--- title: "Scientist Who Thought Supplements Were a Scam Changed His Mind After Studying Them" description: "A researcher who considers himself \"the ultimate skeptic\" was convinced by his own research that taking supplements is good, actually." date: "2023-10-14" modified: "2023-10-14" authors: - name: "Noor Al-Sibai" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/nooralsibai" url: "https://futurism.com/neoscope/supplements-research-scientist" categories: - "Health & Medicine" - "Studies" tags: - "Aging" - "Cognition" - "memory" - "supplements" --- # Scientist Who Thought Supplements Were a Scam Changed His Mind After Studying Them ![A researcher who considers himself "the ultimate skeptic" was convinced by his own research that taking supplements is good, actually.]() *Pills, pills in mouth, popping pills, vitamins, supplement pills, pill capsules, medicine, drugs. \Image: Jena Ardell/Getty Images\* A researcher who considered himself the "ultimate skeptic" about supplemental vitamins says that his own research ended up convincing him to reconsider his views. In an [interview with *Insider*](), Columbia aging brain researcher Adam Brickman said that until six years ago, when he and his colleagues began a study that tested whether multivitamins could improve memory recall in people over the age of 60, he hadn't taken a supplement since he was a kid. Published earlier this year [in the *American Journal of Clinical Nutrition*](), the study Brickman co-ran with Harvard researchers involved giving either a Centrum brand multivitamin or a placebo daily over a period of three years to more than 3,500 seniors, and having them perform common memory tests at the end of each successive year. The results, as a [Columbia press release about the study]() described, startled the Columbia brain scientist: even by the end of year one, those who took the active supplement scored better on the memory tests than their counterparts in the placebo group. "I started taking multivitamins the day we ran the analyses and saw the results," Brickman told *Insider*, "and I take 'em every morning." While the memory improvements were small and didn't impact conditions like Alzheimer's disease or other cognitive disorders, the evidence of even a marginal benefit from supplements, which Brickman used to think were essentially a scam, was enough to convince the researcher. "I'm just as skeptical as anyone else when it comes to this stuff," Brickman said. Along with the researcher's own study, [other scientists]() have [come to similar conclusions]() in recent years. Last year, a [study out of Wake Forest]() had similar results but involved both a daily multivitamin and daily supplements of cocoa extract, which health food types claim can improve cognition [without much evidence](). That study found the multivitamin did seem to have some effect on cognition, but the cocoa extract did not. "When we start seeing that kind of consistency across well-designed studies, it certainly helps convince me — the ultimate skeptic — that we're on to something real," the Columbia researcher told *Insider*. While there's still a lot more research that needs to be done to figure out why these cognitive improvements appear to be happening, Brickman and his team at Columbia have hypothesized that multivitamins may help their bodies extract important nutrients from food, which becomes more difficult as we grow older. "There's probably something to do with absorption," he said. Although it's not exactly a silver bullet — or pill, as the case may be — it's a striking anecdote. **More on supplements:** [*Astonishing! Ingredient in Monster Energy May Actually Be Good For You*]() ## Author At Futurism, I've often been drawn to unpacking the narratives that underlie technological, scientific and medical progress, with a special interest in areas of conflict and ambiguity that end up setting agendas and steering the fates of both elites and the hoi polloi. I'm a committed generalist, but I often find myself returning to work involving NASA and the private space sector, the effects of AI on media and society, and the mechanics of the pharmaceutical industry, with a specific focus on the spread of GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy. Prior to Futurism, I worked for publications ranging from Media Matters and Truthdig to Raw Story and Bustle. I'm also the author of "Myspace Scene Queens," a 2024 title in Instar Books' acclaimed "Remember the Internet" series. My work at Futurism has been cited by outlets including the New Yorker, Slate, Nieman Lab, the Verge, the MIT Technology Review, the Sunday Times, and the Daily Beast. I grew up in North Carolina, attended the University of North Carolina at Asheville, and now live in Brooklyn, New York. In my free time, I'm an avid reader and music fan; you can probably find me at a local poetry reading, concert, underground rave, or DJ set. I'm the proud parent of an ineffable orange cat named Mee-Mow. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()