Ten Supplements Everyone Over 65 Should Be Taking

 

What are the top supplements for a reasonably healthy active senior interested in preventing or delaying the onset of age-related diseases? The answer is essentially the same for a 40, 50, 60, or 70-year-old.

First would be the typical vitamin D supplement. Most older people are not going out in the sun very much. Even most younger people are not going out in the sun. And depending on where you live, you may not even be making vitamin D in your skin. If you're older, you're almost four times less efficient at producing vitamin D3 from UVB radiation upon sun exposure anyway. So vitamin D is at the top of the list.

Omega-3 is also at the top of the list. There's so much data now that shows you want a high omega-3 index... an 8% or more omega-3 index. And what will get you to that 8% is about 1.5 to 2 grams of omega-3 per day.

Also at the top of the list is a good multi-vitamin. Multi-vitamins have now been shown in three large randomized control trials, compared to a placebo, in older adults that after a year of supplementing with a standard multi-vitamin, in this case it was Centrum Silver, global brain aging was delayed by 2.1 years and episodic brain aging by almost 5 years. Episodic brain aging essentially is referring to episodic memory declining with age. Episodic memory is remembering experiences, remembering people, events... the kinds of things that if you ask your elder parent or grandparent, you start to notice that they're forgetting these sorts of things. There's nothing easier than taking a standard multi-vitamin a day.

On top of that, you're getting a variety of micro-nutrients that cover all your bases. People just aren't eating good diets. We're not eating micro-rich diets like we used to. And the soils are depleted as well so our vegetables aren't taking up the same micro-nutrients that they used to decades ago. So, there's just every reason to cover your bases with a multi-vitamin. Find a multi-vitamin with luteine and zeaxanthin. Luteine and zeaxanthin are very important for not only eye health, helping prevent age-related macular degeneration as has been shown in randomized control trials compared to a placebo. We're talking gold standard here, people. And there's also a variety of studies showing that older adults given luteine and zeaxanthin improve cognition. Why is that? Because it's accumulating in the brain. In fact, it's not just older adults... it's been shown to improve cognition in younger adults as well. So all the more reason to find a multi-vitamin with lutein and zeaxanthin.

Another essential supplement is magnesium, essential for 300 different enzymatic processes in the body, including repairing damage to your DNA and for energy function. You can't make or use energy without magnesium. It's also important to convert vitamin D3 into the active steroid hormone. Right now, half of the US population is not meeting the minimum requirement, which is about 300 milligrams per day for an adult woman and about 350 to 400 mg per day for an adult man... because most people are not eating their dark leafy greens, a major dietary source of magnesium... also nuts or oats. There is not enough magnesium in a multi-vitamin because the molecular weight of magnesium is so high, you just can't get enough of it into a multi-vitamin. So add a magnesium supplement to your regimen as well.

Another one for older adults that's important would be melatonin, because once we hit the age of 40 we start to decrease our natural production of melatonin, and it continues to get worse each year. By the time you're 70 you're really not making a lot of melatonin. You should do 1.5 to 3 milligrams a night at least two hours before your natural bedtime.

Next is creatine. I think creatine is important for everyone, certainly if you are exercising, you're weight training, or doing high-intensity training, then you absolutely need to get minimum 5 grams of creatine monohydrate a day. Creatine monohydrate is the best form to take. It is the most bio-available. It is the most well-studied. So for muscular function, take 5 grams a day... but I would urge people to go above that to 10 grams a day. The first 5 grams are going to help saturate muscle tissue. Your muscles are very, very greedy. They really want that creatine for energy production. They become saturated at about 5 grams a day, so once you go above that, spillover goes to the brain. There are studies showing that once you get to 10 grams a day, you start to see higher amounts of creatine accumulating in the brain. A variety of smaller studies have shown 10 grams or more can improve cognitive function, and help with the effects of sleep deprivation. And when I say improve cognitive function, it's usually in the background of some kind of stress, whether it's older adults, brain aging, dementia, Alzheimer's disease, or sleep deprivation... it is especially for stress management. That's really where it shines. Aging is a type of stress on the brain, so older adults should be getting more than 5 grams daily.

Next is ubiquinol, which is very important for mitochondrial function and heart function. Ubiquinol is the active, reduced form of Coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10) that the body uses directly for cellular energy production and acts as a potent fat-soluble antioxidant. Unlike ubiquinone, it does not require conversion by the body, making it significantly more bio-available, particularly for adults over 40 or those with reduced conversion efficiency. Common benefits include supporting heart and vascular health, improving mitochondrial function, and protecting cells from oxidative stress.

And finally a sulfuraphane supplement, like Avmacol. Sulforaphane supplements are primarily derived from broccoli sprout extracts and are designed to support cellular health, detoxification, and antioxidant production. For maximum effectiveness, high-quality supplements should contain both glucoraphanin (the precursor) and myrosinase (the enzyme required to convert the precursor into active sulforaphane), as the compound is unstable and degrades rapidly once formed.

from YouTube @FoundMyFitnessClips on February 3, 2026