Taking multivitamin daily could help to slow biological ageing, study suggests | Medical research

Taking a daily multivitamin for two years appears to slow some markers of biological aging – although to a small extent, research suggests.

While chronological age is based on a person’s lifespan, biological age reflects the condition of the body. Estimates of the latter are often based on changes in DNA methylation patterns – changes to DNA that accumulate with age and affect how genes function.

One theory is that by slowing the rate of biological aging, it might be possible to prevent or alleviate age-related diseases, meaning people would have more healthy years.

A study led by researchers in the United States and funded by confectionery maker Mars suggests that a daily multivitamin could help slow certain markers of biological aging – although what this means in terms of health remains unclear.

“Ultimately, it is essential to determine the clinical relevance of our results,” the authors write.

Dr. Howard Sesso, an epidemiologist in the Department of Medicine at Mass General Brigham and lead author of the work, said the findings do not mean all older people should take multivitamins.

“There are no known risks of taking a multivitamin in our two large clinical trials. At the same time, we don’t know for sure who benefits and how,” he said.

While a large study published last year found that daily multivitamins did not help people live longer and might actually increase the risk of premature death, Sesso and colleagues said their previous work suggested that daily multivitamins were associated with better cognition and a reduction in lung cancer and cataracts.

Writing in the journal Nature Medicine, Sasso and colleagues reported how 958 healthy participants, with an average age of around 70, were divided into four groups. They had to take either daily cocoa extract and multivitamins; daily cocoa extract and multivitamin placebo; daily cocoa extract, placebo and multivitamin; or two placebos per day.

The researchers took blood samples from the participants at the start of the trial and after one and two years. These samples were analyzed for changes in five different measures of DNA methylation, or “epigenetic clocks.”

After accounting for participants’ age, gender, and baseline measurements, the researchers found that, compared to those given a placebo, participants taking a daily multivitamin had slower biological aging for two of the five epigenetic clocks, particularly those used to estimate mortality risk.

Overall, the researchers said the slowdown equated to about four fewer months of biological aging over two years.

The team added that the effects appeared to be greater in people whose biological aging was faster at the start of the study, with further analysis suggesting that this may be because these participants had greater nutritional deficits to begin with.

“Nutritional status may partly explain the results, but these epigenetic clocks may reflect other age-related risk factors,” Sesso said.

Researchers said cocoa extract did not slow biological aging on any of the five clocks and did not interact with multivitamins..

They added that further work was needed to determine whether the modest results seen with multivitamins were actually linked to significant clinical benefits.

Writing in an accompanying article, experts from the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University in New York agreed, emphasizing that the effects seen in the study were very small.

Dr Marco Di Antonio, an expert in biological aging at Imperial College London who was not involved in the work, also said the link between these epigenetic clocks and the practical aspects of aging was not yet clear.

“I don’t think people should start taking multivitamins daily [necessarily] “but these results demonstrate that having a healthy diet and lifestyle will have an effect on your biological age, as direct changes in diet can impact clocks,” he added.

“Taking daily multivitamins will be useless if a healthy lifestyle is not combined with it, as bad habits will also have a negative impact on aging which will not be reversed by multivitamins.”

Dr. Pilar Guallar Castillón, associate professor at the Autonomous University of Madrid, added that the clinical trial associated with the study found no effect of multivitamin consumption on the main causes of mortality and morbidity.

“My personal advice is to stop taking multivitamins, whether in pill or gummy form,” she said. “Eat a healthy, varied diet, rich in fruits and vegetables [the main natural source of vitamins and minerals]and don’t waste your money on nutritional supplements. There are huge commercial interests in their consumption and a lack of clinical evidence.