Researchers from Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Columbia University have found that daily multivitamin supplements can improve memory and slow cognitive decline in older adults.
Their study, part of the COcoa Supplement and Multivitamin Outcomes Study (COSMOS), included more than 3,500 participants aged 60 and older who took memory and cognition tests annually over three years.
Participants taking multivitamin supplements performed significantly better on the memory tests after one year compared to a placebo group, and these benefits were sustained throughout the study.
The results support the theory that multivitamin supplementation could offer a safe, accessible, and affordable approach to protecting cognitive health.
Details
This study is the second from COSMOS to report an improvement in memory function among individuals taking a multivitamin.
The first study, known as COSMOS-Mind, found a 60% slowing of global cognitive aging in older adults who took a daily multivitamin supplement.
That effect was equivalent to a reduction in cognitive decline by 1.8 years compared to a placebo group.
The latest study, COSMOS-Web, used innovative web-based cognitive assessments. The multivitamin intervention improved memory performance by an equivalent of 3.1 years compared to the placebo group.
Participants with a history of cardiovascular disease appeared to benefit the most from the intervention.
Quoting the Researchers
JoAnn Manson, MD, chief of the Brigham’s Division of Preventive Medicine and co-leader of the COSMOS trial, called the findings “remarkable” and suggested that multivitamin supplementation holds promise as a strategy to protect cognitive health in older adults.
Howard Sesso, ScD, associate director of Brigham’s Division of Preventive Medicine and co-leader of the COSMOS trial, emphasized the need to understand how a daily multivitamin may protect against memory loss and cognitive decline.
Adam Brickman, Ph.D., co-leader of the COSMOS-Web study, called the findings “promising” and Lok-Kin Yeung, Ph.D., co-leader of the COSMOS-Web study, suggested that multivitamin supplementation might be a simple and inexpensive way for older adults to slow memory loss.
What’s Next?
Further research is needed to identify which specific nutrients contribute most to cognitive benefits and the mechanisms involved.
Researchers also plan to determine whether these findings can be generalized to a more diverse population with lower educational levels and lower socioeconomic status.
If you care about brain health, please read studies about how the Mediterranean diet could protect your brain health, and carotenoid supplements could improve memory.
For more information about brain health, please see recent studies about antioxidants that could help reduce dementia risk, and higher magnesium intake could help benefit brain health.
The study was published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.
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