Dietician says taking 3p a day pill can stave off dementia and help memory

As people get older they need more B12, calcium and vitamin D than younger people

A 3p-a day pill can have a huge impact on your health, potentially staving off dementia and enhancing memory. The Times reported that as people get older their bodies become less good at absorbing nutrients from food.

Taking a multivitamin each day can help deal with that - as well as giving other health benefits. A double pack with 300 multivitamin pills can be bought for 9.87 on Amazon - meaning they cost just 3p a day meaning it is extremely cheap.

Duane Mellor, dietician and senior teaching fellow at the Aston Medical School in Birmingham, says that “older adults do tend to need relatively more B12, calcium and vitamin D” than younger people, and a study in the journal Nutrients showed that taking a multivitamin helped to support immune function in people aged 55-plus. It could also preserve memory.

Another study, involving almost 3,500 healthy adults aged 60 or over, showed that those taking a multivitamin for three years had significantly enhanced memory function as measured in complex cognitive tasks compared with participants given a placebo.

Diet and wellbeing guru Dr Michael Mosley has previously recommended tablets which can cost as 2p a day which can reduce the chances of getting dementia - and also give a big boost to your body and immune system. Dr Mosley who is famed for his versions of the Fast 800 and 5:2 diet and eating plans , speaking on his BBC Podcast Just One Thing, discovered how taking a daily Vitamin D supplement could help boost your immune system while helping your brain to prevent depression and to ward off dementia. He said: “I don’t usually recommend supplements, but I do make an exception for this one. It’s vitamin D. And it can be bought very cheaply - with 400 pills available for less than £8 online meaning they’re less than 2p a day.

“It is essential for healthy bones and a properly functioning immune system. And unfortunately, at this time of year in the UK, many of us are deficient in vitamin D, and that’s because it just simply isn’t bright enough out there to generate vitamin D in our skin.”

Vitamin D supplements are also recommended by the NHS as the number of people who are diagnosed with dementia has soared to 500,000 in one month. The NHS is keen for people to take vitamin D supplements daily as a recent study has found it can dramatically decrease the risk of getting dementia. Research conducted in France found that individuals exhibiting vitamin D levels below 50 nmol/L were nearly three times more likely to develop Alzheimer’s disease. Remarkably, over 60 per cent of the UK falls below these levels.