The 5 Best Supplements for Healthy Aging, According to a Longevity Expert

It’s important to remember that supplements are just that: supplementary. While they’re good for giving you a boost if you’re lacking certain nutrients, the main way to get the vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants you need is through a healthy, nutritious diet.

“Supplements will never give you what will be real, real food,” says Kara Burnstine, RD, a nutrition educator at Pritikin Longevity Center. “They just help you on your way. They are not intended as a food substitute.”

Still, Burnstine recognizes that there can be setbacks when relying on food alone for optimal nutrition, and there are times when supplements can be a blessing.

“It would be great if we all ate all our fruits and vegetables and our whole grains and our lean proteins and got everything we needed from the food supply, but unfortunately sometimes our food supply is not of the highest quality either,” says she. . “So we could be doing a lot of the good stuff and not getting all the nutrients from the food.”

That deficit can get even bigger as you get older, she says.

“We are machines, so as we get older, things that worked well start to work less well. Then we may have to switch more to supplements.”

Not all supplements are for everyone. You should always check with your doctor before starting any supplement to make sure they don’t interact with any medications you’re taking or put you at risk for other problems. But for most people approaching or in their golden years, here’s what Burnstine recommends:

Calcium for bone strength

Calcium does a lot for you: it plays an important role in blood clotting, it helps your muscles contract and it regulates normal heart rhythms and nerve functions. It also builds and maintains strong bones. If you don’t get enough calcium, your body borrows it from your bones to keep everything running smoothly. A daily intake of calcium helps you to replace this calcium and keeping bones healthy.

When you reach age 50, your daily calcium needs go up. For that, 1,200 milligrams a day is enough, but when you hit the century, it’s time to move up to 1,500 milligrams a day. Women who have passed menopause are at the highest risk of getting it osteoporosisa disease that makes bones weak and brittle. Lack of calcium increases these chances even more.

Burnstine says if you know you’re not getting at least two servings of a calcium source each day, a calcium supplement is a good idea. But the supplement is only one piece of the puzzle.

“In addition to the calcium supplement, I’m also going to suggest you get at least two servings of dairy or eat lots of leafy green vegetables, and do resistance training, which protects bones more than anything else,” she says.

Vitamin D for Immunity (and Bone Strength)

Speaking of healthy bones, your body can only absorb calcium when vitamin D is present. In addition, vitamin D has anti-inflammatory, antioxidant and neuroprotective properties. It supports immune system health, muscle function and activity of brain cells.

Your body doesn’t make vitamin D, so you have to get it from the outside. These include food, the sun or supplements. Before the age of 70, your daily requirement is 600 IU. After 70 it goes up to 800 IU. In your later years, your body may need a boost to achieve these goals.

“As we age, most of us stop absorbing vitamin D as well,” says Burnstine. This may be especially true if you live in an area with little sun, or if you always wear sunscreen.

Probiotics for gut health

Emerging studies suggest that supplements of probiotics — the “good” bacteria that live in your digestive system and help keep “bad” bacteria in check — may counteract age-related shifts in the gut microbiota, improve your immune system and help healthy digestion as you get older.

“We know that if our gut health is good, everything else follows, in terms of inflammation, brain fog, weight loss, sleep, depression,” says Burnstine. “Our gut is bound to just about everything.”

As with most nutrients, it’s best to get probiotics through the foods you eat. You can get them through fermented foods like yogurt, kefir, kombucha, refrigerated sauerkraut, kimchi, tempeh, and miso. But a supplement is not a bad idea.

Some supplements have over 50 billion CFUs (colony-forming units), which may seem huge, but Burnstine says your body only absorbs 20-30% of that amount.

“Taking a supplement helps create that diversity and huge population of probiotics in the gut to help us be healthy, lose weight, and lower our cholesterol,” she says.

Magnesium for mood

Magnesium is attached to immune function, enzymatic reactions and it plays a role in reducing inflammation. It is also a major player in mood stabilization. Magnesium levels drop with age, putting you at risk for mental health problems.

“People who are low in magnesium tend to have higher levels of depression,” says Burnstine. Chronically low levels can also increase your chances of high blood pressure, heart disease, type 2 diabetes and osteoporosis.

Everyone over the age of 30 should get 320-420 mg per day, but Burnstine says not all magnesium supplements are created equal.

“For example, you could take magnesium carbonate, but you could also take something called magnesium glycinate, which is a little easier on the stomach,” she says. “The combination of how it’s formulated causes different reactions,” she says. Talk to your doctor about the best magnesium formulation for you.

Multivitamin on cover the bases

A daily multivitamin, while not a panacea, can give you an overall nutritional boost. At the very least, says Burnstine, it can’t hurt.

“I always say a multivitamin is like an insurance policy,” she says. “I would recommend a general multivitamin at any age.”

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