4 Supplements Every Woman Should Know About
Do you find yourself Googling ‘why am I waking up in the middle of the night?’ and ‘why do my joints hurt so much?’, and ‘why am I struggling to concentrate?’.
If you’re nodding your head to any of these, there’s a chance that your hormones could be a bit out of sync. As you age, it’s common to experience fluctuations in your levels of estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone. This all precedes a gradual decline in estrogen overall, which is a key marker of perimenopause.
Why balanced hormones are so important
Your hormones drive a variety of functions and they act in just about every part of the body. They operate in a very delicate balance with each other, and when one of them is out of whack, your body won’t feel quite right. While it’s natural to experience hormone fluctuations over time, it’s also important to do what you can to keep them at healthy levels and in balance with one another.
Healthy hormone levels will help protect you from the effects of aging and support healthier functioning overall. Do you know one of the best ways to keep your hormones in balance? Through your diet and getting key nutrients!
If you need an extra bit of support in that department, supplements can be an incredible resource to help you feel your best. Today we’ll uncover some of the top supplements that you can take (in conjunction with a healthy diet and lifestyle) to combat the effects of decreasing hormones and live a life that feels more vibrant and true to you.
Let’s dive right in to give you the latest evidence-based facts on the supplements every woman should know about:
Manage your moods (& more) with magnesium
Magnesium is an abundant mineral in the body and is a cofactor in over 300 enzyme systems. So, not to brag, but it’s pretty important. As we age, our magnesium levels decline for two primary reasons:
We usually eat less and specifically less magnesium-rich foods
Less magnesium is absorbed from the gut and your kidneys start to excrete more
Magnesium is specifically involved in the nervous system where it helps with cell communication and signaling and thus it plays a critical role in brain function and mood. When there are low levels of magnesium in the body, it can interfere with brain signaling and cause increased feelings of stress. Chronic physical or mental stress, in turn, depletes our magnesium store, which can lead to a vicious cycle of magnesium depletion. Magnesium supplementation may help break this cycle as it has been associated with an improvement of certain mood disorders and can promote a more restful night’s sleep. As an added bonus, small-scale studies have suggested that magnesium might help to suppress bone loss and may even ease hot flushes (though more research is needed on this one).
If you want to know a bit more about the science: These positive effects can be explained by the role of magnesium in the metabolism of tryptophan, which leads to the formation of serotonin (your happy hormone) and melatonin (your sleep hormone).
How to supplement magnesium:
The current magnesium recommendations (RDA) for women is:
19-30 years: 310mg/ d
30+ years: 320mg/ d
The upper limit of magnesium supplementation for women over the age of 19 is 350mg/ day.
How to choose a magnesium supplement
Magnesium supplements are available in a variety of forms, including magnesium oxide, citrate, and chloride. The amount typically declared on your supplement label is the amount of elemental magnesium present in the supplement (not the weight of the entire magnesium-containing compound). This is important as elemental magnesium is the magnesium that your body is able to absorb.
Forms of magnesium that dissolve well in liquid are better absorbed in the gut than those that are less soluble. Magnesium aspartate, citrate, lactate, and chloride are usually better absorbed than magnesium oxide and sulfate.
Something to take note of is that high intakes of zinc (usually more than 142 mg/d) can interfere with magnesium absorption and disrupt the magnesium balance in your body.
Avoid osteoporosis with calcium
The Study of Women’s Health Across the Nation has shown that a significant amount of bone is lost as women approach their 40s and 50s, increasing their risk for osteoporosis. This bone loss is especially prevalent in the year before your final period and two years after, and it drastically increases your risk for bone fractures. While that can feel far away, as you may be more than 10-15 years away from your final period, it’s in your favor to be proactive in this space. Declining estrogen levels are associated with bone loss for women because estrogen is closely linked to calcium absorption, which is necessary for strong, healthy bones.
The European Menopause Society advocates calcium as the cornerstone of osteoporosis prevention. To strengthen this recommendation, a number of studies have found that an increased intake of calcium in women is associated with lower loss of bone mass, effectively slowing the onset and progression of osteoporosis.
How to supplement calcium:
The current calcium recommendations (RDI) for women is:
< 50 years: 800mg/ d
> 50 years: 1000mg/ d (with 800IU vitamin D/ d)
It’s always best to try to meet these recommendations with food sources first, but if you feel that you are not quite meeting your targets, a supplement can do the trick!
How to choose a calcium supplement:
The two main forms of calcium supplementation are calcium carbonate and calcium citrate. Calcium carbonate is cost-effective but should be taken with meals to assist absorption. Calcium citrate, on the other hand, is more expensive, and more may be needed (as it is lower in elemental calcium) but it is well absorbed regardless of meal timing.
In terms of dosage, choose a supplement with approximately 500mg elemental calcium, any more than this and the excess will not be absorbed. Taking calcium with vitamin D will enhance its absorption and protect you even more.
Boost good vibes with the sunshine vitamin
Vitamin D, aka the sunshine vitamin, is a hot topic and it’s one of the most researched nutrients to date. Although it is called a vitamin it is actually a prohormone. Prohormones are substances that our bodies convert into hormones when needed and it is because of this that vitamin D has a number of important functions in the human body.
As we mentioned before, vitamin D improves the absorption of calcium and as a result, can help reduce your risk for bone fractures. As an added bonus, correcting a vitamin D deficiency can also improve muscle strength, which can boost your performance during your workouts and reduce your risk of injury.
Beyond bone and muscle health, some research shows that vitamin D may act as an antidepressant by regulating and protecting your dopamine system. Dopamine is known as your pleasure neurotransmitter and it relays messages between your brain and your nerve cells. Protecting this system can support balanced moods and a more positive affect, overall.
While that’s important for everyone, hormonal fluctuations put some women at a higher risk of developing depressive symptoms and even major depressive episodes. You may be particularly at risk if you are already sensitive to hormonal changes and have experienced PMS or postpartum depression. So being aware of how you can support your mental health through supplementation at this time is critical.
How to supplement Vitamin D:
The amount of vitamin D supplementation that is needed to combat depressive symptoms is currently under review, but for now, the National Institutes of Health recommends that women over the age of 19 can safely consume 600IU of vitamin D per day (and as we highlighted earlier, 800IU for those over 50 in conjunction with a calcium supplement).
Supplementation becomes even more important as we get older because as we age, we are less likely to spend time outside in the sun and our skin actively produces less vitamin D, even when we do get sun exposure!
Remember that vitamin D is a fat-soluble vitamin, which means that it is stored in our fat cells. So before you start supplementing (and periodically while you are supplementing) it’s prudent that you check your vitamin D blood levels and adjust your intake accordingly (with the help of your healthcare professional).
Prevent hot flushes with phytoestrogens
Phytoestrogens are also known as plant estrogens. They are specialized plant compounds that have similar properties to estrogen. They are classed either as lignans or isoflavones, both of which can be isolated from their food sources and taken as a supplement.
There is a hypothesis that phytoestrogens help with declining estrogen symptoms, and it stems from the fact that Asian women — who consume a significant amount of phytoestrogens in the form of isoflavones from their soy-rich diets — report experiencing less of these symptoms than women in Westernised populations. This notion became quite popular as consuming phytoestrogens may yield other beneficial effects related to bone and heart health, and seem to have very few, if any, negative side effects.
When it comes to the research, isoflavones have been more widely studied than lignans. A 2016 meta-analysis (which is a review of high-quality studies) found that when women added isoflavones into their daily routine, there was a modest reduction in daily hot flushes and an improvement in vaginal dryness (bonus!). Sadly though, there was not much of a reduction in night sweats.
How to supplement phytoestrogens:
In order to reap some of the positive benefits of phytoestrogens, the British Dietetic Association recommends that you take up to 40mg of isoflavones daily.
You may have to be patient because it can take up to 2-3 months before you notice a significant effect.
At what age should I start taking supplements?
There is no set age at which you should start! Many women start experiencing hormone fluctuations that can lead to symptoms around their mid-late 30s. We highly recommend talking to your doctor about your unique health profile and what might support you best at this time.
At the end of the day, it’s important to remember that supplements should be supplemental to a healthy diet and lifestyle. Think of them as the cherry on the top. When deciding to take a supplement, it’s vital to look at evidence-based, reputable resources to see if the supplement is worth your while. After all, you don’t want to cause yourself harm or flush your hard-earned money away.
If you have more questions on specific supplements to support you as a woman, leave them in the comments below and we’ll work to bring you the answers you need.
