Memory loss is a very serious concern for all of us as we age, but what if there was a simple way, very simple way to slow it down? Wow, this morning new research suggests a daily multivitamin, that's it, may help and potentially delay cognitive aging by, get this, two years. So here with more on that is NBC medical contributor Dr. Tara Narula. Dr. Narula, this, you know, they talk about a magic bullet.
It's like, wait, it's always been on the shelves in the drugstore all this time and we haven't paid attention? Tell us about this. Yeah, so a third of Americans take multivitamins. They've been around since the 1940s.
And so this study was really a large nationwide, very high quality study that looked to see if giving older Americans over 60 a daily multivitamin could in fact slow cognitive aging. In the first part of the study, they looked at about 5,000 Americans. They gave them web, telephone, and in-person assessments of their cognitive function. And they found, as you mentioned, that it did seem to slow cognitive aging by about two years, those who took the multivitamin on a daily basis. Now, there was improvement both in global cognitive function, which means your ability to plan, reason, your attention, and also what they call episodic memory, which is really your ability to recall day-to-day life events.
Then they looked at a smaller sub-study of about 500 of those individuals who got just the in-person assessments, and they again saw benefit with that. episodic memory in terms of improving or slowing that decline. Now it's not the perfect study, right? So it was only really a white population. So it does need to be replicated in broader racial or ethnic groups.
Also, it looked at Centrum Silver. So for those people, take Centrum Silver. This is good news.
That's what Roker's been talking about forever. Centrum Silver, that's his thing. I read about it in Consumer Reports two years ago.
My mom just told me this morning she takes it. Maybe that's why I'm so healthy. But we don't know if it applies to other multivitamins. And also, we don't know the specific micronutrients in the vitamin that might be having this effect.
Yeah, but you mentioned that the study group was over 60. Right. But should everyone just start doing this? I mean, more is better?
It's a great question, right? So these populations that were studied were older. So we don't really know. But typically, multivitamins are considered safe.
It is true that in some high doses, things like vitamin A, C, or E can have some risks, so you should definitely talk to your doctor about it. But as you mentioned, this could have a real public health impact to find something that's safe, that's affordable, that's accessible, that's in most people's houses already. That has real value, and there really is no FDA-approved intervention right now for healthy asymptomatic adults that can slow cognitive aging. Besides taking this daily multivitamin, Dr. Narula, other things that folks can do to perhaps slow down cognitive decline as as these keep that brain sharp so the good news is a lot of the things we recommend for preventing cancer and cardiovascular disease are the same for cognitive decline right so you want to exercise you want to eat a well-rounded healthy diet manage stress and mental health conditions limit alcohol avoid smoking you also want to basically control hearing or deal with any hearing loss because we know that can also affect cognitive function And so there are a lot of things people can do just in terms of their lifestyle. And staying socially connected is also important as we get older.
All right. Thank you, Dr. Newell. How about that? You're on top of that. I'm trying.
Just trying. But you do all the things, too. It's not just all the things.
I wouldn't look like this anyway. Hey, thanks for watching. Don't miss the Today Show every weekday at 11 a.m. Eastern, 8 Pacific, on our streaming channel, Today All Day. To watch, head to today.com slash all day, or click the link right here.