A Daily Multivitamin To Boost Your Memory? Here’s What You Need To Know

Despite the fact that pills have not been proven to prevent diseases such as heart disease and cancer, and experts say they’re better off getting nutrients, millions of American adults take multiple daily. I am taking vitamins. food.

A new study is investigating whether taking vitamins daily can affect memory. The study found that multivitamins may boost memory function in some people by an amount equivalent to three years of normal age-related memory loss.

Adam Brickman, a professor of neuropsychology at Columbia University who led the study, said that while the study was not comprehensive enough to make broad recommendations for vitamin intake, it did provide important information about vitamin use.

“Well-designed research studies show that taking a multivitamin may indeed have some benefits,” he said.

More research is needed to determine exactly which nutrients may make a difference.

Here’s what you need to know about the new study published Wednesday in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

About research

Researchers at Columbia University in New York and Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston followed more than 3,500 people over the age of 60 for three years.

Participants were randomly assigned to take a multivitamin or a dummy tablet daily. They were evaluated annually for 3 years with an internet-based test that measures memory function.

In one test, participants were given a list of 20 words for 3 seconds each, and were asked to type all the words they learned immediately, and then after 15 minutes. Brickman said the test measured function in the hippocampus, a region of the brain that controls learning and memory.

After one year, participants who took the vitamin daily improved their memory function and were able to accurately recall 7.81 words from the initial 7.10 words. The participant who received the dummy pill increased her ability to recall 7.21 words to 7.65 words. The researchers calculated that this difference equates to an improvement in memory equivalent to about 3 years of normal age-related changes. The study found that this improvement was maintained for at least the remaining two years of the study and was more pronounced in people with heart disease.

Multivitamins may work by providing micronutrients that enhance hippocampal function, Brickman said. This is the second large study conducted by researchers to show that older adults who took a daily multivitamin had improved memory.

The research was also funded by the National Institutes of Health and Mars Edge, a division of Mars that makes candy, pet food and other products. Both Pfizer and Haleon are makers of multivitamins.

About the use of multivitamins

About 60% of adults and 35% of children in the United States take vitamins daily, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The pills are part of the approximately $56 billion that Americans spend on dietary supplements each year.

The U.S. Dietary Guidelines recommend that Americans should get their nutrients from food unless they have special needs or a doctor recommends taking vitamins. health care provider. Vitamins can help fill nutrients that your diet lacks, but too much can cause side effects ranging from upset stomachs to serious heart and liver problems.

A national advisory group, the US Preventive Services Task Force, said last year that the current evidence was “insufficient” to assess the risks and benefits of multivitamin supplements for preventing heart disease and cancer. This group recommended withholding beta-carotene and vitamin E for that purpose.

its meaning

Robert Hackman, a research dietitian at the University of California, Davis, who was not involved in the study, said the study suggests that vitamin supplements may supplement micronutrients that are lacking in diets, especially among older people. said to indicate that About one-third of adults over the age of 60 do not get enough vitamins, minerals and fiber from food alone.

Still, the Alzheimer’s Association does not recommend using multivitamins to reduce the risk of cognitive decline in older adults.

Heather Snyder, vice president of medical and scientific relations for the Alzheimer’s Association, said most of the study participants were white, college-educated, and had access to and the ability to take online exams.

“It will be important to independently confirm these results, especially in a more representative study population,” she said.

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The Associated Press’ Health Sciences Division is supported by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group. AP is solely responsible for all content.