Many older adults take a daily multivitamin, but scientists have long debated how much they actually change what’s happening inside our bodies. A new study from the COcoa Supplement and Multivitamin Outcomes Study (COSMOS) offers a closer look at the molecular impact of a daily multivitamin (Li S, et.al., 2026).
Researchers tracked nearly 400 older adults (average age 70) over two years. Half took a daily multivitamin (Centrum Silver®), while the other half took a placebo. The scientists analyzed blood samples at baseline, Year 1, and Year 2, looking at 168 metabolic markers, biological aging clocks, and risk scores for chronic diseases.
Here is a simple breakdown of what they found.
Key Findings: What Changed in the Body?
- Boosted Healthy Fats: Daily multivitamins slightly increased levels of DHA and omega-3 fatty acids, essential fats that support heart and brain health.
- Preserved Kidney Function Markers: Taking a multivitamin helped delay the normal rise in creatinine, a key blood marker used to assess kidney function.
- Lowered Disease Risk Scores: The multivitamin group saw slight reductions in metabolomic risk scores for 16 chronic conditions, including heart events, kidney disease, dementia, liver disease, and cataracts.
- Slightly Slowed Biological Aging: Biological aging clocks measured via metabolomics showed that participants taking multivitamins appeared 0.5 to 1 year younger biologically compared to the placebo group.
The Catch: Promising, but Not Definitive
While these results sound very encouraging, the researchers added an important caveat:
Because this specific sub-study only looked at 399 people, the statistical signal was relatively modest. When the team applied strict mathematical adjustments to account for testing so many markers at once, the results lost statistical significance.
The Bottom Line
This study provides early, practical evidence that taking a daily multivitamin can subtly improve health markers in older adults at a cellular level. However, larger studies with more participants are needed to confirm whether these small molecular changes translate into major, long-term health benefits.
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Reference
Li S, Hamaya R, Farukhi Z, Li J, Rist PM, Manson JE, Sesso HD. Effects of daily multivitamin-multimineral supplementation on metabolomic profiles: 2-year findings from the COSMOS randomized clinical trial. Geroscience. 2026 Aug;48(4):5135-5148. doi: 10.1007/s11357-026-02197-9. Epub 2026 Mar 30. PMID: 41910928; PMCID: PMC13575086.
