Could a Multivitamin Help You Age Better? Study Suggests Yes - Yahoo Health

What the report says

Everyday Health reported that preliminary findings from a large study suggest daily multivitamin use may modestly support functional health in older adults. The results, presented at the American Society for Nutrition annual meeting and not yet published in a medical journal, focused on adults 60 and older and their ability to manage everyday activities over three years.

According to the report, researchers led by Yanbin Dong of the Medical College of Georgia at Augusta University reviewed data from more than 16,000 participants who did not have major cardiovascular disease when the study began. Participants were assigned to take a multivitamin, cocoa extract, both, or placebo. Annual questionnaires measured daily functioning and symptoms associated with heart failure, such as fatigue, shortness of breath and swelling.

Everyday Health said the multivitamin group showed small average improvements in symptom burden and a clinical summary score after three years. The apparent benefit was larger among participants with carotid stenosis, a narrowing of neck arteries that supply blood to the brain. The report also noted that cocoa extract did not significantly improve functional health scores overall, though the study authors saw a benefit among participants who developed congestive heart failure.

The article emphasized that multivitamin research has produced mixed results. Sarah L. Booth of Tufts University, who was not involved in the study, said interpretation should wait for the full paper and noted that participants’ usual diets can affect supplement findings. The study’s sponsors included Mars for the cocoa component and Pfizer and Haleon for multivitamins, but Everyday Health reported that sponsors had no role in study design, analysis or interpretation.