New study shows that taking multivitamins may slow some signs of aging
A new study suggests that taking a daily multivitamin may boost longevity, but the results are not conclusive.
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Multivitamins are the most common dietary supplement in the US. People take these pills (or actually gummies) for a variety of health reasons, but the science on what multivitamins can do for your health is mixed, and none of them are approved by the US Food and Drug Administration. But the interesting thing is that a new study There are suggestions that taking a daily multivitamin may slow biological aging.
In a randomized clinical trial based on 958 adults age 60 and older, researchers found that taking a multivitamin-multimineral supplement for two years modestly slowed two molecular signals of aging in the body, called the “epigenetic clock.” Chemical changes on DNA called DNA methylation in specific parts of the genome can help estimate a person’s biological age. The growth rates of those who took the supplement slowed down by about 1.5 to two months per year compared to the clocks of those who took the placebo. The findings were published on Monday naturopathy.
While the results are “encouraging,” the researchers wrote in the paper, more research is needed to understand how multivitamins affect biological aging.
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Experts who were not involved in the new study urged caution. While the researchers saw effects with two epigenetic clocks called PCPhenoAge and PCGrimAge, the three other epigenetic clocks included in the study showed no statistically significant changes in their speed.
“The multivitamin produced small favorable changes in two epigenetic aging markers, but not in all clocks measured,” says Jose Ordovas, a professor of nutrition and genetics at Tufts University who was not involved in the study. “This makes the finding interesting, but it is still a long way from showing that multivitamins broadly slow aging or improve longevity.”
One strength of the study is that researchers carefully matched the characteristics of people in the vitamin group to those in the placebo group, says Zachary Clayton, an assistant professor of medicine at the University of Colorado Anschutz, who was not involved in the research. “However, the magnitude of the differences observed were modest, and their clinical significance remains uncertain,” he says.
The study did not take into account a person’s exact diet or physical activity during the two-year period, he added, and those factors cannot be ruled out as having an impact on biological aging.
Yet, in nutrition science, such randomized clinical trials are rare. They are generally not required to sell supplements such as multivitamins, even if manufacturers claim specific health benefits. Additional trials, the authors say, “are needed to confirm these findings and determine the role of (multivitamins) in healthy aging not only in older adults, but across the life span.”
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