A new long-term, large-scale study finds that taking a daily multivitamin supplement may slow cognitive aging in older adults.
Today, September 14, 2022, Alzheimer’s & Dementia: The Journal of the Alzheimer’s Association will publish “Effects of cocoa extract and a multivitamin on cognitive function: a randomized clinical trial.” Daily multivitamin-mineral supplementation resulted in a statistically significant cognitive benefit, according to the three-year study of more than 2,200 older adults. Cocoa extract was found to have no effect on global cognition.
“This is the first positive, large-scale, long-term study to show that multivitamin-mineral supplementation for older adults may slow cognitive aging. While the Alzheimer’s Association is encouraged by these results, we are not ready to recommend widespread use of a multivitamin supplement to reduce risk of cognitive decline in older adults,” said Maria C. Carrillo, Ph.D., chief science officer of the Alzheimer’s Association.
“Independent confirmatory studies are needed in larger, more diverse study populations. It is critical that future treatments and preventions are effective in all populations,” said Carrillo. “For now, and until there is more data, people should talk with their health care providers about the benefits and risks of all dietary supplements, including multivitamins.”
Carrillo maintains a positive outlook for future treatments to help cognitive aging and dementia. “We envision a future where there are multiple treatments and risk reduction strategies available that address cognitive aging and dementia in multiple ways — like heart disease and cancer — and that can be combined into powerful combination therapies… in conjunction with brain-healthy guidelines for lifestyle factors like diet and physical activity.”
See Daily Multivitamin May Improve Cognition and Protect Against Mental Decline for more on this research.
Reference: “Effects of cocoa extract and a multivitamin on cognitive function: A randomized clinical trial” by Laura D. Baker, Joann E. Manson, Stephen R. Rapp, Howard D. Sesso, Sarah A. Gaussoin, Sally A. Shumaker and Mark A. Espeland, 14 September 2022, Alzheimer s & Dementia.
DOI: 10.1002/alz.12767
The COcoa Supplement and Multivitamin Outcomes Study (COSMOS) is supported by an investigator-initiated grant from Mars Edge, a segment of Mars dedicated to nutrition research and products, which included infrastructure support and the donation of study pills and packaging. Haleon provided support through the partial provision of study pills and packaging. COSMOS is also supported in part by grants AG050657, AG071611, EY025623 and HL157665 from the National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Md. The Women’s Health Initiative (WHI) program is funded by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, National Institutes of Health, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services through contracts 75N92021D00001, 75N92021D00002, 75N92021D00003, 75N92021D00004, 75N92021D00005. Neither Mars Edge nor Haleon provided input regarding data analyses, interpretation of results, or manuscript development.
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2 Comments
It’s a flavanol extract of cocoa, not a general extract. The study is the extract versus a multivitamin. Their placebos for extract and multivitamin show roughly equivalent cognition benefits, which is probably just years of practising cognition tests. The interesting part is results diverge in patients with a history of cardiovascular disease, which they attribute to vitamin deficiencies common with heart disease.
“Multivitamin” is not specific enough. Which components and at what levels?