Vitamins for elderly parents: helping with medication without doubling up

Vitamins for elderly parents: start before you buy

A call from Bristol to Leeds: “Mum, I’ve ordered you some vitamins.” Meanwhile her kitchen already holds vitamin D drops from a neighbour, a multivitamin from the chemist and her blood pressure tablets. The new bottle joins the pile, and nobody checks what’s in it.

So start with what your parents already take. Vitamins for older people usually come down to a short list, set out in our guide to vitamins for over 50s, 60s and 70s. First, though, find out which of those are already in the house.

Talking to your parents about medicines

Nobody enjoys being told how to live. A different approach tends to work better:

• start with what worries them: forgetting tablets, dizziness, trouble swallowing;
• talk about a specific problem rather than about age;
• offer help, not a verdict: “Shall we put everything on one sheet so the GP can see it at a glance?”;
• never stop or change their medicines yourself, even if you’ve read something worrying.

NICE advises involving family members or carers, where the patient agrees, when a clinician checks someone’s list of medicines. You’re not replacing the GP; you’re helping them see the whole picture.

Helping elderly parents with medication: one bag, one list

Ask your parents to put everything they take into one bag. That means prescriptions, drops, creams, inhalers, herbal remedies, vitamins and the “just in case” packets from a handbag. NICE says a medication review should take into account prescribed, over-the-counter and complementary medicines, so all of them belong on the list.

Then copy everything onto a sheet. MedlinePlus (NIH) suggests recording the name, the dose, when it’s taken and what it’s for. Keep a copy in the wallet and show it to every doctor and pharmacist. The quickest way is our medicines list for the GP, which flags combinations worth asking about and prints the sheet.

Talking to the GP or pharmacist

In England, the NHS offers structured medication reviews, led by clinical pharmacists in GP practices. They’re aimed at people on 10 or more medicines, people in care homes, and people with severe frailty who are housebound or have recently been in hospital or had a fall. If your parent doesn’t fit those groups, they can still ask their GP or a community pharmacist to go through the list.

Questions worth asking:

1. Is every medicine on the list still needed?
2. Should any dose change? With age, the kidneys clear medicines more slowly.
3. Which supplements are fine with these medicines, and which aren’t?
4. What should happen if a dose is missed?

Write the answers straight onto the sheet. Prescribed medicines shouldn’t be stopped or reduced without the prescriber.

Pill organisers and a pill calendar

Once there are more than two or three tablets a day, mix-ups are almost inevitable. MedlinePlus describes organisers for 7, 14 or 28 days with sections for morning, midday, evening and bedtime. Automatic dispensers with a light and an alarm also exist.

Organisers have limits. Some medicines need to stay in their original packaging, so check with the pharmacist before decanting everything. If your parents lose track, print a weekly pill chart: a tick straight after each dose shows whether it’s been taken.

Avoiding double doses

The most common family mistake is two bottles of the same thing. Mum takes a multivitamin, her daughter brings vitamin D, and her son adds a “joint formula” with more vitamin D in it.

If a dose has doubled anyway, don’t try to even it out by skipping the next day. Ask the pharmacist what to do for that particular product.

If you live far away

Plenty of people help their parents from another city or another country. It’s harder, but it can be done:

• ask them to show you every box over a video call and write the list yourself;
• post the printed calendar, or ask a neighbour to print it;
• agree which relative nearby fills the organiser once a week;
• find out which pharmacy your parents use: the pharmacist often knows what they buy.

If your parents don’t want help, don’t push. Leave a blank list with them and suggest coming back to it before their next GP appointment. Adults who can make their own decisions have the right to decide what they take.

Storing medicines and vitamins safely

• Somewhere cool and dry, out of direct sunlight. Not in the bathroom, by the sink, near the cooker or on a radiator.
• In the original packaging, which shows the dose and the expiry date.
• Out of reach of grandchildren and pets. The NHS warns that very high doses of iron can be fatal for children.
• Out-of-date and unwanted medicines go back to the pharmacy, not in the bin or down the toilet.

When to get help

Contact the GP or pharmacist if:

• your parents are mixing up doses or can’t remember whether they’ve taken a tablet;
• they feel dizzy, weak or drowsy after starting a new medicine or supplement;
• tablets are left in the organiser at the end of the week, or packs run out at odd times;
• the routine has become too complicated: MedlinePlus advises telling the doctor, who may be able to reduce the number of medicines.

For urgent advice, call NHS 111. If someone has taken an extra dose and feels unwell, collapses or becomes confused, call 999.

Gifts for elderly parents’ health

The best gift is rarely a bottle. See which ideas work and which are better left on the shelf:

Ginkgo “for memory” isn’t a gift to give without their GP’s say-so: with warfarin and other anticoagulants it may add to bleeding risk (more in our ginkgo biloba guide). Memory worries are a reason to see a GP; see memory over 60.

How to choose for your parents on iHerb

1. List everything your parents already take and show it to their GP.
2. Check whether their multivitamin already contains vitamin D, calcium or iron.
3. If they need vitamin D, choose 400–1,000 IU, not 5,000 IU.
4. Pick an easy form: drops and chewables help if swallowing is hard (see trouble swallowing pills).
5. Add the new bottle to the list and the pill calendar so everyone knows about it.