Collection: Over 50

As we get older, our bodies start to go through a number of changes and if we’re not careful, our bodies can start deteriorating faster than we expect. That’s why at this age, it is more important than ever to maintain a healthy lifestyle - not only does this include keeping active, but also ensuring you have a healthy, balanced diet that’s packed with all the essential vitamins and minerals that your body needs. 

In some cases, ensuring you have all the important nutrients in your diet can be difficult for a number of reasons: 

• Decreased absorption can occur in the ageing process meaning your body is not able to efficiently absorb the important nutrients, despite you including them in your diet. 
• Decreased taste and appetite can also have an impact on your desire to eat all the required nutrients. This is due to a decrease in the number of tastebuds making food seem less appealing, and also a decrease in your activity levels giving you a smaller appetite. As a result you eat less which makes it harder for your body to get those all important nutrients for a strong, healthy body.

While it is impossible to stop the ageing process, there are a number of measures you can take to slow down the effects it has on your body:

• Ensure you stay active and try to fit in regular exercise each week
• Maintain a varied and balanced diet with all the essential nutrients, and drinking plenty of fluids
• Ensure you get enough sleep each night, and you find time to relax and destress
• Maintain a healthy weight
• If you smoke, then stopping smoking is very beneficial

Role of supplements

If eating enough and ensuring you have all the important nutrients in your diet is becoming difficult, you should try supplements to help you reach your goals. There are many different supplements available for almost every nutrient possible, but we think you should focus your attention on these nutrients in particular:

• Vitamin D - often called the ‘sunshine vitamin’, we get most of our vitamin D through exposure to sunlight. Calling it a ‘vitamin’ however, is a bit of a misnomer, as it actually acts like more of a hormone in our bodies. It contributes to the normal absorption of calcium*, which means it also contributes to maintaining normal bones*. This can be particularly important for women during/after menopause, when oestrogen levels decrease rapidly, leaving the bones less protected. It also contributes to the normal function of the immune system, with low levels of vitamin D associated with both increased frequency of infections and also an increased risk of autoimmune diseases. Low levels have also been associated with depression, as it interacts with and helps to regulate the hormones responsible for our mood (serotonin, dopamine, adrenaline, and noradrenaline). Public Health England recommend that everyone takes vitamin D supplements during the winter months as the intensity of sunlight is not enough to make sufficient vitamin D. They also recommend that those groups at higher risk of deficiency should take supplements all year round - to see if you are part of the high risk groups, click here. The products below contain at least 100% of the daily recommended allowance.
• Omega-3 fatty acids - Two omega-3 fats in particular (DHA and EPA) are known to contribute to normal function of the heart, maintenance of normal brain function, and maintenance of normal vision. Increasing age also puts you at risk of cardiovascular disease (diseases of the heart and blood vessels), however omega-3 fatty acids have been proven to help decrease the risk of CVD. Vision and brain function can also deteriorate with age, and so it is important to have omega-3 as they have been shown to help control the rate of decline. For more information on CVD click here. You can get your omega-3 oils through foods such as fish, cooking oils, flaxseed, and chia seeds. If you think you will struggle to do so, you can try to supplement your diet with omega-3 containing products such as our Cod Liver Oil capsules below.
• Vitamin B - while all the B vitamins are useful, we want to focus your attention to B6 and B12. Vitamin B6 is involved in a number of important processes within our body, contributing to the normal function of the immune system and regulation of hormonal activity. Maintaining a normally functioning immune system is of the utmost importance in your ability to fight off any infections or diseases. Regulation of hormonal activity is also of great importance, especially during/after menopause, as changing hormone levels can have unwanted side effects on the body in both the short term and long term. Vitamin B12 is also important in many essential bodily functions - it contributes to normal function of the immune system and nervous system, and also to normal formation of red blood cells. With increasing age, it can become more difficult for our bodies to absorb vitamin B12 which is why in some cases, relying on diet alone may not be sufficient. B6 and B12 can be found in foods such as meat, salmon, milk, cheese, and fortified cereals. If you don’t think you are getting enough through diet alone, then try dietary supplements such as our Multivitamins below, which contains 100% of the recommended daily allowance of both B6 and B12.