Research indicates that daily multivitamin supplements can help delay biological ageing 

Studies indicate that daily multivitamin use over two years appears to delay certain markers of biological ageing to some extent. 

Although chronological age depends on how long a person has lived, one’s biological age reflects the state of the body. The latter can be estimated from changes in DNA methylation- modification of DNA that is age-related and influences the functioning of genes.

One of them is that, by reducing the pace of biological ageing, it may be feasible to either prevent or mitigate age-related disease, implying that individuals will have additional years of healthy life. 

A U.S.-Based study funded by the confectionery company Mars indicates that a daily dose of vitamin may affect certain biological ageing markers. Still, it is unclear what this might imply for health. Finally, the authors state that it is essential to determine the clinical significance of the results. The findings did not imply that all older adults should take multivitamins, which is why Dr Howard Sesso, an epidemiologist at Mass General Brigham Department of Medicine and senior author of the work, said. 

“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.

Although a major study published last year concluded that multivitamins made no difference in enabling an individual to live longer and actually raised the chances of an early death, Sesso and colleagues ll
have indicated that past research has shown that daily multivitamins are associated with better cognition and lower rates of lung cancer and cataracts.

In an article in Nature Medicine, Sasso and colleagues described how 958 healthy participants (average age approximately 70 years) were divided into four groups. They were assigned to take one daily dose of a cocoa-extraction multivitamin, one daily dose of a cocoa-extraction multivitamin placebo, two daily doses of a placebo, or two daily doses of a cocoa-extraction placebo.

The researchers collected participants’ blood samples at the beginning of the trial and at 1 and 2 years. Five measures of DNA methylation, or epigenetic clocks, were analysed on these samples.

Following the consideration of the age, sex and baseline measurements of the participants, the researchers have determined that participants who received a daily multivitamin slowed down biological ageing with 2 out of 5 epigenetic clocks- those clocks that estimate the mortality risk.

In general, the authors of the study claimed that the slowness was equivalent to 4 months of reduced biological ageing over 2 years. The team further indicated that the effects were accelerated biological ageing at the beginning of the study, with further analysis suggesting that this may be due to individuals starting with greater nutritional deficits.