A study by Harvard Medical School has concluded that taking multivitamins can help slow the ageing process. 

Everyone is aware that people get older each year, but fewer are aware that there is also a phenomenon called ‘cellular age’, or ‘biological age’. 

It means that the age of your cells can differ from your chronological age, a phenomenon influenced by the health of the cells in question. 

Over a two year period, 958 elderly adults took a multivitamin daily. However, during this 24 month period, their cells aged, on average, by only 20 months. 

On The Claire Byrne Show, DCU Professor of Immunology Christine Loscher said it was clear that the multivitamins have a “really big impact on them”.  

 “They basically reversed some of this biological ageing that they had quite significantly,” she explained. 

“But it was most prominent in the people who were quite deficient in an awful lot of those nutritional multivitamins in the first place.” 

In theory, a person who eats a balanced diet will also be digesting a range of multivitamins. 

However, many people do not eat five fruits and vegetables every day, while consuming vast amounts of junk food with little nutritional value. 

“A lot of us are eating more highly processed foods,” Professor Loscher continued. 

“People are probably not eating your daily recommended amount of things like fruit and veg, which is where we get a huge amount of our vitamins. 

“And most people will probably say that their diet probably leaves them lacking in something.” 

An old age pensioner. Picture by: Alamy.com. 

Notably, there is one vitamin that a person cannot get from their diet - Vitamin D, which comes from the climate around you. 

“You have to get it from the sun,” Professor Loscher said. 

“And pretty much everybody in our country, particularly after the last six months, is deficient in vitamin D. 

“And that is absolutely vital for ageing, it's vital for bone health, it's vital for your immune system.

“And people who are low in vitamin D are at risk of things like arthritis, for example. So, everybody in this country should be on a dose of vitamin D every single day.”

Professor Loscher said anyone who feels they are suffering from a low mood might find that taking vitamin D can help them enormously. 

“One of the best things you can do is go and get your bloods done,” she suggested. 

“Get all of these things measured and actually see if you are deficient.”

Main image: A woman holds some daily supplements in February 2020. Picture by: Viktoryia Vinnikava / Alamy Stock Photo