If you are over 55, vitamin supplements will help prevent disease even though it may take at least six months to a year to register the improvement. That’s not an excuse to put it off, because the sooner you begin, the better the results.

Let’s take a look at weight for instance. If you take in too many calories and gain weight you increase the risk of cancer, heart disease and stroke. But, cutting the calories to either lose or maintain your weight may result in deficiencies in vitamins and minerals. You can replace key vitamins and minerals lost by dieting with carefully selected supplements.

Another challenge is compensating as the body’s systems begin to slow down. As we age, our systems are not working as efficiently as they once were. For example, you don’t have as much stomach acid that helps to get nutrients from food. That means that as much as 40% of the nutrients you ingest may go unused resulting in deficiencies of vitamins D, B6, B12, riboflavin, folate and calcium.

Your body’s system for storing the nutrients isn’t as efficient either because the percentage of body fat increases with age. While your metabolism keeps you alive and healthy, it also produces by products that can be harmful including free radicals and other compounds that cause damage to cells’ DNA and can lead to many of the effects of old age.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 7th, 2009 at 8:21 am and is filed under anti-ageing, health. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.