Best vitamins for men: Improve your health with crucial nutrients and vitamins

Choosing the best vitamins for you is very much a case-by-case issue. Our bodies are individual ecosystems after all, with each of us living our own lives and eating distinct diets. Some men are more active than others, for example, and some are more likely to experience hair loss or struggle with dry skin.

While we’re not suggesting that vitamins are a guaranteed solution to what ails you, it does make good sense to make sure that you’re getting enough of the necessities to avoid exacerbating or even causing problems like the ones mentioned above. You don’t need to have a clinically diagnosed deficiency, either: when winter rolls around, for example, the chances are you’ll be missing out on a bit of vitamin D or B12, and a supplement of some sort is a great idea.

Down below, we’ve explained what vitamins are helpful and why so you can dive into what might be right for you. Below that, you’ll find our pick of the best vitamins for men, from all-in-one multivitamins to individual vitamins for targeting specific deficiencies.

Before we begin: although this page is dedicated to the best vitamins for men, it should be noted that vitamins are not gendered – there are certain sex-specific factors that might contribute to deficiencies (menstruation, for example, can cause increased risk of iron deficiency) but you shouldn’t exclude products from your search based on who they are marketed at.

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How to choose the best vitamins for you

What are vitamins and minerals?

Vitamins and minerals are essential nutrients that help keep you healthy. They are only needed in relatively small amounts and most people can appropriate amounts of them from a varied and balanced diet.

Why do I need vitamins?

Taking vitamins is most important when you believe you aren’t getting all the vitamins and minerals you should be from your diet. That in itself can be difficult to decipher, so you’ll need to try and get in tune with your body. Brittle hair and nails could be a lack of biotin while cracks around your lips might point to a lack of iron or B vitamins; there are too many symptoms and possible insufficiencies in intake of vitamins and minerals to name. You might have a natural deficiency in certain vitamins and minerals too, so it’s best to book a blood test to check how your body is doing.

Even if you feel symptomless though, a good multivitamin might improve your general wellbeing, including your mood and energy levels, and who wouldn’t want that. Just remember to follow dosage recommendations as taking too many vitamins and minerals over a long period of time causes its own problems.

What are the best ingredients to look out for?

As per the NHS, these are the most important vitamins and minerals you’ll want to get into your diet and therefore the ones you should be looking to find in any products (should you need them).

Vitamin A: It helps improve your immune system to fight off infection and illness, as well as vision in dim light and keeping skin and the lining of parts of your body (like the nose) healthy.

B vitamins and folic acid: There are many different B vitamins with a range of different purposes. For instance, B1, B2, B3 help keep the nervous system healthy, amongst other things, while B6 contributes to storage of energy and oxygenation of blood. Folic Acid, also known as B9, helps form healthy red blood cells in the body.

Vitamin C: As you might be aware, a lack of vitamin C can lead to scurvy and the symptoms of weakness and irritability, joint and skin problems, as well as bleeding gums.

Vitamin D: Labelled the ‘sunshine vitamin’, vitamin D is mainly derived from sunlight and helps keep bones, teeth and muscles healthy. Between October and March (roughly), you should be taking vitamin D since we don’t get enough of it from sunlight during these periods in the UK.

Vitamin E: This vitamin helps maintain a healthy immune system, plus keep your eyes and skin working as they should.

Vitamin K: Found in leafy green vegetables, this vitamin helps the body with blood clotting and the healing of wounds. There is even evidence it can help bones too.

Calcium: Helping teeth and bones stay strong, calcium intake is crucial to avoid osteoporosis or other bone issues later in life. It also contributes to muscle contractions, including your heartbeat.

Iodine: Thyroid hormones contribute to the health of your cells and your body’s metabolic rate and iodine is important to keep that going.

Iron: Many people are also deficient in iron but it’s especially important to help carry oxygen around your body since it helps create red blood cells.

There are many other vitamins and minerals too such as magnesium, zinc and potassium, but the ones above are the major players.

What concentration of a vitamin or mineral do I need?

This varies substantially depending on the vitamin in question, so unfortunately there is no hard and fast rule here. The NHS has a full breakdown of the daily requirements on its website but one thing to note is that you’ll also be eating food alongside any vitamins you take. As such, even if a daily requirement is one number, you’ll need much less in your vitamins (assuming you are following a relatively standard diet). Generally, you’ll find the major vitamins in products hovering between 50% and 150% for the Nutritional Reference Value (the daily suggested amount), with harder to absorb vitamins and minerals being on the higher end of the scale.

Best vitamins for men to buy in 2023

1. Centrum Advance: Best vitamins for men of all ages

Price: £14 (£0.08/tablet) | Buy now from Amazon

Ideally, we’d get our necessary cocktail of vitamins from a wide-ranging, nutrient rich diet of brightly coloured vegetables. Yet, as you may be aware, life often gets in the way and we don’t make that perfect, healthy meal – if we even know what that meal is.

To fill in the cracks of your patchwork diet, it’s best to get a multivitamin that covers all bases. Our pick is Centrum: a trusted source that doesn’t break the bank. It contains 24 vitamins and minerals including 100% or more of your daily recommendations for vitamins A, B (4 types), C, D, and K, as it is designed to enhance your health in a holistic manner. You’ll be confident in the results too, since Centrum is a well-known brand with almost half a century of scientific research to back its products up.

Key details – Type: Tablet; Number of days supply: 180; Vegan: No; Gluten free: Yes

2. Vitabiotics Perfectil Plus Hair: Best vitamins for hair, skin and nails

Price: £15 (£0.24/tablet) | Buy now from Amazon

Loss of hair quality and density is a bit of a sore point for some men. It might be a natural process, with around 85 percent of men balding by age 50, but that doesn’t stop people fretting about it.

While you can’t stop the process, you can try your best to help the hair you do have stick around and stay healthy for as long as possible. Vitamins and minerals like biotin, iron, vitamin D and many more can affect hair growth, so a multivitamin is usually your best bet and we like the results seen with Vitabiotics Perfectil.

Many users have reported improved quality of their mop and the ingredients list backs up those observations with high concentrations of all the good stuff you need. But be warned, it does taste a bit odd – with each tablet also being quite large – so we recommend getting it down the hatch as fast as possible.

Key details – Type: Tablet; Number of days supply: 30; Vegan: Yes; Gluten free: Yes

3. Naturelo One Daily: Best natural vitamins

Price: £23 (0.38/capsule) | Buy now from Amazon

With so many brands claiming to offer the complete vitamin package, it can be difficult to work out which ones deliver the goods. What we do know is the optimal source of vitamins and minerals are from real foods, so purchasing vitamins derived from organic sources like the Naturelo One Daily multivitamins makes the most sense.

None of the ingredients are synthetic and there are no GMOs, with many of the ingredients being vegetables in powdered form, so you know everything entering your body is 100% natural. It’s all vegan (and without gelatin), soya free and gluten free plus there are not any preservatives, flavourings or colourings. It might cost a little more than other brands, but there is nothing unnatural about taking Naturelo.

Key details – Type: Capsule; Number of days supply: 60; Vegan: Yes; Gluten free: Yes

4. Incite Max Strength Vitamin D3: Best vitamin for indoorsy men

Price: £9 (£0.02/tablet) | Buy now from Amazon

Should you find yourself spending a lot of time out of sunlight, stuck indoors at work or home, vitamin D is an essential buy. Even if you think you are, the NHS still recommends that every adult take a daily supplement containing at least 10 micrograms (10μg) or 400 international units (iu) of vitamin D. That’s because it is an essential nutrient for maintaining strong bones and teeth and boosting your immune system in general.

At less than 2p per tablet, this is the best value high strength vitamin D selection around. Super easy to swallow, these 6mm pills are packed with 100μg (4,000iu) of vitamin D and are numerous enough to keep you stocked with tablets for over one year.

More than 100μg a day can actually be a bad thing, as it may cause too much calcium to build up in the body (hypercalcaemia) and in turn weaken bones, damage the kidneys and the heart, so don’t take any more than one of these per day and lower your dose if you end up outside more in summer.

Key details – Type: Tablet; Number of days supply: 400; Vegan: No; Gluten free: No

6. Club Vits Chewable Multivitamins: Best vitamin gummies

Price: £15 (£0.12/gummy) | Buy now from Amazon

We get it: swallowing pills isn’t fun. In fact, it can be nigh-on impossible for some people to get a capsule or tablet down their throat (the medical term being dysphagia). Besides that, the easier swallow, gummy vitamins tend to taste much better too, coming in an array of flavours. The problem is that it can be a lot harder to pack a gummy with nutrient goodness than a capsule or tablet, and as a result, there are a lot of dud products out there.

We recommend these chewable vitamins from Club Vits. You’ll be so keen to take your daily supplement since these are not only super easy to get down, but the raspberry flavour tastes great too. It contains all the essential vitamins you need at excellent concentration levels and crucially, it costs less per gummy than a lot of the other big name options out there.

Key details – Type: Gummy; Number of days supply: 120; Vegan: No; Gluten free: No

7. Vita Premium Vitamin C: Best vitamin for gout sufferers

Price: £11.50 (£0.06/tablet) | Buy now from Amazon

Gout is a painful problem for many people and while vitamins are no silver bullet, one of them in particular is thought to help your body deal with the excess uric acid that causes the disease. Research shows that high vitamin C intake can both be a preventative measure to reduce the risk of gout and actually reduce uric acid levels themselves, so it should help towards alleviating joint pain in the long-run.

No matter the science, since it is such a low-cost, low-risk supplement, vitamin C is worth adding to your arsenal. Generally, the higher concentration, the better – with 1,000 to 1,499 mg/day reducing risk by around half in one study – so this 1,500mg per pill selection from Vita Premium is the perfect 6-month supply and the best value price we could find.

Take it while also reducing the purine in your diet (foods like red meat, seafood and sugars) that is broken down into uric acid, as well as living a more active lifestyle to shed any excess pounds, otherwise your investment will go to waste. Speak to your doctor about gout for more information, as you may also need uric acid lowering medicine.

Key details – Type: Tablet; Number of days supply: 180; Vegan: Yes; Gluten free: Yes