What supplements should a 40 year old take?

Forty is five numbers, not a birthday: what a doctor can measure, what each number's answer is, and why the age-labelled formula answers the birthday instead

What supplements should a 40 year old take is a question the shelf answers with the birthday, a formula labelled for the decade with a photograph of someone the right age on the front, and a doctor answers with five numbers, which is the better answer because the numbers differ between two people of the same age more than they differ between a person at thirty-nine and the same person at forty-one. The five are vitamin D status, ferritin, B12, the lipid profile and blood pressure, and each has a supplement, a medicine or nothing as its answer depending on the result, so that the right list for one forty-year-old is vitamin D through the winter and nothing else and for another is iron on a test and a doctor's conversation about a lipid medicine. In the UK the birthday has one useful feature, which is the health check a doctor's practice offers to adults from forty, measuring blood pressure and lipids and asking the questions that find the rest, and a forty-year-old who attends it has the numbers the question needs.

Vitamin D is the first number and the one with an answer before the test. From October to March the sun in the UK is too low for the skin to make vitamin D, and the national survey finds a large share of adults below the threshold through the winter, so the winter dose at the small daily amount the guidance gives is the one supplement a forty-year-old takes without a measurement, at a few pence; a blood test refines the dose for a person with a reason to be lower, darker skin, little time outdoors, a covered body, and the claims for bone, muscle function and the immune system are authorised. Ferritin is the second, the measure of iron stores, and it runs in two directions at forty: low in women while periods continue, especially if they are heavy in the perimenopause, and in high-mileage runners of either sex, where iron is taken only on the test at the dose and for the duration a doctor sets; and high in a proportion of people with an inherited tendency to store iron, which is found at this age and which makes a supplement harmful, which is why iron is never taken on a guess.

B12 is the third, low in people eating no animal products, in those on certain long-term medicines for acid or blood sugar, and increasingly with age as the stomach absorbs it less well; the deficiency produces tiredness, tingling and, if left, nerve damage, and a forty-year-old who is tired for no reason has this on the list of a doctor's blood tests before any energy product. The lipid profile is the fourth, and it is a number whose answer is a conversation rather than a supplement: a raised cholesterol at forty is read by a doctor against the risk calculators with the blood pressure, the fifth number, and the answer is the plate, the training, not smoking and, where the calculation says so, a medicine with outcome evidence, with plant sterols the one supplement with an authorised cholesterol claim and omega-3 the one the UK guidance says not to offer for prevention. The age-labelled formula, by contrast, contains a little of everything at doses below the ones that matter, answers none of the five numbers and is bought by the birthday.

Five numbers with five answers and a birthday formula that answers none, and the two things that change for everyone at forty regardless of the numbers, the formulas placed by what they contain, and the worked example, which is the next section.

The two things that change for everyone at forty regardless of the numbers, muscle and the winter sun; the age-labelled formulas placed by what they contain; the lifter's list; the worked example placed where the plate puts it; and the verdict

Two things change at forty for everyone and need no measurement. The first is muscle. The rate of muscle and strength loss rises with each decade from the forties onward in a person who does not lift, lowering the maintenance number a person can eat without gaining, the strength available for ordinary life and, over the decades, the independence that the sarcopenia research is about; and it is reversed at any age by resistance training two or three times a week with protein at around 1.6g per kilogram a day spread across meals, with the per-meal dose mattering more as the muscle becomes less responsive to small amounts. Creatine at 3 to 5g a day helps the sessions do slightly more and is the one supplement on this list with a large real effect, in both sexes and at every age, with the review in women finding the same response and the same safety record. A forty-year-old who starts lifting with protein at the target has made the largest intervention available at that age, and no formula on the shelf approaches it. The second is the winter sun, already covered: the vitamin D dose from October to March for everyone.

The age-labelled formulas are placed by what they contain, which is the fair test. A multivitamin for the over-forties typically contains a vitamin D dose below or around the guidance figure, which is the one useful line, plus B vitamins at doses that matter only to a person deficient in them, iron in some versions and not others, with the version a person needs depending on a test the formula has not seen, a little calcium and magnesium at doses too small to close a shortfall, and a herbal extract or two at a fraction of any trialled dose; it is a vitamin D supplement with a long ingredient list and a price several times the vitamin D's, and a buyer who wants the one useful line buys the one line. The men's and women's versions differ mainly in the iron, which is the one line that should depend on a test rather than on a sex.

The lifter at forty has the same list as the lifter at thirty with two additions: the per-meal protein dose kept up, around 0.4g per kilogram at each of three or four meals, because the muscle's response to a small dose falls with age; and the recovery between sessions watched, because it lengthens. Creatine, caffeine for the session that matters and vitamin D in winter are unchanged, and the boosters sold to men at forty are as empty as they were at thirty, with a man who is tired, weak and losing muscle talking to a doctor about a blood test rather than to a shelf. A woman at forty adds the ferritin test while periods continue and the bone conversation as the menopause approaches, covered on the page for women over forty.

The worked example is placed where the plate puts it: {FL}, 1500mg magnesium bisglycinate stated as 300mg elemental at 80% NRV, two capsules with the evening meal, a mineral the national survey finds a share of adults short of, with authorised claims for normal muscle function, the maintenance of normal bones, normal psychological function and the reduction of tiredness and fatigue, and no age claim, batch tested for lead, mercury, arsenic and cadmium, UK made, 180 capsules for £19.99 at 22p a day, taken by a forty-year-old whose plate is short of the foods that carry it and not by one whose plate is full. The full label breakdown is here.

The verdict: a forty-year-old takes what five numbers say, measured by a doctor at the health check the birthday entitles them to: vitamin D through the winter without a test and refined by one; iron only on a ferritin result, in either direction; B12 if the test or the diet says so; and a conversation rather than a supplement for the lipids and the blood pressure. For everyone at forty, lifting with protein at the target and creatine against the muscle loss that starts now, and the winter vitamin D; and the age-labelled formula is a vitamin D tablet with a long list and a high price.

What to check on the label

Questions people also ask

What vitamins should a 40 year old take daily?

Vitamin D through the UK winter, from October to March, at the small daily dose the guidance gives, because the sun is too low for the skin to make it and the national survey finds a large share of adults short; beyond that the answer is a set of measurements rather than a birthday, ferritin, B12, the lipid profile and blood pressure, each with a supplement, a medicine or nothing as its answer depending on the result, which a doctor measures at the health check offered from forty; the age-labelled formula is a vitamin D tablet with a long ingredient list and a high price.

What changes in your body at 40 that supplements can help with?

Two things for everyone, and only one of them has a supplement: the rate of muscle and strength loss rises each decade from the forties in a person who does not lift, and it is reversed by resistance training two or three times a week with protein at around 1.6g per kilogram spread across meals, with creatine at 3 to 5g a day the one supplement with a large real effect on it; and the UK winter leaves the skin unable to make vitamin D, replaced by the small daily dose from October to March; everything else at forty is a number a doctor measures, not an age.

Should a 40 year old take iron?

Only on a ferritin result, because at forty the number runs in two directions: low in women while periods continue, especially heavy perimenopausal ones, and in high-mileage runners of either sex, where iron is taken at the dose and for the duration a doctor sets; and high in a proportion of people with an inherited tendency to store iron, which is often found at this age and which makes an iron supplement harmful; the men's and women's versions of the age formulas differ mainly in the iron, which is the one line that should depend on a test rather than a sex.

Is a multivitamin for over 40s worth it?

Placed by what it contains: a vitamin D dose at or below the guidance figure, which is the one useful line, plus B vitamins at doses that matter only to the deficient, iron in some versions regardless of the test, calcium and magnesium at doses too small to close a shortfall, and a herbal extract at a fraction of any trialled dose, at a price several times the vitamin D's; it answers none of the five numbers that change the answer at forty and is bought by the birthday, and a buyer who wants the one useful line buys the one line.

Should a 40 year old take magnesium?

If the plate is short of the foods that carry it, the leafy greens, nuts, seeds, wholegrains and pulses, which the national survey finds a share of adults' plates to be; magnesium has authorised claims for normal muscle function, the maintenance of normal bones, normal psychological function and the reduction of tiredness and fatigue, and no age claim; the worked example is 300mg elemental at 80% NRV in two capsules with the evening meal for 22p a day, batch tested for four metals and UK made, taken for the plate and not for the birthday.

Sources

1. The GB claims register, vitamin D entries: vitamin D contributes to normal bones, teeth, muscle function, immune function and calcium absorption, with UK guidance suggesting 10 micrograms daily in autumn and winter. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/great-britain-nutrition-and-health-claims-nhc-register
2. The UK National Diet and Nutrition Survey: a substantial minority of women of reproductive age have low iron stores and intakes below the reference, a large share of adults have low vitamin D status in winter, iodine intakes are low in young women, and magnesium intakes fall below the reference in many adults, with B12 deficiency concentrated in older adults, vegans and those on metformin or acid suppressants. https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/national-diet-and-nutrition-survey
3. The deficiency and cognition literature: vitamin B12 and iron deficiency are established, testable causes of fatigue and cognitive symptoms, identified by routine GP blood tests and corrected by treating the deficiency. PubMed record
4. The sarcopenia literature: muscle mass declines by around three to eight per cent per decade after thirty, accelerating after sixty, with resistance training and adequate protein the interventions shown to slow or reverse it. PubMed record

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