Third RCT finds a significant cognitive benefit from multivitamin use

[jim mcnamara]

TL;DR

a two year study on older people found statistically significant improvement in cognitive skills for multivitamin supplements users versus placebo in a population of 573.

See: https://www.massgeneralbrigham.org/...amins-improve-memory-and-slow-cognitive-aging
This is the third such large study to make this assertion.

One could now ask the question: why does vitamin & mineral supplementation prevent dementia in first world countries?
[opinion] Answer: because their diets have one or more critical deficiencies[/opinion]

 

[berkeman]

[opinion] Answer: because their diets have one or more critical deficiencies[/opinion]

Agreed. I didn't read the paper yet, but do they say anything about that possibility? Did they do blood tests on the participants before/during/after to help figure out what any deficiencies might be?

 

[BillTre]

I think it would be pretty easy to miss out on one or more important ingredients with a diet based mostly on processed foods.

 

[Laroxe]

As far as I'm aware the main way in which the daily recommended allowance was arrived at was to identify the dose at which symptoms of a deficiency became obvious, they then doubled this dose to arrive at the RA. Despite this, the medical establishments aversion to anything considered to be alternative has really prevented these being reviewed, even the set blood levels are not really reliable indicators of deficiencies. The way in which we absorb and use vitamins is much more complex than simply relying on the dose and its only since it has become acceptable to study this that we are getting a handle on it all. I think the work on Vitamin D in Covid has had a big effect on this, with the results of some older studies that suggested that few people would benefit from supplementing their intake are being revisited.

It seems fairly obvious that supporting general health, that supplementing the Vitamins that are known to be essential for neural functioning and revisiting the role of oxidative damage in ageing should be useful, while the often described risks are minimal.

 

[jrmichler]

There are a number of studies that looked at total lifestyle vs dementia. One of those studies is this large scale study of 29,000 adults over age 60:

The article: https://www.medicaldaily.com/decade...style-choices-slow-down-memory-decline-467856.
The paper: https://www.bmj.com/content/380/bmj-2022-072691.

They looked at the presence or absence of six lifestyle factors: diet, social contact, exercise, cognitive activity, smoking, and drinking alcohol. From the article: "Of the six, a healthy diet had the most effect on slowing memory decline. It was followed by cognitive activity and then physical exercise." The article states that "A healthy diet was considered the one where a person ate the recommended intake of at least seven out of 12 food groups: fruits, vegetables, fish, meat, dairy, salt, oil, eggs, cereals, legumes, nuts, and tea." It's easy to believe that many people do not meet this definition of a healthy diet, and therefore a multivitamin supplement would be of benefit.

My wife sees to it that we have a healthy diet, posting on PF counts as cognitive activity, my morning run was 7.3 miles, never smoked, have social contact, and enjoy an occasional glass of wine. I think I'm good.

As far as I'm aware the main way in which the daily recommended allowance was arrived at was to identify the dose at which symptoms of a deficiency became obvious, they then doubled this dose to arrive at the RA.

This sounds right. The official recommended minimum level of Vitamin D is 20 ng/mL: https://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/V...els of 50 nmol/L,bones and affect your health. Elite endurance athletes believe that their minimum level should be at least 40 in order to get the best performance.