Multivitamins may slow biological aging in older adults, study finds

(Lindsay Leake/ NBC News) — In a randomized study of 958 older adults, those who took a multivitamin daily for two years experienced slowed so-called biological aging by about four months. That is, during the 24 months, they aged only 20 months at a cellular level.

Whereas chronological age measures how much time has passed since birth, biological age reflects wear and tear on the body at a cellular level. The two don’t necessarily match up. For example, a person might be 50 years old chronologically yet have a biological age of 47 or 54 depending on factors such as genetics, lifestyle habits and medical history.

Howard Sesso, the associate director of preventive medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School and the study’s senior author, cautioned that the results don’t mean a multivitamin adds four months to a person’s lifespan.

“What it means is that your trajectory of health moving forward should stand to benefit,” he said. “It’s hard to know what those four months truly translate to.”

What’s more, people who had shown signs of accelerated biological aging at the start of the trial saw a greater benefit from daily multivitamins. The findings were published Monday in the journal Nature Medicine.