Importance of Vitamins During Different Stages of Womanhood

Are women getting enough vitamins? Most people don't know that women need specific vitamins during different periods of their lives.

According to Ernestine A. Wright, M.D., FACP, board-certified primary care doctor with Mercy Personal Physicians Downtown, women who are younger and who menstruate every month need more iron because they lose red blood cells.

Iron is absorbed better with vitamin C, so it's important to have a diet high in vitamin C.

Pregnant women need folic acid, which is necessary for the development of brain cells and the neural tube.

"Women who are undergoing menopause, because of changes in hormone levels, tend to develop osteoporosis, which is thinning of bone, because typically everybody's bone mass is at peak at about 35. But, then, estrogen helps to maintain the integrity of bone in women. So, once you undergo menopause, you start losing the strength of your bone. So, it's important that women who are menopausal have intake of calcium and vitamin D, which is essential for building up of bones," Dr. Wright said.

As women age, it is also important to get their B-vitamins—B-1, B-6 and B-12—which are essential for brain health and help prevent memory loss and dementia.

Dr. Wright added that it is always important to get vitamins and nutrients from food first.

Watch Mercy primary care specialist Dr. Ernestine Wright’s interviews about women, vitamins, supplements and nutritional needs.