To give the body a nutritional boost outside of what’s found on our plates, more than half of Americans say they regularly take a dietary vitamin or mineral supplement—data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) shows that among U.S. adults ages 20 and older, nearly 58% report taking a supplement in the past 30 days.
While some research says the effect of multivitamins might be minimal for some—a 2024 notice from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) cited a large study where a daily multivitamin was not linked to a lower risk of death for healthy adults—a new study suggests a particularly important benefit of taking a multivitamin for a specific group of older adults.
In a November 2025 study published in the American Journal of Hypertension, researchers from Mass General Brigham analyzed data from the COcoa Supplement and Multivitamin Outcomes Study (COSMOS), a large, randomized, placebo-controlled clinical trial, and found that for some older adults, taking a daily multivitamin lowered the risk of developing hypertension, or high blood pressure.
Researchers focused on 8,905 American adults aged 60 and older without hypertension at baseline. Participants took either a daily multivitamin (Centrum Silver) or a placebo for a median of 3.4 years. The researchers did substudies to also look at blood pressure changes in two groups of people (529 and 994 participants), with their blood pressure measurements taken either in a clinic or at home.
Overall, taking a daily multivitamin did not meaningfully reduce the overall risk of developing hypertension or significantly lower blood pressure readings compared with placebo. In the entire study population, the incidence of self-reported hypertension was nearly identical between the multivitamin and placebo groups.
However, deeper analysis revealed important nuances:
Diet quality matters. Among participants with lower diet quality—as measured by scores like the Alternative Healthy Eating Index and Alternate Mediterranean Diet index—daily multivitamin use was associated with a lower risk of developing hypertension compared with those on placebo.
Baseline blood pressure levels make a difference. Those who began the study with normal blood pressure and took a multivitamin showed small but statistically significant reductions in blood pressure over two years in subsets of participants with measured readings.
“Our findings suggest that a daily multivitamin may not be a one-size-fits-all solution for controlling blood pressure but could be beneficial for important subsets of older adults,” said corresponding and senior author Howard Sesso, ScD, MPH, of the Division of Preventive Medicine in the Mass General Brigham Department of Medicine, in a news release.
Experts generally recommend other lifestyle changes to help manage high blood pressure, such as adopting a heart-healthy diet, limiting alcohol intake, exercising regularly, quitting smoking, getting good quality sleep, and managing stress.
In some cases, healthcare providers may prescribe specific medications to control high blood pressure, like angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE)-inhibitors, calcium channel blockers, or diuretics to remove extra fluid from the body. Always speak with your healthcare provider before starting a dietary supplement or modifying other daily habits.
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