Few effective strategies have been shown in randomized clinical trials to improve memory or slow cognitive decline among older adults. Nutritional interventions may play an important role because the brain requires several nutrients for optimal health, and deficiencies in one or more of these nutrients may accelerate cognitive decline.
The COcoa Supplement and Multivitamin Outcomes Study (COSMOS), a large-scale nation-wide randomized trial directed by researchers at Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH), a founding member of Mass General Brigham, included two separate clinical trials (COSMOS-Web and COSMOS-Mind) testing multivitamin supplementation on changes in cognitive function.
In a study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, researchers from BWH and collaborators at Columbia University report from COSMOS-Web that daily multivitamin supplements, compared to placebo, improved memory among participants. The study is the second from COSMOS, along with the previously published COSMOS-Mind, to find an improvement in