Taking a multivitamin every day for two years appears to slow some markers of biological ageing – albeit to a small degree, research suggests.
While chronological age is based on how long a person has lived, biological age reflects the state of the body. Estimates of the latter are often based on changes in patterns of DNA methylation – modifications to DNA that accumulate with age and affect how genes function.
One theory is that by slowing the rate of biological ageing, it may be possible to prevent or mitigate age-related illness, meaning people have more years of good health.
A study carried out by researchers in the US and including funding from the confectionery manufacturer Mars suggests a daily multivitamin could help slow some markers of biological ageing – although what that means in terms of health remains unclear.
“Ultimately, it is critical to determine the clinical relevance of our findings,” the authors wrote.
Dr Howard Sesso, a epidemiologist at Mass General Brigham department of medicine and senior author of the work, said the findings did not mean all older adults must take multivitamins.
“There are no known risks for taking a multivitamin in our two large clinical trials. At the same time, we do not know for sure who benefits, and how,” he said.
While a large study published last year found daily multivitamins did not help people to live any longer and might actually increase the risk of an early death, Sesso and colleagues said their previous work had suggested daily multivitamins were associated with improved cognition, and reductions in lung cancer and cataracts.
Writing in the journal Nature Medicine, Sasso and colleagues reported how 958 healthy participants with an average age of about 70 years were split into four groups. These were assigned to take either a daily cocoa extract and multivitamin; daily cocoa extract and multivitamin placebo; daily cocoa extract placebo and multivitamin; or two placebos daily.
The researchers took blood samples from participants at the start of the trial and after one and two years. These samples were analysed for changes in five different measures of DNA methylation, or “epigenetic clocks”.
After taking into account participants’ age, sex, and baseline measures, the researchers found that, compared with those given a placebo, participants who took a daily multivitamin showed a slowdown in biological ageing for two of the five epigenetic clocks – in particular those used to estimate mortality risk.
Overall, the researchers said the slowdown equated to about four months less biological ageing over two years.
The team added that the effects appeared to be greater for people who had faster biological ageing at the start of the study, with further analysis suggesting this could be because such participants had greater nutritional deficits to start with.
“Nutritional status may partly explain the results, but these epigenetic clocks may reflect other age-related risk factors,” said Sesso.
The researchers said the cocoa extract did not slow biological ageing for any of the five clocks, and did not interact with the multivitamin.
They added that further work was needed to explore whether the modest results seen for multivitamins actually related to meaningful clinical benefits.
Writing in an accompanying article, experts from the Columbia University Mailman school of public health in New York agreed, and stressed the effects found in the study were very small.
Dr Marco Di Antonio, an expert in biological ageing at Imperial College London who was not involved in the work, also said the link between these epigenetic clocks and practical aspects of ageing was still unclear.
“I do not think that people should start taking multivitamins daily [necessarily] but these results demonstrate that having an healthy diet and lifestyle will have an effect on your biological age, as direct changes in the diet can have impact on the clocks,” he added.
“Taking multivitamins daily will be pointless if there is not an healthy lifestyle associated with it, as bad habits will have a negative impact on ageing too that won’t be reverted by multivitamins.”
Dr Pilar Guallar Castillón, an associate professor at the Autonomous University of Madrid, added that the clinical trial associated with the study had found no effect of multivitamin consumption on the main causes of mortality and morbidity.
“My personal advice is to stop taking multivitamins, whether in pill or gummy form,” she said. “Eat a healthy, varied diet rich in fruit and vegetables [the main natural source of vitamins and minerals], and do not waste your money on nutritional supplements. There are huge commercial interests in their consumption and a lack of clinical evidence.”
