken as a supplement pill. This special vitamin may also be produced by the action of ultra violet rays of the sun converting Vit D in our skin. For Vitamin D to be bio-available in our bodies it has to undergo a couple of changes in our body system for it to be beneficial and play its part in calcium absorption.

The importance of Vit D in our bodies especially women are that it helps in the calcium absorption in the intestine and helps to maintain required amounts of serum calcium and phosphate level concentrations which are important for bone mineralization and prevention of hypocalcemic tetany.

Hypocalcemic tetany means less serum calcium resulting in muscle spasms. The lack of Vit D will trigger bone brittleness and thinness such as found in patients suffering from rickets. Proper levels of Vit D helps prevent rickets in children. If you took adequate amounts of calcium along with Vit D the occurrence of osteoporosis in adults is reduced.

Vitamin K is an important ingredient that helps with bone health. Though Vit K has benefits you should alway consult your doctor if you are on medication as it can interfere with blood thinners in drugs.

What vitamins prenatal or pregnant women need for optimum health?

For women who are exercising regularly or are pregnant it is recommended that their iron intake should be increased as compared to females who are not. The reason why iron is important during this period is because it plays a vital role in helping hemoglobin to best deliver oxygen to our cells in greater amounts. The lack of or loss of iron will cause headaches, pallor and fatigue among women. Try taking a vitamin that has all the B complex supplements in it. The B group of vitamins help in energy production and good carbohydrate metabolism. Please be aware that women over the age of 50 may need less iron as they do not loose iron as younger women do during their periods. If older women have an iron problem then they need to consult their doctor as the loss of iron could be something their doctor needs to look into.

If women find it hard to have a meat diet, then it is recommended that they should consider supplementing vitamins with the B group of vitamins and iron. Women get tired more easily than men and hence need more B group of vitamins. They can add carrot juice to boost the delivery of Vit A.

For those women who are considering falling pregnant it is prudent to start supplementation of a high quality vitamin before pregnancy.

 Vit B6 or folic acid plays an important role in reducing spina bifida in infants.This infant deformity occurs early in the pregnancy if folic acid is absent.

• Taking a high quality fish oil supplement from a trusted vitamin manufacturer will help with the development of the baby’s brain. Omega 3 fatty acids have been found to improve the baby’s brain development during pregnancy.
• If you are considering falling pregnant please be warned that some supplements have Vit A present in them. Vit A can harm the unborn baby in the womb.

Trading Standards watchdogs and charity Birth Defects Foundation Newlife found a third of products do not carry clear labels showing they contain vitamin A.

Author: Claude Fullinfaw

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Claude_Fullinfaw