A daily multivitamin may offer modest but measurable benefits for older adults’ cardiovascular health and their ability to perform everyday activities, according to new research presented this week at the annual meeting of the American Society for Nutrition.
The initial findings, which have not yet been published in a peer-reviewed medical journal, showed that older adults who took a daily multivitamin had significantly better measures of functional health after three years compared with those who took a placebo. Yanbin Dong, a cardiologist and director of the Georgia Prevention Institute at the Medical College of Georgia at Augusta University, led the research. “The findings show that a daily multivitamin may be a simple, low-risk strategy to help older adults maintain cardiovascular-related functional health and quality of life,” Dong said.
The study drew on data from more than 16,000 individuals ages 60 and older who did not have major cardiovascular disease at the study’s outset. Participants were randomly assigned to take a daily multivitamin, a cocoa extract supplement, both, or a placebo, with placebo pills used for the control group as well as for participants taking only one of the two active supplements.
Researchers tracked participants’ health over three years using an annual questionnaire that assessed both their ability to complete everyday tasks and possible symptoms of heart failure, including fatigue, shortness of breath, and swelling of the legs, ankles, feet or abdomen. The questionnaire uses a scale from 0 to 100, with lower scores indicating greater symptom burden and worse overall health status.
After three years, researchers found that participants taking multivitamins showed an average improvement of 0.45 points in symptom burden and 0.30 points in their overall clinical summary score, a combined measure averaging symptom burden with physical ability, according to Dong.
The benefit appeared substantially more pronounced among a specific subgroup of participants: those with carotid stenosis, a narrowing of the major blood vessels in the neck that supply blood to the brain. Among this group, symptom burden improved by an average of 6.75 points, while clinical summary scores improved by 6.01 points, considerably larger effects than those observed across the broader study population. “This means those who had a history of carotid stenosis and took multivitamin minerals will have a small clinical benefit of improving cardiovascular and functional health over time,” Dong said.
Dong said the underlying mechanism likely involves multivitamins correcting common micronutrient shortfalls that can otherwise go unaddressed through diet alone, potentially supporting energy production, cellular function, vascular health, inflammation control and muscle performance.
The study’s authors also examined the effects of cocoa extract supplementation separately. While cocoa extract did not produce a statistically significant change in functional health scores across the overall study population, it did show a meaningful benefit specifically among participants who went on to develop congestive heart failure during the study period, consistent with prior research suggesting that anti-inflammatory compounds found in cocoa extract may offer some degree of heart-protective effect.
Sarah Booth, director of the Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University, who was not involved in the new research, cautioned that the broader scientific record on multivitamin supplementation remains mixed. Booth noted that earlier analyses using data from the same overall participant pool had found no significant association between daily multivitamin or cocoa extract use and reduced risk of cardiovascular disease or cancer more broadly, even as other research has separately suggested multivitamins may provide a modest cognitive benefit. Booth said a fuller interpretation of the newest findings will not be possible until the complete study is formally published.
Booth also pointed to a persistent challenge in interpreting multivitamin research: participants’ underlying diets vary widely and are rarely controlled for in these kinds of trials. “Individuals still consume their usual food during these studies, so the multivitamins are adding more nutrients into the diet above and beyond the usual nutrient intake,” Booth said. “If the participants are already consuming a healthy diet, then adding more nutrients is unlikely to improve that individual’s health trajectory. Those who routinely take multivitamins tend to be individuals with healthier diets, which sometimes contributes to mixed results we see in the randomized clinical trials.”
The study’s authors pointed to its large participant population and high rate of sustained multivitamin adherence over several years as key strengths. They also acknowledged limitations, noting that most participants in the trial were, in Dong’s words, “very healthy” at the study’s outset, meaning the evidence for benefits among people already at higher risk for heart problems remains more limited. The researchers disclosed that Mars, a major chocolate manufacturer, supported the cocoa extract portion of the study, while Pfizer and Haleon, a British consumer healthcare company, provided the multivitamins used in the trial, though the researchers said none of the sponsors had any role in the study’s design, analysis or interpretation of results.
Booth emphasized that good nutrition should generally begin with a healthy diet built around whole foods rather than supplements, though she acknowledged that some people are unable to consistently achieve that on their own. She cautioned against self-diagnosing nutrient deficiencies simply because supplements are readily available over the counter. “Decisions to take multivitamins ideally should be in consultation with one’s health provider,” Booth said.
Given that this research involves a specific population of older adults and touches on cardiovascular health, anyone considering starting a daily multivitamin, particularly those with existing heart conditions or other chronic health concerns, is encouraged to speak with a doctor or healthcare provider before beginning any new supplement regimen, rather than relying solely on preliminary research findings that have not yet undergone full peer review.
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