You may question whether it’s necessary to consume supplements when you already eat a healthy diet. Yet in today’s modern age, the road to good nutrition has plenty of obstacles. Our soil is nutritionally depleted, environmental pollutants contaminate the food chain and highly processed foods dominate our daily diets. Plus, our stressful lifestyles are consistently burning up important nutrient stores. This means the food we eat packs less nutritional punch, while our absorption of nutrients is often impaired.

Supplements help to combat these nutritional deficits. They slow down the ageing process by helping you to more effectively cope with the stresses placed on your body. They work on many different levels: enhancing your health at a cellular level; reducing inflammation; maximising organ function; improving your detoxification processes; promoting healthy brain function; and preventing wear and tear of your joints.

In recent years, the term “nutraceuticals” has been used to describe supplements that offer an isolated or purified extract of a food in a prescribed dose within a capsule, tablet or powder. Nutraceuticals are designed to have a medicinal effect on your health and help to provide protection against chronic diseases such as cancer, diabetes, heart disease, hypertension, arthritis, osteoporosis and dementia. Talk to your naturopath to determine what supplements and doses are best suited to you and for information on contraindications and drug interactions.

Memory and mood trouble

As you age, your brain begins to degenerate and memory deteriorates along with it. The culprits? A reduction in neurotransmitters, free radical damage to brain cells, reduced blood circulation to the brain and the effects of cortisol, the stress hormone which, if elevated for a prolonged period, can damage cells in the hippocampus (a part of the brain that is instrumental in converting short-term memories to long term ones). Depression can also affect the way your brain processes information and retrieves it. Keeping the mind active, ensuring you have a diet rich in antioxidants, avoiding events that may trigger depression and minimising stress can all help to maintain a healthy brain.

• Ginkgo biloba:Ginkgo is renowned for its positive effects on enhancing memory and works in a number of ways to promote healthy brain function. It acts as an antioxidant, enhances cognition, improves blood flow, is neuroprotective and can assist with the prevention of dementia. Ginkgo comes in tablet, fluid extract or as a dried herb and the adult dose is equivalent to 6–12g of the dried leaf per day.
• St John’s wort:Used medicinally since the ancient Greek times, this herb is so named because of its yellow flowers, which were gathered for the feast of St John the Baptist, while the word “wort” is the old English term for plant. St John’s wort is effective for treating mild to moderate depression, as well as helping to reduce the effects of anxiety, irritability and emotional stress. It is contraindicated with many pharmaceutical medications as well as with the oral contraceptive pill and the correct dosage depends on your symptoms, so talk to your naturopath or herbalist before taking this herb.
• SAMe (S-adenosylmethionine):Made from the amino acid called methionine, SAMe is a naturally occurring compound involved in many bodily processes, including the methylation of brain chemicals — in which a methyl group is donated to a molecule to change its shape and function, allowing important processes in the body to occur. SAMe assists the synthesis and utilisation of some hormones and chemicals such as serotonin, melatonin and dopamine, which are important for mood and sleep. In particular, it methylates fats called phospholipids, which help keep the membranes of brain cells fluid and the receptors healthy so they respond well to neurotransmitters, which enable cells to talk to each other. Studies indicate that in some people, SAMe can be as effective in lifting depression as medication or placebo. Supplementation should be under the guidance of a health professional, who will be able to direct you to good-quality SAMe supplements and monitor side-effects, which may include anxiety.