 Have you taken your vitamins yet today? If not, you may want to. A new study shows that multivitamins can boost brain function, and the results are even more impactful for people with a history of heart disease. Multivitamins are among the most popular dietary supplements, but their effectiveness is often questioned. This new study, published in the journal Alzheimer's and dementia, offers some strong evidence in their favor. Called the Cocoa Supplement and Multivitamin Outcome Study of the Mind, or Cosmos Mind, it consisted of a randomized placebo-controlled trial that lasted three years and encompassed more than 2,000 participants. This research was ancillary to a larger study that analyzed the effects of cocoa extract and multivitamins on cardiovascular and cancer outcomes. That work showed that multivitamin supplementation significantly reduced mortality from lung cancer, and that cocoa extract, which contains a lot of catechins and epicatechins, reduced mortality from cardiovascular disease. We produced a previous episode of Lifespan News on that, which you can find linked in the video description. During Cosmos Mind, participants were split into four groups. One received cocoa extract, another received a multivitamin, in this case commercially available centrum silver. A third received both cocoa extract and a multivitamin, and a fourth received only placebo. Cognitive function was assessed yearly by a 50 minute long phone interview, during which the participants were subjected to a battery of cognitive tests. Participants taking only placebo actually did see a boost to their cognitive scores, possibly because of their increased familiarity with the tests. Interestingly, the results for participants taking cocoa extract did not differ significantly from those taking placebo. However, those taking a multivitamin did see a significant improvement. People with a history of cardiovascular disease benefited even more from the multivitamin than the other participants. The researchers calculated that by the end of the study, the participants who received multivitamins were on average 1.8 years cognitively younger than participants in the placebo group. In other words, multivitamin supplementation slowed cognitive aging by 60%, and even more for people with histories of heart diseases. This was a large, randomized, placebo-controlled long-term study, but it did have some limitations. The participants were predominantly white, and they self-reported their adherence to study protocols. There are certainly still-to-be questions regarding the utility of multivitamins, and even though cocoa extract did not show significant results in this study, it may still have other benefits. There's more work to do, but if you haven't taken your vitamins yet, you may want to reconsider. I'm Ryan O'Shea and we'll see you next time on Lifespan News.