A large clinical trial suggests that taking a daily multivitamin could help slow biological aging in older adults, especially in people whose bodies were aging faster than expected at the start of the study.
Researchers from Mass General Brigham analyzed data from older adults who participated in a randomized clinical trial and found that two years of multivitamin use was linked to slower biological aging across several DNA-based measurements. The effect was equal to roughly four fewer months of biological aging over the course of the study. The findings were published in Nature Medicine.
“There is a lot of interest today in identifying ways to not just live longer, but to live better,” said senior author Howard Sesso, ScD, MPH, associate director of the Division of Preventive Medicine in the Mass General Brigham Department of Medicine. “It was exciting to see benefits of a multivitamin linked with markers of biological aging. This study opens the door to learning more about accessible, safe interventions that contribute to healthier, higher-quality aging.”
How Scientists Measured Biological Aging
Biological age reflects how quickly the body is aging at the cellular level, which may differ from a person’s actual age in years. To measure this process, researchers used “epigenetic clocks,” which estimate biological aging by examining small chemical changes in DNA over time.
These clocks focus on regions of DNA involved in controlling gene activity (known as DNA methylation). Because these changes naturally shift with age, scientists can use them to estimate aging speed and even predict risks linked to disease and mortality.
The new research used information from the COcoa Supplement Multivitamins Outcomes Study (COSMOS), a long-running clinical trial involving older adults. Investigators examined DNA methylation data from blood samples collected from 958 healthy participants whose average chronological age was 70.
Daily Multivitamin Linked to Slower Aging
Participants in the trial were randomly assigned to one of four groups: daily cocoa extract and multivitamin; daily cocoa extract and placebo; placebo and multivitamin; or placebo only.
Researchers compared changes in five separate epigenetic clocks at the beginning of the study and again after one and two years. Compared with participants who received only placebos, those taking a multivitamin showed slower biological aging across all five measurements. Two of the clocks, which are strongly associated with mortality risk, showed statistically significant slowing.
Overall, the findings suggested that multivitamin use reduced biological aging by about four months during the two-year period. The strongest effects appeared in participants whose biological age was already ahead of their chronological age when the trial began.
“We plan to do follow-up research to determine if the slowing of biological aging — observed through these five epigenetic clocks, and additional or new ones — persists after the trial ends,” said co-author and collaborator Yanbin Dong, MD, PhD, director of Georgia Prention Institute, Medical College of Georgia at Augusta Univeristy.
Possible Links to Brain Health and Disease Prevention
Researchers say more work is needed to understand how slowing biological aging may influence long-term health outcomes. The COSMOS team plans to continue studying whether the effects of daily multivitamin use could help explain previous findings connected to improved cognition and lower risks of cancer and cataracts.
“A lot of people take a multivitamin without necessarily knowing any benefits from taking it, so the more we can learn about its potential health benefits, the better,” said Sesso. “Within COSMOS, we are fortunate and excited to build upon a rich resource of biomarker data to test how two interventions may improve biological aging and reduce age-related clinical outcomes.”
Study Authors, Funding, and Disclosures
In addition to Sesso, Mass General Brigham authors include Sidong Li, Rikuta Hamaya, Alexandre C. Pereira, Kerry L. Ivey, Pamela M. Rist, and JoAnn E. Manson. Additional authors include Haidong Zhu, and Brian H. Chen.
Manson and Sesso received investigator-initiated grants from Mars Edge, a segment of Mars Incorporated dedicated to nutrition research and products, for infrastructure support and donation of COSMOS study pills and packaging, and Pfizer Consumer Healthcare (now Haleon) for donation of COSMOS study pills (Centrum Silver and placebo) and packaging during the conduct of the study. Sesso additionally reported receiving investigator-initiated grants from Haleon, FOXO Technologies, Massachusetts Life Sciences Center, Pure Encapsulations, and American Pistachio Growers, and honoraria and/or travel for lectures from the Council for Responsible Nutrition, BASF, Haleon, and NIH during the conduct of the study. Rist has received in-kind support (specifically donations of study pills and packaging) from Mars Edge to be used in an NIH-funded, investigator-initiated trial (U01 AT012611). Chen was formerly an employee of FOXO Technologies, who provided in-kind donations to generate and pre-process the DNA methylation data. Charitable donations made possible by Sutter Health’s California Pacific Medical Center Foundation provided salary support for Chen. Li received the EPI Early Career Travel Grant sponsored by the Council on Epidemiology and Prevention’s Early Career Committee, American Heart Association.
This work was funded by the National Institutes of Health (HL157665). The COcoa Supplement and Multivitamin Outcomes Study (COSMOS) also received support from Mars Edge, including infrastructure support and donated study pills and packaging. Pfizer Consumer Healthcare (now Haleon) partially provided study pills (Centrum Silver and placebo) and packaging. Additional support came from National Institutes of Health grants AG050657, AG071611, and EY025623. The companies involved had no role in study design, data collection, analysis, or preparation of the manuscript.