Women’s health centre

Essential vitamins for women at every age

If you’re a health-conscious woman, you probably know your nutritional needs change with each stage of life. If you’re of childbearing age, you need an adequate intake of folic acid to prevent birth defects. If you’ve experienced the menopause, you may need to increase your intake of calcium and vitamin D to help maintain healthy bones. A deficiency of either vitamin when your body needs it can lead to serious health problems.

What are vitamins anyway?

Vitamins are essential chemicals that take part in all your body’s processes. They do that by participating in reactions inside cells. Each vitamin performs a specific function in the body, and no single food contains all the vitamins you need. Except for vitamin D, the human body cannot make vitamins. So you need to get vitamins from the foods you eat or from vitamin supplements.

At different stages of your life, your body’s need for specific vitamins varies. When you don’t get enough of a particular vitamin you need, you run the risk of serious health problems.

Many women know that eating five servings of fruit and vegetables each day is a good way to get their essential vitamins. Most women, though, don’t eat the quantity of fruits and vegetables that are recommended. As a result, many women in every age group are at risk of vitamin deficiencies. 

Let’s look at some essential vitamins for women. Let’s explore what each vitamin does to maintain your health and which whole foods are good sources of this vitamin. Let’s also examine how much you need to prevent disease, as well as which vitamins are more important depending on your specific stage of life.

How do antioxidant vitamins help maintain health?

Many foods have antioxidant properties. However, there are specific vitamins that are known as antioxidant vitamins. They include vitamin A -- retinol and the carotenoids -- vitamin C, and vitamin E. The British Dietetic Association says some phytochemicals such as flavonoids, glucosinolate and phyto-oestrogens "act as antioxidants, which may reduce damage to cell DNA and cell membranes." So, these antioxidant vitamins appear to play a role in the body's cell-protection system.

Free radicals have been shown in studies to disrupt and tear apart vital cell structures like cell membranes. Research suggests antioxidants tie up these free radicals and take away their destructive power. That may reduce the risk of chronic illness and slow down the ageing process. For example, a recent Japanese study of 1,000 people over 70 found that those who drank the most green tea, which contains catechins – a type of flavanoid -  showed the least signs of the cognitive decline associated with ageing. Some researchers also believe that antioxidants might help boost immune function when a system is under stress. Antioxidants include: