A Woman's Supporting Armor

Nutritional supplementation is the use of a variety or combination of macronutrients or micronutrients to help support or promote a person’s ability to sustain and or maintain anything from sleep, athletic performance, muscle growth, fat lose, metabolism for proper health status maintenance such as bone health, prevention of muscle loss(sarcopenia), or sexual health. These supplements can come in a variety of forms such as powers like protein power, collagen power, creatine powder, glutamine powder, amino acids, or multi green powers. They can also come in capsule or tablet form as might more commonly be seen with multivitamins or fish oils. Supplements can also come in liquids such as L carnitine or flavored fish oils. More recently supplements can be things like energy drinks or gummies.

The main reason for people to supplement is that it can be difficult to get all our needed nutrients in the diet we currently consume. If we are eating really clean, we may not be getting all that we need to support our sport or active endeavors but if we are also eating a subpar diet, we may not be getting proper nutrients which can led to an not only unhealthy body composition but also can affect hormone levels and the various systems of the body. The main element to remember is that supplements are just that. They supplement or compliant a hopefully already clean diet to get the best effects for our needs.

A priority to a healthy life is that we need to prioritize key elements such as sleeping, daily exercises, a 80% clean diet in order to be well rounded. If we have done that, and are still short on nutrients, then we can supplement. For women, supplement needs very much can change based on the stage of life that she is in.

Protein & BCAA’s

A few things that make women different than men, is that we have fewer type II fibers and in order to be strong, fast, and powerful, we need to build muscle. Supplements that can help her do that it to ensure she is getting adequate protein. One way she can do that would be to get a good protein power or supplement her workout with Branch Chained Amino Acids(BCAA’s) or even a good collagen supplement.

Iron, Calcium, & Vitamin D

The big divider separating men and women is the menstrual cycle. With her cycle comes a fluctuation of the hormone’s estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone. During the years where she is menstruating, that loss of blood can lead to a loss of iron. Supplementing with iron can help counter act this loss and prevent anemia. As she ages an nears peri menopause and menopause these hormones, especially estrogen begins to drop. With this drop in estrogen, there become a greater risk to bone health and thus supplementing with calcium and vitamin D can help reduce the risk of bone related changes but can also help with muscle and nerve function. Weight training will remain an ongoing important component to bone health over the years to  help  keep hormone levels stable but also to keep building muscle tissue which can have a positive effect on bone health.

Adaptogens

Another concern for women as she ages is the quality of her sleep and energy levels. Due to fluctuations in hormone, it may be common to have interrupted sleep and considering things like L-theanine, magnesium, ashwaganda, rhodiola, and schishandra as apoptogenic compounds that can have a positive effect on mood, sleep and energy levels.

These are just a few supplements that can help however each woman is her own individual and it is highly recommended that she has a discussion with her medical provider in order to get the appropriate labs and tests completed and understand what steps she can take in the realm of supplements to help her optimize her health. A few other good mentions include: multivitamins, omega fish oils, folate, probiotics, B vitamins, L carnitine, and L-Glutamine

Also be mindful of which supplements to take with regards to safety. I like to look for the NSF label which can be found on supplements companies such as Thorne Research, Live Momentous, and Athletic Greens to name a few. This label indicates that the supplement has been tested and what is on the label is in the container!

As parting words, supplements can only take you so far but there are a lot of good ones out there to explore but the “one supplement” that is my absolute favorite, is strength training.  Ladies, please don’t ever stop strength training. Take up space at the squat and dumbbell racks. Hard training is how we stay young, how we stay strong, how we build our resilience, how we change the world!