Biological aging is a concept that describes how our cells and organs age regardless of our chronological age. The field has attracted great interest, not least within the longevity movement, which strives to increase lifespan.
Researchers in the US have now studied how daily multivitamin intake affects parts of biological aging by studying so-called epigenetic clocks. These “clocks” describe chemical changes to DNA and are used as a kind of yardstick for how quickly cells age.
Vitamins or cocoa
The study, published in Nature Medicine, is based on data from 958 people in their 70s who were randomly assigned to receive either a multivitamin tablet, cocoa extract, or a placebo every day for two years. When the researchers compared blood samples at the start of the study with samples taken after two years, they saw differences in two of the five epigenetic clocks studied.
"The biological clock seems to have ticked a little slower for those who took the multivitamin," says Sara Hägg, associate professor of molecular epidemiology at Karolinska Institutet, who studies aging processes, after reading the study.
But the differences are small — only about two to four months over the two-year period of the study. However, the difference seems to be greater among those who already had a higher-than-average biological aging rate at the beginning of the study.
Sara Hägg says it is a well-done and interesting study and one of the few on the topic based on a randomized trial, in which participants are randomly assigned to different options.
No effect on lifespan
According to Sara Hägg, it is conceivable that participants whose biological clocks aged faster were deficient in nutrients that multivitamin tablets corrected.
"Those who weren't deficient before didn't really benefit from multivitamin tablets," she says.
Cocoa extract, however, had no effect on the epigenetic clocks. Previous analyses of the same study have indicated that cocoa extract may provide some protection against cardiovascular disease.
Although the study shows that multivitamins seem to slow down some of the biological clocks somewhat, it cannot be said that they lead to a longer life.
"No, that connection does not exist," says Sara Hägg.
Petra Hedbom/TT
Facts: How the study was done
TT
The researchers analyzed data from 958 healthy individuals in the United States, with an average age of 70. They were divided into four groups. Each group received one of four combinations of pills: a multivitamin (with minerals) and a placebo; a multivitamin and a cocoa extract; a cocoa extract and a placebo; or two placebos.
Participants provided blood samples at the beginning of the study and after two years.
The results showed a slight reduction in the rate of biological aging for some markers (epigenetic clocks) in those who took multivitamin tablets.
Source: Nature Medicine
