A daily multivitamin may offer modest but measurable benefits for older adults' cardiovascular health and their ability to perform everyday activities, according to new research presented this week at the annual meeting of the American Society for Nutrition.

The initial findings, which have not yet been published in a peer-reviewed medical journal, showed that older adults who took a daily multivitamin had significantly better measures of functional health after three years compared with those who took a placebo. Yanbin Dong, a cardiologist and director of the Georgia Prevention Institute at the Medical College of Georgia at Augusta University, led the research. "The findings show that a daily multivitamin may be a simple, low-risk strategy to help older adults maintain cardiovascular-related functional health and quality of life," Dong said.

The study drew on data from more than 16,000 individuals ages 60 and older who did not have major cardiovascular disease at the study's outset. Participants were randomly assigned to take a daily multivitamin, a cocoa extract supplement, both, or a placebo, with placebo pills used for the control group as well as for participants taking only one of the two active supplements.

Researchers tracked participants' health over three years using an annual questionnaire that assessed both their ability to complete everyday tasks and possible symptoms of heart failure, including fatigue, shortness of breath, and swelling of the legs, ankles, feet or abdomen. The questionnaire uses a scale from 0 to 100, with lower scores indicating........

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