Multivitamin good for dementia

Taking a daily multivitamin for 3 years is associated with a 60% slowing of cognitive aging, with the effects especially pronounced in patients with cardiovascular (CVD) disease, new research suggests.

In addition to testing the effect of a daily multivitamin on cognition the COSMOS-Mind study also examined the effect of cocoa flavanols, but showed no beneficial effect.

The findings were presented at the 14th Clinical Trials on Alzheimer's Disease (CTAD) conference.

The study is a substudy of a large parent trial that compared the effects of cocoa extract (500 mg/day cocoa flavanols) and a standard multivitamin-mineral (MVM) to placebo on cardiovascular and cancer outcomes in more than 21,000 older participants.

The primary endpoint was the effect of cocoa extract (CE) vs placebo on Global Cognitive Function composite score. The secondary outcome was the effect of MVM vs placebo on global cognitive function.

Using a graph of change over time, Baker showed there was no effect of cocoa on global cognitive function (effect: 0.03; 95% CI, -0.02 to 0.08; P = .28).

It was a different story for MVM. Here, there was the same practice effect, but the graph showed the lines separated for global cognitive function composite score (effect: 0.07; 95% CI, 0.02 - 0.12; P = .007).

There were similar findings with MVM for the memory composite score, and the executive function composite score.

Daily multivitamin-mineral supplementation appears to slow cognitive aging by 60% or by 1.8 years.