A new study, which was published in Alzheimer’s & Dementia : The Journal of the Alzheimer’s Association, found that taking a daily multivitamin for 3 years improved global cognition, including orientation/attention, memory, verbal fluency, language and visuospatial ability. It also helps with episodic memory (the ability to recall and mentally re-experience specific episodes from one’s past) and executive function (a set of mental skills that include working memory, flexible thinking and self control). The study was conducted by researchers from the Wake Forest University School of Medicine in collaboration with Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. The study was originally conducted to prove that dark chocolate helped with memory—study participants were given either a cocoa extract supplement, a multivitamin, or a placebo every day for three years. The researchers were surprised by the finding that multivitamins were more impactful than dark chocolate. Laura Baker, P.h.D., author of the study and professor of gerontology and geriatric medicine at Wake Forest University told CNN, “We really believed that the cocoa extract was going to have some benefits for cognition based on prior reports of cardiovascular benefit. So we’re waiting for that big reveal in our data analysis—and it was not cocoa extract that benefited cognition but rather the multivitamin.”