Simple habit backed by scientists to slash your mental age and boost your memory

If you take a multivitamin tablet every day, you could be three years shorter than your mental age when it comes to memory.

A study of more than 3,500 people over the age of 60 gave about half the daily multivitamin for a year, while the rest took a dummy pill that was said to have no health effects.

The volunteers all completed tests of their thinking skills before the study began, and again a year later.

Given a list of 20 words and asked to quickly type in all the words they could remember, people taking multivitamins remembered an average of 7.81 words — just over 0.7 words more than last year.

Those given the dummy pills averaged just 7.65 words – 0.44 words more than the previous year.

While the findings raise hopes that people taking multivitamins may be slightly better at remembering people’s names after hearing them, more research is needed, as previous studies have had mixed results on whether vitamins can improve people’s memory. improve.

The study authors estimated that people taking multivitamins showed memories typical of someone three years younger – based on their slight improvement in memory, which would normally have gotten worse over the course of a year as they got older became.

However, the authors also admit that the effects were so small that people taking multivitamins may not see a noticeable difference in their memory.

People who took vitamins also did no better on tests of their long-term memory, visual memory, or executive function — the kind of thinking that aids decision-making and organization.

Dr. However, Adam Brickman, senior author of the study from Columbia University, said: ‘Among the elderly, loss of memory and cognitive skills is a major health problem and there are few ways to address it.

“Our study suggests that multivitamins may have a small but meaningful effect, although more research is needed.”

The study, which used multivitamins from the pharmaceutical company Pfizer, concluded that people taking multivitamins showed memory benefits equivalent to being about 3.1 years younger.

This was calculated by using the difference between memory test results in people taking multivitamins and people taking dummy pills, in addition to the expected decline in memory as people age.

A multivitamin may work better for people with cardiovascular disease, who may have more vitamin deficiencies, as this group saw a stronger improvement in memory, further analysis found.

But there was no significant improvement in memory in people taking multivitamins in any of the two years after the first year, suggesting that the supplements may have the greatest impact over a shorter period of time.

There was also no significant association with long-term memory, which was tested by asking people to recall the list of 20 words after a break of about 15 minutes.

Some experts believe that a lack of nutrients can cause small changes in the brain that can prevent replenishing those vitamins.

But many experts say the best way to replenish nutrients is through a varied and balanced diet.

The study is published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

Dr. Brickman said, “While multivitamins are generally safe, people should always consult a doctor before taking them.”