Multivitamin supplementation improves memory in older adults: A randomized clinical trial, 2023, Lok-Kin Yeung, PhD et al

This was a replicated study. One news program this morning was saying the Centrum 50+ was a good one.

Abstract
Background
Maintenance of cognitive abilities is of critical importance to most older adults, yet few effective strategies to slow cognitive decline currently exist. Multivitamin supplementation is used to promote general health; it is unclear whether it favorably affects cognition in older age.
Objective
To examine the effect of daily multivitamin/multimineral supplementation on memory in older adults.
Methods
The COcoa Supplement and Multivitamin Outcomes Study Web (COSMOS-Web) ancillary study (NCT04582617) included 3,562 older adults. Participants were randomly assigned to a daily multivitamin supplement (Centrum Silver) or placebo and evaluated annually with an internet-based battery of neuropsychological tests for three years. The pre-specified primary outcome measure was change in episodic memory, operationally defined as immediate recall performance on the ModRey test, after one year of intervention. Secondary outcome measures included change in episodic memory over three years of follow-up and changes in performance on neuropsychological tasks of novel object recognition and executive function over three years.

Results
Compared to placebo, participants randomized to multivitamin supplementation had significantly better ModRey immediate recall at one year, the primary endpoint (t(5889) = 2.25, p = 0.025), as well as across the three years of follow-up on average (t(5889) = 2.54, p = 0.011). Multivitamin supplementation had no significant effects on secondary outcomes. Based on cross-sectional analysis of the association between age and performance on the ModRey, we estimate that the effect of the multivitamin intervention improved memory performance above placebo by the equivalent of 3.1 years of age-related memory change.

Conclusions and Relevance
Daily multivitamin supplementation, compared to placebo, improves memory. Multivitamin supplementation holds promise as a safe and accessible approach towards maintaining cognitive health in older age.

https://ajcn.nutrition.org/article/S0002-9165(23)48904-6/fulltext

 

Assuming that the results are valid, the next step would be to figure out which component is helping. A multivitamin/mineral tablet had a beneficial effect on my ME (briefly), but it was only one component (iodine).

 

Off the top of my head the one researcher mentioned these and 2 others I can't remember which ones:

Vitamin D
Maganese
B-vitamins

I benefit from Omega 3 and magnesium.

 

I don’t have access to the article, but according to the trial registration, it was meant to compare the effects of cocoa extract (flavonols, specifically) vs a multivitamin supplement on cognition. Since the abstract doesn’t mention cocoa extract, it would seem that the results of the trial were negative (for cocoa) and that the researchers spun them into positive findings by focusing on the active control arm (multivitamin supplement).

 

This is what I watched on TODAY this morning:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AViad8Jd2ls