Dr. Harry Jarrett the director of science and research at UK supplement brand Heights, presented unpublished research at the recent London conference (March 31 - April 1) revealing that even apparently healthy adults may be living with widespread “hidden” micronutrient deficiencies as a result of declining food quality and high consumption of ultra-processed foods.
“At baseline, in apparently healthy adults with no diagnosed deficiency or medical condition, people who would be considered well by any conventional measure, we found 40% deficient in folate, 34% in active B12, and 83% with suboptimal or deficient riboflavin status,” he said.
The research backs previous studies revealing that around 50% of the adult UK population have riboflavin deficiency and red blood cell folate levels have decreased by approximately 3% per year over the past 20 years.
“This represents a significant public health concern that needs to be addressed,” Jarrett said.
Vitamin supplement study shows major gains in nutrient biomarkers
The presented research, conducted by Heights employees alongside researchers from the Functional Gut Clinic in London, and King’s College London, looked into the impact of a 12-week intervention with Heights’ Vitals multivitamin on several biomarkers.
The study recruited 35 healthy adult males and females from sites in London and Manchester who were randomized into two groups: Vitals multivitamin or a placebo.
The researchers measured a range of biomarkers, including riboflavin, vitamin B6, vitamin B12 and folate, red blood cell folate, omega-3 index and total homocysteine levels. They also assessed safety through adverse event monitoring and comprehensive blood panels.
Initial tests showed that 51% of participants had elevated homocysteine levels, over 80% had suboptimal or deficient riboflavin status, and several participants also showed deficiencies in folate and vitamin B12.
Following the intervention, the active group corrected all elevated homocysteine levels and significantly improved nutrient status, increasing red blood cell folate by 82%, active B12 by 25%, vitamin B6 by 115%, and riboflavin by 17%.
Jarrett noted that higher levels of homocysteine are linked to a higher risk of dementia, with every small increase (5 µmol/L) raising risk by about 35%.
How quickly the biomarker improvements translate to functional outcomes such as energy, cognition and mood, will be highly individual, Jarrett explained.
“The trajectory depends on baseline deficiency status, age, genetics, gut health, and overall diet,” he said. “Someone clinically deficient in riboflavin or B12 may notice differences sooner than someone who was subclinically low.”
Supplement formula shows ‘synergistic’ effect on key brain health marker
As Jarrett told NI, the positive results were due to ‘deliberate combination of optimal doses, biologically active nutrient forms, and key nutrient–nutrient interactions built into Vitals’.
“Folate, B12, B6, and riboflavin all cooperate in one carbon metabolism, the biochemical pathway responsible for keeping homocysteine levels within the optimal range,” he noted. “These four B-vitamins are co-dependent, and deficiency in any one impairs the whole system.
“By Vitals correcting all four simultaneously, this produced a synergistic homocysteine lowering that, to our knowledge, is the largest achieved by a commercially available multivitamin - three times the reduction reported by a competitor in their clinical trial.”
He added that Vitals combines B-vitamins with algae-derived DHA and EPA, a combination that is mechanistically important because adequate levels of B-vitamins, particularly folate and B12, are necessary for the production of phosphatidylcholine, which transports DHA across the blood–brain barrier.
“The two are interdependent, not just additive,” Jarrett noted
The product also uses forms of vitamins that the body can better utilize, including folate as 5-MTHF, which avoids a common enzyme problem (MTHFR) that prevents some people—about 12% in the UK—from properly converting standard folic acid.
It also includes vitamin B12 as its active form, methylcobalamin, which does not need conversion.
What’s more, the amount of riboflavin included (30 mg) is set close to the maximum level the body can absorb efficiently.
Jarrett said product format and formulation is ‘critically important’ to the efficacy of vitamins in a product.
“This distinction is one the industry consistently fails to communicate honestly,” he said. “Including a nutrient on a label and ensuring it actually reaches the relevant biological pathway at a sufficient quantity to change biochemical status are entirely different things.
“For a supplement to work, the nutrient must be present at an optimal dose, in a form that survives digestion, is absorbed across the gut, transported into cells, converted into its active co-enzyme form, and contributes to the biochemical pathways it is intended to support. It can fail at any of these steps.”
Call for dietary guideline review
Jarrett noted that current UK Reference Nutrient Intakes are largely set to prevent clinical deficiencies, not to ensure optimal biochemical status; however, there is ‘compelling evidence’ these are not the same thing. Furthermore, he noted that modern diets provide fewer micronutrients than previous generations had access to.
“Declining dietary diversity and the dominance of energy-dense but nutrient-depleted ultra-processed foods all contribute to what we refer to at Heights as hidden micronutrient deficiencies,” he said. “Our guidelines need to evolve to reflect the diet and food system people actually live with today.”
Jarrett noted that government-mandated fortification could help tackle deficiencies, welcoming the upcoming mandatory folic acid fortification of flour. However, fortification alone is unlikely to fully resolve the broader picture of micronutrient inadequacy.
“Folate is one part of a multi-nutrient problem. Riboflavin deficiency affects 50% of UK adults; B12 deficiency affects a third of our study cohort,” he said. “These nutrients are metabolically co-dependent; addressing one in isolation will do an incomplete job.
“Mandatory fortification must be the start of a wider, evidence-driven review of which nutrients the UK population is consistently not getting from diet alone, with the willingness to act on that evidence across multiple nutrients and interventions such as supplementation when required.”
