5 Best Vitamins And Minerals for Women's Health: What Benefits To Look For

The female body's functions can, at the best of times, be taxing to the different bodily systems. Menstruation, pregnancy, breastfeeding and menopause are just a few of female-specific body processes that require much of the body's resources. Without a good support to the body in performing its functions, health breakdown can occur. For this reason, healthy diet and maintenance are very important. 

This list of vitamins and minerals, whether from natural food sources or supplements, that can best aid the female body has been put together by Bustle and Walgreens:

Vitamin B Complex or B Vitamins

Of this 8-vitamin complex, the most essential for women are vitamin B6, vitamin B12 and vitamin B9 (folic acid in synthetic form and folate in natural form).

An excess of vitamins may be toxic for the body, but in healthy amounts vitamin B6 is an important assistant to brain function and metabolism. It also lends the necessary advantages for healthy skin. Vitamin B12 provides the same much-needed metabolic assistance and is great for maintaining healthy levels of red blood cells (RBC). B9, whether as folic acid or as folate, is responsible for making the body's DNA and RNA. It is essential for building a healthy brain and spinal cord and for preventing cancer-causing DNA changes.

In general, the B vitamins aid in serotonin production and in reducing PMS symptoms, muscle cramps and fatigue. They also assist in managing mental well-being by reducing anxiety and depression.

Vitamin D

More than a vitamin, this specific nutrient functions as a hormone. The active Vitamin D form calcitriol results from the cholecalciferol, produced as a reaction of the skin to sunlight, is converted into calcidiol and further broken down by the 1α-hydroxylase enzyme.

Vitamin D is important to both the activity of bone cells and the formation of new bone in both adults and children and helps maintain healthy calcium and phosphorus levels in the body by moving calcium and phosphorus from food into the bloodstream and essentially helping prevent loss of these nutrients in the kidneys and in the bones.

Vitamin K

This is an important nutrient in maintaining both bone and blood clot health. Harvard School of Public Health states that Vitamin K aids in the production of four specific proteins that are necessary for blood clotting.

Furthermore, as women's health expert Dr. Sherry Ross of Providence Saint John's Health Center in Santa Monica, California explains, Vitamin K and Vitamin D actually work together: "Vitamin K works with vitamin D to ensure that calcium finds its way to the bones to help them develop properly."
In fact, both the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay and the U.S. Department of Agriculture Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging find a strong link between the effect of Vitamin K on bone mineral density and fracture risks.

Calcium

This all-important mineral enables the development of strong bones and teeth, regulates muscular contractions for such functions are heartbeat and digestion and plays a critical role in blood clotting and blood pressure management. Medical evidence indicates that calcium also possibly assists in preventing colon and breast cancers.

Iron

Iron in the diet protects the body from anemia and ensuring sufficient oxygen supply in the tissues by healthy red blood cells. Fatigue and weakness, brittle nails, peptic ulcers and particular types of cancer result from anemia.
This nutrient also strengthens the immune system, ensuring healthy T-cells and enabling white blood cells in bacteria consumption. 

Muscular health is also dependent on iron, among other things. Sufficient levels of hemoglobin also mean sufficient oxygen is distributed to the different cells of the body. Fatigue and weakness along with the lack of endurance often result from iron deficiency.