Vitamin and mineral supplements may not slow aging but may help you live better longer depending on your daily diet and other lifestyle choices, which is why most health professionals recommend a daily multivitamin & mineral formula (MVM) to make sure your body gets what it needs to stay healthy longer. Other than a daily MVM (and maybe a separate calcium supplement) to fill common nutrient gaps throughout life and possibly a marine omega-3 supplement, there is no scientific consensus on other supplements and aging. Keep in mind nothing can substitute for a healthy diet, but we can supplement a healthy diet with a good MVM.
As recent studies show, virtually everyone in the U.S. falls short of our dietary requirements. For a daily MVM to potentially help you age well, its use should be practiced throughout life starting when your body’s natural development “machinery” can utilize the nutrients involved in putting you together so you may last longer, NOT taken only when you are older or diseased. MVM use is not a cure or prevention to disease brought on by genetics, smoking, weight, lack of exercise or other poor lifestyle choices. MVM use IS part of a healthy lifestyle, so start early in life taking a MVM if you wish to hedge your bets against chronic disease brought on by imperfect diets.
The most recent study regarding MVM use validates the above: subjects using a daily MVM that had no history of cardiovascular disease (CVD), reduced their risks of CVD by 30-41% compared to non-users and the longer the use the greater the risk reduction. By living a healthy lifestyle, including incorporating a daily MVM throughout all stages in life (or at least before disease sets in), we may significantly slow the inevitable decline in body and brain functioning and, to a point, we may end our days in a very “soft landing”: cognitively functional and relatively productive. (Most of our country’s top nutrition researchers take a MVM supplement.) Below is our recommended program:
Daily: MVM (gender, age or activity specific with at least 600IUs of vitamin D). Take as directed.
As needed: Super Calcium+ (use if you do not meet the daily needs of calcium (~1000-1200 mgs) and vitamin D (600-1000IU) from sunlight, multivitamin and food intake; kids should always try to achieve requirements through diet; Super Omega-3 (take 1 daily if not consuming 2-4 svgs/wk of fatty fish).