A Multivitamin Mineral Supplement May Turn Back Your Biological Clock.

A major study from Harvard and Mass General Brigham tested whether taking a daily multivitamin could actually slow down the aging process at the cellular level in over 950 healthy adults averaging 70 years old.

Researchers measured "biological age" — not the number on your birthday cake, but how fast your cells are actually aging — using five sophisticated DNA-based tools called epigenetic clocks.

The exciting finding: people who took a daily multivitamin (Centrum Silver) for two years aged more slowly on all five of these clocks compared to people who took a sugar pill, with the equivalent of about four months of slower aging over the two-year study.

The benefit was even stronger in people whose cells were already aging faster than expected for their age.

The multivitamin benefit also aligns with other findings from the same large study, showing that daily multivitamin users had better memory (roughly three years' protection against memory decline), lower cancer risk, and fewer cataracts — suggesting that slowing cellular aging may underlie those real-world health benefits.

The bottom line

For everyday people: if you are over 60 and already taking a daily multivitamin, this study gives you a good scientific reason to keep doing so — it appears to be doing something real inside your cells.

More research is underway, and in the meantime, a balanced diet remains the foundation — though for many older adults who do not get all their nutrients from food alone, a daily multivitamin looks increasingly worthwhile.

Reference

Li, S., Hamaya, R., Zhu, H. et al. Effects of daily multivitamin–multimineral and cocoa extract supplementation on epigenetic aging clocks in the COSMOS randomized clinical trial. Nat Med (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-026-04239-3

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Note that Optimal DX recommends a comprehensive assessment, including biomarker evaluation, and targeted nutrition support to optimize nutrition status and biological aging.