Multivitamins slow epigenetic age
A Howard Sesso study reported in Nature Medicine shows daily multivitamin use slowed epigenetic aging clocks, suggesting supplements can shift biological aging markers. (x.com) Researchers frame this as a measurable effect on epigenetic markers rather than immediate clinical outcomes. (x.com)
COSMOS’s epigenetic analysis used DNA from 958 randomly selected, largely healthy participants (mean age ~70) who were followed for two years in a factorial randomized design that assigned multivitamin, cocoa extract, both or placebos. (preview-www.nature.com) Investigators measured five DNA-methylation “epigenetic clocks” — PCHannum, PCHorvath, PCPhenoAge, PCGrimAge and DunedinPACE — and reported the clearest, statistically significant changes for the GrimAge and PhenoAge algorithms. (nature.com) The paper and press releases translate the trial’s effect into an intuitive metric: multivitamin exposure corresponded to roughly four months less biological aging across two years, with reductions in annual ticking of about 2.6 months for PCPhenoAge and 1.4 months for PCGrimAge in some analyses. (massgeneralbrigham.org) Benefits were concentrated in participants who entered the study with accelerated biological age; the PCGrimAge subgroup effect estimate for those with baseline acceleration was −0.236 (95% CI −0.380 to −0.091) versus −0.013 (−0.130 to 0.104) for others (Pinteraction = 0.018). (preview-www.nature.com) The cocoa-extract arm (500 mg cocoa flavanols per day, including ~80 mg (−)-epicatechin) showed no slowing of the five clocks, and the multivitamin used in the trial was the over-the-counter Centrum Silver product. (preview-www.nature.com) Authors and outside commentators note the analysis was a prespecified ancillary study of the ~21,000‑person COSMOS trial, relied on a ~958‑person subcohort free of major chronic disease, and that the sample was demographically narrow, so longer, larger and more diverse follow-ups are needed to determine clinical relevance. (nature.com)
