Heading to the gym with essentials like earphones, water bottles, or a comfortable outfit is off to a good start. But, popping up one multivitamin first thing in the morning will make your fitness prep even better!
The Center for Disease and Control and Prevention reported that 90% of women aged between 20-40 don’t usually meet the required micronutrients in their diet alone. To add, the more vigorous your training is, the higher the vitamins and minerals your body needs.
Of course, having a well-balanced and healthy diet, monitoring a healthy weight, and avoiding too much intake of unhealthy fat, sodium, and sugar you eat should be the top of your list. Even so, multivitamins can give a hand at times when we need a bit of extra help.
Reasons for Daily Multivitamins Intake
People have different reasons for taking supplements, and women are no exception. Due to hormonal and physical differences, women tend to have ‘extra nutritional needs’ than men. This need changes ever so often during their menstruation, pregnancy, breastfeeding, and menopausal stage.
Most physically active women, especially endurance athletes, are prone to micronutrient deficiency and hormonal imbalance due to excessive sweating and training. That’s why most of the best women’s multivitamins in the market nowadays offer rich amounts of potassium, sodium, iron, and other relative vitamins and minerals.
What’s more, multivitamin supplementation may also reduce the risks of breast cancer, especially for those women who are heavy drinkers. Studies show that multivitamins tend to cancel out the alcohol-triggered vitamin-B deficiency that can lead to tumor development.
Another alarming risk in women’s health is high blood pressure, which can further lead to stroke. Little do women know, the female mortality rate caused by stroke is twice the number of deaths caused by breast cancer. Thankfully, studies have shown that multivitamins contain disease-fighting compounds, which may lower one’s blood pressure.
Ultimately, the B-vitamins and folic acid in most multivitamins are linked to healthy ovulation of women. One study published by the Harvard School of Public Health has reported that women who are regularly taking multivitamins have lower ovulatory infertility risks.
How to Choose the Best Multivitamins for You
Not all multivitamins have multivitamins, literally. There are a few nail-polish shade multivitamins that are for your eyes only. The ConsumerLab reported that out of the multivitamins they’ve tested, there are 21 brands that didn’t contain the specific micronutrients listed in their respective labels. So how you will choose the right one?
Consult the experts
Always consult a medical expert first. Before purchasing a multivitamin or starting any supplement regimen, hear the professional advice from your physician or dietitian first. Otherwise, the supplements you’ll be taking may trigger allergies, cause another underlying condition or another nutrient deficiency, or interfere with your current medication.
If your diet is no more than stellar, multivitamins may help cover your nutritional needs. However, regularly having an overload of vitamins and minerals can put you at risk. Among all micronutrients, the most overtaken nutrients through supplements are vitamin D, calcium, and folic acid.
Here are a few health risks you may encounter from intaking vitamins more than what is recommended:
- Above normal calcium level that is often caused by cancer
- Hypervitaminosis D – Above normal vitamin D level that can lead to kidney failure
- Above normal potassium level that can lead to internal bleeding
- Above normal iron level that can lead to heart failure
- Above normal sodium level that can lead to seizures and death
Run a background check
When purchasing a multivitamin, you’re not 100% guaranteed that you’ll be getting what you paid for and wanted. This is because, unlike medicines, most of the supplements aren’t evaluated for efficacy and safety by most responsible government agencies in many countries, like the United State’s Food and Drug Administration or FDA.
If this is the case, then you can still run a background check of whatever multivitamins you’re considering through many credible third parties or websites, such as usp.org or consumerlab.com. Always verify whatever the supplement claims to be.
Ensure that the product follows proper manufacturing procedures. Also, make sure that there are no harmful substances included in the product. Recently, chemical lead has been discovered in many supplements. Exposure to lead poisoning can cause convulsions, coma, and even death.
Choose activated forms of the vitamins
In the current market, many multivitamins contain nutrients that are already in their active forms. Take vitamin B6 that regulates hormonal balance in our body as an example. It can be taken either in its inactive form pyridoxine or active form pyridoxine-5-phosphate (P-5-P).
There are two reasons why the active forms of the nutrients are better to be taken. First, your body doesn’t need to work on activating the vitamin to make it functional, so you’re bypassing a step, which leads to the second reason – activated forms are better absorbed than the inactive ones.
Avoid multivitamins containing both iron and calcium, as well as synthetic folic acid
Both iron and calcium are best to be taken separately. The tendency is calcium impedes the absorption of iron. This interference isn’t ideal for a few health reasons, like heavy menstruation and iron-deficiency. You can consume a multivitamin containing only one between the said two vitamins, then take the other via another supplement at another time.
Further, avoid multivitamins with added synthetic ingredients. Many vitamin manufacturers add these artificial fillers to make the product more visually appealing, budget-friendly, and usable due to the product’s extended shell life. Always pick that multivitamin produced from the natural wholefood sources.