Professional Article

Conceição Calhau | Nutritionist, researcher, and Full Professor at Nova Medical School

 

SUPPLEMENTATION THROUGHOUT LIFE

Longevity is the challenge of the century. We no longer speak of active aging/healthy aging, but increasingly—and rightly so—of longevity.

Aging is not a disease, and we should not think about health only in our more mature years. For women, in particular, this is very concerning. Menopause is talked about almost as if we were discussing an expiration date. And from expiration to the packaging, it’s only a moment. Health must be taken care of always, and not just at age 65 (an age of prejudice regarding the "elderly," which, incidentally, was defined in the last century—today, at 65, we still have a lot of life to live, and therefore, we are not "old" at all).

Health in the feminine is more demanding because women have biological reasons (demanding reproductive functions whether during pregnancy, breastfeeding, or even menopause) and reasons of social pressure (that they must be beautiful, must be leaders, must be mothers, must be thin, must be women, must be, etc.) which cause them a great deal of anxiety. Despite this, the most important thing is to empower women with skills in the areas of health and self-care throughout their entire lives.

Our health depends on many variables: genetic and environmental/modifiable, but beware, they must be cared for from the very beginning. Diet is one of these modifiable variables, and we know that we need to eat to obtain compounds that our body does not produce, which is why we need to obtain them from our diet.

Regarding nutrition, today a diet is not designed based solely on a person's gender, age, and height. A diet must also be personalized according to each individual’s lifestyle and genetic characteristics.

In food, we have macro (carbohydrates, fats, and proteins) and micronutrients (minerals and vitamins), as well as a vast dimension of bioactive compounds not defined as nutrients, such as phytochemicals, which have significant effects on our health.

The truth is that obtaining everything from daily intake—that is, from food—is increasingly a challenge for several reasons:

1)     We do not eat as well as we should (inadequate eating habits are one of the main causes of poor health in Portugal);

2)     Today’s needs, compared to the routines/lifestyles of the past, are very different. In practice, we need less energy because we perform tasks with less significant energy demands, which results in greater sedentary behavior. Now, if we need less energy, the challenge is to choose foods with less energy value but that are nutritionally richer. Added to this are more demanding routines that result in greater inflammation and stress;

3)     Natural foods—the raw materials—are different due to different climate contexts, primary production (whether animal or vegetable), the use of different agrochemicals, or even the shelf life of "fresh" foods that are no longer harvested and eaten immediately. In other words, the chemical composition of food today may be very different from the chemical composition of a few decades ago;

4)     A large part of the population already presents with insulin resistance, hypertension, and has different nutritional needs and priorities. Phenomena of compromised digestive processes are manifesting, such as intolerances—that is, gastrointestinal complaints that warn that the absorption of vitamins and minerals may be diminished.

In truth, individual clinical contexts should outline the trajectory of our health. I even give the example of the importance of monitoring Vitamin D levels to adjust supplementation and evaluating insulin sensitivity (HOMA-IR index) in order to anticipate diabetes.

It is very important, whenever necessary, to correct diet, sleep, and physical exercise, as well as to know how to manage stress and take supplements when it makes clinical sense. However, the maxim of “if one supplement is good, three or more are better” makes no sense.

The health of the immune system is increasingly a focus of clinical attention due to the chronic inflammation in which we live, to which we need to react because it is an aggression that, when not treated in a timely manner, can result in a risk of obesity, cancer, diabetes, neurodegenerative diseases, depression, among many others. For the proper functioning of the immune system, in addition to intestinal health, we must have adequate levels of Vitamin D and Vitamin C. With greater deprivation of carbohydrates and lower intake of cereals, we can have vitamin deficiencies—for example in the B complex—in these cases, supplementation can be a more immediate and effective solution.