Transcript: Seniors and Supplements Podcast


Welcome to Sharp HealthCare’s "Healthy Aging" podcast. I’m Registered Nurse Lynn Skoczelas and today’s topic is "Seniors and Supplements." Our guest is Cliff Keltner, a clinical pharmacist affiliated with Sharp.

The reason to take a daily multivitamin is that your physician may feel that your daily diet may be lacking in certain nutrients, so taking a multivitamin will help cover those nutrients that you might be lacking in your regular diet.

About a third of the elderly population find that they’re deficient in certain vitamins or minerals, so often a physician may recommend a multivitamin be taken. Often in the elderly population diet habits sometimes slip, or you might not be able to get full meals that you used to be able to eat at a younger age.

In addition, not getting as much sunlight or sun exposure, older patients may be deficient in vitamin D, which is also important to be supplemented as well.

So, common supplements that the older population may need more than the younger population would be a daily multi-vitamin and also a calcium supplement with a combination of vitamin D to help offset some symptoms of osteoporosis.

Supplements and vitamins can compliment your medical care, because in combination certain medications, the multivitamins or calcium supplements can help offset some certain conditions or treat certain conditions of osteoporosis or certain types of anemia and also preventing vitamin deficiency and help support healthy immune function, and also help prevent infections or from getting sick.

Vitamins and supplements can sometimes complicate medical care because even though they’re available over the counter, and they may seem harmless, there is still sometimes a potential side effect with certain over the counter products as well as interactions with some of your medications.

So even before starting a multivitamin or over-the-counter supplement, you always want to double check with your physician or your pharmacist to make sure that there are no possible interactions with your current medications that you’re taking.

For more information on medication safety, and other aging services at Sharp call 1-800-82-SHARP or visit www.sharp.com/seniors today.