New studies have shown that vitamin D can help to slow biological aging by reducing telomeres, the core marker of cell aging.
Newsweek On Friday, I contacted some authors and other experts in the research to comment through email.
Why is it important
Chronicles of Chronicles is a measure of a simple age. Unlike biological age, it does not explain health, lifestyle, genetics, epigenomy and environmental factors. Biological age can be determined by biomarkers, epigenetic changes and physiological factors.
In the scientific community, biological age does not increase to everyone at the same speed, which can provide a more subtle and accurate reflection of the individual’s aging process.
This study acts as a cap by measuring telomeres made of DNA sequence and protein and protecting the ends of chromosomes. They are slightly short every time DNA is copied to produce new cells, so this length can be a useful indicator of the biological age of cells.
Charlotte Ball/PA Wire/AP Image
I need to know
Random, double blind, and placebo contrast tests were part of a greater study conducted by researchers at the Harvard-series Brigham General Brigham and Georgia Medical College. 25,871 participants appeared. Specifically, the telomere part focused on about 1,000 participants, consisting of women over 55 years old and men over 50 years old.
The results showed that telomeres have been significantly reduced than those who take placebo as measured at two years intervals. They also found that taking omega -3 fatty acid supplements did not have a significant impact on telomeric lengths.
Telomeres are slightly shortened during each cell division, which is a natural part of aging, and may be associated with increasing risks of various diseases. When telomeres are very short, the cells stop division and die.
Researchers in this study concluded that vitamin D supplements prevented telomeres from aging for almost three years.
But Mary Armanios, a professor of oncology at Johns Hopkins University and a director of Telomere Center, who did not participate in this study. Newsweek“Telomerical length has a normal continuous range in all ages,” and the effects of health are not clear, and “small additives and subtractions can be biologically meaningless.”
Dr. Armanios also pointed out that the methodology of this study has “many different warnings,” and has raised concerns about the reliability and strictness of QPCR and the sensitivity of “sample preparation and temperature change when collecting/preserved.”
Most of the research participants were white and questioned about the pool of various participants.
As of 2024, the vitamin D’s recommendation of the Endocrine Association is “In the general population aged 75 or older, we propose an empirical vitamin D supplement because of the potential to reduce the risk of mortality.”
What people say
Dr. Michael Holick, a vitamin D researcher at Boston University, Vitamin D, Skin and Bone Research Institute, said. Newsweek By email: “This observation is very consistent with the observation that the improvement of vitamin D can reduce the risk of death by 90%.”
Joann Manson, chief investigator of the prevention medicine department of Harvard Brigham and Women’s Hospital, said: “VITAL is the first massive and long -term random test that shows that vitamin D supplements protect telomeres and preserve telomeres, especially, which shows that there is an advantage of vitamin D that reduces chronic diseases of routes such as immune diseases such as cancer and self and self and self -diseases. Because I gave it. “
The Augusta University is the first author of the report and the molecular geneticist at Georgia Medical School, Haidong Zhu: “Our findings suggest that targeted vitamin D supplements may be a promising strategy against biological aging process, but further research is needed.”
Purdue University Professor Majid Kazemian said Newsweek Last year by email: “Vitamin D deficiency is associated with many diseases, and as steroid hormones, vitamin D affects many cell processes, including anti -inflammatory and anti -aging effects.”
What happens next time
This results provide additional insights to aging processes and telomeres.
Further studies are needed to better understand how vitamin D affects telomeres dynamics and cell aging in more diverse groups.
Update 5/23/25, 5:25 PM ET: This article has been updated by Armanios’ opinion.
