Important minerals for menopause & why you need them

Today's topic

Today on A.Vogel Talks Menopause, I take a look at important minerals you need in menopause and why they can help.

Which minerals are needed during menopause and why?

I often mention the importance of vitamins and mineral supplements in my blogs. I have done one previously on vitamins, so let's take a look at the minerals that I tend to recommend and why they may be of benefit for you.

1. Magnesium

For those of you that have been reading or watching my blogs for a while, you won't be surprised that my number one is magnesium. Unfortunately, falling oestrogen can hinder the absorption of magnesium. So, here you are, at a time in your life when you need lots of magnesium for all sorts of different things and you end up getting less of it, and this can have quite an impact on a lot of your symptoms.

So, magnesium is needed for mood. It's your happy mineral. It's needed for joint health, muscle function, and heart health. It can also help ease sugar cravings and beat fatigue. So, as you can see, there's a huge number of symptoms where magnesium can be of benefit.

It's one of the supplements I recommend that women will come back really quickly after starting it to say how much better they feel. The recommended amount in menopause for women roundabout the age of 50 is about 375 milligrams daily. I tend to recommend about 400 just to top it up just a little bit.

Foods that you can get magnesium in, there's lots, but the main one would be things like nuts and seeds, a little bit of dried fruit, greens, dark green leafy vegetables, and whole grains.

2. Calcium

You need calcium for your bones, your teeth, and your joints. Falling oestrogen can precipitate things like osteoporosis so you need plenty of calcium to try and offset this.
Calcium is in so many different foods, so if you have a reasonably good diet, you shouldn't need a high dose. And too high of calcium can cause problems, so just be careful with this one. I usually recommend about 500 milligrams a day.

Food sources of calcium include dark green leafy vegetables, pulses, and nuts (especially almonds). If you're not vegetarian or vegan, eating the little bones of sardines will give you a nice source of calcium.

Dairy has calcium too but just watch with dairy because it's quite high in fat. It also has very little magnesium (which helps absorb calcium) in it so don't rely on dairy foods for your calcium intake.

3. Iron

This is a really important one if you're in the peri-menopause and your periods are starting to get heavier, or longer, or closer together. Low iron can turn to anaemia. And anaemia can cause fatigue, low mood, anxiety, poor sleep, and joint aches.

So iron is a really important mineral. But, please just don't jump in and start taking an iron supplement in case you don't need it. If you take too much, again, this can cause all sorts of problems.

If you're getting heavy periods, then please check with your doctor and ask them to check your iron levels first.

If you think you may just be a little bit fatigued and can do with a top-up, there are lovely, gentle iron supplements and tonics that you can get at your local health food shop.

Iron tends to be in foods such as red meats, shellfish, legumes, and pumpkin seeds. If you're vegetarian or vegan you may be more prone to anaemia even if your periods have stopped, so just be aware of this particular scenario.

4. Potassium

This one is not quite so well known. Potassium is really important to get rid of fatigue because you need potassium for energy. You also need potassium for nerve function. So, if you're getting things like pins and needles, then potassium can often help with this one.

Potassium is also needed for heart health. It helps to get good nutrients into your cells, and potassium helps to expel toxins from the cells. So, it's a really important one just for keeping your body healthy.

You shouldn't need a separate potassium supplement unless you have been deemed to be severely deficient. Potassium is in loads and loads of different foods so it's in spinach, in things like broccoli, sweet potatoes, mushrooms, peas, cucumbers.

If you do feel a little bit fatigued, you could look at our Balance Mineral Drink. That has a lovely combination of calcium, magnesium, zinc, potassium, and vitamin D.

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5. Zinc

Zinc is so important for your hormones. It's needed for hormone production. It's also really important for your immune system and we do know that during menopause, immune function can be compromised due to all the physical and emotional changes that are going on.

Zinc is also really important for the skin, for wound healing, and also to maintain your smell and taste.

You're looking at roughly 50 milligrams a day supplement and you can top it up through your diet. It's in a lot of really good, healthy food such as whole grains, red meat, cashew nuts, almonds, vegetables, garlic, broccoli, kale, and spinach.

6. Chromium

Chromium is so important for balancing your blood sugar level. So, if you are getting lots of sugar cravings, if you're getting big energy dips, it may well be to do with the fact that your blood sugar balance is a little bit out.

You can get supplements for chromium. You're looking at roughly 20 micro milligrams daily. It's in lots of different foods. So, again, if you are aiming for a good, healthy diet, you may not need a supplement unless you're having these issues with your blood sugar.

7. Iodine

Last, but by no means least, is iodine. Iodine is so important for thyroid function. And we know in menopause that a lot of women end up becoming borderline hypothyroid, and that can trigger weight gain. It can cause fatigue. You can get poor hair, skin, and nails, joint aches as well. So, iodine is important for all these different areas.

You need very, very little iodine. It's roughly about 150 ug per day. The best source of iodine is kelp tablets. Unfortunately, in the UK, our soil, generally, tends to be very low in iodine so you may not necessarily get everything that you need from your food, so a Kelp supplement can be a really good idea to take on an ongoing basis.

Just one thing to be aware of, if you're on thyroid medication, then you shouldn't be taking iodine unless this has been approved by your doctor.

Multi-vitamin & mineral supplement

Now, you might be sitting here thinking, "Have I got to take all these every day? I will be rattling." The answer is no. You can get the majority of these all together in what's called a multi-vitamin & mineral supplement.

What I recommend, even if you're not quite 50, are female over 50 supplements. These tend to be the best because they will have good levels of everything that you need to help you through menopause and also beyond menopause as well.

Calcium and magnesium aren't always very high in these multivits, purely because these are quite bulky minerals in themselves. So, if there's any of these that you need specifically, then you can just top those up with separate supplements.

I hope you found this one helpful. If you can get everything that you need from your food that's certainly the best way to go. But, unfortunately, during menopause, your nutritional needs tend to go sky-high, so some women do find that just supplementing with a single multivit or multimineral can make quite a bit of difference to how they feel generally.

If any of you have any other great tips regarding this, then please do let us know.

Key things to take away from this blog:

• They are lots of key minerals which can help during menopause. The ones I tend to recommend most are magnesium, calcium, iron, potassium, zinc, chromium, and iodine.
• You can get most of these minerals from a good healthy diet, including foods such as dark leafy greens, nuts, whole grains, and vegetables.
• You don't need to take lots of different supplements. I tend to recommend most women start with a good female multi-vitamin and mineral supplement, which you can find at your local health food shop or pharmacy.

Until next week, take care.