Daily Multivitamin Supplements Improve Memory and Slow Cognitive Aging in Older Adults

Second main research from COSMOS finds that members randomized to obtain a day by day multivitamin complement confirmed enhancements in reminiscence in comparison with placebo.

The research, COSMOS-Web, concerned over 3,500 members aged 60 and older who took both multivitamins or a placebo and underwent annual cognitive assessments for 3 years. The multivitamin group demonstrated important reminiscence enchancment equal to a 3.1 12 months reversal of cognitive getting older in comparison with the placebo group, with the best advantages noticed in members with a historical past of heart problems. These findings corroborate these from one other COSMOS research, COSMOS-Mind, which related day by day multivitamin supplementation with a 60% slowing of worldwide cognitive getting older.

Randomized scientific trials have proven few efficient methods to enhance reminiscence or sluggish cognitive decline amongst older adults. Nutritional interventions might play an vital function as a result of the mind requires a number of vitamins for optimum health, and deficiencies in a number of of those vitamins might speed up cognitive decline. The COcoa Supplement and Multivitamin Outcomes Study (COSMOS), a large-scale nationwide randomized trial directed by researchers at Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH), a founding member of Mass General Brigham, included two separate scientific trials (COSMOS-Web and COSMOS-Mind) testing multivitamin supplementation on modifications in cognitive operate.

In a research revealed on May 24 in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, researchers from the Brigham and their collaborators at Columbia University report from COSMOS-Web that day by day multivitamin dietary supplements, in comparison with placebo, improved reminiscence amongst members. The research is the second from COSMOS, together with the beforehand revealed COSMOS-Mind, to search out an enchancment in reminiscence operate amongst these taking a multivitamin.

“The findings that a daily multivitamin improved memory and slowed cognitive decline in two separate studies in the COSMOS randomized trial is remarkable, suggesting that multivitamin supplementation holds promise as a safe, accessible, and affordable approach to protecting cognitive health in older adults,” stated co-author JoAnn Manson, MD, chief of the Brigham’s Division of Preventive Medicine. Manson is a co-leader of the dad or mum COSMOS trial with Howard Sesso, ScD, affiliate director of the Brigham’s Division of Preventive Medicine.

Sesso provides, “With these two studies on cognition in hand for COSMOS, and more to come in COSMOS, it is critical to understand how a daily multivitamin may protect against memory loss and cognitive decline, and whether particular subgroups based on nutritional status or other factors may benefit more, or less.”

The newly revealed COSMOS-Web trial included greater than 3,500 members aged 60 and older who accomplished novel web-based assessments of reminiscence and cognition yearly over 3 years. Compared to the placebo group, members randomized to multivitamin supplementation did considerably higher on the reminiscence checks on the prespecified major time level of 1 12 months, with advantages sustained throughout the 3 years of follow-up. The researchers estimated that the multivitamin intervention improved reminiscence efficiency by the equal of 3.1 years in comparison with the placebo group. Intriguingly, each COSMOS cognitive research additionally confirmed that the members who benefitted probably the most could also be these with a historical past of heart problems.

“Because of our innovative approach of assessing cognitive outcomes using internet-based tests, we were able to examine the effects of a multivitamin in thousands of study participants. The findings are promising and certainly set the stage for important follow-up studies about the impact of multivitamin supplementation on cognition,” stated Adam Brickman, PhD, who co-led the COSMOS-Web research with Lok-Kin Yeung, PhD, at Columbia University. “Most older adults are worried about memory changes that occur with aging. Our study suggests that supplementation with multivitamins may be a simple and inexpensive way for older adults to slow down memory loss,” added Yeung.

Results from COSMOS-Web, carried out as a collaboration between the Brigham and Columbia University, present affirmation of earlier findings from COSMOS-Mind linking day by day multivitamins to slowing of cognitive decline. COSMOS-Mind, which was carried out as a collaboration between the Brigham and Wake Forest School of Medicine, had examined 2,200 older adults for 3 years and confirmed that randomized task to a day by day multivitamin complement was related to a 60% slowing of worldwide cognitive getting older in comparison with placebo, equal to 1.8 years discount in cognitive decline (research was funded by the National Institute on Aging and revealed in Alzheimer’s and Dementia in September 2022).

The authors observe that the COSMOS-Web research offers proof that multivitamin supplementation has cognitive advantages however additional analysis might be essential to establish the precise vitamins contributing probably the most to this profit and the underlying mechanisms concerned. Additional analysis can also be wanted to find out whether or not the findings are generalizable to a extra various research inhabitants with decrease instructional ranges and decrease socioeconomic standing.

For extra on this analysis, see Major Study Finds Daily Multivitamin Improves Memory in Older Adults.

Reference: “Multivitamin supplementation improves memory in older adults: A randomized clinical trial” by Lok-Kin Yeung, Daniel M. Alschuler, Melanie Wall, Heike Luttmann-Gibson, Trisha Copeland, Christiane Hale, Richard P. Sloan, Howard D. Sesso, JoAnn E. Manson and Adam M. Brickman, 24 May 2023, American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.
DOI: 10.1016/j.ajcnut.2023.05.011

Authors: Lok-Kin Yeung (Columbia), Daniel M. Alschuler (New York State Psychiatric Institute), Melanie Wall (Columbia), Heike Luttman-Gibson (Brigham and Women’s Hospital/Harvard), Trisha Copeland (Brigham and Women’s/Harvard), Richard P. Sloan (Columbia), Howard D. Sesso (Brigham and Women’s/Harvard), JoAnn E. Manson (Brigham and Women’s/Harvard) and Adam M. Brickman (Columbia).

Disclosures: Sesso moreover reported receiving investigator-initiated grants from Pure Encapsulations and Pfizer Inc. and honoraria and/or journey for lectures from the Council for Responsible Nutrition, BASF, NIH, and the American Society of Nutrition throughout the conduct of the research.

Funding: COSMOS-Web was supported by investigator-initiated grants from Mars Edge, a section of Mars Inc. and the National Institutes of Health (AG050657, AG071611, EY025623, and HL157665). Multivitamin and placebo tablets and packaging have been donated by Pfizer, Inc Consumer Healthcare (now Haleon).